A/N: Yes this chapter made me change the rating to Mature due to light guro and vomitting. Please proceed with caution

It was Sunday, which meant only one thing to most of the workers: pay day had arrived. Wanting to go get some new clothes and hair products, Fritz made sure to get there at the crack of noon. Everyone else was filing into the building by then, some looking more sleep deprived than others due to not waking up that early. Though it was never too early for Fritz Smith when cash was involved.

Cheyenne was helping Fransisco hand out the sealed checks as people crowded into the office to get their pay. Cheyenne herself had also looked pretty tired, like she barely slept last night. She muttered Fritz's name when looking through the stack of checks in her hand and handed Fritz her check. Fritz hurriedly squeezed out of the crowd so she could get to the stores before the lunch rush crowded the roads.

That is, until she saw Payton leaning against the wall and opening his check. This was actually one of the best conditions Fritz had seen Payton in since Erika's death. Sure, he still looked constantly worn-out, but at least he had put an effort into looking presentable.

"Yo, Pay!" Fritz exclaimed as she walked over to Payton. Payton stopped his task and smiled at Fritz.

"Hey F-F-Fritz," he replied, "S-See you 're h-happy about g-getting payed."

"Why wouldn't I be? Sunday's like a holy day for workers here. Pay checks give us life, and without them we're pretty much mole people eating dirt."

Payton chuckled at Fritz's exaggeration. "Y-Yeah, g-getting payed is a b-benefit of this j-job."

"I bet you got a fat paycheck. How much is it anyways?"

"Enough to p-pay Jeremy's r-r-rent this m-month. H-He's been so h-hospitable, I-I-I have to m-make it up to him."

"Aw, what a nice guy!" Fritz said, playfully punching Payton in the arm, "Say, where is he anyways? He's always super eager to get his paycheck so he can smoke more."

Payton's smile faded and he looked at the ground, then up at the ceiling. "Um, h-he, uh… s-should've been back b-by now. P-Probably s-s-stayed up l-late. M-Maybe he d-did a morning s-session, too."

"Back from what? Clubbing? Yoga? Spit it out, man!"

Payton's cheeks lightly flushed. "O-Oh, uh… y-y-y'know how h-he and B-Ben have become, um… c-closer, recently?

"What the- oh…," Fritz said when it finally hit her, "To be honest, I didn't expect him to willingly go back so quickly."

"Y-Yeah, i-it's only b-been a week s-since they f-first did i-it."

"I know. I thought it'd be like three weeks tops until he even looked at Ben again. You think Jeremy fell for him?"

"I-I don't know. J-Jeremy doesn't s-s-seem like the t-type to f-fall in l-love that q-quickly."

"He's full of surprises, trust me," Fritz responded, "Hey, I'm going out drinking with Jack and some others later. You wanna go?"

"N-Nah, I'm t-trying n-not to d-drink as m-much…" Payton said quietly.

"Oh shit, I forgot. Sorry."

"I-It's alright."

The two stood together in awkward silence until Payton change the subject. "H-Hey, y-you knew Jeremy i-in high s-school, r-right?" he asked.

"Yep," Fritz confirmed, "We were pretty close buddies. I mean, a gay black girl and a bi-curious Native American boy weren't exactly popular with the normal crowd, so we just had each other, y'know?"

"I, uh, g-get it. Ever s-slept over a-a-at his h-house, o-or, uh, v-vice versa?"

"Once after a party he let me crash on his couch for the night. His mom was super cool about it and she let me eat breakfast there that morning. That was the only time. Why?"

"O-Oh just w-wondering… d-did he h-have, um, nightmares w-when he was i-in high s-school?"

"Nightmares? Don't we all?"

"I-I mean like… v-vivid nightmares. L-Like when y-you wake up screaming."

Fritz shook her head and looked concerned. "No, never," she replied, "He never mentioned having that bad of dreams. Is he OK?"

"U-Um, well, t-two days ago…" Payton began, trying to remember as best as he could.

Two nights ago he had been up late after being unable to take the nap he wanted to take and watching some reruns of The Price is Right, keeping the volume just above a whisper to not awake Jeremy in the other room. Jeremy had spent the night with Ben the previous night, and had a shift that night, so he needed his sleep. So, nothing new.

Though Payton practically jumped out of his seat and suffered a momentary heart attack when a scream pierced the air. It wasn't hard to know it came from Jeremy's room. However, Payton had never heard Jeremy express such an emotion before, so this was new. It was as if he had been shot in the kneecap while he was asleep. Payton leapt out of his spot on the couch, put some pajama pants over his briefs, and rushed to Jeremy's room.

He found Jeremy sitting up in his bed when he rushed in. Jeremy was attempting to light a cigarette and not being too successful with it due to his visibly shaking hands. He had one hand firmly clutching his abdomen. He snapped his head to Payton's direction when he came in, eyes as wide as a deer in headlights.

"J-Jeremy…" Payton said, "Y-You doing o-okay? W-What was t-that?"

"N-Nothing!" Jeremy snapped while the cigarette was still hanging out of his mouth, obviously trying to act cool, "J-Jus' a… dream. Got a b-bit scared there, 's all. Just a dream, just a dream."

"You s-sure? S-Scared me half t-to death there."

"Yeah, yeah, I just o-overreacted," Jeremy said as he finally lit the cigarette. He inhaled the deadly smoke with relief, but was still shaking. Payton was teased as being gullible by some co-workers, but he certainly wasn't stupid.

"R-Really? Y-You look u-upset, and…," Payton responded, temporarily getting distracted when he noticed small water droplets at the corners of Jeremy's eyes- another thing Jeremy never did. "Wait, a-are you c-crying?"

"What, no! Argh, j-just leave me alone, will ya?"

Payton was very concerned for his friend, but didn't want to be yelled at any more. He carefully shut the door and sighed. For a moment, Jeremy almost looked like Erika when she had a bad dream and sobbed into Payton's chest in the middle of the night. 'Erika…' he thought as a pit formed in his chest.

The last things Payton remembered doing before leaving for work that day was drowning out the painful memory in alcohol and not seeing Jeremy at all the rest of the evening.

"H-He looked s-so upset…" Payton finished in the present, "I've n-never seen h-him like that before. W-Wish I could've d-done something."

Fritz gave a worried expression, but smile gently at Payton. "He probably just needed alone time," Fritz replied, "You're fine."

"I-I just hope h-he is." Even if Payton did absolutely nothing wrong, he still felt guilty. But Fritz's sympathetic words and arm rub helped a bit, at least at that moment.

"Well, see you around, Pay. Keep me updated on Jeremy if you can."

"S-Sure," Payton said, waving Fritz good-bye as she headed for the front door of the club. Payton went out the back and drove back to Jeremy's place without the radio on, just silence veiled over the engine running and traffic noises outside. He considered calling Jeremy to see how he was, but he didn't want to bother Jeremy again, especially if he was exhausted from the night before.

When he went through the front door, he was greeted by the TV being on and a pair of shoes sitting next to the door. An empty cup of yakisoba sat on the coffee table with a fork stuck in it.

"Hey, J-Jeremy," Payton said, attempting to sound positive.

Jeremy never responded to that greeting. He just blankly stared at the TV as he lied on the couch without any emotion or life in his eyes. Payton ate breakfast at the table in silence.

Saturday night was ruined when Jeremy woke up in a cold sweat. He sat up in Ben's bed and breathed heavily after almost screaming. This had been one of the worst nightmares he had had in awhile, and the worst part was that it had felt so real.

Jeremy came into consciousness when he was sitting up at the head of a bed with his shirt off in Ben's room. Ben was seated between his open legs, head down at Jeremy's stomach- literally. Jeremy's abdomen had been split open to reveal his entrails and organs spilling out, and Ben was feasting on him with delight. However, it wasn't painful, though Jeremy still felt scared by the calmness of a horrid situation.

Ben stopped eating and looked up at Jeremy, wiping his bloody mouth with his white shirt sleeve. He gave a sickening and lustful smile at Jeremy. "You rotten pig," dream Ben said in a husky voice, "Even your inside are dirty, and you love it when I tear you apart. A pitiful creature like you can't escape me. How disgusting."

Jeremy couldn't respond, not because he was scared but because he physically couldn't say anything. He could only watch as Ben's talked to him and blood ran down his face.

"You're a sinful man, Mr. Fitzgerald."

Suddenly, dream Ben's face melted into the sickening pale face with dripping black eyes and crooked smile- the one present in so many other nightmares. The thing that once resembled Ben opened its mouth to a sea of teeth and went into to bite Jeremy's face. Then the dream ended at that last flash of black.

That was a particularly horrible dream, and Jeremy swore it was real. He felt his abdomen as a safe measure, and was relieved to find all of his organs in place where they belong. He looked over at Ben, who was thankfully still asleep, or at least looked asleep seeing how still he was.

Then something stirred within Jeremy, and it wasn't fear this time. He hopped out of the bed and locked himself inside of Ben's bathroom. He then emptied all of the contents of his stomach, mostly consisting of that night's wine from Ben's shelf and dinner's fast food, into the toilet.

A good amount of time afterwards was spent leaning against the sink base on the floor to deal with his spinning head and feeling like he was falling apart in his brain. The whole world seemed unreal in the white-tiled and cream-colored walled bathroom. The smell alone was almost too clean, and almost made Jeremy's stomach freak out again.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" Jeremy muttered, really wishing he had a cigarette right now.