Hazel - Dreams

The tea was steaming before her, curling in small and hypnotizing drifts up towards the cavern walls. Hazel blinked, trying to remember how she got here. The air was heady with the scent of warm spices, clearly covering something more sinister, but she could help but relish in the familiarity of it all.

“You were saying?”

Her gaze snapped forward as she looked across the table at Laikin. Was this one of her days she was having tea with him? How had she forgotten it? Then again, Hazel had been forgetting a lot of things lately.

She blinked at the dark skinned man across the way. His hair was curled and flopping in front of his face. He looked younger?

“I was saying?” She blinked a few times before it came to her. “Oh. Yes. I was saying that the apothecary has been doing well. I’ve lost some of my customers since the changes, but that could just be because of the state of the market.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. Some of my regulars are not showing up anymore. Though, I’m more afraid that they simply cannot get to me. You know how it is. With the walls in a constant state of movement, I think a lot of people have had to go elsewhere to get their needs met. But, we are surviving.”

Laikin set the teapot aside, dropping two sugar cubes into her teacup, just like he knew she liked. He swirled it around with a small bronze spoon that the two of them had found years ago on one of their shopping trips. Hazel remembered when these little tea parties of theirs had started. She was just a girl. They had nothing but the idea in hand and had started out with rocks and hollowed out acorns in order to play pretend. Through the years, Laikin had gained a few things here and there. Sometimes she brought him items. They now had a plethora of chipped cups and different teapots to choose from, along with various brews.  It made their yearly get-togethers just that much more special because they had built it together.

“What about you? Have the walls affected you at all?”

“Not particularly,” he said. “Walls have never really stopped me. In fact, the walls moving has been a bit of a benefit, I’d say. I can get to places I couldn’t always get to before.”

“That’s nice. I’ve never really thought of it in that way. But I do suppose that for some people, this lights out scenario has been a bit of a benefit.” She frowned. “Though, I don’t know how much longer we should really keep it going.”

“Isn’t your friend working on that?”

Hazel blinked. Friend. Friend. No. They were more than a friend, right? Much more than a friend. She could remember soft kisses and warm hands. Sighs in the middle of the night as they curled together for warmth. Someone holding her as she cried.

Then pain.

Why was there so much pain.

Hazel snapped her attention back to Laikin. “Yes. I believe someone is.”

His voice deepened as he tried to hold her in his gaze. “Not someone, Hazel. Your friend. Do you remember the Night Market?”

She reached out, taking a sip of tea. “Of course I remember the Night Market. It is where we live.”

“Hazel–”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she snapped.

There was a bitterness that she had felt consuming her as of late. A dark evil that had woven into her bones and stuck to her like sap. She didn’t like it, but she couldn’t cleanse herself of it either.

Across the table, Laikin sighed, sipping at his own tea. He didn’t look disappointed in her, even though she had the overwhelming sense that he should be. Instead, he looked off in the distance, contemplatively.  There was nothing but a craggy wall there, wet with condensation. Now that Hazel thought about it, she wasn't quite sure where she was even at.

“You’ve always been one to hide, Hazel,” he told her gently.

She jumped at the sound of his voice. It echoed around her. “I just focus on what’s important.”

“You do,” he agreed. “But you also hide. When the world is scary, you do not tend to want to approach it. I understand that, given your childhood. I wish I could have been around to do more for you. For your brother.”

Hazel shook her head frantically. “No. Laikin, you’ve been very sweet to us. Some of my best memories is of looking for different teacups with you.” Wandering through the market where he would buy her sweets. The two of them looking at all the vintage cups. Malcolm ambling behind them with his hands stuffed in his pockets, pretending to hate every second of it. Laikin could always get a smile out of him, however. Especially when he bought Mal new art supplies.

“The past is the past,” he said definitively. “I’m not going to dwell on it too melodramatically. Though, I do hope you know that while it was a way to survive then. Now, it is a choice.” He turned, golden eyes blinking towards her. “Do you understand that, Hazel?”

No. Her head was screaming, and a full shiver went through her body. She wasn’t hiding. She wasn’t. The world was just a place that she needed to protect herself from. What was so wrong with protecting yourself? Why did no one see this? Why why why why why….

“Drink your tea.”

Hazel wiped at her eyes, her teacup shaking in her hands. “I’m sorry,” she whispered to him after a prolonged moment.

Laikin reached across the table, placing his hand on hers and stilling the tremors wrapping around her. “You never need to apologize to me,” he whispered. “Just come to me when life gets scary. Don’t hide. Not anymore.”

“But you’re never around,” she said. “Even this is just a dream. I know it’s a dream.”

Laikin grinned, his teeth unnaturally white in the dark. “Dreams are still truth and truth is not always a dream. You’ll find me, my dear. I’ll be around.”

Hazel’s eyes snapped open to the dark, the tea and the sweets fading from her mind. But she could still feel the heat of the cave of her cheeks. And she could swear Laikkin was still watching.