Who: Brian & Zero When: {Backdated} Week Four; Saturday Dec. 27th – nighttime Where: The Pack Apartments Summary: Zero sleepwalks into the Alpha Warning: Nightmares, mentions of child abuse & underage sexual activity
Zero's sudden change from feral vagabond to being housed and cared for had made his head spin for more reasons than just his near starvation. A washed body, some clean clothes, a full stomach and a comfortable bed were all welcome changes, some of which he hadn't experienced for years even during his time with his old pack. The companionship though was the thing he was missing the most, but now that he had access to it he wasn't able to take advantage.
He felt more lost now than he had been when he'd been out on his own, knowing where his place should be but not fitting into it, mostly because he was told that it didn't exist in this pack. He didn't know how that could be though, how a pack could function without a bottom rung; all of his experience in the twisted psychology of his last pack told him that the ladder would fall apart without someone at the bottom taking the crap. He was exhausted to his very marrow and spent a lot of the first couple of days asleep in a nest that he'd made underneath the bed of the room he'd been ushered into. He had put on a little bit weight even in the short time he'd spent in civilisation but better nutrition hadn't done anything for his nerves or his timid behaviour.
He'd avoided the rest of the pack as much as he could for the time being, but was subservient and submissive whenever he ran into someone, although everyone he met was very nice and confused him even more about the way the pack worked.
With the strain of having to look after himself, find food and keep warm taking off his back, Zero's mind had more time to dwell on his psychological problems. He still slept a lot but he'd started suffering nightmares that he woke from covered in sweat and shivering, waking himself up leaping up and hitting his head on the bototm of the bed or with the sound of his own yelps and cries echoing around his very bare room.
Tonight wasn't like his usual nights, being the first time his nightmares drove him up and out from under his bed and out walkabout. He'd done this a lot in the Pack but he'd never gotten far without someone waking him up first. As it was it was dangerous for him to be roaming around in a place he didn't know very well while asleep what with the stairs to fall down. He was out though and wandering, his hands drawn up againt his chest like he was holding onto something or anxious about something. In his head he wandered through a forest feeling lost while branches reached out to touch him like fingers tracing and catching at his body. He was naked in his dream and the touches were intrusive and painful but he had no defense against them and could do nothing else but push on, sobbing. In the real world he whimpered and flinched from things that weren't there, walking careful and slow down the corridor, blind to anything in his path and fast asleep.