Caroline awoke abruptly from a recurring nightmare that she had been having since Keith passed. 

[i]Arguments are being spewed back and forth between Keith and Caroline. She throws some sort of dishware at his head, and it breaks on the wall behind him. He curses as her, and she returns the favor by screaming "I wish I never married you, asshole." The fighting continues until the next thing she knows, she is in bed with him in a steamy moment, and everything seems fine again. The dream continues to seem like a good one until Caroline wakes up in her bed in a cold sweat and rolls over to seek comfort from Keith, only to find his lifeless, bloody corpse laying there. She tries to scream but cold, nimble hands with long fingers wrap around her face and cover her mouth and begin to drag her into a dark corner of the room. She begins clawing at the floor and crying for him to stop, but the creature doesn't.[/i] 

She popped up from the couch as she heard Thomas’s voice come from the kitchen. She was panting, and her eyes were frantically searching her surroundings until she made sense of the apartment. [i]Okay. Okay. Okay. You’re okay. It’s okay.[/i] She was completely fed up with that dream. It usually took her hours to recover when she awoke from it, but the calming energy of the man's house made her feel a little bit at ease. She met Thomas’s eyes and looked away. She was embarrassed. Her blonde long hair was whipped in every direction and the blanket was bunched up around her. She immediately began to dig through her bag on the floor until she found a joint in the front pocket. She lit it and took a deep breath of the smoke, exhaling it slowly. She looked back over to him and chuckled. “Better than a melatonin.” 

She noticed the clock on the wall. 5:00am. Jesus. “You always up this early?” she asked with a confused look. For a man who looked so tired, she couldn’t fathom why he would be drinking coffee to stay awake at this hour. Since she had been alone, Caroline was sleeping in until at least noon everyday. With no art being commissioned and no errands to run, she had become very lazy. Lazy with an excuse for it, but still lazy. Maybe after this thing left her alone, she would be able to get back to life again. She promised herself she wouldn't dance anymore, but the money seemed too good to pass up at a time like this. Plus, it didn't take any mental ability to do it. 

After finishing the joint, she licked her fingers and put it out and turned her attention back to the man in the kitchen. "Mind if I have a cup? I'm not picky," she asked as she forced a smile. Caroline wondered what would happen in the day ahead of them, but instead of worrying herself or badgering him about it, she decided just to leave it up to the imagination. For now.