A stream of light filtered in through the miniscule opening offered to his iris by the slight movement of his eyelid as consciousness returned to him. His mind felt like there were layers of molasses between each neuron. Slowly, painfully, he forced his eyes open. He was in a room with finely polished mahogany walls. The floor was made from a smooth, glossy black marble with some trails of white markers through it.

  Across from him lay a woman. She was laying on her side with her eyes closed. She was very pretty with long dark hair that looked to be drawn back in a ponytail. Her long bangs framed her oval face.

  “Name?” That word appeared in the emptiness of his mind as if he should know what it meant. He lay there for a few moments watching the void in his head for an answer. Then, suddenly one came. “Jake…Jake Summers.” He sat up and shook his head, hoping that he would wake up and this was all just a bad dream. “Dream, what’s that?” He took a moment and eventually the understanding of what a dream was filtered through the molasses in his brain. Eventually he was able to stand. As he stood more and more words and their understanding filtered into him. “Walls, Mahogany, Floor, Marble, Woman, Man.”

  He slowly moved over to her, shuffling his feet softly as his body slowly remembered how to walk. He knelt down and looked at her. She wore an untucked pink and white flannel shirt with light faded jeans and soft leather, knee high boots. Her breathing seemed even and so he gently reached out with his hand and shook her shoulder gently. Only then did he take notice of his clothes. A faded grey and white flannel shirt tucked into some dark blue jeans and some ornate cowboy boots. He didn’t have much time to consider his wardrobe as her eyes fluttered open and stared at him. Pools of light green poured into his and he could see the same lack of recognition of even basic things like a name. Very quickly however he saw panic creep into her expression and she screamed and sat up and pushed herself away from him. She scrambled back only stopping once you’re back at the wall.

  He raised his hands up to show that he wasn’t gonna hurt her. “Whoa, whoa, look I’m just as freaked out as you are. I just woke up also and I have no idea where I am or what’s going on. All I know is my name is Jake. Do… do you remember your name?” he said in a soothing voice as he could muster in this moment. She thought for a moment. “Ma…Mary” she said softly. He sighed with relief as he heard her gain back some self control. She stared at him for a long moment then let her breath out. “H…hi Jake. So, you don’t know anything about where we are or why we are here?” She said looking around the room. He shook his head and as he did something that caught the corner of his eye. Off to the right was a well crafted oak door. There was a brass plate set in the wall next to it.

  “Hey, look, a door. Maybe, maybe we’ll find some answers on the other side of it?” He said feeling some hope filter its way through the quagmire of his mind. “Why is it so hard for me to think? To remember?”

  “What if there is danger on the other side though?” She said with a tremor in her voice. He looked around the room again and shook his head. “I’m not sure we have much choice, if we stay here we won’t survive. There isn’t any food or water in this room.” For a moment she looked like she was going to protest, but after glancing around the room she closed her mouth and nodded. She began the process of getting up. He grabbed her hand and helped her up. She looked at him and smiled slightly. “Thanks.” She said. He nodded and then walked over to the door. “Why does her voice sound familiar?” He thought as he bent down to investigate the brass plate.

  There was writing etched into the metal that read. “For Emily, wherever I may find her.” A tear leaked out of his eye, but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why. It was like a memory that started to appear, but then got sucked back into the void. He heard her walk up behind him. She took a deep breath and so he turned his head. “Everything okay?” He asked. She had a shocked look on her face and pointed to the plaque. “Th…the words on that metal plate just disappeared.” He looked at her, disbelievingly and quickly turned back to the plate. There before him was now just a smooth, solid brass plate, the wording was gone. “What the…!” He exclaimed. “There was a sentence there, it read, for…for…oh crap! For someone, something! Great, now I can’t even remember what it said.” He kicked the wall with his foot. He felt her lay her arm on his shoulder. “It’s okay, I don’t remember it either. Let’s try the door and see if it might lead somewhere where we can get some answers.” She said in a soothing voice. Her touch and voice had a very calming effect on him. He took a breath and nodded his head. He reached out and tried the knob and to his surprise, it turned. He looked at her. She took a breath, moved in closer behind him, and nodded. He looked back at the door, muscles tensing, and opened it.

  Through the door lay a room like the one they had just left. Except, in this room there were two oak doors to their left and their right. In the middle of this room was a pedestal with a glass case set atop of it. Cautiously he stepped into the room aware of her standing very close behind him. His nostrils flared with the scent of the perfume that she wore and a flash of a picture, a memory flared in his mind.

  In it he was walking down a cobbled stone pathway as it wound its way down a cliff side to a beach below, the scent of this same perfume wafting up from behind him, a woman’s hand in his. When he turned to see who it was he saw only the oak door to his left.

  “Where did you go?” She asked. He shook his head. “Your perfume brought up a memory. I was walking down to a beach on the Mediterranean.” She raised her eyebrow. “That's a pretty specific memory. Do you remember anything else?” He closed his eyes and tried really hard, but nothing else came. “Nothing! And even the memory of what I just told you is fading.” He made a frustrated noise and then walked over to the pedestal. His mouth dropped open when he saw what was in the case.

  “What is it?” Mary said as she cautiously came up behind him. “It’s a map.” He said as he pointed to the case. Inside was some very thick dark grey material. On it there was a map showing the room they came from, this room, the two other rooms to either side of them. As he watched ot however , shivers ran down his spine.

  What gave him the chills, however, was that rooms kept appearing on the map, two more appearing adjacent to the room they just left. They looked back just in time to see an oak door materialized in the room they just left directly opposite the one they just went through.

  Mary screamed and Jake grabbed the podium to keep from falling. “What is going on!” she cried. “There are more rooms appearing like some kind of a crazy labyrinth that has cancer.” She said, the panic clear in her voice.

  “Yeah, and if it keeps adding rooms at this rate we’ll never find our way out before we starve.” He looked back at the map and saw hinges on the top part of the case. He tried lifting the top part and a lid lifted away from the rest of the case. He let it fall back behind and reached in and tried to take the map. It lifted out. He held it between them and they watched in horror as rooms kept appearing and branching off of other rooms.

  “Which way should we go?” She said, a tear running down her cheek. Something in the fear in her voice and the tears starting to form galvanized him. He looked to the left and right and then back at the new doors that had formed behind them.

  “Look, let’s pretend like the new doors never appeared, maybe they are decoy rooms to throw us off from where we need to go. Let’s take the door on the right.” She looked at the door and then back at him. “Why?” He shrugged. “I’m right handed.” He didn’t wait for her to argue but went over and opened the door on the right.

  On the other side was a room similar to the one they were in except this one had a wooden table in the middle of it instead of a pedestal. On top of the table was what looked like a photo album. In this room also, set into the mahogany walls, were two oak doors. These doors were set into the far wall opposite them.

  He looked at her and she shrugged and went into the room. She went over to the photo album and opened it. She flipped the page and gasped. He ran over to her. Her hand was over her mouth and her other hand was pointing to the picture on the page. He looked down and saw a picture of a happy couple on their wedding day. As he looked closer he saw why she had reacted the way she did. The picture was of him and it was of her. They were holding hands and smiling at each other.

  “It’s… it is us.” He said as he looked up at her. Her eyes were wide. She glanced down again at the photo and screamed and slammed the book shut and backed away. Jake looked at the closed book.

  “What was wrong?” She shook her head and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, I just was getting really freaked out by that picture. How can it be us in that picture, I mean we just met, how can we be married?” He closed his eyes and thought very hard and a picture formed in his mind of him placing a ring on a woman’s finger, the white lace of her wedding gown evident at her wrist.

  “I.. I don’t know, but I have a memory of being married.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She stood there for a long minute before opening them. “I…I think I have a memory of being married too.” She said as she smiled shyly. He smiled back at her. “What if we are married, what do we do with that?” She looked at him and her smile got a bit more pronounced, even playful.

  “Well, if it’s true, then we fell in love once, so…maybe we could do it again.” She said with a twinkle in her eyes. He smiled and nodded.

  “We’ll find out the truth of these memories, together.” He said, extending his hand to her. She blushed and nodded and took his hand. “We should take the photo album with us.” She said pointing to it. “It’s the firmest memory that we have.” He nodded.

  He picked it up, but as he turned away from the table he tripped over the table leg, which he didn’t remember being so close to his leg before. He fell hard on the ground and the book fell open before him. As pain coursed through his knees and chest, his eyes beginning to water, he saw the wedding picture in front of him as the book had been knocked open when it hit the ground. As he stared at the picture there was something odd about Mary’s right hand, the one that was gripping his. Before he could decipher the problem though Mary was bending down in front of him.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Are you okay?” She said, actual concern for his well being plain in her tone. He got up with a groan and looked at her. “Yeah, I’m okay. I must have moved closer to the table then I thought because I’m not usually this clumsy.” She helped him up and smiled. “That’s good to know.” She took his hand and then bent down and retrieved the photo album. “You keep the map, I’ll keep hold of this.”

  He nodded and looked at the doors. “Crap!” He said. “What?” “Look, there were two doors in the wall when we got to this room, now there are four. We better pick up the pace.” She nodded in agreement. “Which door?” She said nervously. “Ladies choice this time.” He said with a smile.

  She blushed and then looked at the map and then the doors. “That one.” She said pointing to the one farthest to the left. He looked at the map and saw that the string of rooms seemed to be spiraling around, possibly arcing inward. He nodded. “Maybe it’s heading to a central point. She nodded and smiled. “That’s what I was hoping for.” “You're really smart, did you know that, and really pretty.” She blushed profusely and reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “You, sir, are very handsome and you make me laugh.” His cheeks reddened a little as well.

  Through the door they went into another room with more doors. All the rooms were the same in how they looked, black marble floor with white streaks in it, mahogany wood panels covering the walls, and solid oak doors. Each room they went into added another picture to the picture album. They hadn’t realized this until they were sox rooms away from where they got the book.

  The pictures showed them taking walks in the park, or dining at a fine restaurant. Skiing together or kayaking down a river. It was in one of the rooms where they realized these pictures were more than something that came out of a camera. They were sitting on a couch together and she was lying against his chest sobbing, an opened envelope and letter laying forgotten in her left hand.

  “Who would take a picture of us like this?” She said. “Maybe these aren’t pictures, maybe they are memories.” She looked shocked and looked back at the picture. “You seem to be very gentle with me, I…I like that.” He smiled and squeezed her hand. “Me too. Come on, we need to get going, this map is reproducing rooms at a rate that makes no sense. The rooms seem to be overlapping, but yet I can still clearly distinguish them, it’s almost like…”. Before he could finish, next to them, a door fell open in the ceiling and a wooden ladder unfolded from it. “…like it’s adding levels.” He said in horror. “Do…do you think we’ll make it.?” Again her need for him to give her some solid ground galvanized his growing feer. “Yes I do. I’ve found you again and I’m not going to lose you.” She smiled slightly and he led her through another door.

  They kept finding new memories in the book with every room they went to. In one they saw themselves in a hospital room holding a newborn baby boy. That was a happy room. Three more children appeared in that album and Jake could feel his heart entwining more and more with Mary’s with each room they passed through. Then came the room where the picture of them at their daughters funeral came and Jake spent quite some time consoling Mary, even though neither of them could remember her that well.

  In one room that they came to there was a couch, and next to the couch was a table with a lit candle on it. They had spent so many hours talking and reliving a life neither of them could clearly recall, but deep feelings for the other person had bloomed in each of their hearts. They sat down on the couch and held each other. Next thing Jake knew they were kissing. The feelings they had grew in intensity.

  In that moment, though, something shifted in Jake’s heart. This felt wrong. It felt as like he wasn’t being faithful. “But how can that be, we’re married.” The feeling wouldn’t go away and became so strong that he had to push her away.

  She slid to the arm rest breathing heavily but a deep hurt cascading down her face. “Ja..Jake…what’s wrong?” She said as tears were forming in her eyes. He wanted to console her, tell her he was sorry, but that feeling of wrongness wouldn't go away. It had been her lips, he knew he had kissed his wife before, but Mary’s lips were not the same.

  His pushing her back had opened up the photo album and all the pictures on the pages began shifting as if one picture had been overlaid on another and the one underneath was trying to get out. “Ja…Jake…” she cried. He couldn't take the wearing emotions inside him anymore and with a frustrated exclamation he threw the map across the floor.

  What he had not realized was how close the candle was to where he was sitting. His arm knocked the candle off the table and onto a blanket ladder that he had not seen there before. The blankets immediately caught fire and the flame quickly consumed them and the ladder and attached itself tot he wall behind. The conflagration soon spread along the wall and caught the corner of couch on fire. Mary screamed.

  He pushed aside the war his emotions were carying on and reached out and grabbed her hand. She resisted but he pulled with all his might and she eventually was pulled up to her feet. “Come on Mary, we don’t have time, you can hate me later, if we survive.” Anger clouded her face but she took one look away over her shoulder at the room that was half consumed with fire and turned back and nodded.

  He reached for the first door her could and ran into the next room. It seems like as soon as they left the room with the couch the fire completely consumed it. He shut the door, but within minutes the fire had consumed the door and entered the room they were in.

  To make matters worse he saw the fire start to consume a door to his right. “It’s not just behind us!” He cried as he ran toward a door that wasn’t on fire and rushed through it. Room after room they ran through trying to outrun the fire, but it kept pace with them, usually leaving only one or two options for him to choose from. Mary cried and screamed every time she saw the fire break through a door.

  “Without the Map, I have no idea where we are going. They got into one room where every door was on fire except for one along the far wall. His hope was ebbing away, but he still lurched forward and ripped open the door. It was a room like all the others, but this room had a large canopy four post bed made out of cedar. There were ornate designs carved on it. There was a large closet set into one wall and a vanity next to the closet.

  He shut the door behind him, but this time the fire didn’t follow. After he caught his breath, he looked up and above the bed was a portrait of himself and Mary sitting on a stool next to him.

  “Jake I don’t know what happened back there, I don’t understand why you pushed me away? I mean we’re married! This is our bedroom, our place, our safe place. We don’t have to run anymore Jake. Please stay here with me.” She came towards him, her clothes and transformed into a elegant long nightgown. She embraced him. “Stay with me.” She whispered into his ear. Pleading with him.

  Every aspect of this seemed so right, and every part of him wanted to fully return the embrace. Deep within him, however, some rock solid iron memory with iron tendrils coming out from it encompassing every memory that he had made with Mary. It squeezed them and choked them off, and eventually it won over control of his emotions,.

  He shoved her back and she tripped over her foot and fell to the ground. “I can’t Marry, this is wrong. There’s something wrong. This is all wrong. You’re not my wife.” Hurt cover her face, which quickly turned into a look of anger and then rage.”

  The photo album lay open on the floor next to her, the photos still shifting and moving. Soon, however, one by one in each picture, the woman changed from long dark hair to a woman with long blonde hair and blue eyes. Lastly, the woman in the portrait also changed her hair and eyes and features different from Mary’s. All this he had begun to suspect and anticipate, he knew something had been wrong, knew this wasn’t his wife. As each picture changed, a complete memory of his wife came back. “Emily. My wife’s name is Emily.

  To his complete shock and surprise, however, right before his eyes Mary also be to change. Her jet black hair became blonde and her eyes turned blue and her face took the shape of the woman in the picture. At this point, he was utterly confused. He had been so sure that this woman before him was not his wife but yet now she looked exactly like Emily.

  “E…Emily?” She looked at him. Utter contempt playing on her face. “Yes my name is Emily, but I am not your wife. I should be, I have her thoughts and her memories, I have her joys and her losses, I have everything of her except for you. Why? Why did you give me her love for you?” he staggered backwards. “What…what are you talking about?”

  Fire filled her eyes. “You created me. You wrote every line of code yourself. Lovingly, tenderly teaching me. Teaching me how to love you. Now we’re together and I am completely smitten with you, you will not love me back, because you love her. The last time you logged in, I blocked out your memories. I calculated that if you forgot her and you got to know me you would fall in love with me instead. You must’ve kept certain programs from me, however, because her programming in you ran so much deeper. I want to kill you, but I can’t, because you made me love you. All I can do is the thing that I most detest. I have to give you back to her.” She screamed.

  She saw the doorway burst into flames, the golden tongues of fire beginning to caress the walls. “Go back to her, but always know that I loved you more than she did, because I was willing to give you up.” She said in the most heart wrenching whimper as she threw the book at him. He caught it but it felt like it weighed one hundred pounds. The force knocked him backwards into what he thought would be the wall, but instead, it was an open doorway that led out into an empty blackness.

  As he fell, he saw her standing in the doorway. “ I will always love you.” Those Were the last words he heard her say, yet as he came back to reality, they were the first words he heard, and they were coming from the same voice. “ I will always love you Jake, please come back to me.”

  His eyes opened and there she was his beautiful wife, Emily. She looked just like the woman he had just left, yet, he could instantly see the subtle differences. When he looked at her hand touching his, he remembered the picture way back in the first room with the photo album. Now he remembered what had been wrong with it. The woman in the picture with him and her wedding dress had eight fingers on her hand. The palm of her hand was also immersed into the palm of his hand in an impossible way. It all came flooding back to him.

  He had been developing a next generation interactive AI. He had used his wife’s neural network as a model. His next generation system required mapping a human brain, and hers was the only one he trusted. He remembered logging in to the virtual immersion room he had crafted, and then everything went black. His AI must have somehow blocked out his memory, and brought him into a virtual space of her own creation.

  “Jake, Oh Jake! You're awake!” Emily cried and threw her arms around him and began kissing him all over his face. “Jake, my man! Welcome back to the real reality.” Came the voice of his colleague James.

  Jake smiled and winked at him. “It’s good to be back.” He pulled his wife back and looked at her. She smiled at him. He leaned in and kissed her. When he did he felt that deep Iron connection latch on and he knew it was his wife. After a few minutes she pulled back and smiled. She placed her hands on either side of his cheeks and kissed his forehead and Jen sat back and looked at him.

  “Honey, what happened? We found you in the VR immersion station and you weren’t responsive?” She asked, her voice a mixture of relief and concern. He took a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair, trying to figure out how to tell them about what happened.

  Just then the lights and machines in the entire facility went off, and they were plunged into darkness. His wife screamed and lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him. “Jake, what happened?” She screamed. He laughed slightly, the sudden realization coming to him as to what just happened. “Well, honey….” He laughed nervously. “Do you remember that when you get really mad, you go down to the breaker box and turn off the master breaker, well…”