Jefferson awoke in his bed the first thing he noticed was the strange wetness that surrounded him, he quickly checked under the covers making sure that the liquid was not pee, he had wet the bed on more than one occasion due to nightmares. When he deduced that the liquid was not his own urine he came to the simple conclusion that he had simply been sweating too much, which was fine all he needed to do was get up make himself some tea then go back to bed and try to get some more sleep. He got out of bed put on the slippers he kept by the bed and tried to get to the kitchen as quietly as he could, it wasn't exactly the easiest task to do even though the house he lived in was large and lavish it did have its fair share of creaky floorboards, and tonight was just bad luck for him that he hit every creaky floorboard.
He eventually stumbled his way into the kitchen darkness surrounding him, making sure he didn't turn on any lights he already had enough rumours about himself he didn't want any more people talking about the mysterious things he did at 3AM on the weekend. While waiting for the water to boil he reflected on his life and how he got to this point. Technically speaking Jefferson only got up in the middle of the night to calm himself of his nightmares which was a common thing, usually he had a cup of tea and went back to bed trying his hardest to forget the horrors he had seen in his dreams.
But he could never forget.
He'd try everything to forget but he never could, it had been about twenty years since a new set of memories popped into his head and nestled its way into his fragile mess of a brain.
Twenty years of solitude knowing that he couldn't reach out to the one thing in this world keeping him sane.
Grace.
She was the only thing he wanted in this bleak and cruel world but he couldn't have her, he should've never abandoned her, and he should've never trusted Regina.
This night was more curious then any other as Jefferson didn't exactly wake up due to his nightmares. He woke up because of a strange noise.
He woke up to an inhuman scream.
At first he thought it was him.
Some nights his madness would consume him, in his dreams and he would be placed back in Wonderland making hats for the queen of hearts trying to make the hat work. He would wake up screaming, kicking and flailing around in his bed not aware of his surroundings.
But this scream was different to his own.
This scream was unique it was inhuman but it wasn't an animal howling in the night, it was almost demonic even in the other lands he visited they didn't have anything that sounded like that, so Jefferson came to the conclusion that it was just him hearing things.
Then he heard it again.
It was louder this time piercing his eardrums and most likely cracking the glass around him, this scream was different it was more like a banshee as opposed to the demonic shrill he heard a couple of minutes ago.
Figuring that he was losing his mind (well losing more of it) he set it as his mission to figure out where the screaming was coming from, and even if it was nothing then at least he could get 5 minutes to himself outside in the dark.
So armed with nothing but his pyjamas and slippers, he set on his grand expedition to the outdoors to find out if the noise was real or if he lost enough sanity to the point where he was hearing things.
"It's probably just me, no one ever comes up here apart from the occasional person asking for directions." He told himself trying to be reasonable in this terrifying situation.
He walked further out, it was at this point Jefferson was hoping that something interesting would happen, and he was not acting like a crazy person wondering out into the freezing night.
He then heard another startling scream.
It was surprisingly close to where he was. He began to pick up his pace walking in quick steps trying not to catch attention from anything. He spotted something in the distance in the middle of the road he couldn't make out anything, apart from a white splotch in the middle of the road.
It was at this point he began to regret not bringing a torch.
He made his way up to the white splotch, getting closer to it he did not find a horrible mess of an inhuman thing.
He instead found a person.
They were huddled in the middle of the street quietly sobbing, they sounded female but he couldn't be to sure due to the area being pitch black and the nearest streetlight being a good distance away. He made his way closer towards the person and approaching them more slowly, trying his best not to catch any attention from this person or scare them.
They screamed again.
Jefferson heard it for about a second before covering up his ears and backing away, hoping that after this person was done he would still be able to hear.
The person finally stopped screaming and Jefferson walked a little closer, his hand managed to find its way to their shoulder before he finally spoke up.
"Excuse me."
They quickly turned around to look at him.
"Do you need some assistance? Because it looks to me as though you require some help"
Their eyes lighted up a little, Jefferson noticed that the colour of their eyes was a bright yellow not the most common colour but when you travelled around different worlds you see all sorts of strange things.
They finally spoke up.
"Oh... I'm... Fine. Thanks for asking, I'll just leave and let you go back home."
As they spoke Jefferson finally found out that this person was female, her voice was hoarse as if it was a struggle to utter her last sentence.
"No you're not, you're in the middle of the street screaming and sobbing." He stood up to his full extent and extended his hand to her. "Please let me help you."
She looked at him and nodded, she took his hand and he led her down the sidewalk. He noticed as they were walking he had to support her and help with her steps along the way. They made it up to his mansion of a house, as they made their way up to his porch light he finally had a good look at the girl.
She was extremely pale and her skin practically reflected light, her hair was dirty looking like it had never been washed and it was matted and tangled beyond belief, he did notice the colour it was about as yellow as her eyes which looked hollow like she never really had a full nights rest, they looked up at him full of fear. She wasn't the definition of perfection but that didn't really bother him.
He unlocked the door and made their way inside. And that was when he noticed the biggest thing with her.
She was naked.
He quickly averted looking at the lower half of her body, his eyes quickly made their way back up to her face.
He decided to say something to try and avoid anything awkward.
"So... You do know that you're... Naked right?"
It was to late for that the situation was about as awkward as it could get.
She looked down as if her being butt naked was no big deal.
"Yeah I know, I just... Don't own any clothes."
"You don't?"
"No..." She swallowed back her sob. "I'm sorry if I'm freaking you out or something else, I can leave if you want me to."
She proceeded to open the door when Jefferson grabbed her arm.
"Don't go please! I don't want to go off on your own."
They looked at each in their eyes they both saw pain and suffering in their glances
"I want to help you so let me. Please."
She looked at him and a faint smile curled up to her lips.
"If you really want to then I don't think I can say no."
He smiled back at her.
"Great so then first things first," He clapped his hands and quickly looked at her. "A bath would most likely work for you, then I can finally get you some clothes I'll probably have to get you some of mine, I have no idea what kind of clothes I have around here or even if I have any others beside my own."
She smiled a little wider before quickly returning to her neutral face.
"I'm sorry, but before that happens I would love to know the name of the nice stranger who didn't chop me up into a million little pieces"
"I'm Jefferson," He replied back while leading her to the bathroom. "So I guess I need to know your name now?"
She gave him a sad smile and said.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know what it is."
"How do you not know?"
They were both standing in the bathroom Jefferson was now drawing a bath for the mysterious woman in his house.
"I just don't... I really don't know anything about myself."
He looked at her with pity, even though he had two realities stuck in his head he at least had some semblance of who he was. Sure both set of memories weren't pleasant but he at least had them. This woman had nothing, she didn't even know who she was.
"Well I need to call you something, so can I give you a name?"
She looked at him with a curious expression before letting out a small laugh. "Sure, I guess giving me a name would be better than nothing at all."
Jefferson quickly went through all the names he could in his head then one popped up.
It was perfect.
"Alice." He whispered.
"Hm?"
He let out a small sniff "Can I call you Alice? Is that okay?"
She looked back up with him before giving him a huge smile. "Yeah! That's great thank you... I would hug you right now but yeah... I'm naked."