Broken Boulder sometimes i wish i'd stayed inside my mother, never to come out

He stirs to the sound of his sister's coughing, having spent the past few nights at her side rather than @Delight's. The sound chills his veins, and he doesn't know why, but it takes him a minute to come fully to consciousness. A minute too long, he'll tell himself later. All he can think now is: something is wrong, something is more wrong than it's been —
As he scrambles to his feet, it's more silent than it's ever been. Eris, He croaks, nudging her, expecting a reaction. But there's nothing. It's so quiet, and she's so still. Eris. The air freezes in his lungs and he's not breathing, he's not thinking, he's falling —
Eris, no, please — Eris, I — But she's gone. But she can't be. It's too soon — it's too empty. There's no full life to reflect on, no comforting memories of warm times to hold in her absence; she'd lived briefly, harshly, a victim of her circumstances as much as he was — no, more so. She'd been so strong in the face of it all, maybe more than anyone. She'd been meant to escape it all, to find real happiness. And now...
Now her only escape is death.
I'm so sorry, He chokes out, burying his face in her still-warm fur. It feels so wrong. Like she's only sleeping, and any moment she'll wake coughing and retching and spitting at him to get off — but she won't. She won't.