Kaebedo || Where The Cold Doesn't Touch

Little to No Time - 41

(TW- Needles, brief suicidal thoughts)

1. 2. 3. 4.

Tick, toc the time ticks by.

[You've been staring at the ceiling for quite some time.]

Albedo doesn't utter a word, his breathing is shallow. Almost as if he does not want to.

[I've been watching for a while now. Ever since mother had wanted me dead that is. You were as empty as me for such a long time, until one day. You've gone soft, their royal highness can sense it in you. You're easy, malleable. You'll shatter like chalk being thrown at a chalk board. All because of a mere mortal. Distasteful.]

"Are you done monologuing now?" The Alchemist picks at the ground, his eyes not wandering from the ceiling. His stomach hurts and he can only imagine that it's the feeling of hunger. He's never felt anything this agonizing before. Starvation is a curse now, just like the other curse that continues to grow.

The voice in the back of his mind echoes, as if his head is in an echo chamber that constantly reverberates with no end.

[Hush now, they are coming back.]

Albedo jolts up to the door creaking open. A fatui cicin mage walks into the room, her jangling keys sway by her side. Her hands occupied with a needle, the substance is purple as it always has been.

The Alchemist faces away from her. She shrugs and opens his cell, "Their highness says it'll only be a matter of time once you're fully realized. Then we'll all be able to rest in peace."

She grabs his arm, he tries to pull away. She cackles instead, "Sit up pretty boy, no one is coming to save you. No one cares enough to try. So accept your fate like master told you to."

He perks up at the word.

"Master?" He whispers.

"Oops, did that slip out?" She chuckles, stabbing his arm with the needle and quickly injecting him.

He cries out in pain, his back flashing brightly and his stomach feeling like a churning pot. "AUGH-" he coughs violently and the cicin mage jerks away.

"Disgusting, be polite and do that when others aren't around." She quickly leaves, just as fast as she had entered.

Albedo was left to rot in his cell, his back turning a terrible color of black and purple. His skin becoming scaly, his hair growing at an alarming pace and his eyes. He can't see what his eyes look like but they feel different. He can see differently, as if everything is expanding which makes him disoriented.

"Fuck." He grips his head to try and get a hold of his sanity.

[Ah, this is more like it. Now I can see better.]

"This is your fault? I can barely see anything," his voice hoarse from coughing.

[These are like my eyes after all. And you wonder why mother wanted me to be killed. Her creations weren't perfect no matter how hard she tried to hide it. We are defects in some way, you happened to burden what I did all those years ago. Once I was cursed that is, it also seems you got the curse as well.]

Albedo sighs, "Am I going to become monster?" It's a question he frankly doesn't want the answer to and Durin falls silent to that.

The Alchemist falls to the floor, he can't take anymore of the pain. It's unbearable at this point and he just wants it to end. He clutches his stomach and groans in pain, tears stream down his eyes.

He barely manages to open his eyes and for a brief second he sees Kaeya standing on the other side of his cell. "Kaeya?" He quickly calls out but is met with silence. Hallucinations. Now he's really going insane. His blonde hair shrouds his vision and all he wants to do is cry. To think he would start to believe that Kaeya would look for him is downright foolish. He isn't worth saving at this point.