The World Looks Glorious in the Snow

Chapter 9: "bring my son home"

Only a true commotion could have woken Lumine from her warm, peaceful slumber. The atmosphere in this house—especially when paired with the snowy wonderland outside—was impossibly cozy. After countless sleepless nights groping in the dark for her long-lost brother, after enduring hundreds of nightmares that left her in tears, it was both and a shock and a relief how this place seemed to protect her from such dreams. One night in this house could restore weeks of the sleep she had lost. So, when Lumine was jerked back into consciousness by a true commotion downstairs, her first instinct was to ignore the noise and try to find sleep again. When the racket did not cease, however, she became cross, finally giving up on sleep and stomping out of the room to rebuke whoever was disturbing her.

Lumine hardly payed attention to what was happening as she reluctantly descended the stairs, but reality could only evade her sights for so long. As soon as she saw them standing there, with a thousand miserable hues of despair painted on their faces, any intention she had of complaining to them vanished without leaving a trace.

"And you lost him!?" roared Kostya at his son, who was in the worst condition Lumine had ever seen him in. His hair was disheveled and soaked from the snow, his clothes splattered with something dark Lumine judged to be blood, and from the way he held himself, he looked about ready to collapse.

"He ran away!" came Childe's anguished reply.

"So you follow him!"

"I...I couldn't."

"No? Why not?" His tone was purposefully condescending, assuming that Childe had no valid excuses.

"I just...I just couldn't."

"What do you mean you couldn't?"

"It's...it's complicated, you wouldn't understand..."

Lumine understood. She knew exactly what he was talking about. Childe, you idiot...

"Actually, it's not complicated. You're an able-bodied young man. A kid runs off into the woods, you follow him. There's nothing complicated about it!"

"I..."

The conversation paused just long enough for Lumine to register what was happening. After days of spending time with this wonderful family in their warm, inviting home, of playing in the snow and enjoying delicious meals and even kissing their black sheep of a son, the whiplash of this sudden change in mood reduced her mind to a blank white screen. She was surprised that Childe even came back home after what was clearly a horrendous event. Taking a deep breath, Lumine approached the family, stepping in between Childe and his father, and suppressing her shock upon seeing Natalia's tear-streaked face. "What's going on?"

"L-Lumine?" stammered Childe, who hadn't noticed her until now. "You're awake?"

"Leave us," ordered Kostya gruffly. "This is none of your business."

"But I—"

"Just stay out of this, dear," came Natalia's suggestion, softer, but still a command, firm despite her red-rimmed eyes and quivering lip.

"At least tell me what happened." Lumine turned to Childe, then his father, then back again, but their sight lines were depressingly loyal to the floor. "What happened?"

"Lumine, I..."

"He's killed him." Kostya's dark whisper summoned silence. "He left our son to die."

"I..."

"Kostya, please," Natalia interjected, her once-unwavering sense of authority cracking beneath desperation's weight. "There must be an explanation. He can't be far, can he? How far away were you from the house?"