Me and My Shadow

Posts : 716 Join date : 2017-06-28

To say that things were tense between the twins would be an understatement.

After kissing Tobias, Jane wanted more than anything to talk to a friend about the whole situation. How she should react, if she should talk to him... It was awkward to deal with and she knew keeping all of that bottled up would have a negative impact on her gameplay. But, after her argument with Harriet, there had been a major shift in their dynamics--she couldn't talk to her only friend.

Harriet was angry.

The two of them still spent most of their time together, but they didn't talk at all. Not about gameplay, about their days, not even inside jokes. Harriet didn't make breakfast for her sister, didn't comment on her artwork, and CERTAINLY didn't bring up alliance talk. Whatever she'd been saying to Cam, she didn't share with Jane.

Harriet wasn't sure how to deal with her sister at the moment. Something was clearly on her mind, and the fact that she hadn't shared it yet made her uneasy. Made her paranoid. Whenever they'd fought in the past, they would make up within a few hours. Harriet had kept her distance like usual, but Jane hadn't so much as said hello to her since the argument... It was hard to apologize or even ignore the situation if Jane wasn't showing any signs that she was ready to talk.

But, on the morning of the eliminations, the two were outside having coffee and Harriet just couldn't stand it any longer. She set down her cup, smoothed out her skirt, and, without looking at her sister, addressed her. "Jane."

Jane held her cup with both hands, strategically covering her face so as to avoid eye contact. "... Yes?"

"I'm... sorry."

"Are you?"

"Yes." She sighed, glancing around to make sure nobody else could hear them. "I am. I might have stepped out of line with what I said to you. I was just worried. I joined this game to play with my sister, and if anyone gets in the way of that..."

"... Then you feel like you have to insult me? Force me to cling to you? Keep me from having friends, or even a relationship?"

"Admittedly, this isn't the place to start those kinds of things, since you'll all be turning against each other in a few weeks but... Yes."

Jane looked into her cup, watching the little clouds of cream circle and slowly disperse into the rest of her drink. It felt good to hear her sister admit that... And as a result, she wasn't nearly as nervous as usual. If she took this conversation slow, everything might work out alright. "You still... Insult me. A lot. Even when you aren't mad."

"I do,"

"That's not okay."

"That's how our family shows affection."

"And you know that I don't like that."

"Well..." Harriet DID know. She always had known. It was just a conveniant way to control her sister when they were younger, and she never had considered growing out of it. "Well, what do you want me to do?"

"Trust me to make my own decisions." Jane took a small sip of her coffee, then set it down beside her. "I... Love you. And I-I do need help with some things, sometimes... But, I think we need to separate. For now." She turned to her sister, patting her hand and offering her a small smile. "We might not win together, but I... I'll support you from afar, and I want you to do the same for me, okay?"

Harriet looked at their hands, around the backyard, and back to her sister. She didn't smile--she was a little too hardened emotionally for that. But, she did consider it. "I suppose that's fine. If you really don't want us to be in this together."

"I just want to have a sister--a friend--who doesn't need to dictate every part of my life in order to want to be around me."

"I see..."

When Harriet didn't say anything further, Jane just sighed and widthdrew her hand. "I... I guess that's all I have to say." Resisting the urge to take it all back and return to the comfortable role as her sister's 'yes man', Jane stood and started back inside. "I'll be rooting for you, for what it's worth."

Harriet grunted at that, and Jane left. The older sister sat there and worked over Jane's words for a moment. Playing separately... what a joke! Jane had always been Harriet's 'shadow'--her Hmong name even meant 'shadow'--and the idea of her playing on her own was equal parts hilarious and horrifying. She would most assuredly get hurt or make a fool of herself. But, Harriet didn't want to tell her sister that and rob her of her first real stab at independence...

She made up her mind right then and there: her next move would be to get rid of Jane before the girl could get hurt. She had to be sneaky though... Had to make it look like she had nothing to do with it. How to make that happen... was another thing altogether. Her plans thus far had just been to hang back, stay on Cam's good side, and eventually betray him (the bastard nominated her in the FIRST WEEK! Did he really think he could get away with that?!). Now she needed the numbers in that alliance to get rid of her sister.

Or did she?

Harriet poured her sister's coffee into her own cup and sat in the backyard thinking over potential plots for at least an hour. Planning would be so much easier if she was the socially awkward twin who had nothing better to do than watch shitty reality shows.