The Cracked Twilight

Khaat got up and got dressed. She changed into a beautiful deep purple silk dress, and chose appropriate heels. She fixed her hair and added earrings and a light touch of his favorite perfume.

She apparated into Sparks. She made her way through the lightly populated dining room back into the kitchen. This was the time of day he was usually in the office making food orders, paying bills and the like. And today would be no different.

When she walked into the kitchen, LIzzie pointed her to the office. Khaat took a deep breath.

"Feeling better?" Robert came out to the garden, posing his question quietly. "You must have held onto that for a long time. He'd left her the bottle of firewhiskey and broken out one of his own. He chose to simply forego the glass and drink straight out of the bottle. "I can't say I blame you for feeling like that. I even agree with a few of your points. Khaat is a complicated woman. "

Jen spotted someone hiding behind a bush and she took her gun out from its place on her back. She casually flicked the safety off and shot in the direction of the bush. She heard the shell penetrate the skin and a groan from the person she’d hit and smirked to herself. She put the gun down beside her and listened to Robert approach. She drank down the Firewhisky in the glass and pulled the cork out of the bottle, looking ahead as she did so. She was too angry to even think straight and Robert’s words didn’t help. “Feeling indifferent.” Jen shrugged. “She deserved it anyway.” Jen took a swig from the bottle and savoured the burning feeling that had come back with her anger. “She’s not complicated she’s just not adult enough to face all of her shit. You can be in denial about a lot of things but the beauty of that is that you know the truth. She is either naive, stupid or none of the above because I can’t understand where her motivation comes from? If it wasn’t the fact that I have to put up with her then I would have ended the life she is frittering away, ages ago.”

"When you're really ready to hear the answer to that, you let me know," he said quietly, feeling she was running on anger and not ready to hear much of what he had to say. "Just remember one thing, Jen. When two people are having relationship issues, there are always problems on both sides. No one is completely innocent or guilty either one. And pointing blame at one or the other is not going to help." He took a drag off his firewhiskey botttle.

Jen sighed. “I’m not saying that Rob doesn’t have his own issues. He has his own of course but she isn’t helping with driving him insane with worry every time she goes out to try and get herself killed. She seems to have caused more trouble than needed.” Jen took a swig of the Firewhisky and picked up her gun again. She saw something move out of the corner of her eye and she fired, hearing the shout and the thump of the heavy body hitting the ground. She smirked and looked at Robert. “Call me old fashioned but it seems, in this case, that it is better if the man goes out on the adventure and the woman stays home with the growing brood.”

Robert smiled. "Well, tell me, Jen, could you stay home for the rest of your life with your adventuring husband having all the fun, and you doing nothing but being a housewife? Could you truly do it and be happy about it for the rest of your life? Children are wonderful, don't get me wrong. But I find it hard to believe that, despite how much you would love your husband and your children, that you wouldn't ever get the hunger to go out again to have fun in the style you've always known.

"And as far as driving him insane with worry, what do you think all of this insulating Rob stuff has been all about? Do you know they have not had even one day's worth of a honeymoon to start building a foundation for their relationship? They haven't even been married quite a month yet, and they haven't, either of them, had one day off, let alone one together without anybody else. I don't know of any other bride and groom that would truly be coping with things any better. Most of what comes Khaat's way since she met Rob has not been her doing, and he's the first to know that. She has geared things down at least by half because she does not go out looking for these things. They find her 90% of the time now. And, no, she won't back down from it any sooner than you would. But all of this stuff about not telling Rob is all about Khaat being afraid Rob won't be able to handle his own anxiety and that he'll leave her. Personally, I think there isn't anybody, including you, that is giving Rob the credit he deserves. He's a much stronger person than anybody gives him credit for. And part of that does come very directly from his devotion to her. It really is how true love works. The other part of it is just him. He is an exceptional young man. If I'd had my way, we'd have stopped this nonsense a long time ago and had Rob walking this whole thing out with her because then they'd have both adjusted to what the other needed together. They aren't going to adjust to anything by spending their time apart. It will only feed their own fears more."

Jen wasn’t hearing, just taking the words in and letting her mouth run away with her. She didn’t want to listen to Robert preach to her about how wonderful Khaat and Rob were blah, blah, blah. She’d heard it a thousand times already and she’d heard enough sob stories. It was as if they’d lost vital limbs or something. Oh my god, they’ve not spent a minute of time together or... no I can’t believe it; they’ve not even had a honeymoon. She didn’t care whether they didn’t see each other for years on end; they would still have the same problems which were there from the very beginning. Jen drank some more of the Firewhisky and made a face, she was drinking it far too fast.

“I’m not going to have children, am I? So that really doesn’t apply to me. Who dates a chick that could probably kill them with the menu?” Jen said bitterly. “Merlin knows I don’t want to have to deal with that anyway. Yes, screaming children that make a mess everywhere they go – that’ll rock my boat for sure. I think I’d even put away the guns and start acting like a respectable member of society.” She snorted. “I’m sure I’d kill myself, Robert. I actually pity Rob sort of. He can’t stand the little children back at the Manor so how he’s going to deal with one of his own I don’t know. Maybe he’ll have some sort of mad decision of some sort. ‘I shall stop hating children because now I’m having one of my own I shall have to ... like it?’ or something like that.”

She took a swig of her Firewhisky again and got up off of the bench. She put the bottle down and took a knife out from ... wherever really. She threw the knife and it lodged itself into a tree. She walked over and pulled it out, leaving a large notch there. “I’m sure he enjoys the insanity. He’s complicated. He doesn’t want to know but at the same time he does. Stupid tosser.” Jen threw the knife again and walked over to retrieve it, leaving another notch in the tree as she did so. “They never should have gotten together. It’s one of those quickie marriages that now she’s pregnant, he can’t get out of. It’s another stupid tosser moment. Remind me not to get married. Now there’s the fact that the stupid tosser is apparently ‘in love’ with Khaat and the whole true love thing has been thrown into the works. No such thing. Then his anxiety and commitment issues which lack thereof got him into this mess. Then there’s the fact that the stupid tosser is to idiotic to realise that he probably just needs a holiday so he can bury his head in the sand. Getting drunk only lasts so long. However, it seems to work fairly well for me.”

Jen through the knife again and it missed the tree by meters. It landed in a bush and she heard someone yelp. Jen flinched and walked back over to the bench. She sat down and picked up the Firewhisky. It was back to square one again. Damn, she wanted to go home.

"I think I need to leave you alone for a bit so you can continue killing all the assassins in the bushes," Robert rose. "Your brother is the farthest thing from a stupid tosser. There is far more to him than you apparently know of. Maybe more than he knows himself. Its either that you can't hold your firewhiskey or you're jealous of him. Either way, I'm not about to listen to any more of this twaddle. If you're in with me to handle the killing I need to do today, then I say we do it. If you're not, well, then you're not. That's your choice."

Jen narrowed her eyes at Robert and fought the urge to pull the knife out of the dead body behind one of the bushes and throw it at him. She got up and threw the Firewhisky. She heard it smash and turned to Robert with a sickly sweet smile on her face. She wasn’t in the mood and she’d already made up her mind to go home. That was it. Where was home though? Jen guessed it was probably back home, home. She couldn’t wait to see her grandmother who would no doubt chastise her for getting drunk. Well, Jen wasn’t drunk she was just tired and irritable. She was so not in the mood for arguing. “Jealous? Of my brother? Don’t get a job as a psychiatrist because it won’t work out for you.” She spat. “I hope the ‘assassins’ get what they came looking for.” Jen grabbed her gun and Apparated away from the farm. She landed in the foyer of the Whitlock Manor and looked up to see her grandmother hurry out into the hall. She groaned audibly and decided that it was best to endure what she deserved.