The Memory Market

In the year 2087, memories were no longer private. With a simple neural implant, anyone could record, sell, or download their experiences. Love, pain, joy, fear — all could be bought like music tracks.

They called it The Memory Market, and it changed everything.

Evelyn worked as a “memory curator.” Her job was to clean and package memories for resale. Every day, she watched other people’s lives flash before her eyes — weddings, first kisses, last breaths. But she had no memories of her own. She’d sold them years ago to pay her debts.

Her buyers had been generous. A wealthy couple purchased her childhood to relive innocence. A corporation bought her teenage years to study emotion. Even her heartbreaks were auctioned to artists seeking inspiration. Evelyn became a hollow archive of other people’s stories.

One day, a man came to her office with a strange request. “I want to buy one of my memories back,” he said. “I sold it when I was young — the day I met the woman I loved.”

Evelyn searched the system. His name was Liam Hale, and his memory was indeed in the database — tagged as ‘Romantic Encounter No. 7642’. She loaded the file. On her screen, she saw a young man and woman laughing on a rain-soaked street, sharing an umbrella.

She froze. The woman was her.

The realization hit like a thunderclap. The memory he wanted — their memory — had been sold, erased from her mind, and repackaged for profit.

“Do you want to keep it?” she asked, voice trembling.

Liam smiled sadly. “No. I just wanted to see it one last time.”

He turned to leave, but before he did, he whispered, “You looked happy then.”

That night, Evelyn broke the law. She hacked into the system and re-downloaded the memory into her own brain. For a moment, she felt the rain again — cool against her skin, warm laughter in her chest. A stolen fragment of who she used to be.

And for the first time in years, she cried.

Because in a world where memories could be bought and sold, she had finally remembered what it meant to be human.