Sara Calixto Kathrin 3 Kate Carvajal Anny Smith... -

Sara frowned. Her own name came first. That was strange enough. But then: Kathrin . No last name. Then the number 3 . Then Kate Carvajal . Then Anny Smith .

“That was twenty years ago,” Anny said softly. “Before they wiped our memories. Before they scattered us. We were part of an experiment. The note is the key. Each of our names, in order — it’s a sequence to unlock something we hid from ourselves.”

“Weird,” she whispered, but the summer afternoon was slow, and curiosity had teeth. Sara Calixto Kathrin 3 Kate Carvajal Anny Smith...

Kate nodded. “We start with you. End with Anny. And in the middle, always, Kathrin 3. She’s the anchor.”

“Finish what?” Sara asked.

She spent the night digging. By 2 a.m., she found a forum post from 2009: “Has anyone seen Kathrin 3? Last seen with Sara C., Kate C., and Anny S.” The username was @vanishedgirl.

She turned the paper over. Nothing.

Sara looked at the note again: Sara Calixto Kathrin 3 Kate Carvajal Anny Smith.

“It’s not a list,” she realized. “It’s a path. A circle.” Sara frowned