The bus hissed as it came to rest, doors folding open with a tired sigh.

  Amsterdam greeted them not with noise, but with breath, cool air rolling in off the canals, carrying the smell of water, stone, and something faintly sweet, like old bread and rain.

  Hannah was out first.

  She barely waited for Natalie to step down before darting away from the stop, shoes tapping eagerly against the pavement. “Natalie!” she called, already halfway down a narrow set of stairs that seemed to spill into the city itself.

  “Hannah—!” Natalie started too late.

  The girl was laughing as she ran, her excitement unfiltered and bright, disappearing down the steps between brick walls softened by ivy and age. Natalie cursed under her breath and took off after her, boots slipping slightly on the worn stone.

  “Hannah, don’t—!” Her voice echoed briefly, swallowed by the stairwell.

  At the bottom, Hannah skidded to a stop.

  She stood at an overlook where the city opened up all at once, canals glinting like threads of glass, bicycles lined along iron rails, rooftops layered into the distance beneath a pale, shifting sky. The city breathed outward, wide and alive. Everything was lit by the orange, clear sunset

  Natalie stumbled to a halt beside her.

  She bent forward, hands braced against her knees, hair falling over her face as she struggled to catch her breath.

  “You—” she panted, “—you can’t just run off in a foreign country.”

  Hannah barely heard her.

  “Look!” she said, pointing excitedly. "Look!"

  Natalie inhaled once, twice, then straightened slowly. She brushed her hair back, still frowning, ready to lecture,

  And then she saw it.

  Her breath caught.

  Her eyes widened, mouth parting in something like awe, something like recognition.

  "Whoa..." Natalie murmured

  The city stretched before her, luminous and quiet and impossibly familiar. The canals curved like veins she somehow remembered. The buildings leaned toward one another as if sharing secrets she almost understood.

  A sudden wind swept through the overlook.

  It lifted Natalie’s hair, tugged at her coat, and made the world feel briefly unmoored. She stared ahead, unmoving, heart beginning to race for reasons she couldn’t name.

  “Something about this city…” she murmured, almost to herself. “It’s like… like all of my forgotten memories have bloomed together at once...” Her voice trembled. “Amsterdam…” Her lips barely formed the word. “How familiar.”

  The wind strengthened, rushing past her ears, filling her senses. Natalie felt it then, an instinctive awareness, cold and sharp, like a hand brushing the back of her neck.

  Someone is behind me.

  She turned.

  Her hair whipped across her face as she looked up, eyes widening as a shadow fell over her vision, dark and sudden and wrong—

  And then—

  Flap.

  A pigeon burst downward from above, wings beating loudly as it landed on the stone between her and Hannah.

  Natalie flinched back with a sharp gasp, heart leaping painfully into her throat.

  The shadow was gone.

  Just a bird.

  She let out a shaky breath, one hand pressed flat against her chest as the adrenaline drained away, leaving her lightheaded and faintly embarrassed.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Hannah laughed softly and crouched down immediately, delighted.

  “Hi there,” she said, smiling at the pigeon as if it were an old friend. "You're so cute! Awe!"

  Natalie watched her for a second, then knelt beside her, the tension easing from her shoulders. She smiled too, small, but real.

  “Do we have food?” Hannah asked hopefully, eyes shining.

  Natalie paused, then reached into her coat pocket. Her fingers brushed crinkled plastic. She pulled out a small bag of bread crumbs, leftover from the trip, forgotten until now.

  “Looks like it,” she said.

  She opened the bag and scattered the crumbs onto the ground. The pigeon bobbed excitedly and began pecking at them with sudden enthusiasm.

  “Aww,” Hannah breathed.

  Natalie chuckled softly, watching the bird eat, the moment grounding her.

  For a few seconds, the city was just a city.

  The wind was just wind.

  Then it came again.

  A massive gust tore through the overlook, stronger than before. Natalie’s hair was thrown violently across her face, coat snapping against her legs. The sound of the wind filled her ears, drowning out everything else.

  Slowly, as if compelled, she lifted a hand and brushed her hair aside.

  Her eyes widened.

  Her mouth fell open.

  Inside the roar of the wind, a voice whispered, clear and intimate, as if pressed directly against her mind.

  Sasha.

  Her breath slowed in fear.

  Sasha. Sasha. Sasha.

  The words repeated, overlapping, multiplying.

  How delusional you are…

  Natalie’s knees trembled.

  Sasha. Sasha, Sasha.

  Then, silence.

  The wind stopped as abruptly as it had begun.

  The city returned, unchanged. Birds. Water. Footsteps somewhere far below.

  Natalie’s gaze locked onto something in the distance behind Hannah and her.

  A figure.

  Human. Female.

  A woman with long blonde hair that caught the light, blue eyes that seemed to pierce straight through her. She stood across the way, unmoving, and she looked like Natalie. Not identical, but close enough to feel like looking into a distorted mirror.

  The woman began to walk toward them.

  Natalie gasped.

  She stood up so fast her knees nearly buckled.

  “Who are you?” she shouted, voice sharp with panic.

  Before Hannah could react, Natalie broke into a run.

  “Natalie—!” the little girl cried, scrambling up after her. “What’s wrong?! Natalie!”

  Natalie ran straight toward the figure, heart pounding violently in her chest,

  Sasha. Sasha. Sasha.

  And then the woman was gone.

  Vanished as if she had never been there.

  Natalie skidded to a stop, breath ragged, eyes wide with fear and disbelief.

  She spun around, searching desperately.

  Nothing.

  Just the city.

  Hannah reached her, grabbing her sleeve.

  “Why did you run?” she asked, frightened now. “What happened?”

  Natalie swallowed hard.

  “I… I thought I saw someone,” she said quietly.

  Her hands were shaking.

  She stared into the distance a moment longer, then looked down at Hannah and forced herself to smile.

  Hannah studied Natalie’s face the way children do when they sense something adults aren’t saying. Her excitement dimmed, replaced by quiet concern.

  “Someone you know?” she asked.

  Natalie hesitated. The question lingered between them, heavier than it should have been. She opened her mouth, then closed it again. How could she explain something that didn’t even feel fully real to her?

  “I don’t think so,” she said finally. “Or… maybe I did. Once.”

  Hannah frowned.

  “Like a friend?”

  Natalie shook her head slowly.

  “Like a memory that doesn’t belong to me.”

  They stood there for a moment, the city moving gently around them, bicycles rattling in the distance, voices drifting up from the streets below, water lapping softly against stone. Life went on, indifferent and beautiful.

  Natalie exhaled and crouched back down in front of Hannah, forcing herself to meet her eyes.

  “I’m sorry. I scared you.”

  “It’s okay,” Hannah said, though her voice was smaller now. “You looked scared, too.”

  Natalie smiled faintly at that.

  “Yeah. I was.”

  She placed a hand on Hannah’s shoulder, grounding herself in the warmth of it. Solid. Real. Present. Whatever she had seen—whatever had whispered her old name—it hadn’t taken this away from her.

  “Come on,” Natalie said gently. “Let’s keep moving. We should find somewhere warm.”

  Hannah nodded, then glanced back at the pigeon, which was still pecking happily at the last crumbs. She waved at it before standing. “Bye,” she whispered solemnly.

  They started down the street together, footsteps falling into rhythm. The narrow roads twisted and opened unpredictably, revealing canals and bridges and sudden bursts of color—flower stalls, café awnings, reflections dancing on water.

  Natalie walked a little closer to Hannah than before.

  As they crossed a small bridge, Natalie slowed, resting her hands on the cool iron railing. She watched the water below, dark and reflective, broken by ripples.

  Amsterdam watched back.

  Her chest tightened again, not with panic this time, but with a strange, aching pull. As if something deep inside her recognized this place as a chapter she had once lived through and lost.

  Casimir, she thought.

  Whatever you’re chasing… it started here, didn’t it?

  Behind her eyes, images threatened to surface, snow, needles, blonde hair, but she pushed them down gently, deliberately. Now wasn’t the time to drown in ghosts.

  Hannah tugged lightly on her sleeve. “Natalie?”

  She turned.

  “Can we get hot chocolate?” Hannah asked. “It’s cold.”

  Natalie blinked, then laughed softly. The sound surprised even her.

  “Yeah,” she said. “I think we can manage that.”

  They walked on, blending into the city’s flow. Above them, clouds drifted slowly apart, letting pale sunlight spill down over the rooftops.

  But far behind them, somewhere Natalie refused to look, a sense of being watched lingered.

  Amsterdam had recognized her.

  And it wasn’t finished remembering.