Finding The Real You - Kaebedo

Chapter XXV - Day Two.

This time he was woken up by a very
unpleasant kick to the face. His nose, or what was left of it, ached to the rhythm of his heartbeat.

He looked up to see Albedo, gone? Where was he?

What if he..?

He refused to believe that this was happening, he should be happy with Albedo. This situation was something out of horror stories, horror stories that Kaeya didn't want his life to be centred around.

Kaeya froze the chains again, praying for something to happen.

Nothing happened.

He slammed them against the wall.

Nothing happened.

Well, something happened, but nothing good.

He suppressed the urge to cry while listening to the same grinding of rocks, but a lump still formed in his throat, making it hard to breathe.

"Where-.. Where's Albedo?"

Kaeya cursed himself for almost stuttering. There was no point in that though, it just brought down his mood even further. That line of thought felt insensitive and callous for the situation, he didn't even know if Albedo was alive and he was worrying about himself? Pathetic.

"You don't know? I thought you might've been watching when I took him to the experimentation room."

Kaeya's body tensed up at the horror of the situation. Experimentation room? Were they experimenting on Albedo?

"What?"

There was an edge to his voice that Kaeya never used past joking.

"I'm experimenting on it. Now as for you..."

Kaeya braced for another kick, and the kick hit his nose again.

He leaned his head forward, swallowing when the taste of blood entered his mouth.

He braced for another kick, and it never came. Just the same sound of grinding rocks and footsteps.

He looked up again, and the place was exactly as it was when he woke up, but with a little more blood on the floor. Kaeya felt an overwhelming amount of sickness. He leaned against the wall, trying to ground himself. He was usually fine with blood, so why was it so hard to manage today? What made it so hard to manage yesterday?

He prayed to Barbatos, hoping that his prayer would come true. It was like the same day was repeating, but still somehow getting worse as time went on.

Why couldn't he be saved like he saved Albedo?

- - - - - - - - - -

"Hey, Diluc?"

Rosaria spoke softly over the counter, trying not to attract anyone but their own attention.

"Yes?"

Diluc held his usual stoic expression, but remained curious as to why Rosaria would talk to him without anyone else nearby.

Rosaria made a small hand motion, signalling for Diluc to come over so that they could still be quiet but understand each other.

"I have some.. Concerns about your uh, brother."

Diluc kept his demeanour emotionless, but he was already worrying about the well-being of Kaeya. He cared, though he never really wanted to.

What could possibly be going wrong with him? Diluc thought for a couple of seconds, sure, he might've disappeared from the tavern for a few days, but he never thought too much about it. The more he did think about it, the more he realised the possible situation.