Light flooded her vision as Jade suddenly snapped out of the blackness. Her eyes adjusted quickly and she found herself staring into deep crimson eyes less than a foot away from her face. He (she guessed it was a 'he' from the smell of him) almost looked as surprised as she was, but his shock was quickly masked behind a neutral expression. He stood up to his full height, still in her line of vision, his pale blonde hair reflected the bright light on the ceiling. Questions began to flood her mind.

'Who is he? I've never seen him before. Does he go to my school? Where am I? Oh god where am I?'

She knew she wasn't at the club, where she had just been moments ago.

'What happened?'

She remembered having a pounding headache, then… oh.

She blacked out.

Someone had caught her from falling. She remembered voices. Jade was about to ask him what happened and where she was, but she couldn't speak. She tried again. Her mouth didn't even move. She began to panic and tried to sit up. Not even a twitch from her finger. She was paralyzed.

'Ohmygodohymygod. I can't move. I can't talk. Why? Why can't I?"

The blonde left her field of vision, when she realized she was lying on a bed... NOT her bed. The strange guy's bed. She went into full-on panic mode, her mind racing at what was happening. She couldn't move, couldn't talk, and was lying on her back on a stranger's bed. He re-entered her field of vision, looking at her.

'Oh my god. I'm going to be raped. I can't move. He must have put something in my drink while I was talking! I'm such an idiot! Why?! Oh my god! Why me?!'

She tried in vain to move, to do something, pushing all of her will power behind her efforts.

Nothing.

Panic, fear, and desperation clawed at her chest.

'I'm going to be raped oh god… I'm going to be raped!'

Her vision blurred and she felt tears well up and began to run down the sides of her pale face.


Dave was taken off-guard at her surprised gaze, but quickly calmed down, relieved that she was conscious at least. She continued to stare silently at him as he stood up from leaning over her. Meeting her silence, he assumed she was still "waking up" a bit and turned, leaving the room. He locked the front door, took off his shoes, threw his keys on the counter and then headed back into his room. He glanced at her to check that she was still conscious before turning to grab a chair from in his room to sit on. Dave turned back and began to sit down but froze when he saw tears begin to stream down her face.

"Whoa… shit."

The quip escaped his lips as he stood back up in surprise.

'Are you ok?' he almost asked. 'Of course she's not ok dumbass' he chided to himself.

Unsure of what to do, he stood there, leaning forward slightly, and searched her face for answers; as she still was not talking. Her eyes met with his, wide and full of terror. Perplexed, and disturbed by her fear, he though she may be hallucinating or something was medically wrong with her, in addition or caused by the drug. A question formed at his lips and he reached a hand towards her when the girl flinched. Dave halted his movement, surprised by the sudden twitch, and confused by her still terrified gaze which was now fixated on his hand.

Then it hit him, like a freight train.

He threw up his hands up in an 'I surrender' stance , palms open and facing towards her, and leaned back all the while mentally smacking himself repeatedly in the head for being so dense.

" Whoa! Hey, I'm not the bastard here! There is no fucking way I'd sink so low as to drug a chick to get pussy."

'Fuck! I sound like an idiot!'

The girl still looked at him… now with a confused and wary stare. She still looked a little paicked. And still no talking.

"Look. I frequent the club you were at, it's like my second home and I DJ there sometimes. I saw that you were kind of a newbie, so I kept tabs on you because you looked kind of oblivious."

"No offense." He quickly added.

'This story sounds like bullshit!'

He voiced his thoughts.

"Yeah. I know this sounds like a load of horse shit, but the bar tender is practically my uncle... so I kind of help keep an eye out in the place and shit."

He shifted his stance, then gestured an arm out in a shrug.

"But anyways, the name is Dave, Dave Strider… and since you currently can't talk, I can either guess your name till monkeys fly or just look at your ID and solve this mystery."

He reached towards her small bag that was plopped beside her on the bed. He paused, meeting her eyes.

"Don't flip your shit, I'm not going to do anything, ok?"

She seemed to relax a bit, which he took as a sign of trust for the moment. Opening her small bag he fished her ID out of her wallet and glanced at it.

'Jade Harley… huh…'

He saw on the ID that she also was attending one of the neighboring technology schools. Her driver's license showed she was out of state… Waaaaaaaay out of state. He returned her wallet to her purse.

"So Jade…" He mulled over her name for a moment before continuing. "I don't know how long it will be until the drug wears off… I don't know how much or what that fucker even gave you…"

His voice took on a dark tone, seething with disgust as he looked off to the side of his room for a moment before turning his gaze back to her.

"Don't worry, my uncle carded the guy, so he'll get shit for what he pulled."

'He might get a visit from me if he ever decides to show his face again.' He thought darkly.

Dave grabbed the chair, sliding it to him and sat down, and lightened his tone.

"So… you might be stuck here for a bit until you can talk and sort of function."

He leaned back to glance at the clock.

"It's almost 3 in the morning… I suggest you try and sleep it off."

Her gaze turned to one of slight embarrassment.

"Don't worry, just crash there. I swear my sheets are clean."

He shuffled himself in the butterfly chair.

"I'll just crash here, it's no prob. Oh! And your friends have my number, so they know where you are. I'll be able to take you back… wherever, your dorm? When you're feeling ok."

There was a pause of silence. Still no talking.

Dave cleared his throat.

"So, yeah. Um… Do you want me to take off your shoes…? Those look like a hella nightmare to sleep in…"

He got barely a nod, or at least what he thought was a sign of approval. Getting off of his chair, he knelt by her dangling legs and undid the tiny straps that held her wedges on. After both rested to the floor, he stood back up and sat back in his chair.

"Ok, so don't worry about me creepin up on you or anything. My Bro is out of town, so you don't have to worry about his naked ass showing up here suddenly either. Just konk out for a few hours… I'll be here chilling when you wake up."

Dave got up from his chair and flicked off the lights. From the cracks in the blinds, the city light streamed in and gave striped illumination to the room. He returned to his seat and shuffled about a bit, trying to find a comfortable position to catch a few "Zs" in while he waited for Jade to wake up.