The last thing I remembered was losing to Regina and her claiming my punishment game was to take over my brain or something like that. I must’ve passed out after that, but wait a moment, does that mean that I am no longer in control of my body? Is that why everything around me is so dark? Am I dead? Mother, are you here to finally take me into your warm embrace once more?

“Good lord, why don’t you try opening your eyes, idiot? I can hear your thoughts loudly,” Raina says, waking me up completely.

The moment I saw her, my entire body tensed up, felt some sense of caution towards her and my accursed ability made its existence felt. Oh, that’s just great, now it comes out when it doesn’t seem like there’s anything particularly dangerous happening.

I placed my hands on her shoulders immediately and she said, “Please turn this off, it’s very nauseating to be in here… I promise there will be no shenanigans anymore.”

I don’t really believe her, but I decided to oblige either way and calmed myself down. That was how I turned it off the last time, so I’m not particularly well-versed in doing it yet. It took me a minute to do so, and hopefully no one else got caught by it.

“Do you realize how long the time difference inside it was? How long did it take you to remove it?” she asked.

“About a minute or so,” I said.

“So, in that minute, I felt like I spent five hours!” she said.

“Wait, what? That’s how long it felt?!”

I had no idea it was that long. Now I feel worse about the others in the hospital; no wonder they’re still in the recovery process to this day. Please forgive me for my accursedness, if that even is a word.

“Oh my god, you do not recover from that quickly. I think I’m going to hur—...” she was probably going to say hurl, but had to hurry and get her trash bin to actually hurl in the bucket. That was rough to watch, goodness.

5 hours is so long, I can’t even imagine how long those people that suffered for 3 days were trapped inside that slowed down state. Oh God, just thinking about it makes me puke.

“You trapped people for 3 days?!” Regina screams in the background.

“Will you quit reading my mind?!” I told her, while she continued to hurl.

If I were to take into account what Regina told me, then they would’ve felt that it was around 15 days! Holy shi—!

“Don’t swear, you’re going to get us unpublished if you do!” she said.

“Unpublished?”

“Don’t mind that.”

While I still try to wrap my head around the sheer insanity of my time-slowing capabilities, I turn back to Regina, who’s still hurling in her bin, and said, "I’m sorry."

"Huh? Why are you apologizing to me?" she asked.

"Well, I must’ve done something terrible for you to torture me this much, that’s why I’m sorry," I said, with a smile on my face.

This actually terrified her, and she said, "You’re the one who’s terrifying, Rolo. Seriously, I was the one who did horrible stuff to you for no reason… well, for the wrong reasons to be accurate. I actually thought you were after our family to betray us for power, influence, or whatever. I’m sorry for what I put you through.”

“Why would I do any of that?”

“People have done it before,” she said.

“I see. While I understand that, I’m still a 9 year old,” I replied.

“And I’m 7. I don’t know how the world works yet!” she complained.

“Same here, and maybe the same with your big sister.”

“You think so?” she asked.

“We’re the same age, so yes.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

We laughed afterwards, like we’re old buddies who found each other in a quarrelsome situation. It oddly felt right to do all of that with her, it’s like we’re actual long lost siblings of some sort.

“You must hate me after everything I put you through, don’t you?” she asked.

“Yes, that would be correct.”

“I’m really sorry,” she mumbled.

“It’s alright. I mean, I don’t totally hate you, you were just confused and the fact that you’re willing to do so much for your family is seriously admirable.”

“You think so?”

“A little messed up… but the thought is there. I don’t appreciate being on the other end of it, but honestly, I don’t really seem to hate you despite it all. I actually think that I like you.”

“Gross. I know we’re not blood related, but you can’t just confess to your younger sister like that,” she muttered.

“Ack!” I messed up, that was a misunderstanding. "I didn't mean it that way! I just meant that I like you as a person, in a completely platonic way!"

She starts to laugh loudly as I scramble my words to make it all make sense.

It seems like she was just toying with me.

"Correct."

"You’re unbelievable," I muttered.

"Well then, do you want to know how I somehow took things from you, like your left lung? Or how about how I was able to jump inside your mind? Or turning your rock into paper?" she asked.

"You did cheat!"

"Of course, I did. It’s not against the rules to cheat, but it’s against the rules to change the rules for the benefit of one player, that’s true cheating," she says.

"Strange rule to live by but go on ahead, tell me what you did," I reply.

"Other than being able to read your thoughts, unless they’re either repressed, abstract, or guided by impulse, I’m also able to manipulate a person’s body functions by simply rerouting the nerves in their brain. That’s what happened to you," she explains.

“A telepath, through and through…” I mumbled.

“That’s right. I’m quite a frightening foe, don’t you think?” she said.

“Oh, I don’t need to think that,” I mumbled. “And what about the punishment game?”

"That’s different. That isn't from me; it's the accursed blessing of this house itself."

"Huh? This mansion has one? But how?"

"Believe it or not, anything can have an accursed blessing. Punishment game has been with this house for a long time; way before my big sister was born, I believe. I just used this house’s accursed blessing to ward off those that try to cross the family," she says.

"Hence my suffering, right?"

"Yeah. The punishment game just traps us in a loop of playing games while the actual punishments are delivered by me, so long as I can actually do it, of course," she says.

"If you can’t?"

"The game just repeats itself until someone declares the punishment game to be the end of the game. That’s really the only way to escape," she said.

"So we’re still inside the game, right?"

"Yes."

"And to break it, someone has to forfeit, right?"

"Indeed."

"Then, I forfeit the game," I replied, much to her surprise. "What’s with that face?"

"Huh? Oh nothing, I just didn’t expect you to forfeit. I thought you would be wary of the punishment game. I mean, I could still be tricking you right now," she chuckles.

"Nah, no need to be. I trust you."

“Man, you’re not as fun to deal with when you’re like that,” she scoffed initially, but it turned into a smile eventually. “I hope this trust doesn’t come back and bite you in the ass someday.”

“I hope it doesn’t.”

“Since you lost via forfeit, your punishment game is to end this game immediately.”

And thus, the game was finally over. It’s such an easy win condition, but it does feel like it would go on forever if someone didn’t know how the mechanics work. Speaking of which, “What happens if we don’t end the game? That just means it would go on forever, right?”

“Nope. The house itself would consume us and make us into one of the decorations. But I wouldn’t worry about it; the time limit is like, 48 hours," she smiles.

"You reckless dummy!"

"I am reckless," she chuckles, turning to me and saying, "So you have to take care of me, big brother."

I believe this was the day where I truly became part of the Valero family, with the acknowledgement of Regina. I mean, we’re still not really all that close to this day, but at the very least, we’re civil with each other and try to help each other from time to time. I bet she helped Raina eavesdrop on my thoughts just to mess with me, I can feel that it’s her suggestion.

And also, another funny story.

When Raina found out about the whole fiasco later that day, she got so fuming mad at Regina and forced her to play the same game. I have no idea what actually transpired, since Claris led me away from the room, but I found out the next day that Regina lost every single game to her sister.

She even knocked on my door to apologize profusely, in tears no less.

Quite frankly, I don’t want to know what happened there.