Silence.

There were many things about the vacuum of space that Isaac Clarke disliked. He didn't care much about the vast emptiness or the the fact he couldn't breathe without the use of his RIG's built in oxygen supply tank. He wasn't too impressed by nebulas or the brilliance of stars burning brightly from a million light-years away. He didn't care for the science behind how the void even existed. No, outer space was just another place to him. Another dangerous place set out to kill him. How terribly morbid.

What Isaac hated most about space though, was also what he liked most about it. It doesn't seem very possible to like something and hate it at the same time, but human emotions are strange, carnal entities that act however they want without any consideration as to what the person they're emoting from actually thinks. Like monsters, living inside us and tearing their way out.

Silence. That's what Isaac both liked and disliked. In the vast emptiness of space, no one could hear you scream or cry. Not if you shut off your communication system in your RIG that is. Nothing could be heard in space. All there ever was, was silence. Dead, cold, silence.

Isaac leaned back, floating limply in the zero gravity setting. He relaxed his old, tired muscles, aching from use. The former engineer closed his eyes and focused on the silence around him. Breathing in a deep breath of stale, recycled air from his RIG's oxygen unit, he tried hard to erase the thoughts now floating around in his head.

It had happened weeks ago, the events on Titan station, yet somehow he couldn't help but remember them as if they had only happened a few hours ago. Every little event stuck to his mind in vivid, terrifying detail. Like a nightmare he was forced to relive over and over again. This was far worse than the events on the Ishimura. Far worse. Because not only did he suffer another psychological breakdown due to a marker, he was now on the run from both EarthGov and the Unitologists.

What made him crack though was that he had brought a perfectly innocent person into this mess. Ellie Langford really had no business helping the likes of him. She didn't deserve to be put through his hell. And yet, she hadn't left his side since she saved his ass after he destroyed the marker on Titan station. It was like they had been friends for years, even though they barely knew each other then.

Isaac was grateful for her help, both in his attempt to escape the marker and in his relentless escape from the eyes of the government. But that still didn't stop him from feeling guilty for dragging her into hiding with him. She deserved better - the chance to live her life without fear of being arrested or murdered.

He sucked in another deep breath and glanced around through the narrow visor of his helmet. The bluish tinge of the backlight in the visor gave his surroundings a rather sickly feel, but he was already quite used to it by now. The former engineer had spent years working with this lighting and couldn't be bothered to change it now.

The silence was overwhelming by now. Deafening, even. But somehow Isaac found it peaceful. He shoved his horrid thoughts away and focused on the lack of noise, focused on his breathing. For all he cared his oxygen could run out and he wouldn't notice. All that mattered now was the gentle sensation of floating in space and the lack of anything to distract him.

But it seemed his ghosts didn't like that and came back to haunt him rather quickly. For some reason, the first thing he thought of was Nicole. And why wouldn't he? He still missed her immensely, he still loved her immensely as well. But he could only remember the marker's influence on him; forcing her ghost to try and convince him of convergence and casting her as some wicked, twisted entity. He clutched at his helmet, eyes scrunching as he grunted and told himself he made the right decision by leaving her - leaving the ghost of her that is - behind. It wasn't actually her. He had to keep reminding himself of that. She was dead and gone with the Ishimura. He destroyed her ghost with the Marker on Titan station.

He couldn't handle this though. The pain of heartbreak still haunted him. Nicole had been his soulmate, the love of his life. He still felt guilty for her death, even if it really wasn't his fault, he still wasn't able to get over the fact that he couldn't get to her in time.

He could feel the tears stinging at his eyes now. Curling in on himself he felt himself floating off in the void of space. He wanted to scream out, yell, shout do anything that would make him feel better but he knew it would all be useless. He'd just feel guilty again later. The silence was worse than deafening now. He was being suffocated by it, the silence consuming him like the monster it truly was.

"Isaac? What are you doing floating about out there? I've found the coordinates to a moon base in a galaxy not far from here. There's hardly any Unitologist influence there so we should be safe for awhile. Still, there's EarthGov we have to look out for," The voice over his communications system broke the silence. He'd forgotten to turn it off...

"Right... I was just... relaxing. I'll be back at the ship in a minute Ellie. Isaac out," He replied, instantly relaxing at the sound of Ellie's voice. If there was one thing that could pull him from the horrors of silence, it was her.

A/N: Hey! This is my first Dead Space fanfic! I'm more used to writing Portal fanfics to be honest. The chapters in this story will each be a short drabble, two-three pages max and they will not be linear. Meaning one may take place two weeks after DS2, the next chapter: two years later, etc. you get the idea right? Anyways. Enjoy Silence. Bonus points if you understand the reference the title of this "story" is to.