🏰 The Last Memory Seller

1. The Marketplace of Forgotten Dreams

The neon sign above the shop flickered, casting an eerie glow on the rain-slick pavement.

"MEMORY EXCHANGE – BUY | SELL | ERASE"

Elias hesitated before stepping inside. The air smelled of burnt circuits and something less tangible—regret. Holographic memories hovered around the room, flickering like ghosts. Some were warm and golden—first loves, childhood laughter, victories hard-won. Others were dark, shadows twisting with pain—breakups, failures, loss.

Behind the glass counter, a woman with chrome eyes and a too-knowing smile waited.

"Selling or buying?" she asked.

"Selling," Elias muttered, avoiding her gaze.

He needed the money. Everyone in the city did. The rich bought experiences, the poor sold them. That was how the world worked now.

The woman tapped her fingers on the counter. "Let’s see what you’ve got."

2. A Memory Worth Selling

Elias placed the memory chip into the scanner. The machine hummed to life, and an image flickered above it.

A man sitting in the rain. His hands shaking. A note in his grip.

Pain laced through Elias’s skull as the machine extracted the scene from his mind. He winced, then exhaled.

"Heartbreak. Classic," the woman said. "Mildly valuable. We get a lot of these, but people love reliving pain. Helps them feel alive."

Elias nodded. He wouldn't miss this one.

The machine blinked green. 200 credits transferred to his account. Not much, but enough to buy another week of time.

"Anything else?" the woman asked, scanning him with her metallic gaze.

Elias hesitated. He had one more memory—one he’d been holding onto. But times were hard.

"One more," he said.

He inserted the second chip.

3. The One Memory He Shouldn’t Have Sold

The machine whirred.

A new image flickered into existence.

A girl in the sun. Laughter in the wind. A hand reaching for his. A promise whispered in the glow of a setting sky.

Elias’s breath caught.

"Oh," the woman murmured. "Now, this is rare."

She turned to him, her cybernetic pupils dilating as she processed the data.

"A perfect moment."

Elias’s chest tightened.

"Wait—"

The machine blinked green. Sold.

4. Gone Forever

Elias stumbled backward. His mind—empty where that memory had been.

He grasped for it, but it was gone.

The warmth. The laughter. The face. He couldn't even remember her name.

"Can I buy it back?" his voice cracked.

The woman laughed softly. "That’s not how this works."

The screen flickered. "SOLD: 5,000 CREDITS"

His most valuable memory. And he had let it go.

5. The Collector of Lost Joy

Somewhere, in the upper districts where the rich lived in sky towers, someone was reliving Elias’s happiness—feeling the warmth he would never know again.

A memory stolen from its rightful owner.

He turned to the woman behind the counter, his voice hollow.

"What do people buy more?" he asked.

She tilted her head.

"Pain or happiness?"

She considered this.

"Pain," she said. "People drown in it. They crave what they already know."

"Then why did my happiest memory sell for so much?"

The woman smiled, something sad behind her artificial eyes.

"Because true happiness is rare."

Final Thoughts: The Price of Forgetting

Elias left the shop, less of himself than when he entered.

On the street, people walked past him, their eyes hollow, their thoughts filled with memories that may not have been their own.

And in some high-rise penthouse, a stranger sat in the warmth of Elias’s lost joy, smiling at a name he would never recall again.

Because in a world where memories could be sold—nothing truly belonged to you.

Not even your past.