Her Dark Side

Chapter Ten

I'm abruptly awoken, much to my displeasure, by harsh knocking on my front door. I can tell by the light throbbing in my head and aching joints that I did not sleep well at all. As I sit up to determine why someone is calling at such an hour, I quickly find myself flat on the floor and a really sharp pain in my ankle that causes me to cry out in pain. I immediately cover my mouth knowing that all three floors in my apartment building would have heard that with our paper thin walls. I realise I'm on the floor because I had just fallen from my sofa not my bed.

What was I doing sleeping on the sofa?

I rub at my eyes as I try to stand up being very careful to not put any weight on the bad ankle but before I've even managed to lift a finger someone comes crashing through my front door and running over to me. At first I'm too busy screaming and lashing out to tell just who has broken in but when I finally stop to realise they just stood near by looking down at me, I calm down.

Panting, I manage to hiss his name and he shrugs mumbling an apology.

It's Robert.

My mouth is wide open still as I look to my front door behind him. It's still intact, and by that I mean still on it's hinges, just, but it's looking a little worse for wear now. I would have focused more on the damage he had done but I'm still trying to concentrate on my breathing and allowing the sharp pain shooting around in my ankle to slow down.

"I heard you scream..." He mutters, running his hand over his thinning hair. A habit he seems to be doing a lot of recently. "Sorry." He adds as he finishes scanning the area and looks to me. "Willow, you look awful." I already know that. I feel awful.

I chose to ignore the final comment and only reply to his apology. "It's fine." I hold out my arms to him so he helps me back onto my feet, once the pain has almost subsided and then he walks me over to my kitchen area. "How come you're so early?" I ask to stop any awkward silence settling in.

"What?" He pauses and lifts up his wrist so he can check the time. "What do you mean? It's almost nine, Willow."

I was pouring cereal into a bowl but I freeze up when he says the time and it goes flying everywhere. "Argh!"

"Willow!" Robert exclaims as he grabs the box from my hand. He shakes his head at me as he settles it back down on the counter. "What is up with you?"

"We're late! And you told me to be early." I sigh, also shaking my head at myself.

Robert doesn't say anything but when I look to him, he rests a hand on my arm and gives me a half hearted smile. "It's okay, we can go when you're ready although there is a meeting in an hour."

As I pull all the stray cornflakes from the counter into a pile I freeze. "The meeting about," I swallow a little too hard, "Jack." The memories from the night before all come flying back to me and I try not to show it. I tightly close my eyes and hold in a breath. I knew  there was something else I meant to ask him.

  "Are you still working for E.I.O?"

If the answer was yes, it meant there was something else keeping us together. I may have even been able to convince him to be a double agent and we could've worked together again. Oh well. There was no point dwelling on what could've happened. I'm just so frustrated that I had allowed myself to get so wrapped in the moment I never asked him anything important. Was there even a need to go to the meeting now? I had seen Jack, even spoken to him and being in a room full of agents really wasn't a good idea right now. Plus, I'm seeing him tonight again. A feeling flies up inside of me and I feel a little nauseous for a few seconds.

"Yeah. I hope you've prepared yourself. It's going to be big." He tells me as he takes over cleaning up my counters with a cloth. I had become rather stature like, thinking about Jack.