We Are the Ones the World Gave Up On
Chapter 8: We Are the Ones the World Gave Up On
---
🌒 1 — The Ones Who Don't Belong
Rain whispered against the windowpane.
Ren stood frozen, staring at the shadows outside his door.
Aika.
And the girl beside her—flickering, pale, more static than solid.
Behind them, more shapes approached.
Some walked upright.
Others crawled.
One floated inches off the ground.
All of them had the same eyes—memoryless voids.
Ren opened the door slowly.
"You shouldn't be here," he said, heart pounding.
Aika stepped forward. She was soaked. Shivering.
But her voice was clear.
> "Neither should they."
She glanced at the others behind her.
> "They were like me.
Forgotten.
But unlike me... they don't want to go back quietly."
---
📖 2 — The Lost Names
Ren let them in.
They gathered in the living room, barely tangible. Some flickered like old film reels. Others carried a faint hum in the air, like broken electronics.
Aika took a seat on the floor.
"They were once students here. Classmates. Friends. Lovers. People who were erased for different reasons. Accidents. Lies. Warped memories."
She looked up at Ren.
"You're the first person to remember all of them. That's why they followed me to you."
One girl, her face half-glitched, whispered:
"I used to sit three rows behind you… You smiled at me once during a test. That smile is all I had left."
A boy with hollowed-out eyes said,
"They said I never existed. Not even my parents remember my name. But… you said 'hi' to me once."
Ren felt cold settle deep into his bones.
He didn't remember them.
Not fully.
But they remembered him.
---
🧠 3 — The Rememberer Effect
Aika stood beside Ren now, voice low:
> "Your brain's always been… different.
You store fragments others discard.
Your presence is like glue.
It makes ghosts feel human again."
He shook his head. "I'm not special."
"You are. That's why the world is trying to erase you now."
Ren turned toward the hallway mirror.
Still no reflection.
But something else was there now—his name scratched into the glass.
> AR_K_W_ R_N
Letters missing.
Like a puzzle the world was trying to forget piece by piece.
---
⚠️ 4 — System Glitch: Overflow Detected
That night, after the others had fallen into memoryless sleep across his floor and couches, Ren's phone vibrated violently.
He looked.
No messages.
Just static.
And then:
> [GLITCH SYSTEM DETECTED]
[NUMBER OF REMEMBERED ENTITIES: 9]
[MEMORY OVERFLOW WARNING: 83% CAPACITY]
[FAILURE TO FORGET WILL RESULT IN FULL PHASE SHIFT]
[CONFIRM RESET Y/N]
Ren stared at the message.
He reached for the screen.
But Aika grabbed his hand.
"Don't touch that," she whispered.
"It wants to delete them."
---
🧩 5 — The Memory Chain
The next day, Ren woke up to find notes taped all over his walls.
Each written in a different style of handwriting. Some were shaky. Others clean. One seemed like it had been written with a child's crayon.
> "Thank you for noticing me."
"You said my name right once."
"Even if I disappear again, I want to remember how you looked at me."
"You're the only anchor I have."
Ren sat down.
He was just one person.
But somehow, he had become the final archive of people the world had tossed away.
And now those people were depending on him to stay real.
---
🧬 6 — What the World Does to Broken Things
At school, things got worse.
The lights flickered more often.
Time skipped seconds, sometimes minutes.
Students paused in mid-conversation like mannequins before resuming.
Teachers repeated lessons they had already given days ago.
Reality was decaying.
And then—
Tsuki returned.
Not just walking the halls.
She stood at the front of the class and took roll call.
"Ren Arakawa?" she said sweetly. "Here?"
The rest of the class looked around. Confused.
One student raised their hand. "Who?"
Ren stood.
Everyone turned to him. Stared blankly.
Tsuki smiled. "Oh. Right. He hasn't fully happened yet."
---
👁️ 7 — The Ones Who Want to Stay
That night, Aika found Ren pacing.
"They're not just clinging to you," she said. "Some of them… are angry."
Ren stared at her. "Angry?"
"They don't want to be remembered for closure. They want to rewrite their existence. Replace others. Infect reality."
He blinked. "But… they're victims."
"Not all of them."
She turned her head.
"They're survivors, yes. But some were forgotten for a reason. Some carry hatred. One of them—the tall one—he's not a student. Not even human."
Ren's stomach twisted.
"Then why did he come?"
"Because you opened the door."
---
🕯️ End of Chapter 8
Next: Chapter 9 — "They're Using My Memories to Become Real"