Buuuhhh hello

Borrowers/Expedition 33 part 2 ! Gustave made it back to the others but how are they going to react ?

“Nice to meet you, Hazel. My name is Lucy. And… well…” replied the human, bracing herself for a long conversation.

“... How?” Hazel repeated, still looking incredibly cautious.

“Well, most people do… there was kind of a big thing, um… back when smartphones became big…” said Lucy, although the longer she spoke, the less confident she sounded. Truly, she wasn’t an expert on the story, she just remembered seeing it all over the news.

“Wait…” Hazel said, her voice hitching, “Humans… know about us? All humans?”

Lucy nodded, as Hazel began to speak again, her voice growing faster and more panicked. “But… if humans know about us, they’d… they’d… put us in cages… pets… experiments…”

Lucy noticed Hazel’s speech getting less coherent, and quickly tried to calm down the panicked borrower.

“Woah, woah, calm down, calm down. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Everything is okay,” Lucy repeated in as calm a tone as she could muster.

“No it’s not! Humans… how many… have they hurt? How many… are left?” cried Hazel.

“Lots, please, listen to me. You need to calm down first, though, okay? There are lots of borrowers. They live alongside us. I got advice on how to talk to you from a few classmates who are borrowers. Things aren’t always perfect, I won’t lie to you, but… pets? Lab experiments? Absolutely not. So please, don’t freak out.”

“Don’t freak out… don’t freak out… everything I know is a lie, a human is telling me she knows about borrowers, but okay, I’ll try not to freak out!” said Hazel, as she continued to freak out.

“Listen, Hazel, I know this is a lot to take in, but I promise, everything will be fine. I just… I just don’t want you to be scared of me, or any other human, that’s all,” gently replied Lucy, as she pulled out her phone and began to search for images.

“See, look. These are pictures of humans and borrowers living together. Most borrowers stay in the walls and keep, well, borrowing, but some decided to come out into the open. You don’t have to, of course. It’s up to you.”

“Up to me…” repeated Hazel, as she stared at the photos, calming down a bit.

“Entirely up to you. Like I said, I just didn’t want you to be afraid anymore. That’s all.”

A brief moment of silence overcame the two of them, before Hazel spoke again. “In that case… I should go… and think, I guess,”

“Okay,” replied Lucy. “And if you need anything, I’m right here, okay?”

Hazel didn’t respond as she walked away, disappearing behind a few objects piled up on the counter.

-

It was a week later, and Lucy hadn’t heard anything from Hazel. She almost wondered if the borrower had moved out, as that was what traditionally happened when they were seen. At the moment, Lucy was relaxing on her couch after a long week of classes, preoccupied with watching a mindless show about shopping for wedding dresses as she dug into a carton of ice cream.

Eventually, Lucy heard a small scoff, and when she looked to the source of the noise, she saw Hazel, sitting out in the open on a nearby end table.

As they made eye contact, the borrower spoke up, “Nobody on this show ever has any standards. I mean, I can’t believe she picked that dress, is she kidding? It fits her terribly.”