In the cold mountains of Dragonspine resides a certain alchemist best known by the people of Mondstadt as Albedo. Most think of him as distant and independent, only focusing on his studies when he isn't exploring the vast landscape, but there is muc...
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Dragonspine was unusually quiet. The endless wind whirling snow in every direction was barely a breeze shifting a dead leaf from its resting place. The birds of the mountains were nowhere to be found, their songs nonexistent around her. Everything simply felt... dead.
Melanie strayed farther from the cave's entrance to explore the unfamiliar world. Only the sound of her crunching feet prevented her from assuming she became deaf in her sleep.
One step...
Two steps...
Halt.
She strained her ears, hearing a faint sound from farther away. A cascade of noise like she was hearing could mean anything, truly. It could be a simple hare or even a kitsune from the faraway lands of Inazuma. Anything felt possible.
Originally, she made her way through the knee-high snow to follow the noise, but a much quieter one caught her attention first. This time, it sounded more like her own footsteps than the torrent far away. She changed directions to explore farther up by the cliffside and completely abandoned the path.
Melanie's bow was summoned to her hands, an arrow already notched and ready to be aimed. The glistening specks of glitter on the material reflected the snow's brightness away from her eyes. She still had to squint a bit, though, considering the pure whiteness about her.
A man leaned against the rock wall with his arm above his head and his leg pinned behind him. He appeared to be minding his own business, but something about him caught her attention more than it should have.
He wore a ruffled tan shirt with some rugged brown pants, but what stuck out the most was the black bandana on his face. A knife was visible in his hand, deathly sharp from the looks of it. Back and forth, he looked around the clearing he stood in until his eyes landed on Melanie.
She lowered her weapon, looking on at the man with widened eyes. Instantly, her bow was back in hiding and she was running straight to him with arms open in an embrace. Melanie's arms wrapped around the man, squeezing tight. And soon enough, she felt him, minus the knife.
"JJ, I can't believe it's you!" she exclaimed, pulling away her face to look up at him. "How... how is this possible?!"
JJ lightly patted her head with a kind smile. "Aw, little Mel, it's been a while. I've missed you so much... how have you been?"
Melanie giggled, changing her position to lean against the wall beside him. She tucked her jacket closer around her, raising her hood to hide her ruffled hair. "There's so much to talk about, especially involving Albedo-"
The other Treasure Hoarder stiffened beside her. Then she realized what she'd done. An awkward silence engulfed them. Melanie looked down at the ground awkwardly, mumbling a quick apology, but JJ didn't make a sound. Instead, he pushed off the wall, took a few steps away from her, then stopped.
"Why must this be so hard?" he murmured openly. His breathing picked up as if he were hyperventilating, but no steam rose into the air. In a louder voice, he looked over his shoulder. "Mel, there's something you should know."
Melanie furrowed her brows. She approached him carefully, almost afraid of what he had to say to her. The mood shifted dramatically from a warm reunion to a sudden tension that cut into her heart. What could JJ possibly have to say that was this serious? She couldn't remember a single serious conversation with him in the past, not even when she openly confessed her love to Albedo back at camp.
"What is it...? JJ, what's the matter?"
JJ sucked in a breath, shaking his head. "The others... you have to protect him."
"Protect who-"
A sudden clamor came from up above the drifts she had previously climbed down. Her blood ran cold at the realization; JJ was a diversion, and she fell right into the Treasure Hoarder's most common trap. Set a diversion, then move in while the victim is busy. They did it with most hauls, so how could she have fallen for such an obvious move?
Melanie knocked herself into JJ in a fit of rage, tears prickling in her eyes. She kicked her knees up to run through the heavy snow as possible, but there was no denying the amount of time she was losing by going directly through the snowdrifts to reach camp.
There were several disgruntled shouts, followed by a shout of pain. She burst through the remaining snow drift to run straight into camp, but the sounds had changed. The shouts turned into menacing laughs, and she could see the satisfied smirks of Finn, Rhodes, Cal, and Wren.
Blood covered their clothing. Papers littered the ground. Chairs were flipped onto their sides. A broken art easel was burning in the small fire. Everything displayed signs of a struggle, as if the shouts and blood hadn't given away enough.
She crumpled to her knees, letting out a bloodcurdling scream that turned quickly into a pitiful sob. Her fist slammed the soaked ground, sending mud into the surrounding air. Melanie continued to scream. The tears fell heavily and soaked into the fabric of her jacket.
The four men walked past her with their laughing only increasing in volume. They didn't acknowledge her in any other way, which was a blessing for her. She would have to kill them if they even laid a finger on her. This was the greatest betrayal anybody could commit against her.
Melanie crawled forward through the bloody dirt, ignoring the stench of it all. She fell onto her belly, reaching her arm forward to touch the soft hair of the man she loved. Her sobbing grew heavier until she was gasping for small breaths of air. Already, her throat was horribly sore, but she still let out another painful scream. It echoed around the cave, likely even louder from the outside.
Right in front of her was Albedo's body, cold and lifeless. His bright teal eyes were now dull, gazing into a distant world blankly. Blood dribbled from his pale lips, also flecking the side of his cheek.
In his stomach, a horrifying blade stuck out with a Treasure Hoarder insignia dangling on a keychain attached to the hilt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm never gonna mentally recover from this-
Question of the chapter:
Have you ever had a really bad nightmare like this?
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