Dust to Dust

22

Warning : This chapter involves a scene with a slightly graphic action of self harm. 

They had stayed together all evening, and were eventually split up when Calvin came looking for him and he went back to his cabin for the night. Tomorrow was the first step to really getting to know Jasper. Whatever he was holding back was coming out. Clearly it was long and bad enough to cry about for an hour, and he was in desperate need of a very long talk. That argument from earlier needed to be cast aside until the time was right again. She would just try her best to not come off as aggressive the next time.

She would finally be able to sleep okay tonight. It was comforting knowing that steps were being taken to help Jasper. Just thinking of him would be enough to be at peace for the night. How she felt about Jasper was still unclear. Sure he was cute, and overall a good person, or that's what she had seen anyway. He did have his issues with attachment, but nobody was perfect, and she was willing to put up with it. She just needed time to think things over, and surely overtime, it would be easier to tell. She was so close to drifting off with him on her mind, but the familiar sounds of talking began just past the wall. Who decided to put her on the bed next to the wall where the adherents and Asher roam around at night? Right. It was her.

She could have easily gone to sleep if the talking wasn't... unusual. Someone was yelling. It was far more aggressive than any of the other times they had gone to the offering place. She could only assume it was Asher making all the noise since he was always the one talking during those meetings. The wall was keeping her from knowing exactly what he was saying, but whatever it was, he sounded thrilled. This was a different kind of meeting.

"What the fuck is all the noise about?" Eren made Jenny noticeably jump. She sat up and faced the other's bed. Their hair was all messed up from sleeping and they looked pissed off. Corey was starting to get up in the corner as well.

"Damn, are they really that loud? Should I go check on what's going on?" Jenny started to get out of bed.

"What if they see you? Don't you remember what happened last time? Those adherents are fuckin' scary. Just... go back to bed. Wait for it to stop, they will." Eren was different when they were tired. Usually, they would run out of the cabin and shout at whoever was keeping them from sleeping, even if it was the adherents. But within the next few seconds, they collapsed back down on the bed. Corey glared at Jenny, slightly worried.

"I agree. You don't want to get yelled at again, right?"

Jenny thought about it. "I can handle getting yelled at by an adherent. I've probably seen worse. I might as well check, just for the hell of it."

Corey still didn't look convinced, but shrugged it off and lied back down. "Okay. But come back if anything happens, okay?"

Jenny nodded and made her way to the door. She waited for the talking to sound more distant, so nobody would see her. But it had already stopped by the time she was there. Just to be safe, she only opened it by a crack at first, and saw nobody. Silently, she slipped outside, and scanned the area. No Asher or adherents in sight. That was odd. They sounded so close before.

She stepped off of the platform, and then realized she had no idea where she was going. She could only assume they had gone to the offering place again.

That is, until she heard something that sounded like a large door closing. The church. They hardly ever went in there unless it was a very long prayer being made. And as far as she knew, Asher tended to go in there by himself. The church was especially scary at night, so going there just out of pure curiosity was a big step. But really thinking about it, it was a stupid thing to be afraid of after everything she had seen. Jenny proceeded towards the old, dark building, in a slight hurry since she would rather not be standing in the middle of a forest at night by herself.