A Skeleton’s Place in Hell

My sister was an influencer with anorexia. She made a hundred thousand dollars a month posting videos of herself eating just five lettuce leaves a day. But more and more people started copying her. When her audience dwindled, she set her sights on me. She put pig growth hormones in my water. She wanted me to reach two hundred pounds so she could film "sister contrast" videos. She gained a million followers overnight. When I confronted her in tears, she dropped to her knees and said she was sorry. The drugs were supposed to be for her. She'd finally come to her senses and wanted to gain weight. Worried about her health, I searched everywhere for doctors and treatments. I found healthy meal plans to help her gain weight. Meanwhile, she mocked me on her livestream. When I learned the truth, my heart started racing. My obesity had compromised the blood supply to my heart, and I died. My sister, meanwhile, cashed in on the controversy. After being reborn, I decided to let her make her own choices. If she loved looking like a skeleton so much, she could take herself straight to hell. My sister ended her livestream and kicked over a chair. "Unbelievable! A bunch of broke losers. I stream all night, and they only send a few thousand bucks in gifts, but they still expect me to sit around chatting with them? Poor people are so damn demanding!" Without the baby voice she put on for her streams, her shrill cursing grated on my ears. I stood outside the door, clutching my chest, drenched in cold sweat. I still hadn't escaped the agony of my last life—the failing circulation, the buzzing in my head. My sister glanced down at the food in my hands and immediately started criticizing. "That's disgusting! Is oil free now? Why did you use so much? How am I supposed to eat something that greasy? You know I can't eat that. You did this on purpose, didn't you? You should've just brought me some lettuce!" She made a gagging noise. "Ugh! Just smelling the oil makes me want to puke! Eat it yourself. Get as fat as you want!" My lips trembled as I watched her snap a photo, hatred burning inside me. "What are you staring at? How did I end up with a sister like you? You're five-three and you haven't even gotten down to fifty-five pounds, but you still have the nerve to waddle around in front of me? You're ruining my brand!" The same words as last time. My sister had always torn me down, telling me I was too fat. In my previous life, she humiliated me every single day. But once her livestream numbers started dropping, she pretended to care about me. She even slipped me hormones used to bring breeding sows into heat! I ballooned as though someone were pumping me full of air. She used the contrast between us to make herself famous again. When I finally discovered the truth, she didn't apologize. She mocked me along with her fans! I collapsed in a fit of rage, and she kept her camera pointed at me. "Look! My fat pig of a sister is so huge she can't even breathe!" After she went back inside, I pulled out my phone with shaking hands. A notification chimed. I refreshed my feed and saw her latest post. "My sister made me dinner. I'm not really a fan. I can't stomach anything this greasy, but she called me a skeleton and tried to force me to eat it. I'm literally crying..." The photo showed a pizza from above, along with one of my hands holding a bowl and my sister's five fingers. My hand was soft and slightly round. Next to her stick-thin fingers, the contrast was obvious. Just as expected, the insults were already pouring in. "The creator has such an amazing body, but her sister's a pig. Gross!" My sister replied: "My sister's usually pretty nice. Maybe she's upset because I've lost more weight lately..." "She's fat, so she's trying to force you to eat meat. She's jealous of you, babe." My sister replied: "🥺👉👈" "How did you get so skinny? I'm as fat as your sister, and I want to look like you." My sister replied: "Babe, check out the weight-loss tea in my TikTok Shop! Just eat a little less every day and drink this tea. You'll have my perfect body in no time~" ... My vision swam as I scrolled through that celebration of a twisted, extreme beauty standard. And I realized she had already started quietly comparing our weight, encouraging her followers to ridicule me while still making sure to push her products. The joke was on me. In my last life, I'd been so focused on treating her anorexia that I spent every day rushing between work and hospitals. When I went online, it was to read recovery stories. I'd never looked closely at her account. My sister, a hugely popular anorexic influencer, had attracted a crowd who shared her warped ideals. Then she dragged a normal person like me into it to boost her views and rake in the money. She had spent her entire life bleeding me dry. I touched my chest. The hatred I'd felt on the brink of death surged to a new peak. You love being a skeleton, don't you? Then you belong in hell.Working from memory, I searched for the influencers who had copied my sister and eventually become huge in my previous life. One of them already had half as many followers as she did, and the number was still rising. I watched recordings of her recent streams. By my rough estimate, she was earning tens of thousands a night. No wonder my sister had been even more vicious lately. I smiled and casually placed a few dozen orders with the ones who were livestreaming or selling products, giving their numbers a boost. But that wasn't enough. My eyes settled on the pile of cardboard boxes in the corner. They contained the unregulated weight-loss tea my sister had so "generously" given me. I opened a box, poured the tea into a basin, and soaked her daily lettuce in it overnight. After eating the lettuce, my sister sat on the toilet, vomiting and having diarrhea at the same time. Yet she looked thrilled. "My body's detoxing! I'm going to lose more weight!" "Five lettuce leaves a day is still too much. I can't keep bingeing like this. It's more than my body can handle. I'm about to break below sixty-six pounds!" The next day, she stopped eating lettuce altogether. She ate only ten grains of rice. I was stunned. In my previous life, some fans who drank the tea she sold had ended up in the ER, weak and dehydrated from diarrhea. My sister had diarrhea for a week. Her body grew weaker, but her spirits kept rising. I'd meant to torment her. Instead, I'd rewarded her. I said nothing. I simply stopped recording and sent a few expensive virtual gifts to her rivals. Within a week, those influencers blew up ahead of schedule. My sister kept losing followers. Her nightly livestream earnings fell to a few hundred dollars. On camera, the corners of her mouth twitched with fury, but she forced herself to smile. Expressions flickered across her gaunt, angular face. She looked like a zombie. Grinning, I started stirring things up in the chat. "Have you gained weight lately? Your face looks rounder. Does that weight-loss tea even work?" My sister rushed to explain. "Of course it does! I just drank too much water and got a little puffy. A few trips to the bathroom will fix it." "Order another ten boxes, babes. I promise it works!" "But I've been drinking it for a week, and I've only lost half a pound." "Chloe lost five pounds in two days. Can you do that?" "Your streams are honestly boring. I'd rather watch Chloe or Lily~" Someone agreed. "Yeah, I followed Lily's meal plan and lost two pounds yesterday. Her results are way better." "Does it really work that well?" "Don't believe me? Lily's live right now. Let's all go look." The viewer count plummeted before my sister could even beg them to stay. After ending the stream, she smashed her bowl. A few pitiful grains of rice scattered across the floor. Then she stepped on the scale again. Staring at the glowing "66," she burst into tears. I twisted the knife. "You work so hard to lose weight, but you still can't beat people who are naturally better at it. Maybe you're just not cut out for this." "People want fast results now. You're already so thin that losing more could kill you. Why not gain weight instead? That could bring in a whole new audience." Tears and snot ran down her face as she glared at me. "I'd rather die than turn into a disgusting fat pig like you!" I didn't argue. I just turned up the volume on my phone. A two-hundred-twenty-pound streamer was devouring burgers, announcing that she'd gained another two pounds yesterday and celebrating reaching a hundred thousand followers. I tapped the screen and sent her a virtual rocket. My sister's skeletal face reflected in the screen. Her eyes widened slightly, gleaming as she watched the gifts flood in...