From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

Late One Night at the Ashton Estate

BOOM!

Jenny awoke with a start, her heart racing, a scream trapped in her throat. She was completely terrified for a moment before she realized she was safe in her own bed. She groaned as she sat up, rubbing her eyes. “Not that old nightmare again.”

Sighing, Jenny go up and went into the kitchen to get a glass of water. The light was already on and she found one of her twin daughters sitting at the table, surrounded by books. “What are you doing up so late, sweetie?”

Kaydance looked up from the books. “Oh hi, Mom. Got a test tomorrow, need to study.” She stuck her nose back in the book.

Jenny sighed inwardly. Knowing it would do no good, she tried anyway. “Kay, baby, if I know you, you already have every one of those books completely memorized. You push yourself way too hard. You really should relax and go get some sleep.”

Kay looked up again. “I just want to be sure, Mom. Besides, Rickie isn’t even home yet.”

“What?” Jenny looked at the clock. “It’s nearly 2am! Where is she?”

“She went to Uncle Attercap’s show, remember? It probably just ran over.”

Jenny grumbled, “I am going to have to have a talk with that man.”

Suddenly the whirlwind that was Jenny’s other daughter, Lyrick, broke into the kitchen. “Kay! Is mom in bed? I don’t want her knowing how late I was so don’t say anything, okay?”

As requested, Kaydance said nothing, she just raised her hand and pointed at their mother, who was standing with her arms crossed, glaring at her youngest daughter.

“Oh.” Lyrick looked nonplussed for a moment, but quickly recovered. “Hi Mom! Wow, your friends are so cool! Uncle Posty and Uncle Attercap played some really cool music and I got to play with Uncle Posty’s monkey, and talk to Mikuruneko, she’s a cat girl just like us, Kay, except she has a tail. Why don’t we have tails?”

“Whoa, back up,” Jenny interrupted. “You played with Uncle Posty’s monkey?”

“Yeah! He’s got this pet Rikti monkey that’s so cute! Well, actually it’s really ugly, but so ugly it’s cute, you know? And it can dance! I had so much fun! Uncle Attercap tried to say we were second cousins twice removed or something like that, said we should be kissing cousins. Boy, you were right about him, Mom. But he was distracted by this big pink fairy guy that was hitting on him. Oh, and we had cocoa with Bailey’s-”

“Bailey’s!” Jenny interrupted again. “You were drinking?”

Lyrick gave her mom a disgusted look. “No Mom, of course not, though they were trying to get me to. I told them I was only 16 and had my cocoa plain.”

“Well that’s good, but looks like I’m going to have to have a little chat with my friends.”

“Oh Mom! Don’t worry about it! Your friends are cool, I was perfectly safe with them, can’t wait to do it again! Maybe next time I can go to Uncle Shecky’s or Aunt Pyrria’s!”

“I’m not sure which would be worse.” Jenny shook her head ruefully. “We’ll talk about it later. It’s late, why don’t you head on to bed?”

“Okay, Mom, love you!” Lyrick flew across the room and kissed her mother’s cheek, then rushed off to her bedroom. Jenny sighed and sat down at the table.

“I should go to bed too.” Kay stood up and gathered up her books.

“Okay honey, sweet dreams. I love you.”

“I love you, too, Mom.” Kay kissed her mother’s other cheek and walked sedately to her bedroom, weighed down by the books.

Jenny sighed again and looked at the clock, wondering if it was too late to call her sister, but barely before the thought was finished, the phone rang. Jenny hopped up and grabbed it on the second ring.

“Hello?”

“Hey Sis, what’s up?”

“Hey Stace. How do you do that?”

Stacey laughed. “Well, one, we are twins, so we share a special bond, and two, I’m psychic.”

“Yeah, but you can’t read minds.”

“No, but I can pick up signals.”

“It’s weird.”

“You’re weird.”

“You’re weirder.”

“You’re the weirdest.”

“Oh stop being so childish!”

“You started it.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Did not. My god, are we ever going to grow up?”

“Probably not!” Jenny could practically hear the grin in Stacey’s voice. “So what’s up, Big Sis? Why you wanting to chat at… let’s see what time is it there? Two in the morning?”

Jenny shrugged. “Oh I don’t know, just in a funky mood, I guess.”

“Had the nightmare again, huh?”

“Yeah. It just bothers me, having these gaps in my life. I mean besides knowing how I ended up in that exploding building, it’d be nice to know who the father of my children are.”

“Wish I could help ya, Sis, but that’s a bit beyond my powers. How are the munchkins doing, anyway?”

“Oh they’re fine. I wish I could get Kay to lighten up, she takes everything so seriously. I have no idea where she gets it from, no one else in the family is like that. And Lyrick wears me out! That girl has more energy than ten kids. She talked me into letting her go to a show tonight. Apparently they offered her alcohol, which she declined, thankfully, and Attercap offered to be her kissing cousin. I am so going to give them all a severe talking to.”

Stacey laughed. “I need to meet these friends of yours.”

“Well if you were ever not busy, I’d take you to a show. But you’re always off on some movie set, or in someone’s bed!”

“Hey! I’ll have you know I haven’t been in anyone’s bed since…” Stacey’s voice trailed off and the silence stretched. Finally, Jenny broke it.

“You really haven’t been with anybody since Jeremy?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Wow, Stace. I knew you were head over heels for the guy at the time but I didn’t realize you still were!”

“I said I don’t want to talk about it.”

“But you’re telling me my slutty sister hasn’t had sex in over two years!”

“I am not slutty!”

“Stace, that’s the longest you’ve gone without sex since you lost your virginity!”

“I said I don’t want to talk about it! Hey, I know, let’s talk about your love life!”

“What love life? It’s been even longer for me. I can’t even remember the last time I had a date! The only thrills I get are when Shecky gooses me or Detra gives me big squishy boobie hugs. I mean seriously, who wants to go out with an old, washed-up rock star with two teenaged daughters?”

“You are not old! You can’t be old, because that would make me old, and I don’t want to be old. Besides, you’re still gorgeous. I know, I see your face in the mirror every morning, and I’m hot!”

“And vain too, apparently. No, I think I’m just going to give up on love.”

“Join the club.”

“Aw Stace. Maybe you and Jeremy-”

Stacey cut her off with a bitter laugh. “Not likely.”

“Why don’t you call him?”

“And say what? ‘Hey it’s that girl who ran off without a word. I know it’s been a couple years, but wanna go see a movie or something?’ Yeah, that would work. Besides, he’s on tour right now.”

“So you’re keeping track of where he is?”

“Look, I’m sure he hates me. And he should. I was a heartless bitch.”

“You were scared. Your relationship was moving pretty fast. We all make mistakes.”

“Well some mistakes can never be erased or fixed. Hey, didn’t you call to talk about your problems?”

“You called me, remember?”

“Because you wanted to talk to me.”

“And it’s been great talking about your total lack of a love life. I feel so much better now!”

“Bitch.” Stacey laughed. “But seriously, anything else you want to talk about?”

“No, not really. It’s nice to hear your voice though. How’s England?”

“Dreary.”

“Still raining, huh?”

“Yeah. It’s really making me miss Paragon.”

“When you coming home?”

“Actually we’re wrapping up here. Barring any major retakes, I should be home in a couple of weeks.”

“That’s great! I’ll have Glenda get your room ready, since apparently you’ll actually be using it for once.”

“You are too kind.” Stacey replied sarcastically. “Oh shoot, I gotta go. I’m wanted on the set. Take care of yourself and give the munchkins a kiss for me. Love you!”

“Love you too, Sis. Bye.”

Jenny hung up the phone and headed back to her bedroom. “Well guess I should try and go back to sleep. And maybe stop talking to myself. Yeah, that’d be good.” She got back into bed and pulled the covers up to her chin, drifting off into a, thankfully, dreamless sleep.