Ellis has that mischievous glint in his eyes. He takes his phone from his pocket and types.
“What are you doing?”
In a few seconds, smooth soul music begins to blast, and he takes me by the waist and pulls me toward him.
My chest freezes, my skin breaks out into goosebumps.
I shake my head, hanging it on his shoulder.
“Come on,” he says. “Don’t be a killjoy.”
“This is ridiculous,” I laugh.
But he guides me as I follow his steps. It’s just us, the night, and smooth soul.
“Ridiculous, yes, but at least you get your dance.”
***
I’m in the woods by our coven. Midnight cloaks everything in silence, except for the faint rustle of leaves and Monroe’s steady breathing back in the cabin. She's fast asleep. It's been a day since we arrived. The memory spell is set to be completed tomorrow, and in my hands, I hold three things that have still been weighing me down.
Ellis’s sweatshirt he gave me one night in the woods when I got cold, the sweatpants and tee I wore that night ofmiddle school prom when Ellis made me dance, and the charm bracelet Ellis got me for my sixteenth birthday.
I shouldn’t have brought them with me. I should have forgotten they existed—but they’re here, and they have to burn.
I light a small fire, bundle everything in my hands, and take a deep breath.
The flames lick wildly, waiting to claim my memories. But my arms are reluctant, then I remember what Ellis said.
Releasing my breath, I throw everything into the flames. This is it, Danielle. Now, you have to move on.
My memories are so vivid, it’s as if I’m having psychic visions. But everything I see is real; all the things that have happened, all the things I worked so hard on, making sure I forgot.
Countless memories of little moments with Ellis alongside the big ones. The way just a look from him would make me feel in the dining hall, how it felt to be touched by him. Deep down, I always knew he wanted me.
But then I’m also reminded of the countless sleepless nights at the coven, the times I’d wake up screaming, my stomach twisting with pain. All the times that my memories of Ellis came flooding back, each memory was more painful than the last.
Then there were the times when everything hurt so bad that I became numb. A numbness I had to disguise in my new home. I couldn’t talk to anyone about it, despite being reunited with a family I never had. I felt so alone.
I can’t go through that again.
I get up and walk away from him, my hands trembling.
However mad he might be, and he’s justified, I know—I can’t take whatever it is right now. My body feels like it's dying, like it's feeling everything: the love, the pain, the loss, all at once.
I don’t know how to hold on.
“Danielle,” he says. “Wait.”
I pause, but I don’t turn.
His voice still has such a command over me, and his face—I already see it so clearly in the memories that live in my head—I can’t bear it in person. Not now.
“I’m going to give you some time,” I say, my voice shaky. “To process everything, you need time.”
I rush through the forest, walking briskly, which soon turns into a run.
But my stomach drops when I hear his footsteps behind me. At lightning speed, he’s in front of me within seconds.