Imperial Coffee

Lost: Part Fifteen

A/N: Instead of making this part longer, I'm planning on posting a bonus part tomorrow. Yay~

Cinder didn't know the girl with long, curly black hair and warm brown skin. She didn't recognize the hazel eyes, the long lashes, the narrow scar that stretched down her right cheek. But she was also familiar, inexplicably so. If she'd seen someone so beautiful before, it would have been hard to forget, and yet...something about her felt forgotten.

The woman—for now Cinder recognized her as a year or two older than herself—stopped dead in the doorway. She gripped the elbow of the man standing next to her, but he didn't seem phased.

"Do you know each other?" Kai asked. He spoke low, even as the rest of the cafe moved at the same quick pace. The four of them were caught in a net that no one else seemed to see.

"I...don't know," Cinder said, and it wasn't a lie.

Kai stood up and took her hand, guiding her forward. The woman and man stepped to the side of the doorway only once they realized they were blocking customers from getting in and out.

"This is Cinder," Kai said, addressing the woman. He turned to Cinder and gestured at the woman. "And this is Winter."

Winter blinked, and she let go of the man's arm.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" Cinder asked. Without a word, Winter stepped forward and turned Cinder's wrist over. Winter's eyes widened, and in the space between one breath and the next she wrapped her arms around Cinder and pulled her tight.

There was something familiar about this too. On the tip of her tongue...the edge...

Winter pulled back. Her eyes were wide, and she breathed through her lips instead of her nose. A black Chanel purse sat forgotten on the floor where she'd dropped it.

"I've been looking for you for years," Winter said. "I thought you were gone. I didn't know where you were, who you were...Why did you never call?"

"I-I'm sorry," Cinder said, stepping back. Kai wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her steady. "I don't know who you are?"

Winter trembled. She took a finger and pointed at the scar on her cheek.

"This doesn't mean anything? Are you sure?"

Shattered glass. The screech of tires. Someone calling her name. Calling someone else's name. Her scars were burning up. Screaming. Helpless. Broken. Where was she, who was she, how—

A dream. It was—a dream—

Cinder stumbled back.

"Look at your wrist," Winter said. "That doesn't mean anything either?"

If Cinder's mind were clear, she would have noticed a small tear shaping around the scar tissue on Winter's cheek.

But all her mind saw was red, and pain, and the dream was in her eyes, but it wasn't a dream, and she didn't know what was up and down and whether the screaming was only in her head—

"Cinder," Kai said. "Are you okay?"

Cinder blinked her eyes open. Her breathing steadied and the image receded.

Winter stood feet away, wiping her eyes with her hands. She tried to smile at Kai.

"Tell her my contact information if she asks," she told him. "I think we have a lot to talk about. It was nice seeing you, I'm sorry I couldn't stay longer."

"It's okay," Kai said. "I...um. I'll see you soon."

Winter left. Kai waved. And Cinder did nothing.