At the zoo, they walked side by side through the crowded pathways, her bare feet now shoved into Daniel's oversized sneakers, her hair still a tangled mess from drowning, and his hoodie draped over her shoulders.
Every few steps, she'd stop, stare at an exhibit, and say something alarmingly out of pocket.
"Did you know hippos can bite a human in half?" She quipped casually, sipping on her diet cola.
Daniel choked on his drink.
"What?"
"Yep. Jaw strength of like 1,800 pounds."
He blinked at her. Hard.
She smiled up at him cutely, and for a moment she looked nearly innocent in the oversized clothes he had given her to wear. She looked like a cute little boy.
When they reached the lion exhibit she chimed, "Male lions don't hunt. But they can crush your skull if they're annoyed."
Daniel's soul left his body.
At the tapirs, she casually chirped, "Oh. Those guys maul people. Quietly. It's adorable."
Daniel's voice cracked. "Elle, why do you know this? Why is your personality... this?"
She shrugged. "I get bored easily. Plus I'm speaking from experience."
"Riight because you almost got your head chewed off by a lion."
Elle nodded matter-of-factly. "And it hurt like a bitch for the first three seconds."
Daniel flickered a concerned gaze at her, but she was smiling softly, purple eyes lively as she watched a young couple nearby showing a toddler the lemur enclosure.
She looked considerably normal.
By the time the zoo bell chimed for lunch, they had reached the center of the mammal section now, overlooking four different enclosures.
The zoo was bustling with families, students in straight lines with their guardian ushering them around, photographers taking photos of animals and couples walking around holding hands. It was a beautiful day.
Even the Black Cat was walking around, ever unnoticed by either humans or animals.
"You're very odd." Daniel said, as if observing something quite peculiar yet fascinating.
Elle grinned sheepishly. "Comes with the territory."
They continue walking down, passing a kangaroo enclosure.
"So tell me about yourself. Do you usually run over girls then take the on zoo dates?"
He choked on his drink.
She laughed. "I'm kidding. I like to tease you about almost killing me. But really, tell me."
Daniel cleared his throat. "Well I'm the fourth kid of eleven siblings. I used to work at this Arcade as the Manager but I quite a week ago and now I'm just existing and running over pretty girls like you in my spare time."
Elle chuckled. But she could feel a certain stir at his words, almost as if there was an emptiness she couldn't quite put her finger on.
She watched the way he looked at the animal enclosures; he didn't just marvel for a second and shift his gaze like everyone else. Daniel lingered. His eyes traced the leaves, the wild tangle of plants, the way the wind threaded through the long grass and made it sway like it was breathing. He watched sunlight filter through the canopy in thin, trembling beams, landing on his skin as if the world was trying to touch him back.
People around him gawked, grinned, snapped pictures, and moved on.
But Daniel—he stood there as if the moment itself were fragile. As if rushing it would break something sacred.
Elle had never seen someone look at life that way. With tremor and longing. With a kind of quiet awe, like it was both his first time seeing the world and his last chance to remember it.
"This is my first time going to the zoo." Daniel admitted, breaking the silence.
Elle tilted her head. "Really?"
He nodded, a gentle smile curling at his lips. The kind of infectious smile that would light any room up.
"And you chose to go today? with me? A stranger you just met?"
He shrugged. "Why not today? And why not with you?"
"Touche, what about when you were a kid. You never came to the zoo?"
"I had eleven siblings; go figure." He turned to her, buzz cut catching the sunlight with a hazy golden glow, "What about you, strange girl? Went with your family or siblings?"
Her eyes glassed over, she pinched her palm so hard it drew blood.
With a sheepish chuckle she flashed him a bright smile and half lied through her teeth. "Yeah, we went alot. My mom loved the animals . . . especially my sister she uh, she loved everything about life."
This should've been her here. I don't deserve being here.
His eyes softened, he heard the slight crack in her voice and so did she. Before he could ask she quickly motioned towards the kangaroos, "See these little dickheads are actually smart. If they're near water, don't get too close, they will literally drag you in and drown you."
Daniel stared at her in dismay. "How even do you know these things. Do you just go around looking for animal killing facts?"
"Not really," Elle shrugged. "I just can't die, so I find the strangest ways to die to make it fun. The weirdest way would be death by a meteorite, that was one in a million odds too."
"Of course you can die, you nearly died twice in just two days." Daniel pointed out, draining the last droplet in his drink before tossing it in the nearest bin.
"Wait actually you're not wrong Puppy Eyes. How very odd indeed." She said, voice trailing as if lost in thought.
He kept walking, "Most people would have trauma by now." He said.
There was no response, so he turned to check an unusually quiet Elle beside him. That's when he realized she was not next to him.
He whipped around, and his jaw dropped.
Elle was already climbing over the side fence, halfway over the Ape enclosure.
"I just gotta test something real quick." she huffed, legs struggling to get a footing with these foreign sneakers twice her size on.
"Elle get down from there!" Daniel yelled, running back to her.
But Elle wasn't listening anymore.
She turned to him, studying the faint freckles on his nose, the worried pinch between his brows, the way he hovered like she'd dissolve if he blinked.
The ape noticed the sudden stir and the human meat bag about to launch herself over like a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter and began pacing the fence, grunting and watching her with a predatory gaze.
Daniel noticed too. And so did all the passersby nearby. They watched in horror as she stood there one slight move away from falling in.
"Ma'am you can't be up there!" A male zoo attendee yelled over, being pulled in by the growing crowd.
Daniel had his arms out, as if to catch her. "Elle quit playing and get back down here. "
She smiled. Not a pretty smile. A dangerous one.
Daniel caught it and was instantly alarmed. "Elle. There are literal children here! You can't kill yourself in a zoo it'll ruin the experience!"
But she was already at the top and ready to jump down.
"ELLE—WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"Science," she said cheerfully.
And she jumped right into the gorilla enclosure.
"ARE YOU INSANE—?!" Daniel shrieked.
Elle barely had time to wave before a massive silverback decided she was a fun new toy. The ape grabbed her by the back of the oversized hoodie, lifted her effortlessly—
—and threw her.
Her body hit the opposite wall of the enclosure with a sickening crack, and she crumpled onto the ground in a heap of pain and blood.
Gasps erupted through the crowd.
Parents screamed.
Kids cried.
Daniel went pale as death.
"NO—NO—NO—" he was already leaping over the railing, ignoring the guards shouting at him.
"Sir you can't be in there either!" A voice yelled.
He sprinted across the grass, dodging a confused gorilla, and slid down beside her, hands shaking violently as he touched her shoulders.
"Elle—?! Elle! Oh god—no—please—" his voice cracked, raw with fear. "You can't do this again—why do you keep doing this shit—"
But Elle wasn't listening.
She was smiling: a bloody strange, breathless, victorious smile.
Her ribs hurt, bones throbbed, and her vision dimmed for real.
She felt fragile, and breakable. For the third time, she was fully mortal.
There was no PAUSE.
Daniel hovered over her, panicked, desperate, calling her name.
And Elle laughed, weak and breathless and utterly relieved.
Her little science experiment had worked.
She had just found the way out.
Daniel was cradling her, calling for help but she could barely hear him over the sound of her thrashing heart.
"It's you." She sputtered through the blood, a smile curled at her blood stained lips as she slipped out of consciousness. "You're the cure to my immortality."
Zoo workers tried their very best to usher the crowd away as sirens sounded and an announcement of the zoo closing blared through the speakers.
Behind the growing, horrified crowd, two men stood. One short, round man with a head free of hair and the smallest beadiest eyes you'd ever see. Beside him, and considerably taller, stood a tall silver haired man.
They watched from a distance as the crowd gasped and flinched at the scene.
"Well, that's something you don't see every day." The shorter, rounder man chirped nonchalantly.
Salmon just kept walking.