I Want to Be Remembered – The Story of a Man Whose Memory Was Erased

Sometimes I find myself wondering:

If my memory were erased, what would be left of me?

What we call identity is this strange mixture of what we remember, what we forget, what we hide and what we push down. In a world where robots, AI, laws and the invisible “system” weave themselves into every part of life, I wanted to poke at the most fragile side of being human:the desire to be remembered.

The story below follows Berk, a man whose memory has been wiped clean. He loses control over his own life, yet that small, stubborn voice inside him that says “I’m still here” refuses to disappear.

STORY

Had he taken a blow to the head?

When he woke up, the first thing he felt was the cold. A sharp, biting cold that crept under his skin and into his bones. When he opened his eyes, he saw a room lit by a single overhead lamp, bare walls, no windows in sight. It looked like an interrogation room.

The metal cuffs around his wrists bit into his skin; their chill almost numbed the throbbing in his skull.

He looked at the police officer sitting across from him. The face resembled a human, but the movements were too precise, the gaze too empty. The shiny plate on its chest confirmed it:A graded, special-production robot.

“What… is happening?” Berk asked. Even his own voice sounded strange to him.

The robot’s voice was as cold as steel slamming against metal:“You have violated a critical article of the law. You have been sentenced to the highest form of punishment.”

Panic flared inside Berk as he glanced around. No lawyer. No other humans. No one on his side.“Why am I here? What did I do? There must be some mistake. I don’t remember anything!”

The robot tilted its head slightly to the side.“You cannot remember. We erased your memory from your personal chip.”

Berk’s throat went dry.“What do you mean?” was all he could manage.

“Do you remember yesterday?”

Berk squeezed his eyes shut. The more he tried to force his memory, the worse his stomach churned. His head spun, as if something inside his brain was being squeezed. After a few seconds he gave up and shook his head.

The robot continued:“The nature of your work has been left intact. The administration has deemed that sufficient. In a short while, officers will take you to your new residence. You will continue your life from there, from zero. Your previous life no longer exists.”

“No…” Berk whispered. “Please, I want my memories back.”

He didn’t even realize there were tears rolling down his face. It felt as if a black void had opened inside his chest. In the middle of that void, a thin strip of an image appeared: blonde hair… two green eyes peeking through, smiling at him. He could almost smell her perfume. He reached for it—and the image shattered.

Everything else was darkness.

He could only remember one thing clearly: his job.

He worked in a factory with robots, producing bio-food. This was how they fought the global famine. Soilless crops, edible algae layers, 3D food printers, proteins produced through fermentation…He could recall the layout of the facility, the corridors, the sounds of the machines, the shift hours—crystal clear.

But his home?His family—if he even had one?A lover? Friends?

Nothing. Just an empty space where something should have been.

He turned to the one-way mirror. He was sure there were eyes behind it, watching his every move.I have no control over my life anymore, he thought.

He caught his reflection in the glass. A pale face, colorless eyes, sunken cheeks… Had he seen himself like this before? He didn’t know. Was there someone out there worrying about him? A mother, a father… a partner, maybe?

Or was he the kind of man everyone hated?

He had no idea.

The robot glanced down at its digital documents, then gave a brief nod of confirmation.“You may leave now. The officers will escort you to your new residence. Our work here is complete.”

When Berk pushed himself up, the floor seemed to shift under his feet. At that exact moment, the woman appeared in his mind again, in a brief strip of memory: this time she was holding him. He felt the softness of her skin, like cotton. A whisper brushed against his ear:“Don’t worry, my love, it will pass.”

The image broke apart again.

At the door, a man was waiting for him, greeting him with a small nod. His facial lines were sharp, his expression stiff and controlled. The emblem and stars on his collar told Berk he was a high-ranking detective.

“Hello,” said the man. “Welcome to your new life. I’ve been assigned to escort you to your new home. Shall we?”

Berk followed him without a word. His mind was overcrowded with questions, but he couldn’t hold on to any of them for long. They didn’t exit the building through a main door; instead, they climbed a narrow emergency staircase upward.

Am I really that important? he wondered. Is that why we’re not using the main exit? Maybe it matches the severity of my sentence…He decided not to ask.

At the top, they stepped out onto a helipad. A sleek, high-tech aircraft was waiting there. He had the feeling he’d seen something like this before, maybe even boarded one. But the moment he tried to remember, his brain clenched and his breath caught.

The weightless feeling of being suspended in the air, hanging in the void…He wanted to scream.

“Are you alright, sir?” the detective asked, eyeing him with suspicion.

Berk tried to pull himself together.“Yes,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

The man climbed the stairs into the aircraft and extended a hand to help him in. They sat down on opposite seats. Berk sensed a strange kind of respect in the man’s eyes, but he wasn’t sure. It was as if the detective had known him for years.

Berk was the first to break the silence:“If it’s okay… may I know your name?”

“Of course,” the man replied. “My name is Cenk, Mr. Berk. It’s an honor to meet you.”

“An honor?” Berk raised an eyebrow. “Sir, you do realize… I don’t remember anything.”

Cenk fell silent for a moment.“Don’t worry,” he said eventually. “You’re safe.”

“So you… know something?” Berk asked.

“I just need you to keep quiet and trust me,” Cenk replied. He didn’t look away. “I gave my word. I’ll solve this case. I know you didn’t commit that murder.”

For a second, Berk’s heart felt like it stopped.“Murder?” he whispered. “There must be a mistake…”

Cenk’s gaze softened as he studied Berk’s sweat-damp forehead and bloodshot eyes.“They didn’t tell you anything, did they?”

“I guess… no.”

“It’s normal to feel this exhausted,” Cenk said. “You remember only half of the sedatives they gave you. The rest is lost along with your memories. To the robots, your feelings don’t matter. The only thing that matters is your sentence.” His lips tightened. “They see us as mere assets.”

His hatred of robots was written all over his body language.

Berk, however, was stuck on his own words:“I was working with robots, right? I feel like I don’t remember anything about the world…”

“And you?” he asked, looking straight at Cenk now. “Who are you doing this for?”

Cenk’s voice suddenly softened.“For Cansu,” he said.

Cansu.

Once again, blonde hair and green eyes flashed through Berk’s mind. His heart squeezed, just a little.I should feel something, he thought. This name should trigger something.

But his emotions stayed behind a thick veil of fog.

The only thing he could do was wait. He took a deep breath and leaned back in his seat. The tension radiating off Cenk filled the interior of the aircraft, but Berk still sensed that the detective was genuinely trying to protect him.

The place they arrived at looked like a communal living complex on the upper levels of a massive building. A shared kitchen, standard furnishings, rooms that didn’t seem to belong to anyone in particular… Everything was a little too orderly.

They stopped in front of one of the doors on the top floor. Cenk opened it and gestured for him to enter.

“This has been set up for you, Mr. Berk,” he said. “Your work clothes are in the wardrobe, along with a few new outfits and basic essentials. Everything is ready.”

Once they were inside, Cenk closed the door carefully behind them. He pulled a small tablet from his pocket and pressed a button.

“Now no one can hear us,” he said in a low voice. “I only have a few minutes. Please, sit.”

Berk did as he was told. His eyes didn’t leave Cenk’s face.

“You’re a very important scientist,” Cenk said. “Right now, the world is surviving thanks to solutions you discovered. You stopped the famine crisis.”

Berk stared at him, stunned.“If that’s true,” he said slowly, “then why did they give me this kind of punishment? Is this my reward for being important? What a cruel world…”

Cenk lowered his head for a moment, then looked up again.“You protected someone,” he said. “Someone you loved deeply.”

“Cansu?”

Cenk shook his head.“No. Someone else.”

Ice crawled up Berk’s spine.“So… that person committed the murder?”

Cenk drew in a deep breath.“Yes,” he said. “They did. You took the blame. You didn’t know they were going to kill themselves afterward. The robots chose not to destroy you completely. Instead, they erased your personal memories so they could keep using you. You’re too valuable to them. An important asset.”

Berk let out a bitter little laugh and shook his head.“So I’m basically like a robot,” he said. “They reset my mind just so I’ll keep doing my job. Maybe I’ll even meet new people, right? A fresh start. A restart…”

Cenk watched him quietly.“My friend, you actually know me,” he said. “But I’ll probably be the first and last person to tell you any of this. People are afraid. They won’t risk being punished. They’ll treat you as if they’ve just met you for the first time.”

“So…” Berk’s voice trembled. “Is Cansu… alive?”

Cenk’s expression gave away the answer long before the words did.

“She’s dead,” he said. “She was against the robots. They captured her. Then… she killed herself. She thought she was living inside the virtual world. You did everything you could.”

Berk stared at the wall for a while.“Did you know her?” he asked eventually.

“I knew of her because of you,” Cenk replied. “Everyone did.”

“Did we have a child?”

“No,” Cenk said. “You didn’t.”

“Alright…” Berk swallowed hard. “Did I… like robots?”

A faint, sad smile crossed Cenk’s face.“You did,” he said. “She hated them. But you only understood just how deep that hatred went when she committed the murder.”

Silence crashed into the room and echoed off the walls.

Not knowing was such a strange feeling. Berk felt like a newborn, but not because life had given him a second chance—because someone else had decided to reset him. A programmable human.

There was something burning inside him. Was it the desire for revenge of a man stripped of his identity? Or a nameless, shapeless anger?How is a person supposed to survive in a world where they don’t remember their own life? he wondered.

“I want to be remembered,” he whispered at last.

Cenk felt the weight of that sentence in his bones. In his mind’s eye, he saw Cansu again, just as Berk had described: a thin strip of memory unfurling—blonde hair falling over her shoulders, green eyes glowing with a gentle smile.

And it was as if she too, from somewhere very far away, was repeating the same sentence:

“I want to be remembered…”

Short Closing

While writing this story, the line I got stuck on the most was Berk’s final whisper:

“I want to be remembered.”

Maybe our biggest fear isn’t losing our memory.Maybe it’s passing through other people’s lives without leaving any trace at all.

If your memory were erased,

• What is the one moment you’d want to get back?

• In what way would you want to be remembered?

Let’s talk about it in the comments. 💬✨