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Eight Years Later. (Complicated) Two Months Since Rehabilitation Began.
The world was quieter here.
Jenny didn't realize how loud the veil was until she wasn't in it any longer. She relished in it, liked not having noise constantly thundering into her brain. It's why she found herself outside so often, on the back porch of her brothers' apartment. She thought that if she smoked, now would be the perfect time to light a cigarette.
This was the only easy part about the real world, sitting in the quiet night and watching from a distance ad cars trickled by. These ones were louder than the ones she remembered, trucks risen nearly a foot off of the ground and revved their engines obnoxiously as vile black smoke poured from the back of them. She missed the cars from her youth (she looks seventeen but she's not, remember?) those were easier, nicer.
Now everything was flashy, even telephones were used for something other than calling people. They were mini computers that you carried around in your back pocket. Jenny hated that, it made her stomach churn. Hailey, her niece, had tried to show her how to properly use an iPhone and it didn't end well. Neil bought her a flip phone and they called it good.
Right now her phone was forgotten about in the bedroom she shared with Hailey, sitting idly on her purple bedsheets. It only had four numbers in it anyway; Neil, Hailey, Grace and Derek. The only four numbers she needed.
The fall breeze drifted past her as she watched the nighttime clouds move slowly across the dark blue sky, the moon was arched high overhead and Hailey had yet to come home, which worried her. She hadn't heard from Derek in weeks and Hailey was twitchier than usual— hiding something.
Jenny didn't pry, her niece would tell her eventually as she always did. She probably knew more about Hailey than her own father did; which she was holding over his head whether he knew it or not. It was easier for Hailey to trust Jenny, since in appearance they were the same age and Jenny's maturity was only a little more advanced than her own. (Both were extremely mature).
They got along exceptionally well. Hailey understood that it was hard for her to adapt to the new world and she coaxed her through it all. The younger Rosalie was currently trying to convince her to join her in high school. Her proposal was that the cheer team needed a new captain. Jenny said; "Zombies don't do cheer." But Hailey persisted and she was a very convincing girl.
Jenny caved and went to Derek for help. She needed a new identity because if the would found out that she was alive and well— and still looked seventeen— she'd be paraded through science labs for the rest of her days and she didn't even know how long those would be. Could be forever, could be a week, maybe hours. It was all still unknown.
"Couldn't sleep?" Derek grumbled, materializing from the darkness at her side.
"Do I ever?" She murmured in reply, her heavy eyes gliding to his tired face. Neither of them were doing well. "What are you doing here?"
