The oil lamp flickered, the shadows in the room shifting around them. Sid kept his hand moving slowly through her hair, more out of instinct than thought. The simple rhythm seemed to calm her; even her faint, sleepy sobs began to fade. He stared down at her, lost in thought.
"Food… water… both tasted rotten to you. That's not some bug. That's something in your body. Maybe the system didn't fully 'revive' you. Maybe it made you half alive, half something else. Or maybe…"
His thoughts drifted back to that first moment she woke, the way she slapped him, eyes wide with fury and pain.
"Why did you bring me back to life?!"
He exhaled slowly, the breath forming a thin mist in the cold air.
"Maybe you wanted to be dead…"
