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Kathryn Elizabeth Darcy figures the worst thing that could happen to her is being stranded. Yes, she has her friends and her boyfriend around her, and sure, the island is filled with goods and they should have been dead weeks ago but they still aren't because JJ knows how to fish and all is somewhat well. Well enough that they're alive, if she was honest, because she didn't see herself leaving here all her life, thank you very much.
But she wasn't ready to learn who she was outside of the OBX.
She was always used to being what people saw in her. She changed shape anytime she wanted to, or at least that's what she wanted to believe. It felt more like murder each time, but Kathryn had rarely been the same person twice. She was only ever what other people made of her, and if sometimes, she was a Pogue, she was JJ's girlfriend, she was a best friend and she tried to be this softer version of herself they wanted to see in her, there were times when she was still a Kook Queen, with the hatred that came from it.
But in the middle of nowhere, there was no point in burning herself to the ground and shaping the ashes. Her friends stopped seeing the ghost of the girl they knew – Kathryn herself has made sure she was put to rest, left the room. No, there was only her, and the gaping chasm between who she was now and who she wanted to be. How she got to the other side was a mystery to her.
A mystery this damn deserted island kept rising to the surface. A place where she could actually think about who that would be. She thinks Pope called it processing her trauma or something like that, but it has been said that Kathryn doesn't deal with that sort of thing. Why cope healthily when you can just ignore the problem?
Problems are like dogs you leave behind, their leash tied to a tree in a forest. You can go as far as you can, you'll still hear the bark, you'll still feel the guilt.
The silence of the deserted island made it worse.
Kathryn had decided long ago — she would stop being the forest fire. She would stop lashing out at everyone when her emotions were bubbling. But it wasn't enough. She needed to be who her friends wanted her to. She needed to be someone JJ deserves. She was no longer a forest fire. She decided to be the calm sea people had fun with, swimming around. Picture perfect.
