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It was all so sudden.
Millaarc, Vanessa, and Elfnein had come to Elsa’s bedroom, gathered around her bed.
One day, she had woken up with a somewhat strange feeling stomach. Just a bug, she had thought; they all had thought.
But now only two days later, the wolf girl lay in her mattress with shallow breaths and an increasingly pale face, knowing that the next few minutes of her life would be her last.
Her eyelids slid down her face at a pace she might describe as ‘leisurely’, and they reopened at the same speed. Blinking isn’t something that usually takes effort. She supposed life still had new experiences left to show her, even now.
Elsa managed to tilt her chin forward, just enough to get a proper view of those closest to her for one final time. They had brought her to her bedroom, in the apartment that they had inhabited for the past two months. It was one of her favourite places, a sanctuary for her; it was only right that she should spend her final moments there.
In front of her at the matress’s end stood Vanessa, her dear eldest sister. Her face, which could maintain its warm and loving smile steadfast even in the most trying of times, wavered conspicuously. Her lips quivered, and her aquamarine irises were poor camouflage for the tears that had formed on either side of her tan cheeks. Elsa usually wanted people to be honest with her, not hiding their feelings behind a mask, but for Vanessa she could make an exception. This would be the last time Vanessa would ever get to be her big sister, after all.
In the corner, there was Elsa’s beloved middle sister, Millaarc. Though she had sequestered herself against the wall, the sound of her sobbing filled the room. She had left claw marks on the wallpaper , but Elsa wasn’t upset about that — they felt like a gift, almost. Something to show that her sister had stayed with her until the very end.
And on the wolf girl’s right, kneeling at her bedside, was Elsa’s favourite little alchemist, Elfnein. She clutched the blanket with her tiny hands, staring back at Elsa with lagoon blue eyes that still glinted with life. She was preparing for what would now be her third time losing her ‘other-half’, as it were. The wolf girl had promised the alchemist that she would never let it happen again, but it was evidently not a promise she could keep. That was Elsa’s sole regret.
Slowly, as if fighting the very laws of physics, the wolf girl brought her gloved hand up to Elfnein’s cheek. She brushed her hand against the alchemist’s face, letting her glove soak up the tears. Elfnein used to be so light, prone to falling over even if one were to poke her the wrong way. Now Elsa could barely move her at all. She was so proud of how strong her girlfriend had become...
Elfnein sniffed as she struggled to keep her eyes from snapping shut. “E-Elsa…”
“Elfnein…” The wolf girl’s voice was weak and hollow. “…Can I ask… a favour of you…?”
The homunculus nodded vigourously, an adorable little trait of hers that lit up the lupine lass’s dimming heart. “A-Anything, of course I’ll do anything at all for you!” There was a croak in her speech which had become increasingly rare to hear over Elsa’s time with her.
“Could you… take my glove off for me… please…”
Immediately, Elfnein took the wolf girl’s wrist with her little hand, her innate gentless apparently stalwart, and carefully removed the cotton from Elsa’s hand, placing it on the little shelf at the head of the bed. When her gaze returned, the little alchemist found that there was an almost imperceptible pressure upon her wrist — her companion was doing her best to grip it.
“I want to be holding your hand… when I go…”
A noticeable deluge of liquid pooled out of Elfnein’s eyes upon hearing that last phrase, but she spared no time in fulfilling Elsa’s request, lunging forward with her other hand as she clasped the wolf girl’s paw with both her own.
Then, summoning what little she had left of her quickly diminishing strength, Elsa reached out with her other arm, towards Vanessa. “Yours too…”
The eldest sister was slower on the uptake, as she took a silent gasp — or maybe Elsa’s hearing was finally going. There was clearly so much she wanted to say, so many wails her metallic lungs desperately wanted to release, but she would not relieve herself of her duties as big sister until the right time came.
Elsa turned her palm up to the ceiling. “If I keep my glove on… It will be like, your hand will be warm, Vanessa…”
Vanessa choked back a sob, as she crossed her arms under her chest and fell to the floor on her knees. “My dearest Elsa…” The woman dragged herself up to the bed, and leaned over as she reached out and took Elsa’s paw with her metallic hand. “…You’re always thinking about me, e-even, now…!” Even when caught in the throes of crying, Elsa found her eldest sister’s voice to be as calming as ever.
The lupine lass let her head tilt to her right, as her pillow took the burden her neck no longer could. Between her sister on her left, and her partner on her right, she could see a vampire, huddled in a ball leaning on the wall. “Milly…” Elsa called to her, raising her tone as best she could, trying to get her attention.
The vampire produced a great wheeze, as she shrank further into her curl. Her whole body was shaking.
“May I… see your face?” Elsa requested with a heartfelt sincerity. “…Please?”
Millaarc, clearly channeling all her might into contending with her shivering, managed to glacially raise her head up from her knees and looked to the wolf girl. Her whole face was damp, tears having streamed in every direction at some point over the past 24 hours as she tried to deny the inevitable. Her eyes were barely visible, puffy and red. And the area around her lips had small lacerations — fang punctures. Millaarc probably thought she looked horrid, but Elsa wouldn’t agree with that assessment. She was just so happy to see her middle sister let her emotions be visible one last time.
“Thank you… Milly… everyone…”
“Elsa,” Elfnein found her voice. “I-I don’t know, what I’m going to do without you…” Her gaze briefly dropped to the floor, her fluffy blonde hair even more frayed than usual.
The wolf girl wanted to raise her hand again, to wipe away the tears as she had so many times before, but that capability had slipped away from her now.
Yet, she could still smile.
“You’ll find a way…” Elsa replied with the most assuring tone she could muster. “You’re strong, Elfnein…”
How could she not smile, when she was to be with the three people she loved most deeply when the curtains closed upon her life.
“You’re all strong…”
Elsa’s life had only truly begun four months ago, when she awoke from a deep sleep after an escapade on the moon. It was a short life, but what a full life it was. Four months with Elfnein, two months with her sisters, not to mention all the friends she had made amongst the members of SONG — it was so much more than she ever could have wished for.
“Don’t be sad, everyone… don’t you remember all the good times we spent together…?”
Suddenly a great jolt shook the bed, as Millaarc virtually pounced on the mattress, resting her head on Elsa’s chest as she wrapped her arms around her waist. “Of course I do! Of course I fucking do! But, I’m never gonna get to s-spend any more time like that with you ever again!”
“There’s still time… right now…”
Elsa tried to grip Elfnein and Vanessa’s hands. She couldn’t tell if she did, there was no feeling left there.
“Let’s make now a good time…”
Everyone around her was crying, but Elsa wasn’t sad. It’s not like they hadn’t cried around her before. And just like before, it was her job to try and ease the pain.
“It’s much better, to keep a good memory, than to burn away a bad one… don’t you think…?”
“A-Absolutely…” Elfnein agreed. At least, Elsa thought she agreed, the sound she heard was a bit muffled now.
Now the only part of her body Elsa could move was her eyes. She made sure to take a look at each of her family’s members: Vanessa, Millaarc, and Elfnein. She wanted her final memory to be of them.
“I love you… everyone…”
Now the light was fading. Even with her eyes open, the colours were swirling and conglomerating into images the wolf girl could make no sense of.
“I love you too, E-Elsa.”
She let her eyelids fall anyway — it would save them the trouble of closing them for her later.
“I love you, my dearest Elsa…”
The pressure on her legs and waist gradually waned, and then disappeared altogether.
“You were the best, Elsa… I love you too…!”
Elsa’s body felt cold.
But her heart was as warm as it had ever been.
Because even if she couldn’t see them,
hear them,
or feel them,
she knew her family was there.
Eventually the bed faded away.
The wolf girl’s ears twitched for one final time.
“…Goodbye, Elsa...”
And she gently fell into the deep ocean of eternal rest.
