Pulling herself into a sitting position, Alex just faces him, her eyes wide when he tells the story of what happened to him. There's pain there, a pain for him and what he went through, how bad it had been for longer than she had been alive. It's instinct for her to raise her hand to his face to touch him, but she pulls it back, because it doesn't seem right to force her touch onto him when he'd just spoken of what the demon did.

It's harder than watching him even on the night that Coralee had grabbed them before Warren could. It's harder than the story of what Howard had done. It's harder, somehow and in some way than hearing about how he was a demon. Alex just breathes for a long moment, her eyes not looking away from him even though he looks away from her.

Both of them together, and Richard was Richard still in a way, even if it was just the sense of himself that he'd shared with the demon inside of him. "Okay," Alex just says at last, and she puts her hand on his arm. "Then how do we stop them from doing that?"