[sylvanSpider]

Emily walked, hands down at her sides, eyes straight ahead. The weight of Victor's death hung in her chest like the heaviest of clouds before a storm. The man played such a central role in her life for the past several weeks and now he was just...gone, the only evidence that his life ever happened rest in Emily's bag in the form of his journal and the lifeless husk they'd left behind on the road several miles ago. She couldn't cry, she couldn't scream. She felt the emotions as a whirlpool draining her energy, her thoughts. Nothing could bring Victor back. He was gone. Forever. She'd stayed there and felt his last heartbeat, followed by the escape of his last breath. His face was still warm as she drew her hands over his eyes, closing them for the last time.

She'd had to move his head from her lap when it was time that they left.

“I still don't think it was right, just leaving him there like that,” Yoruba said, breaking the silence only to add further tension between the group.

“What choice did we have?” Emily asked, her voice a little more terse than she meant, “The wraiths are attracted to gunfire. We couldn't stay there. Come nightfall, we would have had to fight dozens. Let's just rest easy knowing that he won't become like them – he died before he could be turned to anything.”