Time and Being || Albedo

19 - Abyss

The dream didn't end this time.

Unlike before, when Albedo saw himself in the reflection of the store window, he didn't wake up. Instead, the glass shattered and crumbled to his feet to be followed up by the ground beneath him splitting in two.

Before he's given much time to react, he slips through the cracks to descend into an abyss.

He didn't shout or yell for help as he was engulfed in the darkness, he didn't feel the need to.

His descent was slow and rather peaceful, much like he was floating downward rather than falling. A feather, sinking to the ocean floor at a slow and steady pace, though, here, there was no bottom. No floor to be reached.

It was a solemn moment in the chaos of it all. Except, the peace felt bitter and unwelcomed, as if he wasn't deserving of it.

Then again, how could he be worthy of peace? This far-too realistic version Mondstadt crumbled at his hand. Yet they weren't real, he couldn't get past the screaming of hopeless families or the burning flames that ravaged the city. He caused it all, the last thing he deserved was tranquillity.

Even so, he fell into the calmness of this dark void, the air becoming more and more frigid as he did. It took him a moment before he realized the frosty cold was eating him from the inside out.

The cold grew inch by inch within his body making his nerves feel numb. Colder, colder, and colder. Until he couldn't feel anything but the icy numbness.

His chest, the center of the bitter cold felt empty. As if there was a hole in his chest where his heart should be.

Albedo lifted a hand to clutch this part of his chest, but as he does a pain blooms from the inside of his chest. A flower of bright blue ice burst out of his heart, crystalizing as it extended outward, dripping with a deep maroon liquid that he recognized as his own blood.

As soon as he saw this the numbed feeling dissipated and agonizing pain replaces it, causing the alchemist to call out in pain.

He could barely spare a thought for the beauty of the crystalizing flower. The way it sparkled and bloomed was so magnificently dazzling, in any other situation the alchemist would've admired it's enchanting beauty. 

But the pain proved too much for him, causing him to focus all of his mental strength on the agony that came with the beauty.

With this new excruciating terror, the blonde found it was becoming harder and harder to breathe. As each fleeting moment passed he gasped more and more for air, curling into a ball in the void with no hope for help.

Fear welled up in his throat as the pain increased in intensity. His body began to shake as he held his chest tightly, quietly bearing the pain. 

Breathless, shaking, and weak, he felt as if he was losing himself more and more.

"Albedo?"

A voice.

Hope.

Distant, yet near.

He opened his eyes but saw nothing in the dark abyss. He breathed in, trying to respond.

It was you. Your voice was calling out to him.

He tried to call back but no words left him. Albedo, in this moment, wanted nothing more than to see your comforting face. Your smile, that smile that made him feel as if he would always be alright.

He needed to see it.

In his desperation he became frantic, looking in all directions, his breath becoming erratic. You were nowhere to be seen, dread filled his stomach as he began to realize the hope was fake.