The line is describing:
B
It is a reference to alcohol and how people use it to cope.
Step-by-step explanation:
It is a reference to a a person holding out to their last sense of hope that is actually not their hope but only a signal of their vestiges of life that they had but it would slowly fade away from them.
IN this story it is evident that such is the irreparable loss that has pushed the person towards alcohol and it is not something that is ever going to help them but only push their self destruction to another, terrible level of plight.