Chapter 1

Brenda, my twin sister, hurt her foot, so she asked me to go downstairs and pick up her takeout for her.

As I was heading toward the delivery guy, totally unprepared, some weird floating text suddenly popped up in front of me.

[Don't go! That delivery guy is actually your sister's ex-boyfriend in disguise. He's here to get revenge on her, and he's going to kill you!]

[Brenda is seriously ruthless. The first thing she does after her rebirth is use her own sister as a sacrificial pawn!]

[The expendable sister gets sacrificed without even knowing it, and even her boyfriend gets stolen by the main character. Talk about a miserable fate.]

I paused for a moment, then turned and started heading back upstairs.

But just as I reached the entrance, a knife was suddenly shoved against my lower back.

A man said, "Baby, wasn't I good to you? Why did you have to break up with me?"

*****

My voice trembled as I stammered, "I'm not Brenda! I'm her sister, Jessica. If you really know her, you should know she has a twin!"

The man clenched his jaw. "Yeah, you did mention she had a twin, but you also said you two don't live together. Baby, are you trying to fool me again?"

Tears started streaming down my face as I panicked.

I said, "I'm not lying! She told me this afternoon that she hurt her leg and asked me to come over and keep her company. If you don't believe me, you can come upstairs and see for yourself!"

If Brenda wanted to play dirty, then I was done playing nice.

The man paused, then let out a cold laugh.

He said, "Alright! Let the guilty pay for their own crimes. If you can prove you're not her, you get to live."

[Hold up, this isn't how it went in the book. Wasn't Jessica supposed to get killed on the spot? Did they change the script?]

[No matter what, Jessica's a goner. Otherwise, the plot can't go on.]

The man forced me at knifepoint to Brenda's apartment door.

I was worried Brenda might've changed the code after I left, but she didn't.

I punched in the code, and the door swung open without a hitch.

As soon as we stepped inside, the man quickly shut the door behind us.

Brenda wasn't in the living room, so I shouted furiously, "Brenda, get your ass out here!"

This afternoon, she told me she fractured her leg and asked me to come over and keep her company.

I didn't even question it. I just grabbed a cab and rushed over right after work.

I came here to take care of her, and she set me up to die in her place!

What kind of sister did that? Even an enemy wouldn't be this ruthless!

I kept shouting her name, but got nothing back. Finally, I turned to the guy and said, "She's probably hiding somewhere. Let me go look around the bedroom. Relax, I'm not gonna..."

Before I could finish, the floating text popped up again.

[Jessica, quit yelling. Brenda already bailed through the fire escape while the villain was dragging you upstairs.]

[For real though, why didn't Brenda just call the cops? Wouldn't that have solved everything?]

[Spoiler alert, proceed with caution.]

[Brenda's been traveling back in time more than once. At first, she tried to run and hide, but no matter what she did, the villain always tracked her down and killed her in the end.]

[In the last timeline, Brenda used Jessica to buy herself some time and called the cops, who managed to catch the villain. But he only got twenty years in prison, and after he got out, he still hunted Brenda down and killed her.]

[So now, Brenda probably wants the villain to kill Jessica instead, hoping he'll get the death penalty right away.]

My rage hit the roof at that moment.

But all I could do was seethe helplessly.

The guy, getting impatient, pressed the tip of the knife into the soft spot on my waist.

He asked, "Didn't you say she was with you? Where is she?"

I shook myself out of it, still thrown off by those pop-up messages, and stammered, "She... she ran off."

"Are you sure she ran off, or are you just playing me?" he demanded.

The man gave a cold laugh and dug the knife in even harder against my back.

A jolt of pain shot through my lower back, and I blurted out, "I swear I'm not lying! She was still here when I went downstairs. She must've slipped out through the stairs while we were taking the elevator up!"

Then it hit me. I pointed at my shoulder bag hanging on the coat rack.

I said, "Let me show you my ID, it's in my bag!"

The guy didn't object, just let me walk over to it.

[Is Brenda about to get busted?]

[If I were Brenda, I'd totally switch their IDs. Then she could just become Jessica and live her life instead. Problem solved.]

My heart clenched. I hurried over, hands shaking as I fumbled through my bag for my ID.

When I saw Brenda's name glaring back at me, all hope drained out of me. Tears of terror streamed down my face.

"Brenda! You bitch! Even if I die, I swear I'll haunt you to hell and back!" I screamed.