Flashback Omen

Sci-fi "ghost" story + alternate dimensions + displaced timelines + a touch of Lovecraftian elements

All names and places in this story are fictional.

Twenty years ago, a penniless girl had a chance encounter with geomagnetism professor Jin Xiunian. She remembered nothing except a name. The police found no reports of missing children matching the only clue she had, so the mystery of the name was set aside. Jin Xiunian took the child in and named her Yanhua.

Twenty years later, Jin Yanhua, assigned to investigate a case, knocks on a client’s door. A grief-stricken, terrified mother claims that her daughter, missing for years, suddenly appeared at home, then vanished into thin air without a trace. Jin Yanhua wants to investigate the room where the girl appeared, but just then, strange voices come from behind the door. The name that raised so many questions twenty years ago is mentioned once more.

One mystery leads to another. Long-buried secrets about a past, along with despicable lies, gradually come to light.

Reader’s Guide

Important note: Unless something unavoidable comes up, I’ll update almost every day. I have chapters saved up, so feel free to dive in.

1. The story is driven by its plot, with a focus on mystery and deduction. It’s tagged as horror, but it leans more toward the uncanny. I couldn’t find an uncanny tag, so I chose horror.

2. To continue from the previous point, the story itself isn’t especially scary, so readers expecting a high level of horror should proceed with caution.

3. The city is fictional, and its culture and customs differ from those of the real world.

4. Open ending.

5. I’m a firm atheist, so I’ll do my best to explain the strange phenomena in scientific terms.

Theme: Embrace the light of the present