For a moment Clementine doesn't think she's heard that right.

"What?"

Her voice comes out smaller, quieter than she'd intended, almost a whisper of shock and disbelief at what he was telling her. Ellie was gone? she cant be gone, Ellie's her friend. Ellie's smart and capable, funny and kind. Ellie plays videogames with her and helps Clementine practice shooting a bow, playfully teasing her when her shots go wide.

As much as she knows and understands that sometimes people are just gone, that there's no goodbye and no hope for reunion it shoots a sharp lance of pain through her chest as everything clicks into place. That was why Joel was acting the way he was, that was why he smelled of alcohol. As if to prove that Joel pulls out the bottle and takes a drink, which Clementine watches silently as she struggles for words.

She's been told before that sometimes the Capitol won't bring someone back, this is the first time she's had to experience it with someone she knew. "I... I'm sorry."

The words sting her to say because as always they're useless, they don't make anything better. They're just what you were supposed to say.