All remembered when it happened, and that was the curse that would follow all until the end. A cosmic even it was called, a shower of what seemed to be harmless radiation lightly passed over earth. Scientists had tracked it from it's first known source, though they never quite found out what cosmological event happened, and if they ever did, they wouldn't believe themselves, or they would and realize the horrible truth, before they forgot again.

The following morning for many was normal, those for whom the event happened at night, before bed, or during their sleep, assumed nothing was wrong, the event had passed without any actual event other than a spectacular lightshow in the sky. For those who were awake longer, there may have been the slightest feeling something was odd, or even others were acting strangely, but most would see it as someone being tired, or just in a strange mood that day.

The day after the first, though, was one that would never be remembered, and neither would any other.

Panic, Stock markets had crashed, pilots had gotten lost, communications systems broke down, patients were in the wrong rooms, and no one seems to remember how they got to where they were. Worse were the fights that broke out because of the paranoia. Families began each other immediately, arguing and passing blame. It was as if everyone in the world had simultaneously forgotten the previous day, all at once.

It would happen again, and again, and the carnage of what it had wrought would fuel further paranoia to the poor souls that would awake each day, oblivious of how much time had passed since the strange lightshow in the sky. It was as if the human brain ceased to record any new memories after that moment.

The more that time passed, the more confusion would come. there was no society, the infrastructure of every class and culture on earth was gone in an instant. only the memories of those who had lived up to that moment.

Children continued to grow, but never matured. Babies remained helpless, never learning to walk or talk. People died of famine. Waking up each day, emaciated, forgetting to even eat. Many were lucky if food wasn't scarce, though no more food was being prepared, waking to find the food they had thought they bought the day before was gone, or rotten.

After the first year, most of humanity had died, famine, accidents, murder, none was remembered, to those waking up each day, that day was a moment of time frozen, that everyone remembered, but that no longer existed. The suffering of learning the fates of their loved ones, of their own condition, pouring out each day, only to be immediately forgotten, and experienced, over and over again until death.

When the last human died, it was of no consequence, they awoke, their leg rotting from some infection, their throat dry. They last ran of drinkable water just a day prior, but it had already been rationed, and more energy had been expended defending it from no one, except the self of them the previous day taking their share. Fingernails, rigid and riddled with creases and rings, seeming pressed out from the skin as their body had already begun eating itself to preserve itself. It suffers in agony, going from remembering what was left of a lovely night with a potential date, ending in their apartment, to it's current agony, holding onto it's memories as if they will save it, as if it's current pain couldn't possibly be real, before death would slowly, but surely overtake it, and with it, that distant memory of the past would be the last thing anyone remembered at all.

(Note from the author: This comes after a discussion in a thread, as well as an idea i had revolving around things that remove a person's ability to recall memories, whether it had been physical or mental trauma, or even things like drinking, or sleeping medication which you could sleepwalk and behave mostly normal through, even if for a little while, even if you never remembered any of it. The idea of this anomalous moment that everyone remembers, but that no one can understand what's happened after, seemed like a fun horror element to explore. I actually had the idea well before Halloween, but hadn't gotten around to putting it into a story until now!)