"what happened?" zoe asked once more, voice soft, as if she were tending to a wounded animal.
"i can't talk about this right now."
"why not?"
dan glanced quickly behind him, the static of fear blaring in his eyes. "i just can't. you should go."
"no, dan, you need to take care of that, it could get infected, and then-"
"zoe! it's not safe! you need to leave." he stepped away from her, shrinking back into the dark house.
zoe shook her head and crossed her arms. "not unless you come with me."
dan stared at her, trying to discern whether or not she was serious. and trying to discern who the girl in front of him was. the zoe he knew never stood up to anyone, and certainly did not do so with the amount of audacity she was portraying at that moment.
"fine," he said, and moved to stand beside her on the porch. he pulled the door closed as quietly as he could and instantly started pulling her towards the street. "fine. where are we going?"
suddenly, zoe realized the flaw in her plan. she had managed to get to dan and she had convinced him to go with her, but where was she supposed to take him? what was she supposed to do to fix his hand?
"um. well." there was no other choice. "my house, maybe? i'm sure we have bandages."
dan kicked at a pebble on the side of the road, eyes stormy. "sure, whatever."
zoe sucked in a breath. "are you going to tell me what happened?"
"why should i? you're yet to tell me anything about you."
zoe was taken aback, but he did have a point; she'd made a promise.
"i think you'll understand when you meet them."
dan cast a mildly interested glance in her direction. "meet who?"
"my parents."
"they're the reason you need an escape?"
"one of the reasons."
"what are the others?"
zoe grinned at him. "stick around long enough and maybe you'll find out."
she stopped them in front of a two-story blue house only a few streets away from dan's. it actually had the stereotypical white picket fence, the first indicator of the "perfectness" that resided within the house. the thin sidewalk leading up to the door was smoothly paved, and no weeds reached for the sun from between the cracks. despite the fact that it was winter, the grass tips that peeked up from beneath the snow were a bright green. a brick chimney on the roof released smoke into the frosty air.
it was not at all what dan had been expecting after what zoe had said. to him, her home looked just like a scene out of a snow globe. that was the problem, though. the people that lived in the snow globe were trapped, and nothing was as it seemed on the outside.
a/n: please vote/comment/share and check out my new danfic, "novels"!! :)