What Once Was Lost

A man with no memory wakes coughing up brackish water, surrounded by nothing but one endless row of shelves. Items on the shelves all shrunk to fit, any removed revert to their original size and pull to return. Panicked, he tries to escape, only to fall and be found by a woman equally without memories. After their mutual suspicions abate, they fall into a spiky but familiar ease and speculate on their circumstance: Kidnapped? A dream? Maybe, dead? Certain items give flashes of memory but it’s a kidney bean plushie where the woman feels guidance as it pulls away. But danger lurks also as a figure stalks them in the dark. Lead to a plushie liver in a shrunken cube of liquid, breaking it unleashes a near-deadly flood. Alive but exhausted, it’s clear their physical condition is deteriorating; his worsening coughing and her jaundiced appearance. Their fear; they may not be dead but dying. After immense effort opening a puzzle box, a plushie heart within causes the stalker to attack, stealing it. However, the remaining plushies guide them—to a life-sized girl doll. Woman floored, knows this is their daughter, taken by a serial killer who returns only organs. Man feels little, numb but she is certain they are there to restore her. Carrying the girl doll for guidance, they hunt the figure to a partially collapsed house between some shelves. Despite a dangerous landslide, they recover the heart but the girl doll remains unreal. Both despondent, failures as parents again, they deserve whatever is killing them. A wound triggers a realisation in the woman, a missing part within her, she tears it from her skin. Man rips his eye out the same. Complete, the girl becomes real and their memories return. A whole family again, they can finally escape.