BONUS CHAPTER — Echoes Beyond the Island

Author's Note: Before we begin—this chapter is different. Though the setting has changed, the heart of the story remains familiar: a girl who wakes up in a strange world with no memory of who she is, and must piece together her identity before it slips away forever.

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What if your plane vanished into the ocean… and no one ever came looking?

What if you woke up on an island, surrounded by strangers—none of whom remembered who they were?

That's what happened to her.

She didn't even know her own name.

So they gave her one: Thirteen.

They all had forgotten.

Everything.

Names.

Lives.

Why they were on that plane in the first place.

They assumed it was the trauma. That their minds had broken under the weight of survival. But the truth was far more terrifying.

Together, the thirteen wandered the beach until they found it.

A hotel—abandoned, untouched, perfect.

Thirteen was the only one who hesitated.

The others called it fate.

Inside were thirteen rooms, numbered to match them. Each one strangely... familiar. As if designed just for them. Everything they needed appeared on command. Food. Water. Comfort. Peace.

It felt like paradise.

But Thirteen knew better.

Something about it wasn't real.

The Pattern Breaks

While the others settled in, Thirteen questioned everything.

She noticed the patterns.

The dreams.

The way time slipped like sand through her fingers.

And the way no one could ever leave.

Anyone who tried to escape the island woke up back in bed the next day—forgetting they even tried.

Then the flashes began.

Memories.

Faces.

Parents in lab coats. A little sister. Toy rockets. Laughter.

And then... fear.

The others began remembering too. And when they did, panic followed.

They realized they weren't just stranded.

They were being watched.

Monitored.

Trapped in a simulation.

Their real bodies—probably frozen somewhere in the real world—were being used for something bigger.

Something they didn't choose.

That's when the idea came.

"What if we die here… to wake up out there?"

One by one, they began to take the pills.

Two. Three. Four. Five. Seven.

Each time, a room vanished.

Each person was erased like a file being deleted.

But then a voice spoke.

First in the air.

Then inside Thirteen's mind.

"Stop it. They can't wake up yet. They'll die."

She listened. She believed.

She stopped Six just in time.

She and One fought to stop the chain.

They saved the rest.

But it was too late for five of them.

The Dream That Kept Them Alive

Time moved differently.

A day in that world was months in the real one.

That's why help hadn't come. Not yet.

So they waited.

The hotel became home.

The eight became family.

And Thirteen—who never trusted the dream—learned how to live inside it.

But she still dreamed of the truth.

Of cold lights.

Of the face of her little sister.

Of her real name.

She held on to hope.

Not because it was safe—but because it meant something.

Five long years passed.

Then, one night, she fell asleep…

And woke up.

Lights.

Machines.

Tubes.

And a girl—older now, with silver hair tied in a bun—smiling through tears.

"You're awake," she whispered.

It was Emily.

Her sister.

Thirteen remembered everything.

And this time…

She didn't forget.