Finding The Real You - Kaebedo

Chapter XXIV - Day One.

WARNING:
This chapter contains graphic depictions of violence, and murder attempts using methods usually used in suicide attempts. I had to bump my story up to the mature rating for this chapter.

Kaeya was abruptly woken up by a scream. It was dry and more like a yelp, but still frightening nonetheless.

His eyes shot open, although every muscle in his body wanted them closed. The room was dim, so there was no need for his eyes to adjust. He lifted his gaze and he felt like throwing up at the sight.

Albedo's body, bloodied. He was laid down on his back, on something that resembled a table in place of the chair. His jacket was discarded onto the floor, and his clothes all ripped up, revealing the cuts under the holes in the cloth.

He tried to run to him, but he was bound to the wall. The chains clanked in a cacophonous tune, alerting it of Kaeya's consciousness.

Steps echoed through the room, but Kaeya couldn't detect the source. He assumed it to be Albedo's "brother", but where was it? And if it was that far away, why did Albedo scream?

He didn't remember there being any hallways in the room. He was tied to the back wall, facing the door, so surely, he would've seen something

The footsteps got louder, until he could hear the sound of grinding stones. Nothing opened in front of him. He hadn't noticed a door when he first discovered the room, but why hadn't he? He had so much time to observe his surroundings but he spent it all on Albedo, but he deemed it 'worth it' because Albedo deserves the world.

"Mm, just as I thought.."

Kaeya snapped his head to the direction of the voice. The resemblance between it and Albedo was always unnerving, it was like a 'good twin evil twin' story.

Kaeya kept silent, deciding to look at the floor, trying not to rattle the chains. He let his eyes close while he thought of how to get out of the situation. He could attempt freezing the chains to get them to break, but that would make a sound, alerting it.

Before he could think of a better solution, a strong force met his abdomen, making him choke out a cough in pain. He opened his eyes, seeing one of Albedo's boots in front of him.

The boot raised, and he was kicked in the nose. He grunted, almost yelping in pain. Only a few seconds passed before he felt the warm liquid trickle down his face, almost into his mouth.

He was familiar with the taste of blood, anyone would assume that, but he didn't really feel like tasting it now. He kept his lips sealed, enduring the pain.

The force met his solar plexus this time, making him gasp in pain and forcing the blood into his mouth. The warm, metallic taste wasn't doing much good for his stomach. He was tempted to just throw up all over it's shoes, but then remembered that it's probably Albedo's clothing, and decided against it.

Instead he chose to spit on the shoe, that should be easier to clean off, even though it wouldn't do much to it.

It groaned in annoyance, before grabbing his head, tilting it upwards, forcing Kaeya to look at it. It held a sadistic look on it's face, before kicking Kaeya's jaw up, sending his nerves tingling up his face.

Kaeya swore that he accidentally bit the inside of his cheek because of that, or maybe even his tongue.

It bent down, giving him one last slap across the face before leaving to go Barbatos' knows where. Kaeya heard the now-familiar grinding of the stones, and he started to feel alone again.

How could he feel that when the love of his life was in front of him? Albeit, maybe not in the best state..

Why did it leave though? Surely it came there to do more than just kick him a couple of times, right?

He returned to his mindless daze, barely thinking about a thing. He wasn't sure how much time passed, but he could feel himself get slightly hungrier as the time went by.

Soon, the grinding of rocks came back. He wondered what else he could be hit with, ignoring the overwhelming stench of blood already in the room.

He watched it walk out of the corridor, and listened to the annoying sound of the rocks again. This time it walked towards Albedo, and Kaeya could feel his heart rate increasing with every step it took.

Was it going to try and kill him? Kaeya shivered at the thought, tugging at his chains, but as expected, he wasn't let out.

It looked towards him, locking their eyes together with the same sadistic gaze.

It fumbled around with Albedo's body before holding one of his arms, right in view of Kaeya.

Albedo's arms seemed to be the only unmarked part of his body, but that made Kaeya dread what he was about to see even more.

It pressed the blade of a hunting knife into the underside of his arm. Kaeya felt his eyes widen, and he tugged at the chains again.

It's smile only grew as it applied more pressure, dragging it down, from the wrist to his cubital fossa. It was in the middle, and it seemed to only be a tease, but Kaeya still gagged at the sight.

The next cut was positioned over the radial artery, and this time it focused on the arm instead of Kaeya. It dragged the blade down, exerting even more pressure than before, and Kaeya watched as a thick stream of blood flowed from the cut. There was more here, and instead of beading up in places like the other cut, all points were equal.

It was a terrifying sight, sure to traumatise a child, and Kaeya felt like the traumatised child there.

It left that to bleed, and returned back to the eye contact with Kaeya, or well, the attempted eye contact.

Tears blurred Kaeya's eyes, bringing heat to his ears, cheeks and nose. He let the tears fall, but he still lazily focused his gaze on Albedo's arm.

Was Albedo going to die here?

The thought hit him like a meteor, abrupt and stunning. It felt as if time stopped, and he managed to imagine a whole life without him in that split second.

Everything felt wrong, this shouldn't be happening at all. Kaeya felt fear, followed by sadness, that formed into rage.

It drew another line across Albedo's arm, repeating the action another two times, then slicing across all the cuts. Blood flowed out of all the cuts, seemingly never stopping, but Albedo remained unconscious.

Most of Kaeya hoped that it was all a dream, that they were all safe, a part of Kaeya even believed it, but he knew that it was all real.

Kaeya froze the chains, trying to strain them as much as possible to escape. But it's eyes were quicker, and it froze his body, connecting it to the ground.

If only he had a pyro vision.. Why couldn't he be saved now like in the stories? Why did this have to be his reality?

He felt hopeless, his eyelids grew heavy, while tears still streamed from his eyes. Albedo didn't deserve this, no one did.

Did it feel no connection with Albedo? Not even after what transpired during their fight?

He reminded himself of what happened with Diluc, and he felt stupid for even thinking of the question. Why would they be closer? They tried to kill each other for Archon's sake!

Now all he could do is watch Albedo slowly bleed out.. If only he had focused on his surroundings more, then maybe they wouldn't have to be there.

:)

I'm back from my hiatus, sorry about that. Like I said in the warning, I had to bump up the story rating to mature for this chapter, but there's still not gonna be any smut in the story.

Word count - 1275