Jenny woke up at 8AM sharp. She was in her bedroom, lying in bed, plugged in, fully charged… Her mind immediately went to the events in the woods. Was that a dream? The last thing she remembered was the campfire being destroyed by Mr. Cuddles' remains and then falling into total darkness. For an entire second, Jenny was frozen in fear as the creature in the woods just looked at her. If it'd immediately lunged at her friends in that instant, she wasn't sure if she'd been able to stop it from killing them.
But that's not what really happened. She was able to fall back to plan B; teleport away with the two in tow. This wasn't her favorite plan because of how much more energy it took to bring two people with her, and the range penalty she incurred for being encumbered. She had no idea if they would be safe in the darkness, even a couple hundred meters away from the campsite. After the fire died, however, and they were coated in darkness, this plan started looking like their best bet by far.
Jenny remembered how much more effort it took to move her body in the thick darkness, Saturn and Plural must've been unable to move… Her teleportation must've consumed far more energy than usual for this reason, she didn't think she'd run out at all… What an oversight… What if she didn't have enough reserves to make it to the light? She ended up having to do at least ten jumps, but that part is where her memory gets hazy. Must've entered hibernation mode after.
She looked around her room and saw nothing out of the ordinary. She wondered if it was a dream, but she couldn't actually dream, so it was all real. She didn't unplug or get out of bed, couldn't stop thinking about everything that'd happened. This was the first time she could ever say for sure she'd lost a fight, if you could even call it that. Maybe that's why she lost, because the enemy created an environment where she couldn't fight back. Even now, she couldn't say what mistakes she might've made and what she should've done differently.
This creature in the woods was still around, why did the central alarm system never detect it? Does that mean it's been around for a long time? Has it been taking countless lives while she's been sleazing off in her room? How many others might there be like it?
She was still staring at her ceiling. It was now 8:10AM. Not that she had to be anywhere on a Sunday, but it was unlike her to linger like this. She couldn't stop worrying about facing her friends again after all this… She liked how positively they responded to how different she was, and all the cool things she was able to do. She was oddly looking forward to showing off her qualities, often fantasizing about saving her new friends from all sorts of alien threats, being adored…
Last night was nothing like that… She remembered how she clung to Saturn's arm like a helpless little girl when he needed her most. He'd seen all of her victories on the news and on the internet, but the first time he'd ever witness her like this in person would be her greatest defeat… Plural, on the other hand, probably just made the worst first impression possible of her.
She unplugged herself and got up, walked down the stairs wondering how she could ever face her friends again, when she saw Saturn sleeping on a couch in the living r-
"Jen!"
She received a tight hug from Plural.
"I wasn't sure I plugged it in right!"
That would make this the first time she ever hugged anyone, it was a nice feeling. She got suitably red and replied.
"You brought me home?"
"Of course we did, you saved us!"
She gave Plural a pensive look. Did I really save you? Plural's arms were still around her as she turned to see Saturn had woken up from the commotion.
"Hey, you plugged her in right!"
Jenny didn't respond, just stared at her two friends, surprised at how they didn't seem to hate her. Despite the apparent affection, she was not feeling much better. Saturn gave her a good look.
"You okay? She did plug you in right, right?" he gestured at the spot above his ear.
She finally managed to respond: "Ah! Yeah… I… I hope I didn't h-"
"You can really teleport!" Plural excitedly interrupted her.
"Y-Yeah I-"
"-And you have laser eyes!" Plural excitedly interrupted her.
She hugged her even tighter. Jenny didn't know what to think anymore about the impression she'd given these two last night.
♦
"I have to go back," Jenny muttered.
They were sitting on a rooftop downtown, the other two were having their breakfast beside her. Plural couldn't find anything to eat in Jenny's home, after all. At her insistence, Jenny teleported them up to the roof.
"Yeah, we gotta get our stuff back," Plural replied.
Jenny gave her a difficult look.
"I meant me. It's way too dangerous for you guys."
"We can just go during daytime, we can go today!"
Jenny didn't like that idea. While she was pretty much convinced the creature only came at night, there was no telling what could happen.
"I kind of want my car back… You need your bike, assuming it's still in one piece," Saturn continued.
Jenny didn't change her difficult look.
"Look," he put his sandwich down and faced her.
"Plu and I wanna help you, we already discussed this when we carried you back last night. I think it would be better if we did. Three heads are better than one."
"…you carried me all the way back?" was her main takeaway from that.
"Don't worry about that," he replied.
"You're lighter than I thought!" Plural added.
After a moment, Jenny spoke up: "How do you wanna help out? I don't like it when you guys are in danger. Never had to think about that before..."
He replied: "I want to investigate the woods again. There has to be some sort of clue there. We can bring extra lights, hang them up around the trees, wear them, all that. Of course, we wouldn't stick around for the sun to go down again."
Jenny looked deep in thought.
"His smell was there during the day too, I caught it when I rode past it," she said.
"I think he's vulnerable during the day, like the monster from your story. And I can still track him," she pointed her finger at the flap of hair at the top of her head.
"This is why I wanna go alone, it'll be easy. I'll exterminate him like I always do."
The other two exchanged looks, "Why don't we do both?"
♦
It was 11AM when they returned to the location where Jenny dropped them off the night before, where the unpaved road started. They rode in Plural's car with the windows open, there was no strange smell at all during the ride there. There was, however, the sound of a helicopter in the distance. Were the police investigating here?
"Ah shit, cops," Saturn flopped out.
"What do you mean? Isn't that a good thing?" Jenny asked.
Plural smirked and looked at Jenny in the back seat, "Didn't you know? This guy here is on the most wanted list," pointing her thumb at her passenger seat.
"What!?" Jenny looked genuinely surprised.
The other two looked surprised that she actually believed it.
"That's-" Saturn tried.
"Kidding! He's fine… We're all upstanding citizens!" Plural interrupted him.
Jenny still looked a little starstruck.
"Except Jen, she doesn't wear a helmet," Saturn quipped.
Jenny switched to a little giggle.
They drove to the campsite. When it came into view, they could see Saturn's car sitting in the same state they left it in. Jenny's bike was lying on its side about ten meters away from where she first put the kickstand down. It looked like it had some damage to the blinkers and mirrors, but it was in one piece. Two police officers were also present, looking at them as they approached.
"'Morning officer!" Plural addressed him in a flirty tone as her two passengers exited the car.
"Know anything about this?" he asked her.
Before she could answer him, the second younger officer exclaimed: "Hey, aren't you…" aimed at Jenny. She looked at the ground, waiting for the other officer to call her by her stupid nickname again.
"This stuff is ours," Plural changed the subject. The officer looked back at the camp, particularly at the beheaded bear lying in the center. You couldn't even tell there was a campfire beneath it.
"That was you?" he asked with a serious face.
Saturn jumped in between, catching the officer's attention with his finger.
"Crazy story! That-" he pointed at the bear.
"-we did not do that."
"What did that then?" the officer responded.
"A scary shadow monster!" Jenny blurted out.
The officer stared at her.
"Aren't you glitter girl?"
Jenny emitted a sound like she was punched in the gut.
"Sparkle Princess!" the younger officer corrected him. "It really is her! And if that's the case, she might be telling the truth!"
The older officer looked like he didn't know what was real anymore. Despite how ridiculous this sounded, he knew very well that monsters like this really do appear in this part of the country. He was also well aware of Jenny's services to mankind, he just really didn't like the cringeworthy stage name she'd picked for herself. He exchanged looks with the younger officer, who gave him a thumbs up.
"Okay glory girl," he continued. Jenny made another sound. "- and you two, tell me more about this shadow monster that did that," he pointed at the bear again.
"This place isn't safe!" Jenny started. "When the sun goes down, it comes out and covers the area in complete darkness. Our campfire kept it at bay, until…" her eyes went to Mr. Cuddles.
"It's still here?" the officer asked. The three nodded together. The older officer looked at the younger one again, they nodded.
"It fits, right?" she then looked over at the three upstanding citizens. "We're here on a missing person's case. A married couple went missing here last night. Do you know anything about that?"
Jenny's eyes went wide. The older officer rolled his eyes like he didn't approve of his junior sharing that information. Nobody responded for a while.
"We can't stay here after the sun goes down, then?" the older officer asked Jenny. She was looking at the ground again, looking shocked. She didn't seem to hear the officer's question.
"That's right. We came here to pick up our stuff in broad daylight, find clues… Once it goes dark, you don't stand a chance," Saturn took over. The older officer looked at him with a serious face, he didn't look like he doubted the story.
"Okay…" the officer reached into one of his pockets and retrieved a card. "Here's how to contact us. We'll be sweeping the area looking for the bodies. Don't linger too long," he didn't sound hopeful they'd find the couple alive.
He turned to walk away. Jenny's special status apparently meant the police wouldn't give her a hard time. He approached his younger colleague and turned back one more time before they left; "Anything else we should know?"
In the meantime, Jenny seated herself back where she was when she was still having a good time with her friends last night. Staring at Mr. C's body.
"If you smell rotting corpses, it's him," she muttered, not looking away.
"Okay," the older officer had a stern look, and his eyes went to the ground. "Take care," his younger colleague waved at Jenny as they walked away, but Jenny wasn't looking at them. She had the same look in her eyes now that she did when the creature flung the head at her before. None of them even considered they weren't the only ones in danger that night.
"He already got to them," she mumbled.
"How do you know?" Saturn asked.
"You remember the screaming? The male and female voices?" she asked, still looking at the ground.
Saturn connected the dots.
"Oh fuck…"
Normally he would be optimistic, try to comfort her and hold onto the hope that she was wrong, but he knew better. Nobody spoke much after that, they just loaded the stuff into the cars and onto the bike, which still ran, and went home.
♦
It was now 2PM when the helicopter pilot finally saw something strange on the horizon, it was a figure floating in midair. The pilot called out to the other person on board who was searching the woods, they looked at the figure through binoculars to find that it was, to their relief, a familiar face. Jenny stared at a specific spot in the woods, she floated at the same altitude of a couple hundred meters as the helicopter. Her hair was glowing a similar blue to her sparkles and slightly levitated with her.
The pilot was confident enough to slowly approach her, and Jenny eventually looked their way. She approached the helicopter and entered through the opening on the side. The person holding the binoculars had their mouth agape at the sight of her. Jenny's hair returned to its normal silver color, and she sat down with her legs dangling off the ledge. She pointed at the spot she stared at before.
"The bodies," she gave the person next to her a depressed look.
♦
Plural nervously paced back and forth across her garage, Jenny didn't really give them a chance to help her out further. When they left the campsite to take their stuff back home, she wasn't in a talkative mood and rode faster than they did. She even teleported with her bike to catch a major shortcut back home, leaving the other two in the dust.
Saturn lay on the hood of his car, staring at the sky. He couldn't even think of a way they could be useful to Jenny anymore at this point, she was probably right to go alone, but he didn't like it.
"Ahh! I can't take this!" Plural yelled. The garage door was open, and Saturn's car was parked on her driveway. He didn't say anything back. She walked over.
"Don't you wanna do something?" she prodded him.
He waved his phone around, indicating he was doing something useful on it. She sat down with her back against the car.
From what Plural could see, he was browsing sites about creature sightings. Two minutes later, he locked his phone and dropped it on his chest, staring at the sky.
"Isn't Jenny just the cutest thing though?"
Plural perked up and looked surprised to hear it. Not at the idea that he felt that way, but that he'd so blatantly say it. They never really talked about what they thought of Jenny between each other before. When they invited her to go camping, it was on impulse. Saturn knew it was sudden, but he had a feeling Plural wouldn't have a problem with her.
"I know, right!" Plural's mood immediately improved as she put her elbows on the car's hood and cupped her head in her hands. "Is that a crush I see?" she followed up.
"Hmph, speak for yourself," he responded. "Can't even keep your hands off of her!"
"Not the same thing!" she stuck out her tongue.
Before he could respond, he spotted an object descending from the sky, accompanied by the sound one might associate with a flying saucer. Jenny touched down onto the driveway with her hair glowing bright blue, which faded back to normal. She gave the two a nervous wave.
"Did you get him?" Saturn asked.
"No… He wasn't there," she responded.
Her friends didn't expect to hear that.
"I found the bodies of the missing couple, police recovered them. They're sealing the area."
Her friends didn't respond.
"I'll go again tonight. He has to be out there somewhere..."
She looked at her friends expecting them to say something, maybe to tell her that it's dangerous…
"I hope you park the fool. I'm always rooting for you," Saturn winked at her.
Jenny blushed a little, it felt like he just said something sincere to her.
"Keep us posted?" Plural held up her phone.
Jenny nodded at her, turned around and teleported away. Blue sparks flew across the driveway and they could feel a mild shockwave in the air. They felt useless now, but they knew better than to demand Jenny involve them further. All they could do was have faith in her and wait.
♦
It was now nighttime, and Jenny found herself at the point next to the woods she was more than familiar with. The unpaved road was no longer accessible, closed off by the police. She teleported her vehicle across the blockade and rode on into the darkness.
She drove a car this time. It looked like any unremarkable car, except for the abundance of light units Jenny had installed. The car effectively shone multiple high beams in each direction, including up. For now, Jenny drove with the lights off so she could see the environment. As long as she could see using her night vision, she wasn't inside the creature's realm yet. Besides that, she drove with the windows open, so she could smell it.
Jenny really did want to deal with this thing tonight and return to her normal life the next day. Worse yet, her irrational fear of the dark was still present. It wasn't as bad as before, she knew the creature she was dealing with now, looked it in the eyes, although it never showed its true form. There was plenty left unknown to her, and fear of the unknown was exactly what messed with her head. If she could just catch the stench again, she could get this over with…
Unfortunately for her, she'd spend hours roaming around the woods, finding nothing. She had a gut feeling this might happen since she didn't detect the smell during the daytime either. Did it really move? She would have to expand her search to the area around the woods. It couldn't be in the city, could it? There are way too many lights there.
Jenny decided to patrol some other areas. Not by car anymore, but by flying. This way she could cover ground faster. Unlike her bike, the car was able to drive itself around, following her as she flew. She could call on it when she found the creature and it wouldn't be too far behind.
♦
Plural lay awake in her bed. She thought about how Jenny was probably patrolling the area this very moment, maybe even engaging the creature. If she'd already defeated it, she probably would have sent a text, like she asked. Her phone on the drawer didn't go off all night.
She was never really afraid of the dark before now, but after this experience, she couldn't help but feel some shivers being alone in her dark bedroom. The thought that Jenny was probably flying around the night sky right now, not even that far away, made her feel a bit safer.
She couldn't help but see the two dots in the corner of her eyes sometimes, in a dark corner of her room. Every time she looked, there was nothing there.
She recalled how she and Saturn returned Jenny's body home. They'd called a taxi to take them straight to Jenny's house, since that's where she said they could plug her in. The taxi driver didn't ask difficult questions.
During the ride home, she looked out the window at the darkness beyond the street lights. Like in the dark corners of her bedroom, she would sometimes see those same two dots staring at the car from deep into the darkness. At the time, she did not feel like she was hallucinating it at all. Was it fast enough to follow the car? Even though it couldn't keep up with Jenny's teleportation?
When they entered the safety of the city, she couldn't spot the two dots anywhere anymore, but she still felt like they were constantly being watched. When they arrived at Jenny's house, the door unlocked itself for them. Once inside, they had to look around for any plugs resembling the socket they found above Jenny's ear and eventually found it next to her bed. She was the one who put Jenny to bed. When she plugged her in, there was no feedback, leaving her unsure if she did it right. At the time, she figured she'd go downstairs and check on her later but fell asleep instead.
Even now, she wondered if the creature was watching her. Was it watching them then? There was never any strange smell, not that she'd be able to smell much from the taxi drive. She wondered if the creature was smart enough to know where the taxi stopped. Did it follow them home? To Jenny's home? Surely it wouldn't come here… She clutched her phone to her chest. Hoping that it'd vibrate with message from Jenny in the group chat. She imagined a selfie depicting Jenny making a peace sign and sticking out her tongue, with the charred remains of the creature behind her.
♦
It was 4AM when Jenny gave up her search and decided to head back home. She was running low on power and had to go to work again the next day, she wondered if she was ever going to run into it again…
On her way home, she made sure to fly by Saturn and Plural's houses, using her x-ray vision to check if they were safe and sound. At home, she went straight to her bedroom and plugged herself in, slightly dialing up the charging speed to make up for shorter sleep. The car returned to the garage ten minutes after she did and parked itself. When she heard the garage door open and close, she slowly drifted into hibernation.
…
She did enter hibernation, right? Things were not right. She couldn't tell how much time had passed, and she couldn't see anything except a pulsating red dot at the top of her head. She also wasn't charging anymore, the charger was unplugged. She got up to look around her but felt a massive resistance to any movement she made. In addition to the thick darkness around her, she could feel strange appendages touching her body. Her first impression was like she was being groped by an octopus, but these things were no tentacles. She knew exactly what was touching her.
She could see something now, the two familiar dots, could tell they were floating against the ceiling of her room. Was it hunched over? Jenny couldn't calm down, she was caught off guard and the darkness was getting to her. On impulse, she lasered in between the two dots again, but it didn't stop what it was doing at all. She wasn't sure what exactly it was… that it was doing to her. If it was trying to somehow eat or crush her, it didn't have enough strength for it. Short of nuclear warheads, no weapon in the world could even cut a hair on Jenny's head. As far as interstellar visitors were concerned, they'd have to toss her into the sun to get rid of her.
In a panic, she teleported away from it and landed at the park behind her house. That was her aim anyway, she could tell she landed on grass, but everything was still pitch black. The realization started setting in, she was definitely outside in the park in her own city. Did the creature blanket the whole city in darkness? Did it kill the power to the city somehow? So many things she didn't consider.
Jenny knew she'd temporarily escaped the creature but could already hear its indescribable footsteps coming for her. She didn't teleport far enough to get it off her tail. Now that she knew that even the city wasn't safe, running away was no longer an option. On the bright side, she was happy the creature was going after her instead of any innocent people.
The appendages started working at her again as she stood there, Jenny managed to calm down enough to realize nothing had changed from when she was hunting it. She sent a signal to her home computer, starting the car and opening the garage door. She waited for the garage door to signal it'd completely opened and the car was able to leave, but the signal didn't come. As she moved her head she realized that the darkness probably impeded everything that moved, and the garage door didn't have enough power to overcome it. This meant the car wouldn't have enough power to ram through the door from a standstill either.
She decided to use her own hands to check the creature out, feeling its creepy appendages, they were attached to a larger thing. It felt completely cold and it didn't budge when she squeeze tested it. She had enough of an idea what she was holding to know everything on its body was connected to this single thing.
She sent one last signal to the car to turn on all the lights, the car reported that it did. She couldn't have been more than ten meters away from her garage. If it couldn't come to her, she would take the creature to the car instead.
In one instant, Jenny's surroundings went from complete darkness to almost completely white. The creature unleashed the worst shriek she ever heard, this time it didn't sound human at all, but completely alien. She felt it trying to get away from her, but she held it tight enough. She could feel the creature getting weaker by the second. Where she was unable to hurt it before, she could now almost crush the thing. She would've liked to finally see what it looked like, but she couldn't see a thing with all the lights.
When she thought it would finally stop shrieking and die, she felt the creature's body change into a different form. She couldn't tell for sure what it did, but she was no longer able to crush it. Its horrifying shriek transformed too, sounding more human, before it stopped making sound completely. Jenny was lost for ideas and froze. Did it die? Her hope faded as she felt two hands grabbing hers. They felt like human hands now, but they grabbed her tight, way tighter than a human would be able to. Jenny turned the car's lights off, it didn't sound like it was still being affected by light anymore anyway.
The creature's hands were exercising so much strength on her that she had to let go. She couldn't believe it, nothing ever matched her power like this before. When the lights died and she opened her eyes, and she was horrified to find a figure who looked exactly like her. It looked at its own hand like it was impressed by what it just did to her. Did the creature take her form? It wasn't wearing anything, and Jenny could tell that everything was a perfect match.
Its gaze moved around the room now. Jenny could tell from its eyes that it was using her night vision to look around the now dark garage interior. The implications were bad… Did it really become an exact copy of her? Was it as powerful as she was? Jenny knew the answer to that, its gripping strength alone was proof enough. She couldn't bring herself to make the first move, it felt wrong to attack something, no, someone who looked human. Someone who looked like herself.
Other Jenny now looked her straight in the eyes. Raised its hand, a slight smile, and waved her a casual goodbye. Followed by a bang and sparkles, it disappeared. That last display suggested the creature understood what a hand wave means. If nothing else, it had a sense of humor. Its sparkles were colored red instead of blue.