Just a little thing I wrote to think about how Isaac must have still felt after Dead Space 2, since while he defeated the Golden Marker, that wouldn't stop the grief.
Sometimes he could still hear her in the back of his head. Not in the same way that had been brought on by the Marker, but just her laughing, her talking about her dreams, her telling him she loved him. The little scraps of conversations that he never treasured when they were possible.
Sometimes, lying on his back in the middle of the night and staring at the ceiling, he could bring to mind the way she tucked the bangs that always got caught in her eyes behind her ear, before the fine blond strands slipped back in the way. Each day, the specific details got fainter and fainter, but he could still remember in the dimmest sense like holding onto a good dream.
He still missed her. He always would. He would always wonder in the shadows of sleepless nights if he could have done more. The what ifs would pour in his head and stir up like a stew of monsters until he was on the edge of a panic attack just because everything was too much to comprehend.
Then Ellie would snuggle closer in her sleep, and he could shut the doors of memory again. For now.