Prologue:

She didn't know how long she had been hidden away. Minutes? Years? Enough to pontificate on her hopes and dreams and mourn them as never coming to pass, but not nearly enough to mourn a broken heart. She drew her black and purple robe of mourning around her windblown face and continued to draw lines in the rocky sands of the beach that was her prison. She had seen him be taken by the light, but if the light constituted her only hope..

The girl winced and pulled her hand back from the sands. Something unseen in the ground had cut her, and her hand was starting to bleed.

No, that's the color of blood, but not how it works. It doesn't come out in strands, like hair. I know this. I was going to be a nurse, I was going to help people who were bleeding; I'd have to know about bleeding.

The realization snapped her back to the world around her. There was something approaching, something foreign. There were lights, one, two lights, in a sea of normalcy. One of the lights..

It was him again. No, it wasn't him, but this new light had the same warm and playful blueish glow. She reached out a hand towards it, causing the sleeve of her robe to shift down, showing her bite scars. The light glowed, it resonated with the scars and she felt her arm erupt in pain. Something primal within her kept her pushing on towards the light, reaching out though what was left of her common sense told her to stay away.

And then she saw the darkness.

What are you going to do now, Elena?

She grinned as the question echoed around her being.

Save him, of course.

Her awareness reeled, pushing her away from the light. That's when she saw it, her first glimpse of the mundane, of the world she once lived in. She grabbed on to something-some one? that had some of the light reflecting of it (him? her?)

She was out. She could escape and run away. But there was no way she was going to. Not with the darkness that she glimpsed earlier. The thing she had ahold of, it was her only hope. That thing..

Thinking quickly, Elena reached into her robe's pockets and pulled out a small token. It had kept her sane, kept her herself, but she knew she had to send something from the Otherworld to fulfil her task.

"Sorry Shaun."

She whispered as she sent her gift whirling into the mundane. For a moment, despair took her. Then memories flooded back.

Books fall, smell of trash and middle school.

Dude, maybe you're being too rough on her?

A mix of anger and sadness.

Naw, it's not like it has feelings.

New smells, sterile smells, work smells, lost eyes.

What do you think you're doing! Why are you even here!

Hot rage versus cool indifference.

What? It's not like they have feelings.

It was like the story of the boy and the starfish that her mother used to tell her. And the apple blossom that Shaun gave her would be her message to the starfish. As she felt her identity slip away with the flower, she held on to her memories for a final moment.

It's not like it has feelings.

She knew she made the right choice.

"Zoey? Are you alright?"

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine." The redhead mentally shook herself fully awake. "I must have just dozed off. I guess naps can attack anywhere." She smiled at the scene around her. Friends, old friends, new friends, rivals, Scott-who-was-now-easier-to-get-along-with-since-Fang-was-through-with-him, and Mike, who was certainly a friend, but deserved a whole category unto himself. They were all speeding away from the island, ready to spend Cameron's million and return to their everyday lives. Well, maybe not so everyday anymore. They would be famous, after all, and it's not like Zoey would have to face the jocks as a friendless loser now. But still, after the craziness that was Total Drama, it would be nice to return to some level of normalcy. Though, there was that dream she had when she fell asleep. And it wasn't so much falling asleep as much as she felt pulled asleep. She sighed and stuffed her hands into her pockets. Dreams were weird.

"Huh?" Zoey frowned as she pulled an unfamiliar flower out of her left pocket. "Odd, I don't remember taking this with me."

"That's a Malus Pumila, an apple blossom!" Cameron chimed in. "I don't think I even saw any apple trees on the island."

Zoey shuddered. She barely remembered the dream she had, but she felt apple blossoms had something to do with it. Suddenly, the excitement for normalcy turned into a feeling of forboding. Mike and Cameron were looking at her, concerned, but the rest of the campers and Chef Hachet seemed to be otherwise occupied.

"You guys.." She said to Cameron and Mike. "I think I have a bad feeling about this boat right now. I can't explain it, but this flower.."

"C'mon, how bad can it be?" Mike grinned and put a hand on her shoulder, and Zoey couldn't help but smile.

That was when she felt the world spin and reality as she knew it crash into her.