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Brown eyes – capable of being warm like hot chocolate and as icy and cool as icecream of the same flavour – were narrowed incisively as they tracked the path of two stealthy silhouettes making their way across the front lawn, illuminated, though only slightly, by a gentle shower of moonlight. The first figure the eyes identified immediately. The second took a little longer to register but they soon enough recognized the decidedly female frame and the purposeful stride that had carried its owner towards the door.
Moving away from the window, Gemini surely and silently took the path back to his bedroom and slipped inside just as he heard the pair of late night visitors make their entrance.
They were having an argument – heated and hushed all at once – in the hall. Gem was unable to discern exactly what the tiff was about, other than it involved something one had done that had obviously pissed the other off. Gem couldn’t help but scowl; hoping that it would not end on friendly terms and they would just leave and go back to wherever they had just come from.
He flopped back on his bed and closed his eyes, listening to the two voices he had long ago committed to memory. One was a low, almost musical timbre; the other varying from gentle and soothing to angry hisses and contemptuous snarls. The latter belonged to a woman whose name he had only heard said once aloud – a woman that was a contradiction in a nutshell that Gemini harboured mixed feelings towards. Needless to say, her company wasn’t exactly welcomed by the late teen.
She had ostensibly reached her boiling point because she had given up trying to lower her voice.
‘You self righteous son-of-a-bitch!’ she accused.
‘Would you mind keeping your voice down?’
‘Would you mind not treating me like a four year old?’
‘Maybe, if you stopped acting like one.’
The quiet that followed was enough to make Gemini open his eyes and sit up, listening intently for the outcome of the fight. The livid silence told no tales, however, and he could only imagine the pair, both standing their ground stubborn as mules and delivering glares with the heat of a hundred suns.
‘You want me to stop acting like a four year old?’
Uh-oh, Gem thought. The dead calm in her tone was a pretty sure sign that Jarod was about to receive a verbal castration. Then again, if he did, maybe he’d kick her out.
‘Listen here, Jarod,’ she sneered. ‘You’re the one that drugged me and dragged me off to God knows where! I’m wet, I’m tired, I have a headache, I could kill for a cigarette. I have nothing but the clothes on my back and you – want – me – to stop – acting – like a four year old. I’ve got three words for you, Einstein; go – to – hell.’
Indeed, their eavesdropper observed. Take her with you.
A little over ten months ago – almost a year, Gem mused – he wouldn’t have hesitated in calling her an angel. His first real encounter with the opposite sex had been like a fairytale – he’d been entranced by the tenderness in her voice and the warmth and the mere beauty that had radiated from her. She’d pulled him into an embrace – the first act of kindness that had ever been bestowed upon him – kissed his forehead and told him that she was going to take him away.
He’d quickly learned that in this world, appearances were often deceiving, and she was a first class example.
Lies.
That’s all the Centre was capable of. Her illusion of compassion was just that – an illusion. She’d simply seduced him (though not in every sense of the word), in another attempt to control him. He’d believed, just for an instant, that she was his guardian angel. But then he’d been freed of that place – incidentally, not by her, but by the man he had been told had killed his parents – and he’d faced harsh reality. The supposed murderer he had been trained to hate was quickly identified as none other than himself; they were one and the same in practically every sense and the only thing that separated them was age. Age and, Gem had overheard, their souls.
The man that had said that was another from Jarod’s past. He’d trained Jarod at the Centre all those years and before Gem had escaped it had been the intentions of the Centre to allow the old man to do the same to him. Sydney, too, was a part of the place that was still trying to control them.
And, evidently, they were succeeding.
The fact that Jarod had sacrificed his freedom to assist her as she lay unconscious, bleeding, on the runway, was only proof of it. It wouldn’t have surprised Gem if someone were to tell him that her getting shot was only a part of some ploy to get the pretender back.
Gem knew the truth about who Miss Parker was. Chairman’s daughter. Heir to the Centre. Head of the hunt to bring Jarod back. Jarod and he were one and the same so in essence, to bring him back.
Lies.
The Centre was successful in controlling Jarod because they held power over him in a way that Gemini knew Jarod didn’t understand. The older pretender didn’t realize that she was nothing but a pawn in a cruel attempt to play with his mind.
Jarod may have been well aware of the necessity to play it careful around her, because his freedom was extremely important to him, but Gem had no doubts that he would give it all up in a heartbeat to help her out.
Miss Parker may not have been evil but she was still a liar. She was a betrayer and she still stood for that place and Gem couldn’t forgive her for that. Her couldn’t forgive her for making his first chance at being happy nothing more than a cruel mirage.
He couldn’t forgive her for being something Gem didn’t think he could ever live with.
Jarod’s downfall.
*
Once upon a time there had lived a man named Paris. He’d been asked to make a choice between three women – Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite.
A choice between power, wisdom, and love.
He chose love.
And later, his people paid the price.
*
They didn’t leave.
When Gem woke up the next morning – still on top of the coverlet, as he had unintentionally dozed off there – he could hear her voice echoing through the house. She was scolding her kidnapper, but he could hear the laughter in her voice.
That laughter, sweet and tempting like the song of a Siren.
And if you give into it, it’ll be the last thing you hear before you get crushed into little pieces on the rocks.
‘Jarod!’ she gasped, and this time, the pretender in question contributed to the sickeningly happy sound.
You’re in the company of the woman that wants to drag you back to the place that kept you a prisoner for most of your life. I don’t see what you have to laugh about, brother.
After grumbling something incoherent, the teen pulled himself off the bed and braced himself as he ambled out to the kitchen.
‘Hello,’ Parker said in her slow, quintessential fashion, smiling, though Gem wondered whether that was because she was pleased to see him, or because of the fact that Jarod had just passed her a steaming cup of coffee.
‘Gem, this is Miss Parker -’
‘We’ve met,’ Gem interrupted flatly, busying himself in the cupboard is search of some cereal.
‘Oh?’ Jarod asked, brow furrowing slightly.
‘Just when you two first ran into each other. I was there, remember?’ she asked dryly, arching an eyebrow at the man standing to her right. ‘It’s good to see you again,’ she added softly. ‘I’m glad you’re doing okay.’
‘Mmm,’ Gem responded.
He filled his bowl of cereal with milk and left, choosing to take his breakfast outside to the porch to eat.
It’s good to see you again. I’m glad you’re doing okay.
Yeah, right. I bet you thought you could manipulate me and walk away and forget about it. You never cared. You lied – you told me it wasn’t a sim. I’m not that naïve anymore. What was it – introduce him to a princess, tell him about all the things he’s missing out on, and see how he reacts? Or was this another shot at turning me against Jarod, having his huntress befriend me?
‘And they call you a genius, Jarod,’ he sighed. ‘Then again, I guess you never stood a chance.’
Jarod had been even younger when he’d first met Miss Parker – and they’d been around the same age. It had made things easier, he supposed, because if he had have been introduced to a same-age Miss Parker, he would have wanted to be her friend, too.
The story got even more twisted. Best friends up until their early teen years, then ripped apart as she’d been sent off to god-knows-where. Their prized pretender had gone from having a small blossom of hope to be completely alone once more. Cruel, even for the Centre.
And of course, the cherry on top. Jarod had run away and then the plan had come full circle; she’d been brought back, all traces of sweetness and innocence gone, and assigned to capturing him and sending him home to the place that had made his life hell.
And yet, the minute she stops chasing you, you go and get her, and bring her here, no less! Are you crazy?!?
‘You might have won Jarod over with your tragic heroine act, Miss Parker, but you never got the chance to dig your claws in to me.’
He lifted himself off the stairs and leaned over the railing to tip the remainder of his oatmeal onto the garden. He paused, then said with sudden resoluteness,
‘I’m not going back there.’
*
Helen of Troy had been a Greek. She’d stolen the heart of a Trojan – his name had been Paris.
She had been beautiful, too.
They said hers was a face that launched a thousand ships. Men died for her. People gave their lives because of her.
But she’d been the one watching as Paris' city burned to the ground around him.
*
Gemini slinked through the shadows with a natural stealth that unnerved his family members. The only thing was that Jarod possessed it too; and when the older pretender wanted to, he was quite capable of startling his younger twin.
The others were all out in the living room – her included – when he made his appearance. Much to Gemini’s disgust, Major Charles had been delighted to see Her again. Emily didn’t exactly know Her but Emily was nice to everyone anyway.
Am I the only person here that sees what she is? She’s like… like a Trojan horse! Sure, seems like a gift at the beginning, but the moment you turn your backs…
‘What are you doing out here?’
‘Nothing,’ Gem said shortly.
The was a long period of silence before Jarod asked softly,
‘What has she ever done to you?’
There was an underlying trace of sorrow, possibly hurt, in his tone, as if he took personal offense at Gem not liking Miss Parker.
Gem knew that Jarod was extremely perceptive and that he would have figured out exactly what was going on, and it annoyed him a little. He wasn’t angry at Jarod, although the fact that he could be so blind irritated him, and he didn’t like to be supplied with a reason to resent his older ‘brother’.
‘Nothing that came close to what she did – is doing – to you.’
‘She’s a good person, Gem.’
‘How can you, of all people, defend her?’
‘Because I’ve known her all my life,’ Jarod said simply. ‘Because when you look at it, we’re in the same situation.’
‘She’s trying to take you back there.’
A smile tugged at the corners of Jarod’s mouth.
‘Now I see what this is about,’ he said. ‘Do you know the whole story? Why?’
Because she’s a backstabbing little rat, was the reply that came to mind but, figuring Jarod probably wouldn’t appreciate it, Gem kept his mouth shut.
‘All along, it’s been my freedom for hers. She’s been told, and she believes, that if she takes me back, they’ll let her go.’
‘But they won’t.’
‘No. They most likely won’t. But she clings to the hope that they will because she’d rather that than admit to herself that she’s never going to be free of them. It keeps her alive.’
Gem was expecting him to continue, but he didn’t. Quite the contrary, Jarod got to his feet and made to go back out into the other room.
‘Think about it,’ was all he said, and Gem watched with a frown as the pretender immediately went to stand at Miss Parker’s side by the fireplace, where she was examining the small collection of photographs on the mantel.
Like a moth to the light, he thought with a sigh. And one day, you’re going to get zapped.
*
Paris had been a foolish man with his views on love. It had blinded him - he’d taken her away from her world and tried to blend her in to his.
It hadn’t worked.
Love was a useless weapon against cunning and strategy and spears and swords.
The Greeks would never let her stay. They wanted her – and the man that had fallen under her spell.
They’d lurk in the shadows, lying in wait.
Waiting…
…to condemn him to death…
*
Gem’s eyes flew open, and he sat up in his bed.
There was a sound; if he listened he could still hear it.
Crying, weeping, sobbing.
And it was a very female sound.
Here we go again – let’s give him some crocodile tears. He’ll lap that up, a bleeding heart…
You never cried with me. I was the one that was crying. I wasn’t meant to, you know. I was taught not to show emotion. Mr Raines said showing emotion was bad…
Stepping out into the hallway, carefully so as not to make a sound on the timber floorboards, Gemini made his way towards the kitchen.
Jarod’s door was still shut.
Hers was open.
Obviously, you woke the wrong guy.
She was sitting at the table there, no lights on, bathed in the moonlight streaming through the window. The other night it had made her look breathtaking, like a goddess – deadly – this time, she looked small, fragile and alone.
[Mr Raines said showing emotion was bad...]
Her elbow and hand supported her forehead, and she sniffed.
Her cheeks were wet from crying.
‘Is there something wrong?’
At that she tensed immediately, sitting up and whirling around, eyes wide and still shining with tears. Ostensibly, she was hardly expecting company.
It became suddenly apparent that she hadn’t wanted to be found at all.
‘Gem,’ she gasped, surprised, hurriedly wiping her eyes. ‘Did… did I wake you?’
She was pulling on a mask, now. She was the Centre’s Miss Parker again, the one who didn’t cry. But just for a moment, Gem suspected he had gotten a glimpse of the angel Miss Parker, the one he had strongly believed was just an illusion.
[Showing emotions was bad, emotions would get the better of you...]
‘Is there something wrong?’
‘No.’
Liar. Everything you ever say, lies… Why can’t you tell the truth? Don’t you know how?
Didn’t anybody ever show you how?
‘I can go and get Jarod,’ he said flatly.
She got to her feet.
‘No! I mean, no… don’t bother him.’
Biting her lip, she wandered over to the window, stepping further into the silver light. It was a haunting sight, her standing there like that.
Surreal.
‘You don’t want to be here.’
…any more than I want you here.
He didn’t say that, but he could tell she caught it anyway.
Her silence spoke volumes, and he was reluctant to listen to what it communicated. She hid it well but he sensed it; she was uncomfortable, afraid. Tense.
‘I don’t belong here,’ she said after a long moment that was spent with her back to him. ‘Jarod thinks he can just take me away from there and everything will be butterflies and rainbows. He thinks he can bring me here and I’ll fit in, just like that…’
‘You’re not… unwelcome here,’ Gem told her, and they both knew he meant by the others.
‘They’re nice to me because Jarod brought me here, and they don’t want to hurt him. They don’t trust me. You don’t trust me. I can see it in your eyes.’ She turned to face him, and tears were welling in her eyes again. ‘Everything here is forced. Polite. Awkward. I can see what he’s trying to do, but...’
‘But?’
‘The Centre is my life, and it has been for a very long time. It’s not something I can just be ripped away from and adjust to. I’m not like him. And no matter what they’ve done… they’re my family.’
‘So you want to go back there.’
‘If I could leave it all behind, I would.’
‘But you can’t.’
‘Not like this, no.’
‘You want him back there.’
Her eyes widened a little more, and her mouth opened. It stayed that way a short while before she spoke.
‘It’s complicated.’
‘It’s simple. A statement that you can either agree or disagree with.’
‘It’s not that easy. Nothing about me and him has ever been easy and it never will be.’
He could sense anger radiating from her now. He’d gotten her on the defensive, which wasn’t what he had planned. She wasn’t one to spill her emotions all over the floor and when she did, she did it when she thought no one was watching.
‘You don’t understand. You can’t understand. Nobody can. Not even us.’
‘If you could take him back there, right now – would you?’
‘No.’
She answered without hesitation.
‘Why?’
‘Because… because this is separate from all that. Here he likes to believe we’re just two people. Childhood friends. The chase… If I ever took him in, I’d play it fair. I’d catch him because I hunted him down, not because he got bored and wandered into my territory.’
Gem met her eyes and she held his gaze with icy resoluteness. She was a glacial beauty, an ice queen. But she was capable of showing emotions too.
The question is, does she want to? Or does she prefer it when she doesn’t feel?
‘He loves you.’
There. He’d said it. Voiced his deepest, strongest fear…
‘He thinks he does.’
Are you blind? Or are you messing with me? It’s what you wanted, isn’t it? Wanted him at your beck and call, so you could manipulate him…
Maybe this went further than you wanted. Maybe it backfired on you and you won deeper affections than you’d planned.
‘No, you can see it in his eyes. He’d do anything for you. You can see it, when he laughs with you. When he fights with you. When he defends you.’
‘We’ve known each other a long time. There’s a lot of history between us. Like I said, it’s complicated.’
‘Do you love him?’
She dropped his gaze and headed towards the door, well aware that Gem was following her.
‘Where are you going?’
‘Away from here.’
‘You can’t just leave.’
He stunned himself by saying it.
‘Why not?’
Why not indeed?
‘Because it would hurt him.’
To Gem’s surprise, she stopped at his words. Seconds ticked by, and she decided to go through the door anyway. His chocolate gaze observed with relief that she merely sat on the porch.
Jarod would have hated him if he’d driven her away.
‘Do you love him?’ he asked again, sitting down beside her.
She sighed.
‘Orion,’ she pointed out, gazing up at the velvet blue sky. ‘He was always my favourite, you know.’ She gave a dry laugh. ‘Ironic… The hunter.’
It was then that he realized she wasn’t answering because she didn’t know.
‘Do you have a favourite?’ she asked.
He didn’t respond. Too busy thinking. Both of them were.
They sat there for a very long time, hours even. The sky got darker, then lighter. It wasn’t until the stars had disappeared that she spoke.
‘I do love him. In that unconditional way, I suppose. We like to deny it – me more so than him – but there is… a connection between us.’
‘Would you die for him?’
‘No.’
‘He’d die for you.’
‘It would depend on the which me he was dying for.’
Gemini frowned.
‘I didn’t want you here.’
‘I know.’
‘I hated you. You hurt me. You were hurting… him.’
Her ice blue eyes were wide and soulful.
‘I know.’
‘You lied to me.’
‘I know.’ She paused. ‘I don’t know how to tell the truth.’
[Liar. Everything you ever say, lies… Why can’t you tell the truth? Don’t you know how?]
‘Why not?’
[Didn’t anybody ever show you how?]
‘Nobody ever showed me how.’
*
Troy had been destroyed by treachery and deception.
Traitors and liars had worked their magic and those with trusting and forgiving natures had paid the price in the city that was reduced to shambles.
And all because of a woman named Helen.
*
Jarod often rose early and Gemini didn’t want to be there when he did because he sensed Jarod and Miss Parker had a lot to talk about.
‘Canis Major.’
She blinked as he got to his feet, her eyes leaving the goldening horizon for the first time.
‘Sorry?’
‘Canis Major. It’s my favourite constellation. It contains Sirius. The dog star.’
‘Oh,’ she said absently, and he thought he saw a hint of a smile fighting its way onto her mouth.
A hunter and a dog. Dogs usually help the hunter. Is that what’s going on here? Are you using me to get to Jarod?
No, he decided. You don’t have it in your eyes.
I thought you were an angel, when I first saw you. You were amazing, incredible. Perfect.
How could I have gotten it so wrong?
He had gotten it wrong, in many ways.
She wasn’t an angel, but she wasn’t the devil he’d labeled her as, either.
She was just trying to survive, like everybody else.
Flawed. Beautifully, hopelessly flawed.
And he couldn’t blame her for being something he would always be himself.
Human.
*
Once upon a time, there had been a city named Troy.
There had been a quixotic prince, a beautiful woman, a jealous king and two equally jealous goddesses.
There had been a faithful people, an undeserving civilization and a gruesome battle.
Blood had been shed.
Tears had been cried.
Tables had turned.
A city had been destroyed.
People had paid the price for love.
And in the midst, one woman had shouldered the burden. One woman had carried the weight of the world on her shoulders as she remained the cause behind the deaths of many and the destruction of more. She wept for her shamed husband, her life lost, her valiant lover and her people. All of them.
In the midst, one woman…
…had been the biggest victim of them all.
Moving away from the window, Gemini surely and silently took the path back to his bedroom and slipped inside just as he heard the pair of late night visitors make their entrance.
They were having an argument – heated and hushed all at once – in the hall. Gem was unable to discern exactly what the tiff was about, other than it involved something one had done that had obviously pissed the other off. Gem couldn’t help but scowl; hoping that it would not end on friendly terms and they would just leave and go back to wherever they had just come from.
He flopped back on his bed and closed his eyes, listening to the two voices he had long ago committed to memory. One was a low, almost musical timbre; the other varying from gentle and soothing to angry hisses and contemptuous snarls. The latter belonged to a woman whose name he had only heard said once aloud – a woman that was a contradiction in a nutshell that Gemini harboured mixed feelings towards. Needless to say, her company wasn’t exactly welcomed by the late teen.
She had ostensibly reached her boiling point because she had given up trying to lower her voice.
‘You self righteous son-of-a-bitch!’ she accused.
‘Would you mind keeping your voice down?’
‘Would you mind not treating me like a four year old?’
‘Maybe, if you stopped acting like one.’
The quiet that followed was enough to make Gemini open his eyes and sit up, listening intently for the outcome of the fight. The livid silence told no tales, however, and he could only imagine the pair, both standing their ground stubborn as mules and delivering glares with the heat of a hundred suns.
‘You want me to stop acting like a four year old?’
Uh-oh, Gem thought. The dead calm in her tone was a pretty sure sign that Jarod was about to receive a verbal castration. Then again, if he did, maybe he’d kick her out.
‘Listen here, Jarod,’ she sneered. ‘You’re the one that drugged me and dragged me off to God knows where! I’m wet, I’m tired, I have a headache, I could kill for a cigarette. I have nothing but the clothes on my back and you – want – me – to stop – acting – like a four year old. I’ve got three words for you, Einstein; go – to – hell.’
Indeed, their eavesdropper observed. Take her with you.
A little over ten months ago – almost a year, Gem mused – he wouldn’t have hesitated in calling her an angel. His first real encounter with the opposite sex had been like a fairytale – he’d been entranced by the tenderness in her voice and the warmth and the mere beauty that had radiated from her. She’d pulled him into an embrace – the first act of kindness that had ever been bestowed upon him – kissed his forehead and told him that she was going to take him away.
He’d quickly learned that in this world, appearances were often deceiving, and she was a first class example.
Lies.
That’s all the Centre was capable of. Her illusion of compassion was just that – an illusion. She’d simply seduced him (though not in every sense of the word), in another attempt to control him. He’d believed, just for an instant, that she was his guardian angel. But then he’d been freed of that place – incidentally, not by her, but by the man he had been told had killed his parents – and he’d faced harsh reality. The supposed murderer he had been trained to hate was quickly identified as none other than himself; they were one and the same in practically every sense and the only thing that separated them was age. Age and, Gem had overheard, their souls.
The man that had said that was another from Jarod’s past. He’d trained Jarod at the Centre all those years and before Gem had escaped it had been the intentions of the Centre to allow the old man to do the same to him. Sydney, too, was a part of the place that was still trying to control them.
And, evidently, they were succeeding.
The fact that Jarod had sacrificed his freedom to assist her as she lay unconscious, bleeding, on the runway, was only proof of it. It wouldn’t have surprised Gem if someone were to tell him that her getting shot was only a part of some ploy to get the pretender back.
Gem knew the truth about who Miss Parker was. Chairman’s daughter. Heir to the Centre. Head of the hunt to bring Jarod back. Jarod and he were one and the same so in essence, to bring him back.
Lies.
The Centre was successful in controlling Jarod because they held power over him in a way that Gemini knew Jarod didn’t understand. The older pretender didn’t realize that she was nothing but a pawn in a cruel attempt to play with his mind.
Jarod may have been well aware of the necessity to play it careful around her, because his freedom was extremely important to him, but Gem had no doubts that he would give it all up in a heartbeat to help her out.
Miss Parker may not have been evil but she was still a liar. She was a betrayer and she still stood for that place and Gem couldn’t forgive her for that. Her couldn’t forgive her for making his first chance at being happy nothing more than a cruel mirage.
He couldn’t forgive her for being something Gem didn’t think he could ever live with.
Jarod’s downfall.
*
Once upon a time there had lived a man named Paris. He’d been asked to make a choice between three women – Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite.
A choice between power, wisdom, and love.
He chose love.
And later, his people paid the price.
*
They didn’t leave.
When Gem woke up the next morning – still on top of the coverlet, as he had unintentionally dozed off there – he could hear her voice echoing through the house. She was scolding her kidnapper, but he could hear the laughter in her voice.
That laughter, sweet and tempting like the song of a Siren.
And if you give into it, it’ll be the last thing you hear before you get crushed into little pieces on the rocks.
‘Jarod!’ she gasped, and this time, the pretender in question contributed to the sickeningly happy sound.
You’re in the company of the woman that wants to drag you back to the place that kept you a prisoner for most of your life. I don’t see what you have to laugh about, brother.
After grumbling something incoherent, the teen pulled himself off the bed and braced himself as he ambled out to the kitchen.
‘Hello,’ Parker said in her slow, quintessential fashion, smiling, though Gem wondered whether that was because she was pleased to see him, or because of the fact that Jarod had just passed her a steaming cup of coffee.
‘Gem, this is Miss Parker -’
‘We’ve met,’ Gem interrupted flatly, busying himself in the cupboard is search of some cereal.
‘Oh?’ Jarod asked, brow furrowing slightly.
‘Just when you two first ran into each other. I was there, remember?’ she asked dryly, arching an eyebrow at the man standing to her right. ‘It’s good to see you again,’ she added softly. ‘I’m glad you’re doing okay.’
‘Mmm,’ Gem responded.
He filled his bowl of cereal with milk and left, choosing to take his breakfast outside to the porch to eat.
It’s good to see you again. I’m glad you’re doing okay.
Yeah, right. I bet you thought you could manipulate me and walk away and forget about it. You never cared. You lied – you told me it wasn’t a sim. I’m not that naïve anymore. What was it – introduce him to a princess, tell him about all the things he’s missing out on, and see how he reacts? Or was this another shot at turning me against Jarod, having his huntress befriend me?
‘And they call you a genius, Jarod,’ he sighed. ‘Then again, I guess you never stood a chance.’
Jarod had been even younger when he’d first met Miss Parker – and they’d been around the same age. It had made things easier, he supposed, because if he had have been introduced to a same-age Miss Parker, he would have wanted to be her friend, too.
The story got even more twisted. Best friends up until their early teen years, then ripped apart as she’d been sent off to god-knows-where. Their prized pretender had gone from having a small blossom of hope to be completely alone once more. Cruel, even for the Centre.
And of course, the cherry on top. Jarod had run away and then the plan had come full circle; she’d been brought back, all traces of sweetness and innocence gone, and assigned to capturing him and sending him home to the place that had made his life hell.
And yet, the minute she stops chasing you, you go and get her, and bring her here, no less! Are you crazy?!?
‘You might have won Jarod over with your tragic heroine act, Miss Parker, but you never got the chance to dig your claws in to me.’
He lifted himself off the stairs and leaned over the railing to tip the remainder of his oatmeal onto the garden. He paused, then said with sudden resoluteness,
‘I’m not going back there.’
*
Helen of Troy had been a Greek. She’d stolen the heart of a Trojan – his name had been Paris.
She had been beautiful, too.
They said hers was a face that launched a thousand ships. Men died for her. People gave their lives because of her.
But she’d been the one watching as Paris' city burned to the ground around him.
*
Gemini slinked through the shadows with a natural stealth that unnerved his family members. The only thing was that Jarod possessed it too; and when the older pretender wanted to, he was quite capable of startling his younger twin.
The others were all out in the living room – her included – when he made his appearance. Much to Gemini’s disgust, Major Charles had been delighted to see Her again. Emily didn’t exactly know Her but Emily was nice to everyone anyway.
Am I the only person here that sees what she is? She’s like… like a Trojan horse! Sure, seems like a gift at the beginning, but the moment you turn your backs…
‘What are you doing out here?’
‘Nothing,’ Gem said shortly.
The was a long period of silence before Jarod asked softly,
‘What has she ever done to you?’
There was an underlying trace of sorrow, possibly hurt, in his tone, as if he took personal offense at Gem not liking Miss Parker.
Gem knew that Jarod was extremely perceptive and that he would have figured out exactly what was going on, and it annoyed him a little. He wasn’t angry at Jarod, although the fact that he could be so blind irritated him, and he didn’t like to be supplied with a reason to resent his older ‘brother’.
‘Nothing that came close to what she did – is doing – to you.’
‘She’s a good person, Gem.’
‘How can you, of all people, defend her?’
‘Because I’ve known her all my life,’ Jarod said simply. ‘Because when you look at it, we’re in the same situation.’
‘She’s trying to take you back there.’
A smile tugged at the corners of Jarod’s mouth.
‘Now I see what this is about,’ he said. ‘Do you know the whole story? Why?’
Because she’s a backstabbing little rat, was the reply that came to mind but, figuring Jarod probably wouldn’t appreciate it, Gem kept his mouth shut.
‘All along, it’s been my freedom for hers. She’s been told, and she believes, that if she takes me back, they’ll let her go.’
‘But they won’t.’
‘No. They most likely won’t. But she clings to the hope that they will because she’d rather that than admit to herself that she’s never going to be free of them. It keeps her alive.’
Gem was expecting him to continue, but he didn’t. Quite the contrary, Jarod got to his feet and made to go back out into the other room.
‘Think about it,’ was all he said, and Gem watched with a frown as the pretender immediately went to stand at Miss Parker’s side by the fireplace, where she was examining the small collection of photographs on the mantel.
Like a moth to the light, he thought with a sigh. And one day, you’re going to get zapped.
*
Paris had been a foolish man with his views on love. It had blinded him - he’d taken her away from her world and tried to blend her in to his.
It hadn’t worked.
Love was a useless weapon against cunning and strategy and spears and swords.
The Greeks would never let her stay. They wanted her – and the man that had fallen under her spell.
They’d lurk in the shadows, lying in wait.
Waiting…
…to condemn him to death…
*
Gem’s eyes flew open, and he sat up in his bed.
There was a sound; if he listened he could still hear it.
Crying, weeping, sobbing.
And it was a very female sound.
Here we go again – let’s give him some crocodile tears. He’ll lap that up, a bleeding heart…
You never cried with me. I was the one that was crying. I wasn’t meant to, you know. I was taught not to show emotion. Mr Raines said showing emotion was bad…
Stepping out into the hallway, carefully so as not to make a sound on the timber floorboards, Gemini made his way towards the kitchen.
Jarod’s door was still shut.
Hers was open.
Obviously, you woke the wrong guy.
She was sitting at the table there, no lights on, bathed in the moonlight streaming through the window. The other night it had made her look breathtaking, like a goddess – deadly – this time, she looked small, fragile and alone.
[Mr Raines said showing emotion was bad...]
Her elbow and hand supported her forehead, and she sniffed.
Her cheeks were wet from crying.
‘Is there something wrong?’
At that she tensed immediately, sitting up and whirling around, eyes wide and still shining with tears. Ostensibly, she was hardly expecting company.
It became suddenly apparent that she hadn’t wanted to be found at all.
‘Gem,’ she gasped, surprised, hurriedly wiping her eyes. ‘Did… did I wake you?’
She was pulling on a mask, now. She was the Centre’s Miss Parker again, the one who didn’t cry. But just for a moment, Gem suspected he had gotten a glimpse of the angel Miss Parker, the one he had strongly believed was just an illusion.
[Showing emotions was bad, emotions would get the better of you...]
‘Is there something wrong?’
‘No.’
Liar. Everything you ever say, lies… Why can’t you tell the truth? Don’t you know how?
Didn’t anybody ever show you how?
‘I can go and get Jarod,’ he said flatly.
She got to her feet.
‘No! I mean, no… don’t bother him.’
Biting her lip, she wandered over to the window, stepping further into the silver light. It was a haunting sight, her standing there like that.
Surreal.
‘You don’t want to be here.’
…any more than I want you here.
He didn’t say that, but he could tell she caught it anyway.
Her silence spoke volumes, and he was reluctant to listen to what it communicated. She hid it well but he sensed it; she was uncomfortable, afraid. Tense.
‘I don’t belong here,’ she said after a long moment that was spent with her back to him. ‘Jarod thinks he can just take me away from there and everything will be butterflies and rainbows. He thinks he can bring me here and I’ll fit in, just like that…’
‘You’re not… unwelcome here,’ Gem told her, and they both knew he meant by the others.
‘They’re nice to me because Jarod brought me here, and they don’t want to hurt him. They don’t trust me. You don’t trust me. I can see it in your eyes.’ She turned to face him, and tears were welling in her eyes again. ‘Everything here is forced. Polite. Awkward. I can see what he’s trying to do, but...’
‘But?’
‘The Centre is my life, and it has been for a very long time. It’s not something I can just be ripped away from and adjust to. I’m not like him. And no matter what they’ve done… they’re my family.’
‘So you want to go back there.’
‘If I could leave it all behind, I would.’
‘But you can’t.’
‘Not like this, no.’
‘You want him back there.’
Her eyes widened a little more, and her mouth opened. It stayed that way a short while before she spoke.
‘It’s complicated.’
‘It’s simple. A statement that you can either agree or disagree with.’
‘It’s not that easy. Nothing about me and him has ever been easy and it never will be.’
He could sense anger radiating from her now. He’d gotten her on the defensive, which wasn’t what he had planned. She wasn’t one to spill her emotions all over the floor and when she did, she did it when she thought no one was watching.
‘You don’t understand. You can’t understand. Nobody can. Not even us.’
‘If you could take him back there, right now – would you?’
‘No.’
She answered without hesitation.
‘Why?’
‘Because… because this is separate from all that. Here he likes to believe we’re just two people. Childhood friends. The chase… If I ever took him in, I’d play it fair. I’d catch him because I hunted him down, not because he got bored and wandered into my territory.’
Gem met her eyes and she held his gaze with icy resoluteness. She was a glacial beauty, an ice queen. But she was capable of showing emotions too.
The question is, does she want to? Or does she prefer it when she doesn’t feel?
‘He loves you.’
There. He’d said it. Voiced his deepest, strongest fear…
‘He thinks he does.’
Are you blind? Or are you messing with me? It’s what you wanted, isn’t it? Wanted him at your beck and call, so you could manipulate him…
Maybe this went further than you wanted. Maybe it backfired on you and you won deeper affections than you’d planned.
‘No, you can see it in his eyes. He’d do anything for you. You can see it, when he laughs with you. When he fights with you. When he defends you.’
‘We’ve known each other a long time. There’s a lot of history between us. Like I said, it’s complicated.’
‘Do you love him?’
She dropped his gaze and headed towards the door, well aware that Gem was following her.
‘Where are you going?’
‘Away from here.’
‘You can’t just leave.’
He stunned himself by saying it.
‘Why not?’
Why not indeed?
‘Because it would hurt him.’
To Gem’s surprise, she stopped at his words. Seconds ticked by, and she decided to go through the door anyway. His chocolate gaze observed with relief that she merely sat on the porch.
Jarod would have hated him if he’d driven her away.
‘Do you love him?’ he asked again, sitting down beside her.
She sighed.
‘Orion,’ she pointed out, gazing up at the velvet blue sky. ‘He was always my favourite, you know.’ She gave a dry laugh. ‘Ironic… The hunter.’
It was then that he realized she wasn’t answering because she didn’t know.
‘Do you have a favourite?’ she asked.
He didn’t respond. Too busy thinking. Both of them were.
They sat there for a very long time, hours even. The sky got darker, then lighter. It wasn’t until the stars had disappeared that she spoke.
‘I do love him. In that unconditional way, I suppose. We like to deny it – me more so than him – but there is… a connection between us.’
‘Would you die for him?’
‘No.’
‘He’d die for you.’
‘It would depend on the which me he was dying for.’
Gemini frowned.
‘I didn’t want you here.’
‘I know.’
‘I hated you. You hurt me. You were hurting… him.’
Her ice blue eyes were wide and soulful.
‘I know.’
‘You lied to me.’
‘I know.’ She paused. ‘I don’t know how to tell the truth.’
[Liar. Everything you ever say, lies… Why can’t you tell the truth? Don’t you know how?]
‘Why not?’
[Didn’t anybody ever show you how?]
‘Nobody ever showed me how.’
*
Troy had been destroyed by treachery and deception.
Traitors and liars had worked their magic and those with trusting and forgiving natures had paid the price in the city that was reduced to shambles.
And all because of a woman named Helen.
*
Jarod often rose early and Gemini didn’t want to be there when he did because he sensed Jarod and Miss Parker had a lot to talk about.
‘Canis Major.’
She blinked as he got to his feet, her eyes leaving the goldening horizon for the first time.
‘Sorry?’
‘Canis Major. It’s my favourite constellation. It contains Sirius. The dog star.’
‘Oh,’ she said absently, and he thought he saw a hint of a smile fighting its way onto her mouth.
A hunter and a dog. Dogs usually help the hunter. Is that what’s going on here? Are you using me to get to Jarod?
No, he decided. You don’t have it in your eyes.
I thought you were an angel, when I first saw you. You were amazing, incredible. Perfect.
How could I have gotten it so wrong?
He had gotten it wrong, in many ways.
She wasn’t an angel, but she wasn’t the devil he’d labeled her as, either.
She was just trying to survive, like everybody else.
Flawed. Beautifully, hopelessly flawed.
And he couldn’t blame her for being something he would always be himself.
Human.
*
Once upon a time, there had been a city named Troy.
There had been a quixotic prince, a beautiful woman, a jealous king and two equally jealous goddesses.
There had been a faithful people, an undeserving civilization and a gruesome battle.
Blood had been shed.
Tears had been cried.
Tables had turned.
A city had been destroyed.
People had paid the price for love.
And in the midst, one woman had shouldered the burden. One woman had carried the weight of the world on her shoulders as she remained the cause behind the deaths of many and the destruction of more. She wept for her shamed husband, her life lost, her valiant lover and her people. All of them.
In the midst, one woman…
…had been the biggest victim of them all.
