Milla's talking did help a bit and it was quite a fun experience while it lasted. The night did come after all and Alexander has to go through with that on his own.

With the thought of the chaos monster hanging over him like the Sword of Damocles, he did eventually drift off to dreamland.

This time, the dreamland wasn't any dreamland that one would normally experience as Alexander found his full self diving into his Mind Mansion.

He did know it existed as he was frequently using it but it was only now that he got a much scaled and personal look at it.

Frankly, it was as spacious and grand as a high-end mansion could be and as Alexander strolled about the halls, the memories and knowledge he accrued continued to pop up.

It was an irritating phenomenon that hindered most of his walk down his Mind Mansion but he eventually got more attuned to it.

His real body dozed off like a log but his consciousness seem to be in a state of temperance as the construct of his mind is slowly being explored.

It was quite smooth sailing but the birthday trauma of the chaos monster did surface once again as the luxurious halls, walls, and floors of his mind build oozed off the familiar darkness and glowingly showcased its imprinted red-green jumble of characters.

How can one be calm and composed when dealing with someone or something that one knows to have 'killed' them once before?

The memory of the latching chaos and chaotification became fresh once again as the dream drifted into becoming a nightmare.

Just as Alexander's consciousness form was about to get swallowed up by the emerging monster, real Alexander gaspingly sat up from the bed and his biological clock from his morning runs saved him.

He could only shake his head with what had happened as he planned to jog off the things he can't explain.

It was quite a good thing that the Jovovich was staying in once again and Milla can still be the running buddy that he could therapize with while they ran laps.

Talking it out might have helped as anything chaos monster seems to have been bloated down into something that wasn't much of a problem to him.

It might just be a psychological phenomenon that trigger whenever his birthday or re-life anniversary was around. Alexander can't be so sure though but at least he wouldn't have to deal with it until next year.

As composed and progressive as he would be all year round, there would always be a period of feebleness for a person to express their bottled-up anguish.

Alexander could only choke the chaos monster event to that as he was frankly going to be busy once again to deal with his Mind Mansion nuances.

Of course, the reclusive fiasco of Alexander's 8th birthday and the nightmare night finally ended.

It was just greatly fortunate that everything was back to normal once again as the second month of the year was about to be tackled.

It also might not be too normal though as Alexander's enhanced thoughts seem to be enhanced once again.

------

What was happening within his person has to play second fiddle as what was happening outside the person had to take priority. Another Alexander Creed story was going to be debuting to the awaiting masses after all.

As popular as the long-running and established Creed titles were during January, an addition could always find its appropriate welcome.

Single issues, crossover issues, and toys were still all the rage as a consequence of the surprise rich December. However, February might just be another month that would be filled Creed surprise once again.

-----

The new comic book release day was always the day with high traffic and the comic buying crowd was in their relative anticipatory mood for what they were going to greet.

They didn't want to be disappointed that Creed Comics wouldn't pull through with a February surprise and they also didn't want to embarrass themselves in case they might get over-excited if the surprise did come.

In any case, they were just in an 'in-between' mood as they waited for the 'Close' sign at their local comic book shop to finally flip 'Open'.

Like always, 'Open' did appear and a new round of comic browsing and comic buying commenced.

Since it was February and the month of love, romance-themed comic books were plastered on the shelves that would be easily made out.

Frankly, the theme of the month has always been a conflicting topic for geeky nerds as they want romance for themselves but they could only substitute themselves for stories of Archie and other enviable romance protagonists.

It was this love-hate feeling that pulled in the sales of romantic comic books but nerds weren't the only driving demographic of comic books anymore.

Semi-normal, un-geeky teens and adults have been frequenting the stores and it was up for their preferences now whether they like a romance title or not.

As usual, the Creed section with all the issue #22s and #12s was being crowded out and debated due to its intriguing story progression and escalating plots.

In all honesty, they were truly expecting a themed special just like the Octoberian horror or Decemberian crossovers.

As much as the people in the single-issue crowd were hounding about their story know-hows and speculations, they were quite disappointed to not see a new face among the greatly art-ified Creed covers.

However, they weren't disappointed for long as there were much wiser people who asked the store employees about the Creed specials.

Indeed, a Februarian release was awaiting them in a certain library-esque shelf that they were all too familiar with.

It was a shelf filled with Creed Volume Book galore with the whole roster of compiled editions of the Creed titles they have read.

The respective book spines for Dragonball, TMNT, Predator, ThunderCats, Cybertronian Chronicles, and RoboCop were already known to them, so they did notice a stack of book spines that didn't fit those categories.

It was pinkish-ly Valentines from the title font and design itself. Of course, not everyone could be on board with pink and romance but it also means that there would always be people that would go for it as well.

Those types of people were in excitement as they picked up a copy from the shelf.

They glimpsingly read it, they loved it, and they bought it. It was as simple as that and Creed buy train was filled with Creed-themed titles as it always has.

Creed here and there being the major trend have never been a mystery to anyone familiar with comic books. However, 'mysteriousness' was now going to be embedded in it in a peculiar way.

This time, it was about romance and a stand-alone, one-shot, graphic novel that carried a title of 'A Mysterious Feeling Called Love'.

Is this romance and crime comic? Is it just about mystery? Or is it just about pure love overall? Everyone who's interested just can't wait to dig into the bottom of it.