[ she collapses down as far as she can, though her hand still remains gripping their own. there are more feathers of darker shades in her wings compared to the past few weeks, each event- each moment of utter.. despair, adding more and more.

a sob sounds out from her, trembling as tears spill and her other arm wraps around herself as tightly as she can. ]

I... I'm sorry... I'm so... so sorry.. [ it's difficult to tell if she's apologizing to them, for what they saw, for what they know, for what she's been trying to hide.. all this time. that sensation tightens itself around her, every tug at those they've lost, at how they too soon succumb to death.

just like every.. other.. star, before this one... ] A..all of them.. they were always..

[ dead. dead. dead. ] I don't... know.. how much longer, I..

[ hope. she wants to hope. she looks to them, uncertain, lost, in search of something she cannot feel. ] It won't... stop. They won't. Stop.