The Cup, Brewed in Blood (Episode 4)

Some Sips Can’t Be Undone

Dana didn’t sleep that night.
She sat by the guest room window, the loyalty card clutched in her hand, her eyes fixed on the red ring stamped faintly on the back. The tenth stamp. But she remembered only nine visits. So what happened during the missing one?

The coffee shop receipt. The photo from behind the counter. The strange timestamp. Something was wrong with her memory. Something had been erased.

The early morning light crept in like a thief. She opened her phone and searched for nearby therapists, hypnotherapists, memory specialists. Anything that could explain the blank space in her mind.

Before she could dial, Aaron walked in, rubbing his eyes. “You haven’t slept?”

She looked up. “I think I forgot a visit to The Cup. Maybe more than one.”

He sat down across from her. “That’s not how memory works, Dana. You can’t just lose a visit to a café unless something’s seriously wrong.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” she whispered. “Something is seriously wrong.”

He frowned, then pulled something from his pocket. “I didn’t want to worry you. But you should see this.”

It was a small black USB drive. “It came in the mail yesterday. No return address. Just this—”

He handed her a folded slip of paper. On it, in the same blocky font as the threatening notes, was a single line:

“This is your confession. Watch it.”

---

They loaded the USB into Aaron’s laptop. One video file. No title.

Dana hit play.

The screen flickered. Grainy footage. A security camera view—angled downward—capturing a small backroom. Familiar walls. Familiar floor.

The Cup.

And sitting in the center… was Dana.

She looked dazed. Her movements sluggish.

Across from her sat the barista, smiling gently.

“I don’t remember this,” Dana whispered.

On-screen, Dana stared at her hands, mumbling.

“…I didn’t mean to hurt him. I just… wanted him to suffer a little. He lied. He lied.”

The barista’s voice was calm and even. “You came to us. You asked for the brew.”

On-screen Dana nodded slowly.

“I wanted him to feel what I felt. Just once.”

The real Dana turned pale. “What is this? What the hell is this?!”

Aaron paused the video. “You asked for help getting revenge. You went there willingly.”

“I don’t remember!” Dana screamed. “That’s not me. That’s—That’s something else!”

She ran into the bathroom, splashing cold water on her face. Her own reflection looked like a stranger. The edges of her memory were unraveling, and whatever lay beneath wasn’t safe.

---

Elsewhere, in the hidden office of The Cup, Elias placed a fresh loyalty card onto the table. No stamps yet. A new target.

He turned to the barista. “She’s starting to crack. She’ll remember soon.”

The barista stared at the flickering security monitor. Dana and Aaron, frozen mid-frame.

“She came to us broken,” the barista murmured. “But maybe we made her worse.”

Elias shook his head. “We don’t make monsters. We expose them.”

He turned to a chalkboard on the wall, where names were written in white.

Nine were crossed out.

One remained:

Dana Caldwell.

He took a piece of chalk and drew a line through it.

Then smiled.

“She just doesn’t know she’s finished yet.”

---

That afternoon, Dana returned to *The Cup*.

Alone.

The front door stood open. No barista. No customers. Just the bitter, haunting smell of dark roast in the air.

She stepped inside. Every instinct screamed for her to turn back—but she didn’t.

On the counter, a cup was waiting.

Her name scrawled neatly across the side.

*Dana.
Spelled perfectly. Again.

Inside was a note, submerged beneath the liquid:

“Memory is a choice. You chose to forget. But we remember everything.”

Suddenly, a sound behind her.

Footsteps.

She turned—too late.

Everything went black.



[End of Episode 4]
Continued....