The next thing Jenny saw was her good old bedroom ceiling. It was dark outside, with moonlight shining through her window. Jenny needed a second to process what she'd just been through before gasping and reaching for her neck. All was good. Everything attached, no damage, like Crawling Chaos had ever even touched her.
Jenny lifted herself up and noticed she wasn't plugged in like she was supposed to be. When she looked at the charger on her nightstand, she saw that the cable had been neatly returned, like someone unplugged her on purpose. Yet, she was on a full charge, even though it wasn't morning yet.
She moved her legs to the side of her bed to get out and noticed a piece of furniture at the end of the room that wasn't supposed to be there. A small couch from another room. On it, a close friend slept.
Jenny froze and blushed a little. What was he doing in her bedroom in the middle of the night? She didn't remember inviting him or moving that couch into this room before she went to sleep.
Jenny looked around for any other clues about what could've possibly happened, then scoured her memories just in case she'd invited him over and forgotten about it. But when she tried to recall the night before, all she felt was that awful sensation of her head being pulled off in her dream.
She quietly stood up and walked over to him, nervously rubbing her arm and being glad that it was all just a dream, and she was still here.
When she reached Saturn's side, she nervously hopped up and down, hoping he'd wake up on his own, wondering what she would say if he did. She wanted to voice her concerns about him sneaking in here without her knowledge, just without being too mean. Without ruling out the possibility of spending the night in the future…
Thankfully, standing close enough did the trick, and Saturn opened his eyes. His gaze went to the window first, then to Jenny, then to her eyes. Then, his eyes went wide, and he jolted up in shock.
"H-Hey…" Jenny hesitantly said.
"Holy shit," Saturn uttered.
His reaction made things no less confusing for her.
Saturn grabbed the side of his forehead. "I'm not dreaming this, am I?"
"I don't think so. D-Did you sleepwalk here?"
"Did I— No…" he stuttered as he stood up from the couch and took Jenny in for a hug. "You're alive!"
A confused Jenny slowly settled her hands on his back and returned the hug. Saturn's strange behavior puzzled her, and she checked her internal clock just to see if perhaps…
"Ten days!?" Jenny gasped.
Saturn pulled her away and looked her in the eyes, leaving his hands on her shoulders and examining her.
"What's going on? What happened?" Jenny asked in a slight panic.
"You were out for almost two weeks."
Jenny blinked her eyes, then gasped when she remembered…
"The hearing!"
"What?" Saturn frowned, "Jen, screw the hearing. We all thought you were dead!"
Jenny started trembling. The sensations were coming back to her with increasing intensity.
"I died…"
Saturn steadily held her arms and guided her back to the bed so she could sit down.
"It's okay, you didn't die."
A trembling Jenny looked him in the eyes as he sat down next to her.
"No, I died."
She felt her neck again. Sometimes, when she moved her limbs, she second-guessed herself on whether everything was okay in there. In the meantime, Saturn was rubbing her back.
"You died in your dream?"
Jenny nodded.
"I guess that's why you took so long to wake up," he said.
Jenny zoned out while nodding.
"Wanna… talk about it?" he asked, looking a bit uncomfortable.
Jenny looked up at him with a spaced-out look, then turned her head the other way. She would rather completely forget about it than recount the events to him. At the same time, Saturn stopped rubbing her back, like he took it as some kind of signal. Seeking to fix her mistake, Jenny turned her head back his way and rested it on his shoulder.
"Maybe later…"
Hesitantly, Saturn extended his arm over Jenny's shoulder, and they sat there in silence. At first, he seemed tense and nervous, but after some time, he started wiggling his toes around and seemed bored instead.
"It's crazy," he said. "Now I'm feeling like we were stupid to worry."
Jenny said nothing back. When she woke up, she assumed she'd only dreamed for a couple of hours in the real world, not ten days. Her mind was still racing with all the possible consequences of her extended absence.
Then, Saturn pointed at the couch in front of them.
"We took turns, uhm… keeping watch. Me, Plu, Tee…. That's why I was, uh…"
Jenny, still resting her head on his shoulder, looked at him without saying anything. He pulled his arm back and gave a bashful smile.
"What?"
Jenny smiled back at him.
"I'm glad I didn't die for real."
Saturn looked down to the ground and had a look on his face like he had something to confess.
"I'm glad you didn't die, either," he said without making eye contact.
Then, he stood up and picked up his coat from the small couch.
"You're leaving?" Jenny asked with visible disappointment on her face.
In response, he did that same thing again where he looked like he was going to say something important but instead swallowed his words.
"You want me to stay?" he asked, turning back to Jenny.
Whatever was going on with him, he was easily swayed, and he lowered his coat back onto the couch. This gave Jenny the confidence to steer the moment into the direction she wanted, which was for him to keep her company.
She crawled back onto the bed, made herself comfortable and tapped the spot next to her. She felt like a seductress, luring him in to do something evil to him or something, and she was surprising even herself. Did he think the same thing? Or was she just being silly?
Either way, Saturn complied and crawled onto the bed next to her. Jenny was already lying down with her head on her hands, facing him, and he did the same. For a moment, they just lay there, looking at each other, like they were having a staring contest to see who would laugh first. Jenny was the first to break eye contact and look away.
"Remember the monster I showed you guys on my phone?"
Saturn raised his eyebrow.
"Mister 'Tep?"
Jenny nodded.
"He's the one who killed me," she said without looking at him.
"You fought Him? No wonder you died," he grinned.
Jenny stuck out her tongue at him.
"How'd you even manage to pick a fight?" Saturn asked on.
Jenny made a difficult face.
"He was making people suffer. Making the girls explode on stage…"
Saturn listened and didn't interrupt.
"Top Moments didn't want me to go, but I did anyway." Jenny went on. "Then I lost, and He's still out there."
Her conversation partner still listened carefully.
Jenny turned to lie on her back and looked at the ceiling. "I don't know if I did the right thing… My life used to be so easy before I met you guys. It was like nothing could touch me."
Restlessly, Jenny turned around again to face him. She didn't look him in the eyes, but she did take his hand and started playing with it without thinking.
"And I've been losing non-stop ever since," she complained.
Saturn rolled his eyes.
"You have not been losing non-stop."
"You weren't there to see the way things were before," Jenny frowned and finally looked him in the eyes.
"Hey, I know what you were up to. I was a fan, remember?"
He was now rubbing Jenny's hand back with his own thumb, and he was perfectly calm about it. Jenny, meanwhile, was touching his hand with both of her hands now, and when it dawned on her what she was doing—and that he was doing it back—her cheeks turned red.
"Still am," he added.
"Really?" she asked, embarrassed.
"You're always doing the right thing, even if you think you've lost," he said, now lying on his back.
He was giving her his classic smile she found so comforting, and the moonlight illuminated his face through the window behind her.
"Knowing you," he continued as his thumb made another pass across her palm, "you probably did the same thing in your dream."
Jenny blushed and didn't let go of his hand.
"I'm sorry," she said, "for being gone so long."
"Don't…" Saturn chuckled and looked the other way.
"I used to be in a relationship with a girl who told me every little thing I did was wrong, and I believed her. It's a massive waste of time," he said.
Jenny looked at him with wide eyes. She was dying to know these kinds of things about her friends but never dared ask. Now, here he was, telling her of his own initiative.
"Anyway, you're the last person in the world who should be blaming herself for anything," Saturn said, like he was brushing off the topic that he himself had started.
Jenny stared at him in awe, and he looked back at her with insecure eyes.
"You've had a girlfriend?" Jenny asked with sparkles in her eyes.
Saturn looked caught off-guard, like he didn't expect that to be Jenny's takeaway from his story. He exhaled and looked up at the ceiling.
"Yeah I… Little more than one, actually…" he gave Jenny a surprised smile. "Does that bother you?" he asked with a teasing grin.
Jenny pouted at him.
"How many?"
"Uhh…" Saturn looked away. "That's not important. I've changed. I don't fool around anymore."
Jenny wasn't happy with him dodging the question. She asked again.
"How many?"
He looked back at her, then made a thinking face, counting them in his head.
"Eleven."
Jenny let go of his hand and pushed herself up into a sitting position, looking shocked.
"What!?"
Saturn grinned at her reaction.
"You're so transparent, it's adorable."
Jenny lay back down and crossed her arms.
"How is that even possible? Aren't we the same age? Sorta…"
"I don't know. Wiki says you're only ten."
"That's not…" Jenny rubbed her cheek, "I didn't start at zero, okay?"
"So, what is it really?"
"Well," Jenny explained, "when she activated me, my mom got me an ID saying I'm fifteen, because that's the age kids are required to have an ID."
"I guess we are the same age, then."
Jenny lay back down on her back, then gave him an incredulous look when she remembered the original topic.
"But did any of your eleven girlfriends happen before you turned fifteen?"
"It's not that big a deal. It was a phase," Saturn said dismissively.
Jenny looked doubtful. Easy for him to say.
"I'm much happier with my life right now than a year ago," he said with a smile.
Jenny looked back at him with her hands resting on her belly.
"Were you… different? Back then?" she asked.
Saturn thought for a bit, then rolled his eyes.
"Yeah. Total fuckboy."
Jenny wiggled her feet.
"Wanna see?" he asked and grabbed his phone.
Jenny furiously nodded. Saturn complied and scrolled through his gallery to find a suitable photo.
"Here. I'm sure you can guess which one I am," he said as he handed Jenny the phone.
In the photo, he was with some friends, looking much younger than he did now. He had all-black clothes, piercings, and he was as handsome as ever. She could see why he called himself a fuckboy.
This was the first time Jenny ever got to see older photos of someone close to her. He seemed far more mature today than in the photo, however long ago it was. She looked at the photo, then over the phone at him, then back to the photo, then back at him again. He wasn't bothered. In fact, he rested one hand underneath his head like he was posing for it.
"Anyway. How about you?" he asked.
"I look the same now as I did ten years ago," Jenny replied with a tone of disappointment.
"That I already know," Saturn replied.
Jenny gave him a curious look.
"No. How many boyfriends or girlfriends have you had?" he clarified.
"You're joking, right?" Jenny said as her cheeks turned red.
"A little, maybe…"
Jenny pouted as they stared at each other, laying on their sides.
"Ze-ro," she said sassily.
Saturn licked his teeth as he smiled.
"What?" Jenny asked grumpily.
"I figured," he replied.
Jenny pinched her eyes shut and stuck out her tongue at him. He returned his own in response.
When Jenny opened her eyes again, she flipped herself over until she lay on her stomach, then buried the bottom half of her face in her arms so only her eyes poked out, then looked at him while wiggling her toes and enjoying the silence.
"Do you… swing that way at all?" Saturn hesitantly asked.
"What way?"
"Any of them…" Saturn responded, carefully thinking of his words.
Jenny looked puzzled.
"'Cause, you know…" he said as he moved his arms up and down while making robot sounds.
That amused Jenny, but she hid her smile behind her arm. Since they first met, Saturn had been growing noticeably more comfortable around her, culminating in his first-ever racist joke about her tonight. She didn't mind, it made her happy.
"I think I do," she said, finally responding to his big question.
The way she phrased her answer made it seem like it wasn't ever on her mind, while in reality there was nothing she wanted more than friendship and romance.
Saturn seemed pleased with the answer. He looked at her, waiting for her to elaborate.
"I… feel things… sometimes…" Jenny continued.
"Like what?" he asked with a flirty face.
Jenny looked away, took her pillow and hugged it.
"Like… when I watch romantic movies…" She looked awkward and pressed her face against the pillow. "I like romantic movies…"
Her eyes jumped on him when he didn't say anything back.
"Different topic!" she exclaimed.
Saturn rolled onto his back and broke eye contact.
"Okay, okay… I got what I wanted."
Jenny relaxed a bit after that. It was only now that Jenny realized she'd completely forgotten about that awful ending to her dream and was instead enjoying a romantically charged chat with someone in the middle of the night. It was like nothing else mattered, and she'd forgotten about all of her worries.
Saturn looked like he felt the same way. When he turned his head back to her and made eye contact, he looked like she had his undivided attention.
"What were you like ten years ago?" he asked.
Jenny thought back to her early years.
"Probably an annoying little shit. I hated my mom… and she was the only person I knew. I lived my life from my bedroom up until not too long ago…"
Talking about it out loud was almost embarrassing for her.
"But you turned out fine," Saturn said with a smile.
Jenny gave a flattered smile back. "You think so?"
"Everybody's weird in some way, Jen, if that's what you mean. Hell, I don't even think you're the weirdest person among our friends."
Jenny smiled and wiggled her feet. Even something so simple as being called a "person" made her feel good. And he wasn't just being nice to her, either. They did share some of the strangest friends.
They spent some time in silence, laying on their sides, looking at each other.
This time, Jenny was the first to speak.
"Do you think… we're only friends by chance? Because no-one else talked to me before you did?"
Saturn frowned at her.
"Are you doubting yourself again?"
"I'm not!" Jenny pleaded. "Friendships are complicated! It's been bothering me…"
"I guess in another timeline, someone else could've talked to you first and stolen you from us," he answered her question with a grin.
Hearing that, Jenny made a difficult face.
"I'm glad that didn't happen."
"Hey! You don't even know alter-Jenny's friends! Maybe they're great!"
"Pass."
Saturn leaned his head on his hand.
"Well, if you put it that way… I'd probably pass on alter-me's friends, too."
Jenny smiled at him.
After that, some more silence followed.
"I didn't approach you out of chance. You know that," Saturn spoke with a sleepy tone. "I like being your friend. It's exciting."
Jenny wiggled her feet.
"I can't wait to be in danger again," he added.
Jenny clenched her fists and gave him a pleading look.
"You have no idea what that does to my… heart…"
"Well, enjoy it. Maybe one day, you'll miss those feelings."
One day…
Her life had been so turbulent for these past months, who knows what would happen next. Saturn was probably right.
Jenny stared at the ceiling with a conflicted look. She couldn't help but worry about the future that she had no control over.
Then, she looked back at Saturn, who'd fallen asleep. There was something endearing about it, like he was dropping his guard around her and trusting her with his defenseless state. Jenny relaxed, forgot about her worries and enjoyed the present moment.
♦
Three days until Crawling Chaos finds Jenny's world.