FROZEN IN TIME , yj oc drabble
drabble based off the concept of shauna hallucinating danielle at natalie's funeral in season three
shauna barely heard the voices around her. the murmurs of condolences, the weight of loss pressing against her chest—it all blurred into a low hum, distant and dull. the church smelled of wilting flowers and cheap coffee, the air thick with grief, but shauna felt removed from it, like she was floating somewhere outside of herself.
she was supposed to be mourning natalie. that was why they were all here. but her mind kept drifting—to the wilderness, to the past, to everything they had lost long before this day.
then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement. at the back of the room, in the dim light where the candles barely reached, someone stood watching.
shauna’s breath caught in her throat.
she stood there, dressed simply, her hands clasped in front of her, the same way she had at their grandfather’s funeral. she wore black—like the rest of them—but it didn’t look borrowed or last-minute. it looked like mourning, like she had always been dressed for a funeral. but she wasn’t grown like she should have been. she wasn’t standing there as a woman in her forties, mourning alongside them. she was still sixteen. the same soft curls framing her face, the same wide, knowing eyes. frozen in time, just like jackie had been.
shauna’s fingers twitched. she blinked hard, willing the vision away, but danielle didn’t disappear.
she just stood there, hands clasped in front of her, head tilted slightly in that quiet, observant way shauna remembered too well. she wasn’t smiling, wasn’t crying—just watching. studying her sister like she had all their lives, with that quiet intensity, the way she always seemed to see more than she was supposed to.
the same way she had watched her and jackie, always just outside their orbit. the same way she had watched them all in the wilderness, eyes full of things she never said aloud.
“you look tired,” danielle said, her voice soft, familiar. the way it had been before—before the hunger, before the cold, before the wilderness took everything.
shauna swallowed, her mouth dry.
“you’re not real,” she whispered.
danielle didn’t flinch, didn’t fade. she took a step forward, her mary janes silent against the floor. “neither was she,” she said softly.
shauna didn’t need to ask who she meant.
her stomach twisted, something cold settling in her bones. “stop,” she muttered under her breath, gripping the edge of her coat like it could ground her.
danielle didn’t argue, didn’t move. just watched.
like she had always watched.
shauna squeezed her eyes shut, taking a slow, shuddering breath. when she opened them again, the space where danielle had been was empty.
just like it had been for decades.
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