Zak watches as you leave the hotel, sunshades over your eyes, in clothes a size too big, supporting a headache from hell. There's no words exchanged as you pass him and get into the RV, with your bag set onto your shoulder. 

Ignoring the laughter and buzz of conversation between the crew, you take yourself to the back of the RV and into the only bedroom, where you dump your bag and fall onto the bed, letting the softness envelope you. 

"Zak? Can we talk?" Aaron asks with a serious edge to his voice. 

"Sure thing." Zak responds.

The laughter ceases and soon the sound and feel of the engine roaring takes over your senses.
You close your eyes, willing for sleep to come, but it doesn't. You try changing positions, onto your left side, right side, back, front, and even try with your legs raised slightly. But nothing works, only frustration builds. 

Sighing harshly, you sit up, turn and punch into the pillow a few times trying to redistribute the duck down feathers before you flop back down and wait, praying that the nightmares are kept at bay for you to get a few hours. 

Your mind thinks of pleasant things, from open fields with a warm breeze to butterflies and baby animals, whilst it tries to ignore the gnawing sensation at the back of your skull, which turns everything dark.

It has been there for a while, after a lockdown in which you ignored Zak's advice from the walkie talkie in your hand and used strong provocation. You were marked. Welts rose from your face after you felt a sudden blow, as well as a burning sensation down your arm. It was only when Zak removed you from the lockdown that you saw the three scratches which had drawn blood. It's been since that fateful night, that you have been woke up, plagued with fear from the nightmares. Ones so dark that you had to pinch yourself to ensure that you were real and what you had dreamt was purely fictional.

That you were in bed, safe and within a hundred feet of your closest friends. Not in an abandoned house, clawing at the window frames with bloodied fingers, trying to get out and away from the dead bodies that seemed to ooze from the walls around you. 

Finally, with the sound of the engine, you fall asleep. It's quick, fast and deep. You're tumbling through darkness, willing to accept it, if it meant that you finally got some rest.

It feels like only minutes, until you are woken by movement within the room, shattering what little rest you had managed to gain.

Opening your eyes, you find yourself laying on your front, hugging at the pillow under your head, whilst Zak sits on the bed beside you, running a hand soothingly over your hair. You wait, but he doesn't speak, he simply looks at you with empathy before tweaking his head over.
With tired limbs and an exhausted mind, you roll out the way, allowing him onto the bed beside you. When he is settled, he opens his arms, letting you roll into the cocoon of his safety and rest your head on his chest. 

"How bad is it?" He asks, resuming his earlier movements of stroking your hair. 

"I can handle it." You reply. 

His arms tighten, transferring his warmth into your body and allowing his calming presence to stop the gnawing inside your skull. "Aaron is concerned, he heard you..."

You feel your heart dip at the realisation and snuggle into his embrace further.

"Let me help you." He pleads quietly. 

"You can't.."

"I can do anything." His answer is confident, but after handling the issue for weeks in silence, you struggle to believe him and sigh instead.

"I know how to deal with this, sweetie. Just say the word and I'll sort it all out. You don't have to deal with this alone, Okay?"

You nod against him, plucking up his rosary between your fingers, twirling the crucifix around. "Sometimes, I feel like I'm losing my mind."

"It's common. The confusion, the impulsive behaviour, mood swings, bursts of anger.. It's all the signs of a spirit attachment. How are you sleeping? Honestly?"

You swallow thickly before answering "Not good. At all. I have nightmares, they are so... So real."

"But they aren't, you have to keep that in your mind. I know, I've been there."

You nod.

"I have no doubts that you can hold your own, but this is powerful stuff and it won't go for the jugular, this attachment will weaken you, destroy every fibre of you, before taking complete control.."

You don't like the sound of that and wonder how far along you are on the path of this attachment when you speak. "Help me.."

The voice doesn't sound like your own, but you definitely felt your lips move and the hum in your throat when you talk. 

Zak's arms tighten until you feel almost completely restricted. "I'll take care of everything. I promise, just sleep, I'm not going anywhere."

A warming sensation blooms in your chest as you believe him, and find yourself obeying his orders by closing your eyes and relaxing your body. However, despite his presence, the voice in the back of your head is talking again, gnawing it's way through any thought processes you've tried to build. 

"Zak?"

"Yes sweetie." He responds pushing a kiss onto your forehead. 

"Can you maybe..." You pause feeling silly.

"Tell me." He encourages.

"Could you maybe read? Or talk?" You ask quietly.

There's a little delay before Zak pushes his hand into his pocket and extracts his phone. "You want to hear the news? I tell Gracie the showbiz headlines."

A smile plays on your lips at the thought. "Anything, I just need to hear your voice. Something to ground me, in case I start dreaming..."

Zak checks the news before clicking away "That's boring. I know what I have.." He trails off. After a few clicks on his phone, a page of writing appears. 

"What is it?" 

"The best book in the world, obviously.."

"Dracula." You both say together causing him to laugh gently. 

"Get settled in.. I'll even do voices." He adds playfully. 

"I wouldn't expect anything less."

That's how you fall asleep and for the first time in weeks, you do not dream. Not a single thing, as you lay your head onto his chest, cocooned in his arms, listening to his heart and his breathing, whilst he reads you Dracula. With a faint smile on your lips as he keeps to his word, and even does the voices.