an american nightmare.

Jessica bit down on her bottom lip as she stared at the wall in front of her. She was sitting on her bed, sheets pooled besides her naked body on the bed. She had woken up completely naked in her bed but didn't know why. She normally slept in a dress or a night down with nothing underneath but never naked. She heard a man's voice coming from the hallway, quickly covering her body with the sheets as he walked into the room.

The brunette eyed the man in front of her, wondering if they had slept together or if she was just imagining him. She continued to silently stare at the man, blinking after a little while and noticed he was still there when she opened her eyes again. "Did we do anything last night," she asked.

Zacky looked at the girl, shaking his head. "No," he said. "But I did hear you moaning in the middle of the night, so I assumed you were touching yourself." He wished he had been in here, but he had just stood outside the door and listened. She had been saying the name of some man he was unfamiliar with, which kind of saddened him, but soon she would be saying his name. He had nothing to worry about.

"I was moaning," Jessica questioned. She didn't remember moaning or even dreaming about anything sexual. "Did I say anything when I was moaning," she asked. The brunette was wondering if she had been dreaming about one of the made up men she imagined. When she did dream about them it would either be one of two things, sex or them murdering her.

Zacky nodded his head. "Yeah," he said. "You kept moaning the name Brian, over and over." He leaned against the wall as he looked at her. "It was kind of hot, you know, your moaning." He bit his lip as he looked her over. He was half tempted to walk over and touch her right now, but he wouldn't. Although, she didn't seem very frightened by him like he would have expected.

Jessica moved her legs close to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She didn't remember any of the men she dreamed about being named Brian. She also didn't remember knowing anyone named Brian in her life ever. The brunette looked at the man in front of her again, hoping in some way if she stared at him long enough she'd suddenly know all the answers she needed. "I don't remember yesterday at all," she stated. "How did I meet you?"

"You were walking on the street all by yourself," Zacky said. "You looked pretty out of it, so I picked you up and brought you here so you didn't end up getting hurt." He also left out the part about him stalking her for a couple of months up until this point. He didn't want to freak her out even more. He needed her to trust him. "I thought maybe you were on drugs. When I walked up to you, you were arguing with someone who wasn't there."

Jessica frowned as she listened to the man's words. She must have been having one of her episodes. The brunette knew she should probably get back on her mess since they were happening more frequently now but she hated the way the pills made her feel. Jessica felt like a zombie living an out of body experience when she took her meds. "Was I arguing with Matt or Johnny," she asked.

Zacky bit his lip. "I'm not sure," he said. "Maybe Johnny? I don't know. But you seemed pretty agitated. But you're probably hungry now, right? You had a long night." He smirked slightly but shook his head. "What do you want to eat? Grilled cheese? Tomato soup? Maybe some coke to go with it?" He usually wasn't this nice, but he wanted her to like him, to like him how he liked her.

"It was probably Johnny then," Jessica mumbled. "Asshole doesn't know when to stop." The brunette looked at the man, biting down on her bottom lip when he offered her food. "I don't even know your name yet." How was she supposed to eat with him if she didn't know his name.

Zacky smiled at her. "You can call me Zack," he said. "And if you were right last night, your name would be Jessica." He reached out for her hand, taking it and slowly helping her up. He looked over, spotting her clothes in the corner of the room. "There they are. I'll let you get dressed. Come meet me in the kitchen when you're done." He kissed the back of her hand before he left her room, going to the kitchen and turning the stove on.

Jessica blushed as she slowly stood up off the bed. The sheets that had been covering her naked body, slid down besides where she had been sitting and left her completely nude in front of a man she had essentially just met. She bit down on her bottom lip hard, cringing as the pressure caused the skin on her lip to split open and a small amount of blood began to pool to the surface.

As Zack walked out of the room, Jessica moved her right hand, grazing the wet spot on her lip, frowning when she pooled her hand away and saw her fingers covered in blood. She quickly stuck her fingers in her mouth to clean the digits of blood and quickly pulled on her clothes. She didn't want to leave Zack alone and unsupervised in her house for longer than she already had.

Zacky put a pan on the stove and searched around the kitchen for bread, finding it and grabbing a couple slices out of the bag. He then grabbed some cheese from the fridge and began constructing some grilled cheeses, looking over when Jessica joined him in the kitchen. He noticed her lip was bleeding and frowned. He abandoned the stove for a moment to grab a paper towel, handing it to her. "Here," he said. "Your lip is bleeding." It hadn't been bleeding when he'd left her room a moment ago, so why was it bleeding now? Had she bit it? He hadn't noticed it being split before, so it couldn't have been that. She had to have bitten it so hard she made it bleed. But why? Did he make her nervous? Was she afraid of him? He would fix that.

Jessica took the paper towel from Zack and placed it on her lip. She sat down at the small table she had set up in her kitchen, watching him as he cooked. She wanted to make sure he didn't put anything in the food that would make her freak out. The last thing Jessica needed was to have an episode from something Zack tried to put in her food. "Don't put anything in my food," she stated. "I suffer from paranoid delusions and if you try and drug me it won't work out like you want."

Zacky looked over his shoulder at her, raising an eyebrow. "Why would I drug you?" he asked curiously. "I'm just trying to help make sure you're okay." He flipped the grilled cheese onto the other side and let it sit for a moment while he started the tomato soup on a different burner. "Paranoid delusions? What do you mean by that?"

"No one just helps to help nowadays," Jessica stated. "It's always for some sort of gratification; you get to pay yourself on the back, money, sex or a combination of any of the three." The brunette didn't believe in good deeds or hold people anymore, there was only evil people and the ones in the middle who were only slightly evil. "Paranoid delusions means I'm batshit crazy and batshit crazy doesn't fuck anyone but the person that's stuck with it."

Jessica considered herself a virgin even if the second to last psychiatrist she had been seeing had decided to do her the favor preparing her for the rough and cruel reality of the real world and had raped her repeatedly. "So unless you plan on raping me you aren't getting your dick wet here."

Zacky's brows furrowed. "You must have me mistaken. I don't want to have sex with you," he said. "Like I said, I saw you on the street, you looked out of it, and I brought you home. I stayed because I was afraid you were going to hurt yourself. If you want me to leave, I will. But I don't think you should be here alone." She didn't seem delusional to him, she seemed normal. At least right now she did.

"If you're going to eat do it," Jessica stated. "But make sure not to burn my house down in the process." The brunette got up, walking back up her stairs to her bedroom. It was the only place she ever felt safe and sane. The brunette sat down on her bed, finding herself scoffing at the thought. She was apparently a mystery and a miracle wherever she went when she did actively seek out treatment. For the most part she was highly functioning for how bad the doctors claimed her paranoia was. Of course to Jessica that just meant the bullshit meds they tried to shove down her throat went necessary.

Zacky bit his lip and finished the food, carrying it up to her. He set it in the floor outside of her door and knocked on the door before he walked back downstairs. He grabbed his jacket and walked out the front door, shutting it behind himself. He hoped she would be okay. He couldn't lose her, she was all he had.

Jessica jumped slightly when Zack knocked on her bedroom door. She had been zoned out, deep in her thoughts when he had knocked. She stayed seated in her bed, not wanting to seeing him again because she didn't need him thinking she liked company. If anything the only person she regularly talked to were the ones she had swirling around in her head and of course Johnny and Matt.

Jessica waited until she swore she heard her front door open and shut to leave her room. The brunette was surprised to have found a plate and bowl with the food Zack had made for her. Of course she refused to eat anything he had made in case he had drugged it at all. Jessica dumped the soup down the drain if her kitchen sink, cleaning up herself kitchen before she bagged the sandwich up and gave it to the first homeless person she saw before going back home.