Re: [Secondhand books: Hannah & Aleksi]
Aleksi was glad that it didn't take long for her to return. She was comfortable, in the way that a lot of things still weren't for him, and he appreciated that she wasn't gone long. The cookies caught him by surprise, as did his own reaction - he didn’t remember having a sweet tooth, but the smell of peanut butter and sugar was calling to him in a way that was newly different but exciting. He took one, and then curled his fingers around his tea so that he didn’t ravish the rest of them immediately.
“I read to both remember and to forget what I have lost,” he offered in return, even more softly. It was, perhaps, something of a lie - he’d loved books his entire life, and even having his entire life changed hadn’t changed that. But it was also the truth, and he felt that she of all people could understand that. “What is ‘like you should be’?” Aleksi asked, curious but not intending to be harsh. The last thing he would have wanted was to hurt her feelings - he just wanted to understand.
He took a deep breath at her question. There were any number of things to choose from, to share his strange experiences, but the first one that jumped to mind was the monster’s realm. It seemed fitting, even though it was the worst of all his memories. “I have experienced a lot of strangeness,” Aleksi started with a small shrugging, reaching out to steal another cookie as he tried to organize his thoughts and memories into something coherent. “My hometown was similar to this place - small, and quiet, and a little bit odd. No one ever really questioned small weirdness, at least not until they became very large. And by that point, it was too late to do much of anything about it.”
Pausing, he shrugged again, trying not to get too consumed by memories of all the things that had been and were no more. “As far as I know, I am the only one left. And so when I stumbled across one of the creature-monsters responsible… I chased after it, fully intending to rip it apart the way its kind had done to my town.” Aleksi ran his fingers through his hair, glancing around once more to reconfirm they were not being overheard. “I do not know what to call the place I ended up. It was a forest, but unlike any woods I have ever encountered, before or since. It was dark, and cold, with no sunrise no matter how many hours or days passed. And it smelt of death and decay, mostly. I can’t tell you how many times I fought off that monster before I managed to escape from that awful place.”