Great. Here's **Story 3 of 4**.This story is **the most complex, multi-layered, full of characters, false leads, and a major twist** that reveals the true meaning of the entire tale only at the end.--# **Story 3: "The City That Forgot Itself"****Genre:** dark crime, psychological thriller, detective fiction**

# **PROLOGUE**

For years, the town of Graybridge had seemed like a place trying to erase itself from the map.

The streets were clean, well-kept, but empty.

The people – proper, polite, but somehow… polished. Expressionless.

As if everyone was reciting roles someone had previously written for them.

And it was here that the body of **Laura Simm**, a popular journalist investigating "strange memory lapses" among residents, was found.

She died in the very center of the city, in an area under 24/7 surveillance.

And yet, **her killer** was nowhere to be seen in the footage.

Not even her.

The surveillance only recorded… **empty streets**, even though people later testified they had seen her that evening.

Detective **Iris Hanenberg**, a specialist in cases others refused to touch, was assigned the case.

--

# **CHAPTER 1 – THE SOLE WITNESS**

The only person who claimed to have seen Laura just before her death was **Samuel Breen**, a watchmaker from the city center.

A man with a face from another era—calm, unchanging, almost immobile.

"I saw her," he said. “She walked as if she were daydreaming…”

“Was anyone with her?” Iris asked.

“Yes,” Samuel replied. “Someone you can’t remember.”

He said it without even blinking an eyelid.

Iris felt a chill.

--

# **CHAPTER 2 – LAURA’S NOTES**

Hundreds of notes were found in the journalist’s apartment.

Pages written in dense, nervous handwriting.

Key excerpts:

> *“People only lose memories of certain days… the same days.”*

> *“Someone in this town is untouchable by human memory.”*

> *“It’s not blackouts. It’s erasure.”*

> *“Graybridge isn’t a normal town.”*

The last note was the strangest:

> *“If I disappear tomorrow, look for Samuel.”*

But Samuel didn’t look like someone who could erase memories.

He looked more like someone who **never forgets anything**.

--

# **CHAPTER 3 – PEOPLE WHO DON'T REMEMBER**

Iris began chatting with the residents:

### **• Mrs. Forrest, the librarian**

Asked about Laura, she replied:

"Laura? Yes, yes... I think I saw her once. Or maybe I think..."

After a moment, she added:

"I don't know if anyone died here recently. No one told me."

There was something misty in her eyes.

### **• Mr. Crane from the antique shop**

"Death? What death? I didn't hear anything."

But on the shelf stood a clock engraved with the date of the journalist's death.

A clock Crane must have commissioned for Samuel.

### **• Young woman from the café**

"Mrs. Laura? Yes, I remember... a great journalist..." After a moment, her face hardened. “What were we talking about?”

Iris sensed something deeply unnatural here.

--

# **CHAPTER 4 – SOMEONE WANTS THE CITY TO BE SILENT**

The detective reviewed the surveillance footage.

All the footage from the day of the crime was… wiped. Perfect.

As if nothing had ever happened.

And yet:

When she played the footage back frame by frame, she noticed something no one else had.

**A shadow.

A human shadow.

Without the person casting it.**

It moved like a normal person's shadow, but it wasn't attached to any silhouette.

A shadow that walked the city without an owner.

--

# **CHAPTER 5 – THE WATCHMAKER WHO REMEMBERED TOO MANY**

Iris returned to Samuel Breen.

She found it in his workshop, among hundreds of clocks, all ticking in perfect harmony.

"You want to tell me something," she began.

"Laura was here too," Samuel replied. "On a day no one in town remembers."

The clockmaker pulled out an old, antique box.

Inside—a small **memory crystal**, an old data storage device from the 1990s, password-protected.

"She left this to me in a hurry," he said. "She asked me to give it to someone I could trust."

"Why me?" Iris asked.

Samuel looked at her calmly:

"Because you're... **new** here.

Because you don't belong in town.

Because you're not subject to the rules here."

The detective felt her heart begin to beat faster.

---

# **CHAPTER 6 – EMPTY DAYS**

After decrypting the media, Iris saw a series of recordings:

**People from Graybridge enter a special building, one day each week.**

They disappear there for an hour.

Then they emerge… smiling, but with blank stares.

The recordings always ended at the door.

It was an old building, a former research institute.

According to the archives, no one should have entered it for 30 years.

--

# **CHAPTER 7 – INSTITUTE OF SILENCE**

At night, Iris entered the building.

Inside – sterile corridors.

Laboratories abandoned like skeletons.

Test equipment that should never have worked – yet was live.

In one room – dozens of screens.

On each – city streets.

The same streets that the monitors The city government was supposedly observing.

But there was **much more** on those screens:

* silhouettes of people walking expressionlessly

* people no one remembered later

* the shadow of a man not captured by police cameras

* and something else:

**a figure in a white coat, observing the city from behind a glass wall**

Beneath the description was a card:

**Dr. Eleanor Voss – director of the "Void" project.**

---

# **CHAPTER 8 – THE REAL GOALS OF THE PROJECT**

The archive contained documents relating to the "Void" project.

The goal was:

> *"Eliminate trauma, conflict, and violence by selectively erasing memories. A city without conflict is an ideal city."*

Problem:

Not only were traumas being erased.

People, days, events, and crimes were also being erased.

The city had become a place where **uncomfortable memories simply vanished**.

As if they never existed.

Iris had proof before her:

Graybridge was a **laboratory**.

People were objects.

And memory was an experimental field.

--

# **CHAPTER 9 – WHO KILLED LAURA?**

The journalist tried to discover who was erasing the residents' memories.

But one thing became clear:

**Someone had erased her from memory before.**

That's why the surveillance cameras "didn't see her."

That's why the residents "didn't remember her."

That's why the shadow walked alone—it belonged to the person the city's system was trying to erase.

So who erased Laura... completely?

Dr. Eleanor Voss.

The only person with access to the system.

But then Iris discovered something else.

---

# **CHAPTER 10 – TWIST: WHO IS WHO?**

In Voss's office, Iris found a photo of the project director from 30 years ago.

Dr. Eleanor Voss was:

* tall,

* petite,

* with black hair,

* with a cold gaze.

But most importantly, there was one thing:

**She looked exactly like… Detective Iris Hanenberg.**

Not like a sister.

Not like a relative.

Like the same woman.

Only younger.

Iris felt the ground slip from under her feet.

The documents read:

> *“Version 3.2 – Mobile Unit. Operational Name: Iris.”*

> *“Task: Track memory anomalies, identify individuals who refuse to comply with the procedure.”*

> *“Unit self-awareness – prohibited.”*

The detective was a copy. "A product of the project.

Created to study and eliminate those resistant to erasure.

And her own memories?

They were all implants.

At that moment, Voss herself appeared on the screens—alive, observing, smiling.

--

# **CHAPTER 11 – CONFRONTATION**

Voss entered the room.

"I'm glad you're back on track," she said. "You're not here to protect the city. You're here to maintain its balance."

"You killed Laura," Iris hissed.

"Laura was anomalous," Voss replied. "Erase-resistant. And she threatened to unravel everything we've built. Memory is the source of conflict. I eliminate conflict. You were supposed to help me."

"I will not be a tool," Iris said.

"You are not a tool, Iris," Voss smiled. "You are part of the system."

At that moment, the lights dimmed, and all of Samuel's clocks began to strike the same hour.

Laura's death clock.

The system was trying to **remove Iris**—wipe her out just as it had with Laura.

--

# **CHAPTER 12 – FINALE: THE CHOICE**

Samuel Breen suddenly appeared at the institute.

It turned out he was *the only person in the city who had never been subjected to the procedure*.

He was "invisible" to the system because he had no digital profile.

He was a living archive.

The city's memory.

He stood between Iris and Voss.

"Iris," he said calmly. "You can let this city remain in illusion. Or you can restore its inhabitants' memories… all memories, including the painful ones."

In his hand he held a device—the key to the memory archive.

Iris looked into his eyes.

She looked at Voss.

She glanced at the screens.

And decided.

She pressed the key.

Graybridge's memory system froze.

All memories began to return.

People began screaming.

They remembered everything.

Every disappearance.

Every manipulation.

The city burst with truth.

--

# **EPILOGUE**

Voss disappeared.

To no one knows where.

She wasn't in her cell.

She wasn't in the city.

As if she had erased herself.

Iris remained, but something had changed.

The original system had removed her anyway.

Not from the city—from documents, databases, people's memories.

The residents faced the truth, but no one remembered her face.

Only Samuel.

"Do I exist?" Iris asked.

The Clockmaker smiled.

"Every memory is true, Iris." Even one that was created artificially, if it brings something good.

And then he added:

"And the city... refuses to forget."

---

If you want, I can send you **Story 4: The Final One—the most emotional, the darkest, and the perfect conclusion to the series**, titled:

# **"The Voice That Refused to Be Silent"**

Want the final part now?