The Echo Garden

The Echo Garden

KEVIN KEMP

In a world where grief is a controlled substance and memories are meticulously cultivated, one woman’s search for truth threatens to unravel the very fabric of society.

Veridia is a city of perfect serenity, its citizens living in a state of perpetual, manufactured calm, their emotions gently regulated by the pervasive Echo Gardens. These lush, bio-engineered sanctuaries offer curated memories, a soothing balm for the traumas of the past, especially the mysterious “Great Forgetting” that reshaped the world a generation ago.

Dr. Elara Vance, a brilliant botanist and a key figure in the Echo Garden initiative, understands the intricate science behind this engineered happiness. Yet, beneath her professional facade, a quiet unease simmers, fueled by the unresolved loss of her younger sister, Lyra, who vanished during the Forgetting. Elara has tried to “smooth over” her own painful memories with the gardens’ gentle illusions, but a persistent, unsettling void remains.

Her carefully ordered world shatters when she discovers a hidden, subterranean anomaly: the Feral Garden. Unlike anything in Veridia, this wild, chaotic biome pulses with an erratic, untamed energy. It’s not cultivating new memories, but absorbing discarded, repressed, and forgotten recollections from the city above—raw, visceral fragments of fear, confusion, and profound despair.

As Elara cautiously delves into the Feral Garden’s depths, she stumbles upon a memory that is undeniably Lyra’s—a terrifying flash of her sister’s last moments, utterly at odds with the “peaceful passing” she had accepted. This personal revelation ignites a desperate quest for truth, transforming Elara from a detached scientist into a reluctant revolutionary.

Driven by Lyra’s echoes and the chilling inconsistencies she uncovers, Elara realizes the horrifying truth: the Great Forgetting was no accident. It was a meticulously planned event, and the Echo Gardens, far from being benevolent healers, are sophisticated instruments of societal control and memory manipulation, designed by a visionary whose “benevolent” intentions masked a profound desire for absolute power.

Now, with the watchful eyes of Veridia’s authorities closing in and her own life in peril, Elara faces an agonizing choice: expose the painful truth and shatter the city’s fragile peace, risking chaos and backlash, or allow the beautiful lie to continue, burying the past forever.

The Echo Garden is a gripping speculative mystery that explores the profound nature of memory, the messy truth of grief, and the chilling cost of manufactured happiness. It asks: What truths are we willing to forget for the sake of peace, and what happens when the forgotten refuses to stay buried?