The café clock showed 11:58.

Nora stood completely still.

Evan held the chair.

Detective Bell held his gun.

And somewhere beneath the floor, something laughed.

“Nora.”

Her father’s voice came again.

Soft.

Familiar.

Wrong.

She looked at Bell.

“What happened to my father?”

Bell lowered his eyes.

“I tried to save him.”

“When?”

“Twenty years ago.”

“You lied to me.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because your father made me promise.”

Nora stared at him.

“Promise what?”

“That if the room ever opened again, I would keep you away from it.”

Evan raised his eyebrows.

“That plan worked beautifully.”

Bell ignored him.

Nora stepped closer.

“You knew about the coffee.”

“Yes.”

“You knew about the seven deaths.”

“Yes.”

“You knew Jonathan Voss.”

“Yes.”

“You knew my father was alive.”

Bell hesitated.

“Yes.”

Nora’s voice broke.

“And you let me believe he was dead for twenty years?”

Bell looked at her.

“I was trying to protect you.”

Nora shook her head.

“Everyone keeps saying that.”

The floor suddenly shook.

A coffee cup fell from a shelf.

It shattered.

Bell raised his gun.

“It’s starting.”

“What?”

“The room is opening.”

A crack appeared across the floor.

Then another.

The wooden boards lifted.

Cold air rushed through the café.

Evan looked down.

“Is that supposed to happen?”

Bell answered:

“No.”

“Excellent.”

The floor collapsed.

Nora screamed.

She fell.

Evan grabbed her hand.

Bell grabbed Evan.

For several seconds they hung over a dark opening.

Then the floor beneath them broke completely.

All three fell.

---

Nora landed on something soft.

She opened her eyes.

Evan was lying beside her.

Bell was sitting against a wall.

Above them was the café floor.

Below them was Room Zero.

But it looked different now.

The walls were covered with hundreds of photographs.

Some showed people Nora knew.

Some showed strangers.

Some showed the café.

Some showed the cemetery.

And some showed Nora.

As a child.

As a teenager.

As an adult.

Evan picked up a photograph.

“This is creepy.”

Nora looked.

The picture showed her sleeping in her bedroom.

The date was ten years earlier.

“How did they take this?”

Bell answered quietly.

“The room remembers everything.”

Evan put it down.

“I officially hate rooms.”

Nora looked around.

“Where’s my father?”

A voice answered from the darkness.

“Behind you.”

Nora turned.

James Blake stood near the table.

Her father.

He looked exactly as he had in the photograph.

Gray hair.

Tired eyes.

Thin face.

But he was smiling.

Nora’s eyes filled with tears.

“Dad.”

She ran toward him.

Bell shouted:

“Nora, stop!”

Too late.

She hugged him.

For one second, everything felt normal.

Her father’s arms wrapped around her.

“My little girl.”

Nora cried.

“I thought you were dead.”

“I know.”

“Why didn’t you come home?”

“I couldn’t.”

“Why?”

He pulled away.

His eyes were filled with sadness.

“Because I was keeping something here.”

Nora looked around.

“What?”

James pointed toward the black book.

“That.”

Nora frowned.

“What is it?”

“The memory book.”

Evan stepped closer.

“What does it do?”

James looked at him.

“It doesn’t preserve memories.”

“What does it do?”

“It replaces them.”

Silence.

James continued.

“Every person who enters this room leaves a memory behind. The book takes that memory and creates another.”

Nora shook her head.

“I don’t understand.”

James looked at Bell.

“Tell her.”

Bell sighed.

“Jonathan Voss discovered the room twenty years ago. He believed he could use it to erase people’s memories.”

“And he did?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because he wanted to erase one particular memory.”

Nora looked at James.

“Which one?”

Bell answered.

“The night he killed someone.”

Nora’s face went pale.

“Who?”

Bell looked at James.

“Your mother.”

Nora froze.

“My mother?”

James closed his eyes.

Jonathan Voss had murdered Nora’s mother.

Then he used the room to erase the memory from everyone who witnessed it.

Everyone except James.

And eventually, Nora.

Bell continued.

“The seven people who entered the room with your father knew the truth.”

“So Jonathan killed them?”

“No.”

James shook his head.

“The room did.”

Nora stared at him.

“How?”

James pointed toward the coffee cups.

“The coffee.”

Evan looked horrified.

“I knew coffee was suspicious.”

James almost smiled.

“Jonathan discovered that the room could turn memories into something physical.”

“The coffee?”

“Yes.”

“Every cup contained a memory.”

Nora remembered the seven cups.

“That’s why they had names.”

James nodded.

“Each cup contained the memory of one person.”

“What happened when they drank it?”

“They forgot.”

Evan frowned.

“Forgot what?”

“Everything.”

The room went silent.

James looked at Nora.

“The seven victims weren’t murdered because they knew the secret.”

“They were murdered because the room couldn’t erase their memories.”

Nora swallowed.

“Then why did Victor call the café?”

James’s expression changed.

“Because he remembered.”

Nora stared.

“He remembered what happened twenty years ago.”

“And he wanted to warn you.”

“But he died.”

James nodded.

“Jonathan returned.”

Nora’s heart sank.

“Jonathan is alive?”

James didn’t answer.

A slow clap echoed through the room.

Everyone turned.

Jonathan Voss stood at the end of the table.

He was smiling.

“Very good, James.”

James stepped in front of Nora.

“You’re not taking her.”

Jonathan laughed.

“You’ve been saying that for twenty years.”

Bell raised his gun.

Jonathan looked at him.

“You still carry that?”

Bell’s hand shook.

Jonathan smiled.

“You haven’t changed.”

Bell whispered:

“You’re supposed to be dead.”

Jonathan laughed.

“I was.”

Evan stared at him.

“That’s not a normal sentence.”

Jonathan looked at Evan.

“You’re the funny one.”

“Thank you.”

“I wasn’t complimenting you.”

“Oh.”

Jonathan turned toward Nora.

“You have something that belongs to me.”

Nora held the black book.

“This?”

“Yes.”

“Take it.”

She threw it.

Jonathan caught it.

The moment his fingers touched the book, every light in the room went out.

Jonathan screamed.

The book opened by itself.

Pages flew rapidly.

Names appeared.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

Then one name appeared in bright red letters.

JONATHAN VOSS

Jonathan dropped the book.

“No.”

James looked at Nora.

“Run.”

Jonathan turned toward them.

His face changed.

His skin began cracking.

His eyes darkened.

His mouth stretched unnaturally wide.

Nora screamed.

Evan grabbed her.

“RUN!”

They ran toward the stairs.

Bell followed.

Behind them, Jonathan screamed.

The walls shook.

Photographs flew through the air.

A dozen voices shouted at once.

The dead.

The missing.

The forgotten.

Nora heard her mother’s voice.

“Don’t look back.”

She nearly turned.

But James shouted:

“Keep running!”

They reached the stairs.

Then the staircase began disappearing.

One step.

Then another.

Evan jumped.

Nora followed.

Bell grabbed the railing.

The room beneath them was collapsing.

They reached the café floor.

James was still below.

Nora turned.

“Dad!”

James smiled.

“Go!”

“No!”

“You have to close the door!”

“What door?”

James pointed toward the black book.

“The memory door.”

Nora looked at the floor.

A circular symbol appeared beneath her feet.

The same symbol from the coffee cups.

James shouted:

“Remember the truth!”

Nora closed her eyes.

Her mother’s face appeared in her mind.

Her father’s voice.

The room.

Jonathan.

The coffee.

Everything.

The memories returned.

A hidden memory.

Something she had forgotten as a child.

She remembered sitting in Room Zero.

Jonathan standing beside her.

Her mother screaming.

Her father fighting him.

And then—

Jonathan had given little Nora a cup of coffee.

He had whispered:

“Drink this, and you’ll forget.”

Young Nora had taken the cup.

But before she could drink it—

her father had knocked it from her hands.

The cup broke.

The memory disappeared.

Nora opened her eyes.

“I remember.”

The room became silent.

Jonathan screamed.

“No!”

The black book flew toward Nora.

She caught it.

The pages began burning.

Not with ordinary fire.

With white light.

Jonathan fell to his knees.

“No! You can’t remember!”

Nora looked at him.

“You killed my mother.”

Jonathan shook his head.

“I saved her.”

“No.”

“She was going to expose me.”

“You erased everyone.”

“I had to!”

“You killed seven people.”

“They were already dead.”

Nora frowned.

“What?”

Jonathan smiled.

“The people you knew weren’t the original seven.”

Silence.

Nora stared.

“What?”

Jonathan pointed toward the photographs.

“The real seven disappeared twenty years ago.”

Evan looked confused.

“Then who were the people who died?”

Jonathan smiled.

“Copies.”

Bell’s face went pale.

“No.”

Jonathan laughed.

“The room creates memories.”

He looked at Nora.

“And sometimes…”

His body began disappearing.

“…it creates people.”

Jonathan vanished.

The room fell silent.

Nora looked at Bell.

“What did he mean?”

Bell didn’t answer.

James climbed the stairs.

He looked exhausted.

“Nora.”

She turned.

“What happened to the seven?”

James shook his head.

“They never died.”

“Then where are they?”

He looked toward the wall.

The photographs began changing.

The seven dead customers appeared.

But now they were standing somewhere else.

A bright room.

A laboratory.

Seven people.

Alive.

Nora stared.

“They’re alive.”

James nodded.

“But there’s a problem.”

“What?”

James looked at the clock.

11:59.

“The room doesn’t have enough power to keep both worlds open.”

Evan frowned.

“What happens when the clock reaches twelve?”

James looked at Nora.

“One world disappears.”

“Which one?”

James didn’t answer.

The clock began ticking.

11:59.

59 seconds.

Nora looked around.

“What do we do?”

James pointed toward the coffee machine.

“Make the final coffee.”

Evan stared.

“Absolutely not.”

Nora looked at him.

“You just said we need to save everyone.”

“I support saving everyone.”

“Then help me.”

Evan sighed.

“Fine.”

They ran to the machine.

Nora opened the compartment.

Inside was a single cup.

A name was written on it.

JAMES BLAKE

Nora stared.

“Dad.”

James shook his head.

“No.”

The coffee machine started.

Hiss.

Drip.

Hiss.

Drip.

James stepped backward.

“Don’t make it.”

“Why?”

“Because that cup contains my memory.”

Nora understood.

“If I make it, you disappear.”

James nodded.

“Exactly.”

Nora shook her head.

“No.”

The clock ticked.

11:59:30.

Evan looked at the machine.

“There’s another way.”

James looked at him.

“What?”

Evan pointed at the coffee machine.

“The machine only needs a memory.”

He took the black book.

“We don’t have to use yours.”

Nora stared.

“Whose?”

Evan looked toward Detective Bell.

Bell’s face went pale.

“No.”

Evan smiled.

“Your memory.”

Bell stepped backward.

“What memory?”

Evan opened the book.

“The memory of what happened twenty years ago.”

Bell stared.

Then he whispered:

“I remember.”

The lights went out.

The clock struck midnight.

And somewhere beneath the café, someone laughed.

End of Chapter Five