The Town That Forgot It Was Real

Hey, wanna hear something really strange? It’s not scary like monsters in the closet or ghosts in the mirror. It’s more like… weird. Mysterious. Like one of those dreams that feels super real, but when you wake up, you’re not sure what was dream and what wasn’t.
This story? It’s about a girl named Elara who lived in a town that—well—you’ll see. Just promise you’ll stick with me, okay? Because things get a little twisty…

A Girl Named Elara and a Town Called Wexley

Elara was 11, the kind of girl who always carried a notebook and asked too many questions. She lived in Wexley, a small, quiet town that looked like it belonged in a snow globe—neat little houses, tall green trees, and neighbors who waved at everyone.
People always said Wexley was boring. Nothing exciting ever happened. The buses always ran on time. The rain only came on Thursdays. Even the birds flew in perfect V’s.
But Elara didn’t mind boring. She liked her routine—wake up, brush her teeth, eat strawberry toast, go to school, come home, draw, sleep. Easy.
Until the day she woke up and no one knew who she was.

The Morning Everything Changed
It started like any other morning. Elara brushed her teeth, got dressed, and waved goodbye to her mom.
Except—there was no mom.
Her house was empty. Not like spooky-empty, but clean-empty, like it had been locked up for a long time. Dust on the floor. No furniture. Her room? Gone. No bed. No posters. No drawings on the wall.
She ran outside in her pajamas, heart pounding. Maybe it was a prank. Maybe it was a dream.
She knocked on Mrs. Haddock’s door next door. The same old lady who always gave her jelly cookies.
Mrs. Haddock opened the door and frowned. “Yes?”
“It’s me! Elara,” she said. “I live next door!”
Mrs. Haddock blinked. “I’m sorry, dear. I don’t know you.”
Elara stared. “You gave me cookies on my birthday last week.”
The old lady shook her head. “I think you must be mistaken.”
And then she closed the door.

School? Gone. Friends? Gone.
Elara ran to school. She wasn’t even thinking—just moving. But when she got there, the building was there… but her name wasn’t on the attendance list.
Her teacher, Mr. Griggs, looked confused. “Are you a new student?”
“No! I sit in the second row, by the window! I answered the volcano question on Monday!”
He smiled politely. “Sorry, kiddo. You must be thinking of a different school.”
Even her friends—Maya, Leo, and Juno—looked at her like she was a stranger.
“I don’t know her,” Leo said, squinting.
“Is she from summer camp?” Maya asked.
Elara stood frozen. Her head felt like it was stuffed with fog.
Was she invisible? Dreaming? Or… erased?

The Library With the Wrong Books
That night, Elara had nowhere to go. Her home was empty. School didn’t remember her. So she went to the one place that never changed—the old Wexley Library.
Mrs. Penny, the librarian, always smiled when she saw Elara. But tonight? Nothing.
“Do you need help finding something?” she asked kindly.
Elara nodded slowly. “Yeah. My town.”
She searched the computer for “Elara Bennett.” No results.
She searched “Wexley Elementary, Room 2B.” No results.
She even looked up her own address. Nothing.
But something strange happened when she typed in “Wexley” and hit enter.
A single result popped up. One book. No author. No title.
Just a small label: “FORGOTTEN TOWNS: VOLUME 3”

A Town That Wasn't Supposed to Exist
She pulled it off the shelf. It was dusty, smelled like old leaves. The cover had a blurry map of Wexley—but instead of roads and parks, there were question marks and blank spaces.
She flipped through the pages. There it was—her street. Her school. Her library.
Except under each photo, there were little notes:
Removed: 2003 – Town scheduled for forgetting.
Subject 003: Elara Bennett – Memory Error. Pending review.
Reason: Reality Cleanup.
“Reality cleanup?” she whispered.
Suddenly, she heard a noise behind her.
A man in a gray suit was standing by the shelf, staring right at her.
“Miss Bennett,” he said. “You weren’t supposed to remember.”

The Man in the Suit
His name was Agent Noll. He said he worked for a department “most people didn’t know existed.”
He sat her down in the reading room and explained.
“Some places,” he said, “aren’t meant to stay real forever. Like test towns. Beta cities. Places where ideas are tried out. When they’re no longer useful, we ‘clean’ them.”
“But Wexley was real!” she shouted. “I lived here my whole life!”
He nodded. “To you, yes. But Wexley was marked for deletion. A quiet little town used to test peaceful living models. No crime. No sadness. No change.”
“That’s why everything was perfect,” Elara said slowly.
He smiled sadly. “Exactly. Too perfect. So we archived it.”
“But I REMEMBER!” she cried. “How come I didn’t get erased?”
He opened a file. “You were an error. Something in your brain… resisted. You drew things that didn’t exist. Imagined places that weren’t assigned. Your imagination kept you tethered.”
That word stuck in her head.
Tethered.

One Last Choice
“So what happens now?” Elara asked.
Agent Noll stood. “We have two options. One: you come with us. Start fresh. You’ll forget all of this. We’ll assign you a new life in a real town.”
Elara frowned. “And two?”
He hesitated. “You stay. In Wexley. Alone. The last piece left. But you’ll remember everything.”
Elara looked out the library window. The town was quiet. Not a single bird chirped. No cars. Just… stillness.
“Will anyone ever come back?” she asked.
“No,” he said.
She bit her lip. “But I could draw them. Imagine them. Bring them back in stories.”
Agent Noll tilted his head. “You really are different.”
She stood tall. “I choose to remember. Even if it’s lonely.”

The Girl Who Remembered
So Elara stayed.
And slowly, things changed.
She drew the park back—swings that creaked just right. She imagined Mrs. Haddock waving from her porch. She wrote stories about Maya and Leo playing soccer in the field.
And somehow… they started to feel real again.
Wexley came back. Not exactly like before—but better. Messier. More human.
Sometimes, when the wind blows just right, a man in a gray suit passes by the library. He never says anything. Just nods once and disappears.
And Elara? She writes.
About forgotten towns. And girls who remember.

And maybe, just maybe, she’s writing about us.