Private Finished Never again

Time had lost its meaning after the first few...weeks? Months? Aluin didn't remember anymore. Time didn't matter, not here. All that mattered was how long you could survive, how long you could stay alive. Dying hurt, Aluin hated it. At first he had died constantly, the monsters had seen how weak he was and had hunted him, for sport after they saw his body wasn't edible after he died. So, so many times.
But Aluin wasn't the weakest anymore. No, now he could kill too, but rather than that Aluin drove to insanity. He had killed what had threatened him, but it rarely came to that anymore. Rather, he made the attackers afraid, he made their minds break, made them taste regret. And Aluin enjoyed it. To see his opponent scream from mindless fear, he liked it. He could make them feel what he felt. Always afraid, of everything, no peace and no rest. Here...Aluin felt powerful.
And it was all so terrifying.

The monster screeched, in pursuit of Aluin. But Aluin didn't stop, he kept running. He always chose running first, he didn't seek conflict. No matter how much his mind wanted others to be afraid of him Aluin wouldn't comply. Fear was scary, he didn't want to make others feel it.
Yes you do, think of the screams. The twisted bodies, desperate to escape the mind. It's all beautiful, it's wonderful, more...!
"No, no, NO! GO AWAY!"
Aluin screamed, he had long since stopped speaking quietly. If you spoke quietly here it drew more attention than screaming. So Aluin was either quiet, or he screamed.
Something sharp and fast lashed out at Aluin, he barely dodged and it managed to carve a wound on his cheek, which slowed Aluin down enough for the monster to catch up. It let out a victorious bellow, as it launched itself at Aluin. Aluin, knowing he wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time, formed a sharp point with his tentacles and lashed out towards his attacker.

But then suddenly the monster was gone, and Aluin was somewhere else. Someone else was in front of him, someone who hadn't attacked Aluin, but it was too late for Aluin to slow down the attack he had thrown. So, Aluin's full-force attack with his sharp appendages lashed out at the person in front of him.

Aluin felt his attack hit, and the moment it did he quickly shifted into his human form, his expression mortified. He had just attacked someone who hadn't attacked him first, he had hurt someone innocent, he had-
The person he had attacked suddenly hugged him, and Aluin froze up entirely, his whole body going rigid. But then he heard familiar sounding words, in a familiar voice...
“Aluin~ I was so worried. I’m happy to see that your okay. Everything is alright now, you’re safe. You’re home.”

Aluin's whole body went from rigid to completely relaxed, as his mind realized that this...was papa. After such a long time Aluin was back with papa. Aluin had long since thrown away the hope that papa would come for him, and he had even felt bitter and angry about it, but now that papa was actually here Aluin couldn't feel anything else but extreme relief.
Tears burst from Aluin's eyes, he hadn't cried in such a long time. He didn't bother holding back his wails as he squeezed papa's shirt into his fists. Papa was smaller than he remembered, but that was just an insignificant notion Aluin made at the back of his mind, as he wept against papa's chest.

But after just few moments Aluin realized that he had attacked papa, had hurt him, and even though Aluin realized that papa wasn't hurt anymore he still started shaking and panicking. Aluin stepped away and looked at papa all over, his hands trembling uncontrollably.
"Oh no, I h-hurt you...I'm so sorry papa! I-I didn't m-mean to! T-There was a m-monster and...O-Oh no...!"
Aluin swiped some of his overgrown hair away from his face, the eye with a scar across it bit more closed than the other. Some black haze was already starting to leak out of Aluin body to fix the wound on his cheek, but it would certainly become another scar on Aluin's already scarred face.

Papa laughed, but Aluin didn't really feel like laughing. He didn't want to hurt papa even if it didn't actually hurt him, after all.
But papa pulled Aluin's attention away from that, when he brought out a plushie that Aluin hadn't seen in years. He didn't take Mr. Whale at first, he just stared at the toy in disbelief. It was...so much smaller than Aluin remembered. He reached out for Mr. Whale tentatively and carefully took him in his scarred hands. Aluin stared down at the toy, and his tears formed small wet spots in the soft material.
"...thank you, papa."
Aluin whispered and hugged Mr. Whale against himself, feeling the comforting feeling the toy always brought him. Aluin had never really played with Mr. Whale, playing wasn't really what Aluin did, but he knew papa knew that. Papa just liked saying things like that. Aluin realized it now.
"Papa, w-where was I...? H-how did you...bring me back?"
Aluin asked quietly, looking at papa over Mr. Whale. Now that Aluin took time to notice papa wasn't really smaller, and neither was Mr. Whale. Aluin was just...bigger.
"H-how long...?"
Aluin didn't finish the sentence, and instead looked down at himself, naked and covered in scars. Aluin had appeared at that world without anything on him, after all.

Aluin listened intently to papa's explanation, and he understood most of it. Aluin wasn't all that knowledgeable about summoning or rituals but he knew what they meant, more or less. But what shocked him was, that only...a week had gone by here. Aluin looked down at the ground and shook some more, as he took in the information. He knew for a fact that a week had not gone by where he had been. It had been longer, definitely. Years. And Aluin was certain of it because he could tell he had grown, not only physically but mentally as well, in a way that couldn't be achieved in just a week. Just the fact that he understood that was a sign that Aluin was more mature mentally. It was all scary, so scary, but...everything was scary. And when Aluin thought back to the past years where he had been, the things here...didn't seem as scary in comparison.

Aluin lifted his gaze, which was surprisingly calm. Papa mentioned clothes, and Aluin covered himself temporarily by sprouting black tentacles of all sizes from his body, using the to cover the essential areas. Aluin then squeezed Mr. Whale a bit and stuttered more words.
"I-I thought y-you wouldn't c-come, but...I was w-wrong. T-time was just w-weird. T-thank you for coming. I-it's s-scary to be o-older, but...I'm g-glad to be b-back."

The gentle kiss and papa's words did a good job at calming Aluin's anxieties, and he nodded a little as an answer and...smiled. It felt easy now, Aluin was that relieved to be free of his nightmare that even smiling wasn't that scary. So, he smiled at his papa, trying to convey all his gratefulness in his expression.

Aluin flinched at the sudden change of tongue and the three spawnlings, but they were a familiar sight and Aluin didn't get scared of them that much anymore. Falling into old habits Aluin followed the creatures upstairs, sneezing once on the way up because the cellar was bit chilly and damp.