A Man Who Flies From His Fear May Find He Has Only Taken A Shortcut To Meet It by LadySternchen  

Death/ Dead Things/ Being Alone- Eluréd

“You have to stay awake, Elurín. Don’t fall asleep, or you won’t wake up again!”

Of all the terrors he has experienced, seeing his parents slain and their home destroyed, being dragged into the snow-dusted woods and abandoned there, fleeing the monsters who did it all, this is the very worst. He is not a little boy anymore, he knows well enough that they will likely freeze to death here, or else be eaten by some hungry beast.

Panic flares in him, drives off the cold, makes him try to get up and pull his brother with him.

“Let me sleep, Eluréd, please. I want Nana. I want to sleep.”

“But then you will die! Then we’ll both die!”

And dying is the thing Eluréd is most afraid of, and has ever been. How could Grandmother ever have willingly chosen that? He yearns for the certainty Naneth had, to go to Mandos once her body was wounded beyond the hope of recovery. Where Eluréd will go, no one knows. Maybe there will just be nothing? Oh, this is too horrifying to even think about. And even if they go to Mandos, what will happen if Adar is not there? Or even worse, what if both he and Elurín are made to choose between their parents? Has not their grandmother been given a choice? And if so, what if Elurín and he choose differently? No, that must not happen, they must settle this now, before it is too late.

“Elurín.”

He shakes his twin, but his brother does not stir. His eyes are closed, and when Eluréd puts a hand on Elurín’s chest, he does not feel it rise. Now, he truly is alone.