Mira grabbed me before my head could smash into the ground. The dizziness still persisted, so she helped me sit down on the ground, giving me small pats on the head every now and then.

"Are you okay?" she asked after a few moments of silence. "It's okay to not be okay."

This was my vacation, so all I should be focusing on was relaxing — not questioning reality. Yet... I couldn't help the nagging feeling that grew in my mind. I could accept the idea of being on vacation, sure, but where was I? When I tried to dig for specifics, the truth began to fall apart.

"I... don't know," I answered. "What's going on? Who are you? Where am I? Who am I?" The questions came out faster than my mind could process them. My sense of reality felt so fragile that the slightest touch broke it. Being here with Mira was like bringing a hammer to a house of glass.

Mira frowned. "You really don't remember anything, do you?"

I shook my head, having trouble coming up with words. There was obviously something more going on. There was more to this story than Mira was letting on. She knew something. She had to know more than I did. But was being here with her a good thing? What if she was lying to me?

"Well, there is no easy way to say this but... we tried to kill ourselves, Aura."

That had to have been a joke. I lived a happy life with parents who loved me and friends who cared about me. Meeting Ethan in high school was one of the best highlights of my life. Everything in my memories felt perfect. The perfect family. The perfect childhood. Maybe... too perfect?

"No, that's not true," I said after a while. "I would never do that."

A sigh escaped Mira's perfectly pink lips. "Look, I wish things went differently, too. We were all hurting in our own ways, and I should have prevented this. I didn't want you to do it alone."

I had so many memories — memories of a life well lived. How could I have... attempted something like that? Or maybe I didn't really know myself as well as I thought I did.

"But what about Ethan, my boyfriend? Isn't he real? If you let me borrow your phone, I can—"

"That's just what they want you to think." Mira laughed. "Besides, you were never into guys like that. We've been friends for years and I've never seen you have a crush on a guy before."

Ethan was real. He had to be. I remembered his voice so clearly before but trying to picture it now was nearly impossible. If only I had my cell phone with me. Calling would prove he was real. Our families had known each other since we were small children — he was everything to me.

"I like guys, though," I insisted, but a part of me felt sick when I said those words. Did I really like guys? Or was I just led to believe I did? "Well... I don't remember liking a girl before."

Mira stared at me, the smile growing wider on her face. "Well, I'm a girl and you like me."

I looked away, avoiding her gaze. That would explain the way my face burned up when she held my hand. That didn't just happen with anyone. That only ever happened with me and Ethan. I knew his body as well as he knew mine — we were together for two years and counting.

Or... were we?

If Mira was to be trusted, then the guy named Ethan who I dated was not real. None of it was real. Did that mean my memories were fake? But how could I remember something that didn't happen? How could I be so sure of my life if I didn't live it like I thought I did? What was real?

But wait... why were my memories to be questioned? What if Mira had fake memories?

I sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm my mind. "Hey, Mira?" I asked, forcing myself to look into her eyes again. She nodded, a look of concern grew in her eyes. "Why do you think your memories are real? Why aren't mine? How are you so sure that you know what reality is?"

She looked taken aback, as if she didn't expect me to ask that. I watched her think over it for a few minutes. I definitely couldn't read minds, but I knew what it looked like to be lost in thought.

After a few minutes, she started talking. "This... place... it's called The Sanctuary," she began. "After what happened with all of us, I felt really bad and I wanted to forget everything. For a price, you can start over with a new beginning. Or at least that's what they told me when I first joined.

"But... it didn't work on me. They tried a few times — they really did, but my memories wouldn't go away. They even tried to give me fake memories but those didn't work either.

"So... they brought me here to wait while they figure out what went wrong. Of course I haven't just been sitting around, idly. With all this time to think, I realized I wanted a second chance at life. I wanted to live authentically and I realized that forcing myself to forget is just running away.

"I didn't want to run away anymore. We've lost too much the last time we tried to... end it all. Two people are dead, Aura. Two people no longer walk on this Earth with us. That scared me so much. I saw the impact their deaths had on everyone — even their shitty relatives were sad.

"And then... when I saw you, I knew you survived for a reason. I think fate brought us together. You probably don't remember the connection we had, but I do. I really missed you. I missed what we had before. I thought I lost you, and that scared me more than anything."

No... no no no.

For once in my life, I was speechless. I wanted to believe Mira, but none of it was adding up to the memories swirling around in my head. I knew she wasn't lying, though, from the way she talked. She looked like she was so close to bursting into tears or maybe she was good at acting.

Just last week, I was getting frozen yogurt with Ethan. He picked vanilla as he always did and got some oreo toppings on top. I teased him about liking vanilla so much, and he joked about how my preference was the same in the bedroom. I hit his shoulder and went back to enjoying my cup of strawberry frozen yogurt with fruit toppings. If I had known that was the last time I'd see him...

But did that really happen? Was my mind just making up memories based on fake ones? Was I trying to rationalize my broken reality to stop myself from falling apart? This was a vacation, wasn't it? I was having a perfectly good time before I met Mira. Could I just go back to that?

Was Mira even real? We held hands, but she could've been a robot for all I know. Maybe she was sent here to mislead me. Everything was perfect. My life was perfect. I just needed to have the perfect vacation and then I could see Ethan again. I bet he missed me as much as I missed him.

Then again... if Ethan wasn't real and none of my memories were... what would happen?

"Aura?" Mira called out. "You've been quiet for a while. Something on your mind?"

"How do I know if you're real?" I asked, preparing myself to run away if I had to.

She pulled me into a hug, warmth exploding throughout my body. More than just my face was burning, and I wondered if there was some truth to what she said. "Is this real enough for you?"

I didn't want to admit it but a part of me didn't want her to let go. Because as soon as I did, things would stop making sense again and I'd lose my sense of reality. I just wanted to stay with her. But... how did she know me? Why didn't I remember her? Not knowing made me uneasy.

"If it's alright with you, I want to take you somewhere," she said. "It'll help, I promise."

▬▬▬

Mira brought us back to the lobby.

The front desk was empty — a sign indicating that the person who normally works there was on their lunch break. I glanced towards the breakfast bar where we met and some rope blocked it off, claiming it was closed. Past the lobby, on the other side, there were more winding hallways.

"What am I supposed to look for?" I asked, taking a seat on one of the couches near the front desk. Past the giant sitting area, there were sliding glass doors overlooking a garden. I vaguely remembered walking through the garden when I first arrived. The flowers smelled really nice.

"Get up," she said, tugging at my arm. "We're going outside."

My eyes lit up. "I was actually planning to go outside today! I really wanted to explore more of the local environment and see if I could learn more about where we are. This place is so myst—"

Mira placed a finger on her lips and motioned for me to follow her towards the sliding glass doors. "I'm sorry, Aura, but I want you to see what I saw first before we talk more about it."

She stood in front of the sliding glass doors, but they didn't move like they were supposed to. There were no handles there either, so I wondered how we'd get outside. Was there something I was missing? Were we not going outside? Before I could even ask, Mira just kept walking.

Right when I thought her face was going to collide with the glass, it didn't. She walked right through the glass door as if there wasn't a door there. Once she was on the other side, she waved.

I stared blankly at her for a few seconds before realizing she wanted me to follow her.

Even though I knew I'd end up on the other side like she did, my rational mind wasn't ready to just walk into a glass door like that. Fake door or not — I couldn't help but imagine the potential pain that I'd experience. But if I didn't go now, then when would I have the chance to go again?

Walking through the glass doors felt like walking through an empty hallway. There wasn't anything there, only empty space between two walls. And just like that, I was on the other side.

Instead of an infinite horizon in the distance, the outside world looked like wallpaper adorning a room. I walked down the pathway leading to the street with my hand stretched out in front of me. After a few feet of walking like that, my hand hit the surface of a wall and I stopped.

"Aura," Mira called out from behind me. "Try touching literally any plant you can see."

There were rows of hedges lining the pathway I just walked down. At the ends of the hedges, there were rose bushes, and behind those, flowers were planted everywhere. Could those all be fake, too? Was this entire room just... an illusion? Something to fool us into complacency?

I walked up the pathway towards Mira, running my hand against the hedge, but I felt nothing. My hand just passed through it like it wasn't even there. Light reflected against my skin. Was it a hologram? Was it all being projected from somewhere? Why go through all of this trouble?

Midway up the pathway, I stopped and turned left, walking right through the hedges like it was just air. Even the flowers that looked like they were planted in the ground weren't real. Nothing in this place was real. I kept walking and touching but all I felt was light on my hands.

Growing tired of it all, I walked back over to Mira and sat on the ground in front of her. I hugged my knees just to feel the touch of something real in this world and rocked slowly.

"Why did you bring me here?" My voice cracked. "Is this funny to you?"

Mira took a step forward, but when she saw me lean away from her, she stepped back again. "Look, Aura, I know. It freaked me out, too, when I first came here, but you deserve to know."

"But why?" I repeated. "Why did I have to know this?"

"I..." Mira paused, lost in thought again. What was she expecting would happen? Clearly, she hadn't thought this out enough. "I just thought you'd... I don't know what I was expecting."

"I think I've seen enough," I said, glancing towards the door. "Maybe it's time for me to go."

"Aura, wait," Mira pleaded. "I know it was selfish, but I wanted to change your mind. I was hoping you'd want to leave with me. If you trust me, I want to get you out of here. I want us to go home again. I know this is too much for a stranger to ask but... I can't lose you again. "

"No," I replied. "If nothing is real, then what's the point? Why try to fight it?"

She reached forward and grabbed my hand, helping me stand up again. "You can't change the past but your future is still on the table. There's a world outside of The Sanctuary, and I know that we can get back there again if you would just trust me. All I want is for you to be happy again."

In that moment, I realized I had enough of this — enough of listening and talking. Enough of having my world shattered to pieces in front of my eyes. Enough of the confusion — of everything.

"I'm sorry, Mira, but I can't do this."

I ran off, leaving her behind in the garden. Or at least what I thought was the garden before I visited. Whatever that place was, I wanted to get out of there. Nothing made sense anymore.

If my memories were actually fake, then who was to say any of this was real?