Teyvat High (A Modern Genshin Highschool AU)

Chapter 10: Yet Even Lies Aren't New

Third Person PoV:

Albedo beat Lumine and Childe by a longshot. His flower sketch had beautiful lineart, amazing shading and lighting, and the perfect anatomy of a flower. Meanwhile, Lumine's had decent shape, but had wobbly lines, while Childe's looked like a dead, wilting flower.

"Ah, GG, man," Childe congratulated, though Albedo basically ignored the compliment.

"Um, Regional History. Where's that?" Lumine asked, checking her schedule.

"Down the hall, take a left at the end of the hallway, and should be the third door on the right," Albedo recalled from memory.

"Dang, do you have photographic memory or something?" Lumine asked. "I doubt I could remember-"

"It's pretty easy to remember, actually," Albedo cut in, two fingers to his right temple as if he had a headache. "I'll be off to P.E. Say hi to Sucrose for me, please."

Lumine wandered into the hallway filled with students, following Albedo's instructions and finding her classroom. Since the passing period was ten minutes, she decided she'd try to find a restroom.

Except... that proved a bit more difficult than she had been anticipating. She wandered down that hallway, then went back the other way, before finding one in the next hallway.

The restroom was abandoned, as class was about to start in two minutes. She rushed through the door to find- to find-

She screamed at the top of her lungs, then clapped a hand over her mouth. She paled. The tiled floor was red with blood, the large mirror having splashes of red scattered across it. Lumine tip-toed around the blood, her insides feeling squeamish. She opened the last stall from the door to see a mangled body that had a knife stabbed in the stomach. Lumine felt sick as she recognized who the person was: Collei.

The walls of the stall had painted letters of blood that read in distorted text: We're coming for you... Lumine shrieked, suddenly having a panic attack and feeling her heart beat in her chest ten times faster than it had been a few minutes ago.

She struggled for her phone, dialing her brother. She heard the school bell ring distantly in her mind, but ignored it and begged her brother to pick up as the ring tone echoed in her ears. Her twin's voice was a relief to her when he called out, "What is it? Me and Gorou are already in class. You won't believe how many people we know in this class!"

"Aether, Aether," Lumine said raggedly, shaking and nearly dropping her phone. Get Gorou and- and anyone. Please. I just found Collei in the girl's restroom. Next hallway on the right. She has a stab wound. Hurry!"

"What?!" Aether exclaimed, and Lumine heard him explain to Gorou quickly. "We're coming. And we'll be grabbing Xiao to teleport her there." He hung up shortly after.

Lumine felt tears in her eyes. Her fingers brushed the hilt of the knife that was embedded in Collei's stomach. She knew not to take it out, as the knife was the only thing keeping her from bleeding out. Instead, she took Collei's hand, checking for a pulse. It was weak, like a dying bird's, and she barely heard Collei's breaths. She numbly recalled Aether running in, Gorou and Xiao in tow, and being teleported to the healing center with her bloodstained clothes, the red all over her face and hands and legs.

It was real. The attacks were certainly real. And they didn't look like they were stopping anytime soon.

Unknown PoV:

A girl looked up at the stars, holding her hand up in a vain effort to touch the celestial bodies of light. She gave a soft sigh.

"It's coming," she murmured. "And there's nothing we can do to stop it."