When the final notes to the song that Keri still couldn't place drifted through the air over the crackling flames, Frank cleared his throat and produced a bag of marshmallows. Naturally, Tom twisted and tried to grab the bag, but Frank stretched so it was out of his reach and while he was distracted, Keri snatched it from his grasp, giggling as she sat back down beside Zoe. Keri tore open the bag and eagerly stuck a marshmallow on both ends of her two-ended sticks, thrusting it into the flames. She passed the bag on to Dan, who set his guitar aside and silently pushed a white marshmallow onto a jagged stick of his own before passing the bag on to Tom and Aneisha.
As they roasted their marshmallows in the flames, they listened as the waves crashed against the shore a few metres behind Dan and the fire crackled as it burned the logs, the wood cracking and splitting before it became completely effulged by the flames. Out of the corner of her eye, Zoe watched Dan as the light from the fire hit his skin, making his cheeks flush and lighting up his eyes. She stopped studying him as Keri pulled their blackened marshmallows away from the fire. Zoe eagerly grabbed one, pulling its outer layer off before happily devouring it. As she licked the sticky marshmallow off her fingers, Dan watched the way the light coming off the fire made her hair seem redder, the angles in her face sharper. Dan realised that she looked like a goddess of fire, an immortal who could manipulate and conjure fire in any way she pleased.
Sighing, Dan got up. "I'm going for a walk."
Keri got up to follow him, but Aneisha shook her head. "Just leave him, Keri. If you follow him now, all you'll get is yelled at."
Reluctantly, Keri relaxed back down beside Zoe, who was suddenly very interesting in cooking two more marshmallows.
Dan walked until the fire was just an orange light in the distance, when he promptly sat down on a large rock and watched the waves crash against the sand. As he pulled on a loose strand on his jeans, Dan remembered the way it had felt to kiss Zoe, the way it had felt to press his lips against her own, to wrap his arms around her petite little body. He remembered the way her smile had made his heart soar – not the half-smiles that were the most anyone ever got from her these days, but real, truly happy smiles. The kind that made her eyes twinkle and dance in the sunlight.
As the ever-present pain in his chest returned, Dan pushed the sleeve of his jacket up, examining the symmetrical lines on his skin in the pale moonlight. He couldn't deny that the prospect of cutting again after all this time was alluring – he discovered that he missed it, missed watching the blood well up on his arms as the stinging in his arms distracted him from the biting pain in his heart, as sick and twisted as that was.
But Dan refused to do that again. He'd just have to do what everyone else did – he would have to stick it out, battle it, like he had done with all those KORPS agents who had tried to get between him and Zoe at STERNUM that day that all their lives changed forever. When he thought of his pain as something tangible that he could fight, like a KORPS agent, it made it easier.
Dan looked up as he heard footsteps, seeing Aneisha standing there, looking at him sympathetically. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Dan replied, pushing down the sleeve of his jacket. Aneisha's eyes followed his movement, but she tried to act as if she hadn't seen anything as she said, "We're going."
"Alright. I'm coming." Dan replied, getting up and started the long walk back to the fire.
When the five teens walked into HQ, Zoe yawned and turned to Dan. "Can you walk me to my room?"
Dan looked surprised, but he nodded and followed after her as Keri, Aneisha and Tom exchanged a grin.
"Do you think she's back?" Aneisha asked, almost too afraid to let herself hope.
"Maybe." Tom grunted, sitting down at the computer.
Keri found herself unable to conceal her grin as she watched Dan and Zoe's retreating backs. "I think she might be."
When Dan and Zoe reached Zoe's room, Zoe turned to him and said, "You can stop now."
Dan looked confused. "What?"
"You can stop trying to get me to be the person that I was before I was captured by KORPS." Zoe said. "She's not coming back."
"You don't know that." Dan said quietly, looking away.
"Dan." Zoe said quietly. Dan slowly brought his blue eyes to look upon her beautiful face, looking the more like her own than ever. Her green eyes were earnest, but filled with sadness as she said gently, "I know now that you didn't rape me but . . . The girl you loved. She died when all of my memories were taken." As she spoke, she took in Dan's heartbroken expression and felt her heart sink. "Let her go, Daniel."
Hearing her speak his name – his full name – like that, it broke something in Dan's already withered and cracked heart. Blinking back tears that stung his eyes, he muttered, "Goodbye, Zoe," before he walked off, leaving Zoe behind.
As Zoe watched Dan's retreating back, she wondered if she'd ever see him again and for some reason, although she'd just pushed him away – again – the thought that he wouldn't be in her life anymore made her feel scared. Blinking back tears of her own, Zoe pushed open her door and stumbled inside her room, shutting the door behind her. Whimpering softly, Zoe leaned against the door as silent tears spilled over, streaming down her cheeks and leaving her skin glistening in the green-coloured light. Zoe's knees turned to jelly and she slid down the door until she was crouched on the floor, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as she cried so that no one would hear her.