Samantha paced across her small, dimly lit apartment, her reflection flickering in the windowpane. Outside, the city thrummed with life—cars honking, people chatting, the ever-present hum of an urban landscape. But inside, Samantha’s world felt isolated, a bubble of confusion and isolation she couldn’t escape. Her heart raced as she stared at her phone, the missed call notification glowing ominously.
“Jacob,” she muttered under her breath, the name gnawing at her like a thorn in her mind. A man who swore they had known each other for years, yet to her, he was a stranger. There was no recollection of him, no fragments of memories to grasp onto, nothing. All she remembered was his voice—calm, soothing, but filled with an unsettling urgency.
It wasn’t the first time someone had claimed to know her when she had no idea who they were. It happened occasionally, people insisting they’d met before or recounting conversations she couldn’t recall. But this time felt different. Jacob wasn’t just someone from her past. He seemed adamant, desperate even, that she was the key to something much bigger—something Samantha couldn’t yet comprehend.
Her hands trembled as she finally answered the phone, his number blinking on the screen.
“Samantha,” Jacob’s voice was low, almost a whisper. “We need to talk. You don’t remember me, but I’ve known you for years. I can help you understand what’s happening.”
“I don’t know you,” she said flatly, her voice wavering. “I can’t… I can’t remember faces. It’s this condition I have. Prosopagnosia. It’s nothing personal, it’s just…”
“I know about your condition,” Jacob interrupted. “But this isn’t just about that. It’s not your condition that’s the problem. It’s something far more dangerous.”
Samantha felt a shiver run down her spine. “Dangerous? What are you talking about?”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. “Meet me at the café on 7th Street. You’ll understand everything soon enough.”
The call ended abruptly, leaving her standing in the silence of her apartment, heart pounding in her chest. She looked around at the walls closing in on her, the pictures on her mantle blurred, unfamiliar. The thought of leaving the apartment made her skin crawl, but the nagging curiosity—and fear—drove her forward.
The café was dimly lit, its patrons huddled over their steaming cups, engrossed in their own worlds. Samantha scanned the room, her chest tightening with anxiety. Everyone looked the same to her—every single person bore the same blank, featureless face. A void where their eyes, nose, and mouth should have been. It was something she had grown used to over the years. Faceless people haunted her daily life, a constant reminder of her inability to recognize anyone.
As she moved through the café, her eyes finally landed on Jacob—tall, broad-shouldered, sitting by the window. She recognized him not by his face, of course, but by his posture and the way his hand curled around the coffee cup in a gesture that felt… familiar.
But why? She had never met him before. Had she?
“Jacob?” she asked hesitantly as she approached the table.
He looked up, his featureless face turning toward her. The sight sent a jolt of nausea through her, but she swallowed it down. She had learned to cope. This was her life now.
He motioned for her to sit, and she slid into the chair opposite him. For a moment, they sat in silence, the air thick with tension.
“I’m sure you’ve noticed,” Jacob began slowly, “that people’s faces… they’re gone.”
Samantha nodded. “I can’t recognize anyone. But that’s my condition. It’s—”
“No,” Jacob interrupted, leaning forward. “It’s not just you. Look around, Samantha. Everyone has the same face. You’ve erased them.”
Her heart skipped a beat, and she shook her head. “What do you mean? I haven’t done anything. This is just my brain—”
“You’ve been erasing people from your mind for years,” Jacob said quietly, his voice laced with sorrow. “You couldn’t deal with your grief, your fear, and over time, you started erasing their identities—people you once knew. You’ve been doing it so long that now, the entire world has changed to reflect your fractured mind.”
Samantha stared at him, her hands trembling uncontrollably. “That’s… that’s not possible. You’re talking like I have some kind of power over reality.”
“You do,” Jacob whispered. “You’ve always had it, but you didn’t know. Your mind reshapes the world around you, but you’ve been losing control. The faces, the people—they’re not gone, Samantha. They’re trapped. And the more you erase, the worse it’s going to get.”
She felt the room spin around her, her breath coming in short, panicked gasps. Her fingers dug into the table as she tried to steady herself. The faceless patrons of the café blurred into one another, their presence oppressive, suffocating.
“I don’t… I don’t understand,” she stammered. “How can I…?”
“It started small,” Jacob continued, his voice steady. “You lost someone, didn’t you? Someone close. And instead of dealing with that pain, you blocked it out. But it wasn’t enough. You started forgetting more people—those who reminded you of that loss. And then, you forgot even the strangers, the people who meant nothing to you. But now… now, you’ve forgotten everyone. You’ve erased everyone.”
Samantha’s eyes darted around the café, her mind racing. The faceless figures around her moved in a dreamlike haze, oblivious to her panic. They had no faces, no identities, no history. She had taken it all from them, without even realizing it.
“This can’t be happening,” she whispered, tears welling in her eyes. “How do I fix this?”
Jacob’s faceless head tilted slightly, a gesture that almost seemed pitying. “You need to remember, Samantha. You need to face the truth. You have to find the memories you’ve buried, or the world will disappear completely.”
The world tilted again, and Samantha clutched the table for support. Her breath was shallow, her mind unraveling. How could she remember something she didn’t even know she had forgotten? How could she bring back faces that were nothing but voids in her memory?
The days blurred together after that meeting. Samantha found herself wandering the city aimlessly, the faceless masses pressing in on her from every direction. The world felt unreal, like a terrible dream she couldn’t wake from. But no matter how far she walked, no matter how many strangers she passed, the faces remained blank.
Her nights were plagued with nightmares. In them, she was surrounded by people—people she should have known. They spoke to her, their voices familiar, but their faces were featureless, melting away into nothingness as they reached out to her.
And then, one night, she saw her.
The woman appeared in her dreams, standing alone in a field, bathed in the pale light of a full moon. Unlike the others, her face wasn’t blank—it was clear, vivid, so detailed that it hurt to look at her. Samantha’s breath hitched as recognition flooded her senses.
It was her mother.
Memories surged back, raw and painful. Her mother’s face—so familiar, so comforting—was the first face she had erased after her death. She couldn’t handle the grief, the overwhelming pain of losing the one person who had always been there for her. And in a desperate act of self-preservation, she had erased her mother from her mind, along with anyone who reminded her of that loss.
The realization hit Samantha like a freight train. It wasn’t just her mother. After her mother, it had been her friends, her co-workers, even strangers on the street. She had slowly erased them all, one by one, until the world had become a sea of faceless beings.
When Samantha awoke, the weight of the truth pressed down on her chest, suffocating her. But she knew what she had to do. She had to remember. She had to face the grief, the pain, the loss she had been running from for so long.
Over the next few weeks, she began to piece together her shattered memories. It wasn’t easy. Each recollection felt like tearing open an old wound, but with every memory she unearthed, a face reappeared in her world. Slowly, the featureless masses around her began to regain their identities—first strangers, then acquaintances, and finally, those she had loved and lost.
And then, one day, she saw Jacob again. His face was no longer a blank void. He smiled at her, and she smiled back, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Jacob nodded, his eyes filled with understanding. “You did it. You remembered.”
But as he turned to leave, something strange happened. His face began to blur, fading into the featureless void she had once known so well. Panic surged through her.
“Jacob!” she called out, reaching for him. “Don’t go! I… I don’t want to forget you!”
He stopped, turning back to her, his face almost completely gone now. But his voice was clear, soft, and kind.
“You won’t forget me, Samantha,” he said. “I was never real. I was just a part of your mind—a guide to help you remember. But now, you don’t need me anymore.”
Samantha froze, her outstretched hand trembling in the air. Jacob’s words echoed in her mind, weaving through the confusion and clarity she had fought so hard to obtain. He was fading before her eyes, dissolving into the same featureless blur that had haunted her life for years. But now, instead of terror, there was a calm acceptance in the pit of her stomach. He was a fragment—an echo of her own subconscious, guiding her through the labyrinth of her broken mind.
“I created you,” she whispered, her voice hoarse with the realization. “To help me remember, to help me face what I was too scared to see.”
Jacob nodded, his form now almost a silhouette against the dim light of the café. “You’ve always had the strength, Samantha. I was just here to remind you. Now, you’ll be okay. You’re ready to face the truth.”
Tears welled in her eyes as she tried to hold onto him for just a moment longer. “But what if I forget again? What if I erase everything, everyone, all over again?”
“You won’t,” Jacob said softly, his figure now a mere shadow. “The past is a part of you. You just needed to remember that it can’t be erased—no matter how much you try.”
And with those words, he vanished. Samantha was left sitting alone at the table, her reflection staring back at her from the café window, clearer than it had ever been.
The days that followed felt like waking up from a long, dark dream. Samantha no longer saw faceless people on the streets or in her apartment. As she walked through the city, she began recognizing strangers—not by their names, but by the little details that had always escaped her. A kind smile, a quick glance, a tilt of the head. The world felt more alive, more vibrant, than it had in years.
But it was the people she had known before—the ones she had erased—that mattered most. She spent hours going through old photo albums, finding faces she hadn’t seen in what felt like lifetimes. Her mother, her best friend from college, even the co-workers she had lost touch with. Their faces had returned, no longer hazy memories, but solid and real.
One night, as she sat by the window with an old photo of her mother in her hands, she felt a presence beside her. She knew it wasn’t real—not in the way that physical things were—but in her mind, it felt as if Jacob was there, watching over her one last time.
“Thank you,” she whispered, her fingers tracing the edges of the photograph. “For everything.”
There was no answer, but she didn’t need one. She could feel the peace that had settled over her, the kind of peace that comes after years of running from something too painful to face. And with it came the knowledge that she had made it through the darkness, that she had fought her way back to the surface of her own fractured mind.
Months passed, and the world continued to reshape itself. Samantha didn’t forget anymore—not in the way she had feared. There were still times when faces became difficult to remember, moments where the past blurred into the present, but she no longer let it consume her. Instead, she faced it head-on, armed with the truth that she could no longer hide from.
But there was still one final test she had yet to face.
One evening, as the sky darkened and the city lights began to glow, Samantha found herself standing at the edge of the cemetery where her mother was buried. It had been years since she had visited—too painful, too raw—but now, she knew that this was the final piece of the puzzle. The last part of her fractured mind that needed healing.
With a deep breath, she walked through the iron gates, her heart pounding in her chest. The rows of gravestones stretched out before her, bathed in the eerie light of the setting sun. And there, at the far end of the cemetery, was her mother’s grave.
As she approached, her legs trembling beneath her, she saw the small, simple stone that marked her mother’s resting place. And then, as if the world had been waiting for this very moment, a wave of emotion crashed over her—grief, love, regret, and finally, acceptance.
For so long, she had tried to erase the pain of losing her mother. She had erased her mother’s face from her mind, and with it, the faces of countless others. But now, standing here, she realized that pain wasn’t something to be feared or erased. It was a part of her, just like the memories of the people she had once loved.
Samantha knelt beside the grave, placing her hand on the cool stone. Her mother’s face flashed before her eyes—clear, vivid, and real. And for the first time in years, she didn’t try to push it away.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “I’m so sorry.”
There was no answer, no voice from beyond the grave. But in the silence, Samantha felt a weight lift from her shoulders. She wasn’t alone anymore. The faces of those she had lost were with her, not erased but remembered, and that was what mattered most.
The world around her had shifted, but Samantha had changed with it. She no longer feared the blank faces or the fractured memories. Instead, she walked forward into the future, knowing that she had the power to shape her own reality—not by erasing, but by remembering.
And though Jacob was gone, a mere fragment of her mind, his final words lingered with her, a quiet reminder that she was no longer trapped by her own fear.
“You won’t forget me, Samantha. You won’t forget yourself.”
Samantha smiled, the city lights reflecting in her eyes, and for the first time in a long time, she felt whole.
Want to read a bit more? Find some more of my writings here-
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Book Review: Where’s Molly? by H.D. Carlton
Safe Place: A Poem About Feeling Truly Loved
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