After my parents died, our family went bankrupt, leaving my sister and me with over a million in debt. To pay it back, she became a haunted house tester, and I took jobs playing corpses on film sets. For five grueling years, we worked without a single day of rest, but the debt lingered. As the year drew to a close, with the final thirteen thousand looming over us, I gritted my teeth and signed up for a clinical drug trial. When it was over, I clutched the thirteen thousand in cash and raced to find my sister, my heart soaring. But I walked in to the sound of her on the phone. “Mom, Dad, Jay is doing great. You guys have fun abroad.” “He’s not a big spender anymore. The punishment can probably end next year.” My parents weren’t dead. Our family wasn’t bankrupt. The five years of hardship, of grinding poverty and relentless toil, were all just a punishment because they thought I liked to spend money. The smile froze on my face. My stomach churned violently, and a mouthful of blood spilled from my lips. … “You need to be sure about this. Once you sign the contract, we’re not responsible for whatever happens.” That’s what the staffer at the pharmaceutical company had told me during the trial. He’d stressed it over and over: the contract was legally binding. I drank the medicine and they observed me for five hours. If there were no immediate problems, I couldn't hold them liable, even if I dropped dead later. Back then, my mind was filled with one single thought: giving my sister and myself a decent holiday, free from worry. So I signed without a second thought. But now… Staring at the cash in my hand, the irony was a physical blow. I raised a hand and wiped the blood from my mouth with my sleeve. I pushed open the door and walked in. My sister, Sophia, hung up the phone in a hurry. When she turned and saw the stain on my shirt, her face changed. “What is that?” Her expression tightened as she rushed to my side, her hands gripping my shoulders, searching for an injury. I brushed her hands away, my voice unnaturally calm. “It’s prop blood from the set.” “Oh, thank God. I thought you were hurt.” She let out a breath of relief. Then her eyes fell on the money in my hand, and her gaze sharpened. “Where did this come from?” “Jay, you didn’t… steal it, did you?” My heart sank. In that moment, I felt like I didn’t know her at all. Steal it. Is that really what she thought of me? I clenched my fists, and it was a long moment before I could speak. “It was a bonus from the director. For the holidays.” She frowned, still skeptical. “A cash bonus? Just like that?” “Look, do you want it or not?” I shot her an irritated glance. “You said we only had thirteen thousand left on the debt, right? This covers it.” “If you don’t want it, I can always give it back.” She was quiet for a moment before finally taking the money from my hand. “I’ll pay off the last of it tomorrow.” Changing the subject, she said, “What do you want for dinner tonight? I’ll cook.” I looked around our tiny apartment. A thirty-square-meter shoebox, you could see it all in one glance. A single wardrobe, a bed, a tiny bathroom. We didn’t have a kitchen; cooking meant chopping vegetables on the coffee table. We used a fifty-dollar electric skillet we’d bought five years ago. The cord had burned out twice, both times patched up by Sophia with black electrical tape. A question suddenly surfaced. “Sis, aren't you tired?” She turned back with a smile. “Not at all. My job’s pretty easy, really. All I do is lie down.” “I’m more worried about you. You must be exhausted after all these years.” What I really wanted to ask was, Aren’t you tired of pretending? With billions in the bank, you could be living a life of unimaginable luxury. But you choose to live like this, in this hovel, just to punish me. Aren't you tired of the lie? But she didn’t understand. So I decided to be more direct. I looked her straight in the eye. “Sophia, do you really think I’m a spendthrift?” I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. Where had they gotten that idea? Yes, our family was wealthy, but I never cared for luxury brands. I never owned anything that cost more than a few thousand dollars. In the rich-kid scene of West Harbor, I was practically a freak. Sophia’s face stiffened. “Why are you asking that? You’re much better now.” “What do you mean, ‘now’? What about before?” I pressed her. Her brow furrowed. “When Mom and Dad were still around, you really didn’t know the value of money.” “They were self-made, Jay. They started as farmers. They, and I, always had to think before we spent anything.” “But for your birthday, you’d pester them for gifts that cost thousands. Don’t you think that was a problem?” My temper flared, and I took a step forward. “Our family is worth billions! I couldn’t even buy a phone for a little over a thousand dollars?” “What’s the point of making all that money then?” Her face hardened. “Listen to yourself. It’s just a phone. Any phone would have worked.” “You were just vain, always trying to keep up with those other trust-fund kids. That’s why you always wanted this and that.” “You’ve had nothing for the past five years, and you’ve gotten by just fine, haven’t you?” I stared at her in disbelief, the blood roaring in my ears. Just fine? Is that how she saw my life for the past five years? Every day, I played a dead body. I’d beg the director for more screen time, just to earn an extra two hundred dollars. Sometimes I’d be lying in mud, other times in a stinking gutter. Motionless for more than ten hours at a time. My old rival, Rick, saw my downfall as his personal entertainment. He was always there, finding new ways to humiliate me, and I was too powerless to fight back. And just to give my sister one good holiday, I sold my body to a drug trial, and I still have no idea what it did to me. Was that life really “just fine”? A sharp pain twisted in my gut. I suddenly remembered Rick’s words, spat at me on set one day. “You idiot. You brought all this on yourself.” “I’m going to follow you everywhere. Whatever set you’re on, I’ll be there. My family has money. We can just invest a little, and boom, I’m in.” “For the next five years, you’re going to suffer under my thumb!” A violent shiver ran down my spine, the hairs on my arms standing on end. Five years. Why that exact number? Could it be that Rick knew something too? My intuition screamed that there was more to this story, more they were hiding from me. I clenched my fists, forcing down the urge to scream at her. “Okay,” I said, my voice tight. “I’ll change.” Sophia put down the vegetables she was holding and reached out to pat my head, a look of satisfaction on her face. “That’s my brother. I have to go to work now, so you’ll have to eat dinner by yourself.” I nodded. After a quick meal, Sophia left for "work." I threw on a mask and a hat and quietly followed her. Once she was out of our rundown neighborhood, she stood by the side of the road and made a call. Less than five minutes later, a black Maybach pulled up in front of her. I watched her get in. I quickly hailed a taxi. “Follow that car.” Half an hour later, the Maybach stopped in front of a high-end steakhouse. She went inside. I waited five minutes before following, taking a table just behind hers. My nerves were shot. I kept my head down, too afraid to see who she was meeting. But then I heard his voice, and my entire body went rigid. “Sophia, I’ve been giving Jay a really hard time, just like you asked. Been doing a great job, if I do say so myself!” It was Rick. “Good,” Sophia’s voice was cool, detached, as if she were discussing the weather. “He needs to suffer a little. It's the only way Jay will learn that money doesn’t grow on trees.” “As a reward, I’ll make sure to steer some business your family’s way.” “Jay can’t find out about this yet. But after the New Year, when my parents are back, I’ll tell them what a help you’ve been.” The air was punched from my lungs. My heart hammered against my ribs, threatening to stop altogether. A waiter came to my table, asking for my order. I couldn’t speak. My hand trembling, I just pointed at a random item on the menu, then waved him away, terrified he would draw Sophia’s attention. Rick’s voice was slick with false concern. “Sophia, you tell Jay you’re a haunted house tester, but you’re really going back to your own place every night. All that sneaking around, aren’t you exhausted?” “Why didn’t you just go abroad with your parents in the first place?” Another wave of shock crashed over me. So the haunted house story was a lie, too. All this time, while I was rotting in that tiny apartment, she was going home. So for the last five years, was I the only one who had truly been suffering? Sophia sighed. “Jay is my brother. I couldn’t leave him here all by himself.” “Besides, even though the company moved its main operations abroad, we’ll be moving back eventually.” Her tone became wistful. “The five-year punishment we set… it’s passed in the blink of an eye. Time flies, doesn’t it?” Flies? A bitter laugh formed in my throat. For me, every single day of these five years has been torture. Playing a corpse isn’t as easy as it sounds. On Rick’s orders, I was always assigned to the most grueling, filthiest scenes. I had to lie perfectly still, no matter if it was pouring rain or blistering hot. After a while, the constant exposure to the cold left me with a permanent chill in my bones. My back and legs ache constantly. And to them, all of that was just a ‘punishment.’ What a joke. “Rick, you’ve worked hard these past five years, too. This is a little something for you.” The conversation continued. Sophia slid an elegant gift box across the table to Rick. He opened it, and his gasp was audible. “Whoa, this watch is sick!” My heart didn’t just sink. It plunged into an abyss. It was the watch. The one I’d asked my parents for, five years ago.
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