[Pathday 3] Two steps forward, one step back (Enver)

[Keara Aithne]

The whole night. Keara liked the sound of that. It wasn’t unusual for them to spend night and day together, only parting for a few hours as and when they had too but still, hearing him phrase it that way was like music to her ears. Yes, they were still newlyweds, so one might expect a certain level of contact and clinginess between them but still, when he planned things for them, it was like he was pledging his vows all over again to her, as it showed her how much he wanted her around. Despite the happy and all too comfortable state it put her in, it couldn’t stop her mouth from blurting out something of a most inappropriate nature.

“Enos ours was and rid ourselves of him we did.”

Keara hadn’t meant the words to be cold or hurtful but that was one way that they certainly could have been taken. Enos was in fact more theirs than Gizmo would ever be and they had repeatedly tried to kill him and awaited the day he would be out of their lives for good. It seemed almost unnatural for a mother to want her child dead but then Enos wasn’t a real child and Keara knew all too well the danger he presented, not only to them but to the community at large. She had done her best to ease her conscience in this matter and yet it still haunted her. She’d never wanted a family as a human. She’d never wanted a family when she was a vampire even. But now she had a family of her own, she was beginning to realise that she had perhaps denied herself something quite precious in those early years, through her stubbornness. She’d been determined to never marry. Never fall in love. All she cared about was proving that she was as good a hunter as any man, her father’s approval meaning more to her than perhaps it should have. Through this she had made herself an old maid, by society’s standards, and therefore quite the undesirable match. A child of her own was just never on the cards for Keara. This was perhaps yet another reason why her vampiric family, those of her blood, were so important to her.

[Enver Marshall II]

He flinched and there wasn't really any way she couldn't have felt it. Enver stopped cold at her words, gritted his teeth together and cleared his throat. With a shake of his head, he talked. "Wasn't like he was a real baby. Thing was trying to kill you and would have if it didn't get teleported away. Wasn't a real baby. Saw it for ourselves on that machine thing." Enver looked around, as if forgetting what it was he had planned or what they were going to do. "Said so yourself from the beginning. And I saw it was true. He's not like Gizmo, or Peter or Lorde. They don't want to kill you."

He wasn't sure who he was trying to reassure. Himself, or her that Enos hadn't been a real baby. Maybe it was even in the tone of his voice, the uncertainty he felt when she opened a can of worms he hadn't expected to be opened again, ever. Or at least not tonight. "This time was different." Enver mumbled to himself, so low that it wasn't sure (and part of him hoped) Keara hadn't picked up on that.

"Where were we heading to?" Enver broke contact with Keara to look around, then nodded his head when he sorted things out in his mind. "That's right. Cherrydale." He snapped his fingers together, looked back at her and gave her a small grin. "I like Gizmo. Seems I have a thing for those who like getting under my skin." He winked at her, then held out a hand.

[Keara Aithne]

He stopped. She hadn’t realised her words would cause him to hesitate in anyway but that was exactly what they’d done and he quickly began to reassure her of the fact that Enos was not a child, something she already knew and needed no such assurance of. The creature may have been created in love, like any normal child, but vampires were of the dark and could not bring life into the world no matter how much they might want to. And a part of Keara did want too. She’d of happily given Enver a child if she were capable of such a feat.

“Know this I do,” she reached out a hand and gently ran the backs of her fingers down his face, a kind and reassuring smile on her face. “Saying I was not that I otherwise did think. Know I do that right we were for Enos from our lives to wish. Only saying I was that Gizmo no different was. Perhaps. While much sense you do make when say you did that wishes us ill he does not, sometimes difficult that is to believe when find you do what chewed he has while out you were. Worry I do for the furniture in the public areas. As know I do that tiny marks they shall have when return we do…” there was the briefest of pauses as she tried to work out if that wink meant he was drawing a parallel between Gizmo and her, and if she should be insulted by the phrasing he’d used. In the end she shrugged it off as being under his skin could also be a positive thing, in her mind at least, as it meant he must think of her.

The conversation seemingly over and his attention back on where they were heading to, she began to walk in the direction of the district to which they were going. He may have believed his words had gone unheard, but they had not, she had heard his whispers and was trying to work out what he meant as they continued on their path. Eventually, when she was unable to conclude what he had meant she asked, “Enver…What meant you by this time to say? How is it different? No fadebeast could you previously have made…as knew you did not what Enos was.” It never occurred to her that Enver may have created a child as a human, as he’d never spoken of having any offspring and while he was the secretive sort, she was sure he would have mentioned something as important as that.

[Enver Marshall II]

"He'll break out of it. Just isn't used to having so much stuff. Besides, it's just stuff Keara. Can buy more of it at any time." He grinned down at her, before a hand reached up, captured her hand and brought it to his lips. A quick kiss was brushed on the tips of her fingers as if reassuring her that Gizmo was safe and that Enver believed he would break out of his chewing habit.

She must have been reassured by that or believed him because soon they were off and heading towards Cherrydale. Only not long after, Keara questioned him about what he had meant when he mumbled under his breath something she woudn't understand. Mostly because it wasn't something he ever talked about. With anyone. Not River, nor Lorde, hell, not even his biological parents. He stopped, nodded his head, and looked away as he cleared his throat. "Yeah. That's because I wasn't talking about a fadebeast. Never saw one like that before. In someone." He confirmed her spoken thought, though that part probably wasn't needed, as she already knew it to be true.

He looked at her quickly, then away again before he let go of Keara's hand and ran it through his hair. "Well, ahhh. You know I was married before. When I was human." The hand that ran through his hair moved to his t-shirt collar and gave it a good yank. "She was pregnant before. When we were married. But something happened." He looked back at her, the spark in his eyes whenever he was around Keara, enjoying his nights rather carelessly with her, removed from them. "Anyways, long story short, not long after that, lost the ex, lost my house and most my career. Which is why I'm here now." A grin was forced on his face as his eyes moved back to his wife, his fingers interlaced with hers.

[Keara Aithne]

The light in his eyes faded as he spoke and Keara listened in silence. She had no clue he’d been through any of this and it all started to make a horrible kind of sense. The night they had broken into the clinic, he’d seemed disappointed to learn that the baby wasn’t a baby as he’d hoped.

“Oh Enver,” she squeezed his hand gently but knew the gesture wasn’t sufficient to ease his pain. He’d lost a child, two even perhaps since that was how he viewed Enos for half of her pregnancy. With this in mind, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, not caring who was watching as she held him tight and buried her face in his neck.

“While horrible that is to hear. Conflicted it makes me feel,” she admitted, her whispered words filled with guilt. “If that happened not, then be here you would not and…” she squeezed him all the tighter.

The thought of Enver’s life taking a different direction, one that hadn’t brought him to her made her feel physically sick. A part of her wanted him to have had the picture perfect mortal life he so obviously had desired at one point but the other part was more than happy that his life had been torn asunder, else she’d probably still be the pathetic mess he’d met in the catacombs all those months ago. Enver had enriched her life, there was no doubt in her mind about that and yet still all she could do was hug him to the point of hurting him.

“Love you I do,” she whispered as she kissed his neck.

[Enver Marshall II]

When she squeezed his hand, Enver looked away. He returned the squeeze, indicating her felt it, but her words made him feel something else. Something he didn't particularly like feeling, and spent the better part of a year trying not to feel. Maybe even longer if he sat and thought about it. If he was honest about it. His head turned back to her when she said she was conflicted and he nodded his head in understanding.

He'd be lying if on the occasion he didn't think or wonder what life would have been like had that not happened. And even though by this point his wife was hugging him, the male didn't return the gesture as his thoughts started to darken as he realized exactly what life would have been like had Abigail made the 'right' choice in his mind. A big, fat, lie. Something he'd come to realize the first time Enver was sent to the shadow realm by his sire.

Maybe he dropped her hand, or she dropped his to hug him, but his fists balled at his side. When she spoke, his eyes moved to her face, and a new light replaced what was absent. One of dark realization. "Don't be conflicted. I'm not. Not anymore. It's not something I like to talk about and sure, rubs be sore, but it was better for everyone's sake my ex did what she did. Otherwise, we'd be like every other Hollywood couple in a handful of years. Business soirees, shipping the kid off to some private boarding school and shoving our desires down their throat until they become one of those teen tragedies." Maybe, a small part of him was comparing the life of what could have been his child, to his own life as he grew up, but Enver hadn't really thought that far out. He just knew deep down that if Abigail hadn't picked business over family that was the path they would be headed down.

"We didn't have what you and I have. No where near it. Met her when I was young, we did some shows together, even a movie once and it just seemed to make sense since we were always around one another." Enver shrugged his shoulders. "I was stupid back then." He snorted, the darkness that filled his eyes slowly receding as he compared Abigail to Keara. "Didn't even know we were, she was, you know, pregnant until after she decided-" He cleared his throat before he continued on. "Until she decided she'd rather be some big Hollywood Scarlet. She said she'd only done it once, but can't ever tell anything with Abigail. A woman of lies that one is."

He kept his vision on her eyes, his fists slowly unclenching as he came back to her. "So it's good. As screwed up as it is." A grin started to form of the corners of his lips as he stared at her, his arms roaming over the contours or her body, taking their time in some of his favorite places. "So don't be conflicted. I'm glad I'm here. Standing here, getting ready to get going on our date." He winked down at her.

(Memory 4)

[Keara Aithne]

When he didn't return the hug, his arms still at his side, she pulled back to look him in the eye as she wanted to know what he was thinking and if perhaps she should have stayed quiet instead of accidentally steering the conversation in this direction. What she saw there wasn't a look she recognised in him but it neither scared or comforted her, so she stood there, her arms around his neck, content to hold his gaze while he spoke. As his words continued, she didn't ask what a teen tragedy was (even though she wasn't entirely sure what he was talking about) instead she listened patiently, his explanation filling her more with anger than anything else. The woman had killed his child. If she were moving even just a little before, she was now as still as a statue. There were no words to be said to this and the situation was beyond her comprehension. 'How could she do that to him?' she wondered, her thoughts her own.

It dawned on her then why he'd been so angry that night he'd returned home to find her cutting herself open. Sure, he never liked finding her like that but this time was different, as she was trying to cut something out of her and not just trying to ease her emotional pain. Had she done what Abigail had done when she had butchered herself in front of him to try and remove the parasite within? This thought did not sit well with her. He'd fought her every step of the way in those early stages of her pregnancy, obviously willing her to be pregnant with his child as opposed to what she really carried. His hope had perhaps been fuelled by this unrealised future.

As his tone softened and she felt his hands upon her, she was overcome with the sensation of it and instantly relaxed once more in his arms. In any other situation, she'd of been pulling him in closer to her and enjoying the attention to the fullest but they were standing in the street and she felt a little uneasy at this. While there were times when Keara could happily ignore the world around her and be pulled into that sacred state where only they existed, this was not one of them, as they were no-where private, no-where safe and she felt exposed where they now stood.

"Yes...Our date...The one which you me no detail of yet have told," she smiled warmly at him, her words playfully chastising him. She'd never been one for surprises in her first life, everything she did then was about control and order, but with Enver, with him she enjoyed not being able to predict what might happen next. (Though there was still a certain amount of predictability in their relationship and whatever the night might bring it pretty much always allowed them time to enjoy one another's company to the fullest). In this life, she had learned that absolute control over ones path wasn't something that could ever be obtained and that pursing such a course, only led to disappointment.

With the conversation behind them, at least for now, she lightly pressed her lips to his and then with a mischievous smile she added, "By way of the catacombs we should go. Yes? Feel I do...a sudden urge for creatures to cull."

This was perhaps a lie, even though Keara was not capable of such a thing. She was always happy to head to the catacombs if she had energy to burn, as they were by far her favourite hunting grounds. She'd already mentioned hunting several times that evening and so obviously had plans to take a tour of the catacombs with or without her husband, and yet the urge to hunt had grown stronger as he'd revealed this painful aspect of his past. The hatred she felt for his ex-wife still burned deep within her and a round of much needed violence was just what she felt she needed to help the anger and frustration subside.

[Enver Marshall II]

She wanted to kill things before their date?

Enver rubbed at his jawline, wondering what brought that on. Something he did, or didn't do? Something he said even? Or maybe she just hadn't met her threshold for the night. He had kept her inside longer than usual, so that was quite possible.

"Yeah. Sure." It wasn't as if they were going anywhere too public, so even if one, or both of their clothes were ruined in some way, no one would bother to ask. "A brief detour wouldn't be all that bad." He added on to his thought, as if reminding her that they did have somewhere else to be and couldn't spend the rest of the night in the catacombs, which could be slightly disappointing to his wife. "Could always come back after our date if the night isn't too far progressed." A happy medium for the both of them in his mind.

As they walked, Enver observed their surroundings, not really looking for anything specific. They passed some old abandoned farm and not far from that a whole community of farms; some for sale, some being lived in. A thought came to his mind as he saw the farms, so his attention returned to the woman at his side. "You got that relic? That makes things grow better or whatever it's supposed to do with plants?" Enver wasn't sure what all the relics did that his wife owned, being she had so many, but since she grew some things and they both needed some of the same things sometimes, he figured one of them should own something like that.

By this time the two had made it to the sewers and so, he looked around and then opened the steel grate. "Ladies first." He winked at her, as Enver lazily leaned against the grate as he held it up.

[Keara Aithne]

She couldn't help the squeal of girly excitement that escaped her when he said they could go hunting first, as she wasn't entirely sure if he was going to allow it or not. Their plans for the night were somewhat of a mystery to her and while they were heading for Cherrydale and most likely the theatre, she didn't want to ruin his surprise by asking if that was their destination. If the theatre was where they were heading, it was highly likely that the small detour wouldn't do much to hinder his plans for the night. Whatever it was he had planned she was excited, as Enver had surprised her before with a private beach in his apartment. It was a very, very sweet gesture that one. He'd wanted her to understand the allure of California and to be able to feel close to him while he was gone. Of course he didn't do that the second time he went there, but still, as she took his hands and descended the ladder into the sewer, she was smiling at the memory of the way the sand felt between her toes. She hadn't been overly keen on the neon sign he'd procured but then that had more to do with her sensitivity to light than anything else, as the colours themselves she found to be quite captivating. He'd even gone as far as to buy scented candles. Enver had created an area for her in which she could experience California with as many senses as possible and she'd thoroughly enjoyed the place. Before he left, he'd even curled up with her upon the sand to sleep...at least this was how she remembered the night ending. In earnest she couldn't recall if she'd fallen asleep in his arms or not, as it was highly likely that she was still slapping him away from her back then.

The smile upon her lips was probably one that he would mistake for her love of the darkness, but the memory was what had put it there and she was silent as they made their way through the sewer tunnels to the catacombs. She had of course taken his hand, the moment he'd descended the ladder himself and was half pulling him with her as she walked along. This wasn't exactly the best way to hunt but while there were dangers that lurked in the underbelly of the sewers, this stretch was quite often clear. She was of course not completely at ease and would have happily summoned her dagger to her to hunt. It was just as this thought crossed her mind, which happened to be when they entered the Northern catacombs that she realised she was grossly under armed for taking a tour of the catacombs.

"Oh...," she said pulling Enver off to one side so that they didn't block anyone else from entering or exiting through the doorway. "I...erm...," her eyes darted around guiltily and then she leant in and whispered the rest to Enver as she didn't want anyone to overhear. "My sword at home is...."

((Memory 3))

[Enver Marshall II]

There were moments of silence between the two of them, which wasn't completely uncommon. At least not when they were in public and walking somewhere together. While the both of them had their moments in public, the two usually tried to behave. Walking helped with that tonight.

Once they were in the sewers, Enver looked around to see if any of those guys were around. The ones that liked to take a shot at him once in a while for whatever reason. When nothing served as a distraction to getting them in the catacombs, the two progressed to them in silence again. They had just made it inside when an awkward confession was heard from his wife. Enver chuckled at it and shook his head, grinning from ear to ear.

"That's alright." He shrugged, not bothered by it any. He looked around, then back at her before running a hand through his hair. "You remember the first time we met?" His eyes shifted to an ancient zombie that staggered against a wall a few feet down. "Might not have been down here in this chamber exactly-" The male looked back down at his wife, thinking about how they had gotten off on the wrong foot. The very wrong foot. Even now they got off on the wrong foot from time to time due to a misunderstanding of the others words and sometimes even their actions. But somehow they managed to push through it and sort it out. "But you tried and steal that bone from me." He nodded his head, his eyes hinting at mild amusement as he phrased it like that. At first Enver might have felt like that had happened, but after he got to know Keara and let some time pass, the male knew it was just bad timing on both their ends.