The Sister’s Dilemma

Tonight, at Chloe’s insistent demand, the two successfully returned to their respective rooms to sleep.

Why? Chloe no longer wished to be suddenly jolted awake in the middle of the night, only to spend the entire next day feeling utterly drained. Tia, conversely, found immense pleasure in it, not only enjoying the sensation but also expelling impurities, treating it almost as a wellness regimen. For Chloe, it was the complete opposite: pain, exhaustion, and the invasion of black energy. Afterward, she had to drink that nauseating potion, vomiting profusely, and the paltry pleasure derived was simply not worth the ordeal.

Unless Tia used only her fingers—specifically, her trimmed fingers—she could circumvent these issues. However, Tia seemed to have divided these two methods into distinct tasks: one was treated as daily work, an inescapable duty, while the other was a means of seeking pleasure. The two, it seemed, could not be substituted for one another. The reality was that Chloe might endure two such ‘sessions’ a day. This lifestyle was undeniably too depraved.

Furthermore, upon realizing that Tia wasn’t doing these things out of affection for her, Chloe’s resistance to these acts intensified. Such an important act should, by rights, be shared with someone you love, shouldn’t it? How had it devolved into a mere task, like eating or drinking? Perhaps it could be dubbed ‘the master’s tasks’.

Ugh~

Lying on her bed, Chloe let out a long, helpless sigh. Her biological clock was somewhat askew; she couldn’t fall asleep at this hour.

“Papertreat.” She lay on her back, stretching an arm to hold the doll aloft, attempting to call out once more to the individual who had suddenly vanished earlier.

There was no response.

“Papertreat!”

“Eh-heh! Does Master need something? Why wake me up in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?”

“Why didn’t you answer me when I called before?”

“But I’m here now, aren’t I?”

“I meant when you weren’t here.”

“No, I meant the time before that, when we were on the street.”

“Eh? Was I? I don’t seem to recall that.” Papertreat’s puzzled tone seemed genuinely truthful, and after all, they were just a doll; what reason would they have to lie?

Chloe furrowed her brow, attempting to recall the specifics of that moment, yet the exact circumstances remained elusive. She remembered only a vague, conceptual understanding, as if someone else had recounted it to her rather than it being her own lived experience. Yet, the guilt of taking a life was not so easily dispelled. Chloe surmised that her consciousness had been too muddled at the time, coupled with her brain’s self-preservation mechanism, which had prevented her from retaining a clear recollection. She vaguely remembered calling out to Papertreat when she had killed someone and felt helpless, yet Papertreat had not responded. Was that truly the case?

A dull ache began to throb in Chloe’s head.

“Are you sure there wasn’t?”

“No, there wasn’t!”

“Perhaps… I misremembered.”

Papertreat then shifted the topic abruptly to Tia: “Master! I can’t believe you managed to ‘normalize’ Tia so remarkably in such a short span! However, your affections don’t seem passionate enough! This superficial facade of sisterhood will be difficult to maintain! To take things further, you must… Mmph!”

“I don’t want to hear it!” Chloe, having learned her lesson, forcefully flattened Papertreat’s entire head, compacting the stuffing inside into a dense ball. When she released them, Papertreat’s head had become comically pointed.

“Then tell me, why must I truly take our relationship further? As things stand now, I play the dutiful younger sister, she plays the elder, and I indulge her perverse role-playing desires. Then I live my own life. Isn’t that perfectly fine? Besides… what right does a murderer like me have to fall in love with anyone…?”

Papertreat offered no reply. Their button eyes lost their luster. One of their eyes, perhaps squeezed too hard, seemed on the verge of popping out, its connecting thread slightly frayed. The already somewhat unsightly doll, with one eye dangling, appeared even more grotesque. However, Papertreat was one of the few beings with whom she could truly bare her soul, so Chloe didn’t mind.

“Ah, ah~” A wave of drowsiness finally washed over her. Chloe hugged Papertreat, using them as a bolster, closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep. She would have to find someone to re-sew their eye later.

The next morning, as Chloe rose to prepare breakfast, she was greeted by the mingled aromas of congee, fried dough sticks, and soy milk. What was happening? Normally, wasn’t she the one tasked with preparing breakfast?

Sure enough, Chloe lifted the lid from the pot on the dining table, revealing several steaming breakfast dishes. Additionally, a cream-colored sticky note on the refrigerator caught her attention. This was only the second time she’d seen a sticky note on the refrigerator—and this one was unmistakably new. Was it a message?

Chloe leaned in for a closer look. The elegant handwriting was unmistakably Tia’s. [I bought soy milk today, remember to drink it while it’s hot.]

How remarkably thoughtful. But Chloe felt a peculiar sense of unease.

Still groggy and half-asleep, Chloe instinctively sat down and began to eat. I can’t eat normal food! The warm, viscous congee in her mouth immediately triggered a wave of nausea. She quickly found a trash can and retched.

“What in the world?!”

Since she typically didn’t prepare her own ‘portion,’ Chloe hadn’t initially noticed anything amiss. In fact, a strange sense of comfort had washed over her, akin to a mother’s relief that her child had finally grown up. Had Tia’s mind also deteriorated? How could she forget something so crucial?

Rinsing her mouth at the sink, Chloe suddenly thought of something, and a shiver of dread crawled up her spine. Could Tia’s declaration of treating her as a sister actually mean this?

Chloe returned to the refrigerator to look at the sticky note again, but this time, her feelings were starkly different. There was no warmth to it, only a chilling cold. Chloe couldn’t even begin to imagine what state of mind Tia had been in when writing that note. The words on the sticky note felt as if they weren’t even intended for her. The steaming breakfast dishes on the table were the same. Those weren’t Chloe’s favorite foods at all; they were Yilan’s!

Her heart began to pound faster, and a horrified gasp escaped her as she covered her mouth. Her large, golden eyes, seemingly unfocused, stared fixedly at something invisible.

It was, inexplicably, terrifying.

Chloe suddenly realized she wasn’t prepared for this. Playing Tia’s sister was one thing, but to be molded into Yilan’s image and act accordingly—that would be an insurmountable challenge. Usurping another’s identity was inherently immoral, let alone that of someone deceased.

All she could do now was hope Tia was merely playing a cruel joke.