Feeling curious, Izzy sank inward, slipping into the depths of their mindscape. She traveled through the colorful, vibrant sky, its hues twisting and bleeding together like a liquid aurora.

  The sight was still fascinating to her, this vast space within her and Isa’s shared mind, and how their consciousness could freely interact and move around in it.

  How did Isa even create something like this?

  Izzy passed the amusement parks.

  The entire field glittered with starlight, yet everywhere felt incomplete. Roller coasters twisted into endless loops, their rails forming chaotic spirals that never truly reached a station. Horse carousels spun slowly without stopping, Ferris wheel shimmering with unfinished paint strokes, and drop towers without seats.

  There were rows of carnival shooting games, bumper cars, a whimsical funhouse, a circus tent, and even a haunted house lurking in a corner, alongside endless ball pits.

  Yet, this place remained unfinished. Isa still hadn’t completed these places.

  Izzy paused for a moment. These shapes, these vivid colors, all of this came from her young mind’s imagination. A mind overflowing with everything Izzy wished she had experienced.

  Every attraction was vibrant, yet incomplete, because Isa built these things alone.

  ‘She has no one to play here with her,’ Izzy murmured internally.

  The mature mind was struck by a wave of nostalgia, a wistful longing for a past that was no longer hers.

  She shook her head and looked away.

  ‘No. The bygone is bygone.’

  High above, the brilliant colors shimmered. A small streak of gray and blackness intruded into the vibrant mixture of colors. It slithered quietly between hues, but after a moment it vanished, swallowed by the brighter colors.

  Izzy waved her hand, and immediately, the vision of the amusement park disappeared, like fog slowly fading away.

  Instead, the scene around her changed. Curtains rippled outward, wooden seats unfolded, and the familiar structure of her theater snapped into place around her. Rows of velvet chairs stretched in perfect arcs. Gold-framed balconies hovered above. The polished black stage reflected the faint glow of lanterns.

  Izzy found herself again inside the grand, opulent theatre.

  This was her mind, after all. She could freely manipulate it, move around, and even teleport, much like her young mind often did.

  It was just more difficult for the mature mind, as her imagination was not as potent as Isa’s. She could even reconstruct food that she had tasted in the real world, although it would be tasteless if Izzy had no memory of its flavor.

  Soon, the theatre solidified. Izzy focused on it and marked it with a mental imprint. This would be her usual spawn point, instead of having to travel through the rainbow sky every time.

  Izzy glanced around. No sign of Isa.

  She could easily focus on Isa’s presence to pinpoint the girl’s location, but for now, Izzy took her time and instead examined everything properly.

  Now that Izzy thought about it, what was the nature of their mind?

  Izzy and Isa weren’t just two facets of the same person anymore. They seemed to have properly split, perhaps due to naming themselves as two separate individuals, Izzy and Isa, and not as one Isidora.

  Their minds were still linked, sharing a mind world, yet it was not a forced link. They could now have their private time and private thoughts, choose what to share, had distinct personalities and even shut each other out when needed.

  Izzy discovered this first. And she quickly realized there were memories her young mind should never see.

  She sealed away the darker parts of her past. None of that should belong in a child’s world.

  It was not an entertaining memory to watch, anyway.

  The Memory Theatre was the most fascinating creation in her mindscape, but what was its origin?

  She drifted past the audience seating. Rows of plush red chairs stretched endlessly, each seat shaped differently as if Isa had imagined them one by one but never made them uniform. The polished floor gleamed beneath a haze of dust.

  She moved past the curved auditorium, the dress circle with its ornate gold railings, the upper circle with intricately carved wooden balusters, and balconies stacked like layered petals. Above them all hung a grand crystalline chandelier.

  Izzy ignored them all and stepped directly onto the stage.

  The stage lay hidden behind a deep red velvet curtain, embroidered with golden fringe.

  She waved her hand, and the curtain slowly unveiled itself. Simultaneously, the clear notes of violins spiraled up from the orchestra pit, and a powerful chord erupted.

  Izzy clapped her hands, and the music abruptly stopped.

  ‘How unnecessary,’ she thought with a tired sigh. Maybe making this a concert hall wasn’t such a good idea.

  Izzy stepped into the stage’s interior. When the theatre wasn’t playing anything, the inside was nothing but darkness hidden by the curtain. But since she had ordered it to open, the stage revealed itself as an open, vast black space.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  She snapped her fingers. The blackness receded, and light slowly seeped in revealing a single object in the center: a lectern made of smooth white wood, similar to a church altar. On it rested a black book.

  The book was thick, yet when she opened it, every page was blank.

  “My memory,” she whispered.

  Slowly, words bled onto the pages in dark ink, filling entire lines rapidly. Her memories from her former world wrote themselves out in exact detail.

  The writing continued page after page, recounting every one of her thoughts, movements, and even emotions. It chronicled her life up to this very point.

  “[Izzy stands inside the stage, she says ‘My memory’ and the book slowly fills with her memories in written form.]”

  “[It frightened her the first time she discovered it, yet the more she thought about it, the more she realized this was a tremendous boon. After all, this is her mindscape. Who else can approach it besides herself?]”

  “[She looks at the book, both terrified and fascinated. How can it write her thoughts down with such accuracy? A cold sweat…]”

  “Stop.”

  The ink froze mid-curve as the lines stopped forming.

  ‘I might go insane if I keep reading this,’ Izzy muttered dryly.

  She flipped through the pages, going backward continuously, until she reached a specific memory in her past.

  ‘Found it.’

  *Rip.*

  She ripped the page out.

  The page crumbled into specks of white light, then faded completely. At the same time, Izzy felt a tug in her mind.

  The memory still existed within her, because it was part of her. Izzy could still remember that particular past, but the book no longer held that page.

  She flipped to the previous page, and as expected, there were torn marks.

  These were marks left from when she discovered this place for the first time and began tearing out anything Isa should never be allowed to see.

  Whatever memories were stored inside the book would be shown in the theatre. It was like a script, and the theatre was there to turn that script into a vivid, living picture.

  Removing them from the book ensured the theatre could no longer recreate those scenes. The script was incomplete, therefore the stage would never play them.

  Had Isa made this theatre to recreate their memories? To watch them like stories? For some reason, Izzy doubted it.

  Isa might be a genius, but she wouldn’t be that much of a genius to know how this was made.

  Then, what was this book? It appeared out of nowhere when Isa finished building the theatre. When Izzy had asked her young mind about it, Isa seemed just as confused. The girl hadn't expected it either.

  “My power,” Izzy spoke, once again testing its functions.

  The words of her memories faded away, and in their place, the book filled with details of her abilities:

  “[Field Vision]

  [Corpse Control]

  [Psychokinesis]

  [Possession]”

  Each ability appeared as a heading, and beneath them tiny lines of text formed like annotations. They were all the observations she had made and weaknesses she suspected.

  “About Benjamin.”

  The words slowly faded, replaced with what little she knew of the old man.

  [Benjamin: An old man with gray hair and crimson eyes. His power is unknown. Confirmed capabilities include…]

  The rest of the line filled itself out slowly, listing the odd sights she remembered: the crimson gaze, the warm aura, his behavior,...

  Izzy nodded to herself.

  “This world.”

  [ ]

  “As expected.”

  Nothing appeared. Only a blank page stared back.

  This book was not all-knowing. Everything it contained was based on her own discoveries on the subject. If something was beyond her understanding or she had not yet learned about it, then the page would remain blank. Likewise, if it was something she had actively studied, it would appear here.

  “This is like…” She tapped the lectern lightly.

  It was like her own library of knowledge, a personal encyclopedia in case she forgot something.

  Though, as an investigator in her previous life, her memory was already good. She rarely forgot critical details.

  “Hmm.”

  Once again, she was left without answers. This mysterious book never revealed its origin to her. Izzy could only wait for the answers to appear somewhere in the distant future.

  For now, it was time to find Isa.

  If Izzy intruded into her young mind’s perspective, Isa would immediately notice her.

  But would it be a bother? Izzy remembered the embarrassment the girl had felt when Izzy intruded on her private time.

  Better to locate her manually.

  “Isa’s location.” she said aloud.

  A thick black arrow appeared on the empty page, pointing toward one direction within their mindscape.

  Izzy shut the book. The lectern and stage faded into darkness as she dismissed them. Behind her, the lights dimmed as the heavy red curtain fell shut.

  She followed the arrow’s path. The world around her transitioned into drifting colors and reshaped into the familiar scene of the amusement park.

  Neon lights blinked around the empty rides. A carousel spun slowly with no one riding it. The roller-coaster tracks twisted like a steel labyrinth. Cotton candy clouds drifted overhead.

  In the far corner, tucked behind a towering stack of candy-themed blocks, Isa was busy with something.

  The young mind hummed to herself, swaying her body left and right as if conducting an invisible orchestra.

  Her small hands raised toward the air. With each gesture, blocks appeared out of thin air, materializing in sparkles and drifting exactly where Isa directed them.

  She was building a playhouse.

  A little house made of mismatched blocks, shaped like something between a dollhouse and a fairytale cottage. It has pastel colors, tiny windows, and a chimney that puffed out white heart-shaped smoke.

  ‘Another one?’ Izzy thought, suppressing a sigh.

  She floated closer. Isa was so focused she didn’t even notice her. The girl giggled, spinning around with her hair bouncing, then clapped in delight when a new wall appeared exactly where she wanted it.

  A mischievous impulse bubbled up in Izzy’s chest.

  “WAHH!”

  “AAHH!”

  “Ahaha!” Izzy burst into laughter.

  *crack* *bang*

  A loud sound erupted in her ears.

  Did she just break something? Oops.

  Lol…who is the one throwing chaos again…?

  They feed me delicious food. Wanna eat them again.