Chapter 3
2024—
Los Angeles—
Krista went straight from her base of operation to her apartment.
A refurbished unit formerly of a storage warehouse in the proximity of the various train tracks near Amtrak's Maintenance Facility on 8th Street.
Four bedrooms and two bathrooms. A fully furnished kitchen. A living room. A laundry room. Two multipurpose closets. A fire escape stair outside the windows. And a plastic tree from three Christmases ago that she hasn't taken out yet.
She entered the apartment. Immediately hearing the sound of TV running from inside Olivia’s room.
Usually Olivia would only turn her TV on after she was done streaming. A good distraction for Olivia whenever Krista needed to be out to work.
The first time they moved into their apartment, Krista bought her a decent computer to play with.
She was bored of playing games.
Eventually, Olivia found her calling in learning how computers and programs actually work.
Studying programming in her own free time, she now has reached a point where she can utilize the power of artificial intelligence to the fullest.
Everything in their apartment can be accessed by Olivia from her own phone. From door lock, to light, to control of electricity, security system, etcetera.
Krista tossed her keys to the small bowl on the counter. Olivia heard Krista had come back and asked from her room.
“Sis?” She called out, “Is that you?”
“Yeah, I’m back,” Krista took off her Chucks and entered the unused bedroom near the door.
She took her rolled up tools cloth and opened the hidden compartment under the floor. Filled with cash and her other tools and supplies of gloves and bleach.
Her spare scalpels, chisels, saws, and shears hung on a line of magnets along the side. On the bottom sat a duffle bag.
Inside were the piles of every twenty thousand dollars she collected in cash from her job, now making the pile at least two million dollars in one hundred dollar bills.
But the contents weren't just her cash. Krista also puts weapons inside in case she needs to make a quick getaway with Olivia.
A TAR-21 assault rifle, an M203 with a pistol grip, two M1911s, several grenades, and spare cell phones.
Around the unused room were metal canisters each containing one gallon of napalm. Near the door was a silicone tube hanging on the wall vertically.
Separated into two airtight chambers by a single rubber plug connected to a rope. Inside the two different chambers were calcium metal and water.
Should the rope be pulled, accidentally or deliberately, the apartment will set ablaze and eliminate any trace of Krista and Olivia's existence.
But they aren't everything Krista put strategically.
In the first year, she secretly installed four explosive charges inside the four foundation pillars of the building, each of them weighing twenty five pounds each and are connected to a specially made detector inside her unused room.
Should the detector reach a certain temperature from the chemical reaction and napalm, it will trigger the explosives.
“Are you okay?” Olivia called out again.
“Y-Yeah! Just, uh, tidying stuff up,” She replied, quickly and silently closing the hidden compartment with the panel before rolling the rug back to cover the lines.
She entered Olivia’s room.
She still laid there on her bed. Still unable to move from her paralysis that completely took out her ability to move anything below her waist ever again.
*
2019—
Orlando, Florida—
The car crash that a few years ago caused a complete spinal cord injury to the only person Krista ever cared about.
The moment she woke up a few years ago, her parents still can’t seem to open their eyes and see the fact that one of their children is paralyzed—They only care about when they are gonna be able to make bets again.
Another day.
Another argument.
Another day wasted trying to wake them up from their idiocy.
Olivia—Once a bright and cheerful girl brought down to a paraplegic at the age of ten.
One day Krista snapped out. She showed paralyzed Olivia a newly released song—The Earnest Game by FantasticYouth. Insisting her to listen to the song with her earphones and fully concentrate on the beats.
She needs not know what would and should happen next.
Once she exited Olivia's room, Krista plugged rolled up towels to her door and began her revenge.
She knew that her mom and dad would never care for her nor Olivia. She was perfectly fine with only her—But to also include Olivia was her last straw.
Krista paid one last visit to their kitchen. Her hand reached for two knives—A yanagiba and a cleaver. With her first ever sinister smile born from the billowing rage from her heart’s deepest part, she took their lives.
Their screams were all she could enjoy that day.
The day their uselessness decided their fate was the day Krista forced herself as the sole feeder, keeper, and protector of Olivia. She reveled in their agony.
The yanagiba easily goes through the space between their ribs and into their hearts. Their gurgling sounds felt heavenly to her.
The two people that brought her and her sister to life… are now the biggest and heaviest chains she needs to sever.
Parents? Such nonsense…
But dead they have not.
…It matters not for her.
Fortunately for her, she had just sharpened them merely hours ago.
Each swing dug deep into them. Bits by bits, their limbs disconnected. Swing after swing, their breaths faded. They stopped breathing altogether once she’s done with their heads.
There was only one logical thing left to do.
She dragged their bodies down to the basement towards his table saw. It took her considerable strength to pick each of them up onto the table.
But when they were on it—Everything felt easy, almost effortless for her.
Cutting them in pieces made it easy for Krista to carry.
Reduced weight, reduced size, easier to dispose of.
Krista dumped their parts into a large plastic bag and stuffed them into their car’s trunk. She wishes not for another reminder of their failure of parents.
All of those finished within three repeats of the song.
Going back up, she washed their blood and guts off of her, cut gas pipes and shoved their phones into the microwave.
Her last stop was Olivia.
She carried her in her arms, keeping her eyes closed with her Hello Kitty eye mask. Olivia does not need to see the aftermath of her doing.
But she knows that Olivia sniffed her, she might smell the blood but maybe she did not.
Olivia, curious, asked Krista why she smelled like blood. Krista mustered an answer, saying that it was just Olivia's cold. Her nose must've acted up.
Once they reached the bus stop next block, their house exploded into a giant ball of flame.
Krista—and to extension, Olivia—never looked back ever since.
…Their old lives are gone.
There’s only a bright future waiting for them. They moved from their house in Florida on the East Coast all the way to California on the West.
But Krista needed money.
She was on the verge of selling herself.
In a twisted sense of hope, she was approached by a man when they were in a diner—Bradley.
He knew what she had done and he knew that it wasn't a freak accident that killed their parents.
He offered her a way out.
He saw a horribly efficient potential within her. To kill someone in cold blood and cut them up—He knew that he had struck a gold mine.
Everything else kind of came along perfectly for them.
Krista took on the mask for Olivia’s sake—
*
2024—
Los Angeles, California—
Krista brought a tray full to the brim with warm food for Olivia. A bowl of hot cream soup with corn and mushrooms, a loaf of garlic bread with melted mozzarella fresh out of the pan, a jasmine tea and a Jell-O.
Olivia greeted her lovely big sister with a smile.
“Here you go…” Krista slowly put the tray on a raised platform she made on the side of Olivia’s bed specially for her. “I call this… the Sister’s Supreme.”
“Thank you!” Olivia took the tray from her hands and slowly inhaled the incredible smell of her cooking. “You know what else is missing—”
Krista quickly cut Olivia off and giggled. “No you’re not getting Cookies and Cream Ice Cream, especially before bed.”
“Aww,” Olivia put up a fake pouting face. “Drats.”
“Don’t think I don’t know your blood sugar, young missy.” Krista smacked Olivia on her forehead playfully. “We will not be eating trash under this roof.”
“You eat protein bars and kale juice… you are in no position to lecture me about food taste,” Olivia threw her stuffed animal at Krista, giggling along.
Krista turned to the TV—
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
…Everything Olivia watches these days is getting weirder and weirder.
“What the hell are you watching?” She took the remote and scrolled down through the Netflix recommendations. “Restaurant In Another World… Campfire Cooking In Another World… So I’m A Spider So What—Jesus H Christ—You watch this kind of transported to another world or summoned or reborn crap? You know they’re bad for you, right?”
“They’re not bad, you know,” Olivia defended her shows but slowly agreed with Krista. “Well, at least not all of them.”
“Most of this shit is written by idiots who just wanted to insert their teenage self and imagine themselves as the hero with one dimensional fictional girls riding their dicks.” Krista continued to scroll through the endless anime Netflix recommended. “Jesus didn’t die so you could waste your life watching these crap, Liv. Watch some real shows.”
“Like what? Your iZombie? Your Breaking Bad? Your Dexter—”
“I mean I’m glad that you’re not one of those freaks who watch 1000 episodes of One Piece but come the F on. You’re better than this.”
“What’s the big deal?” Olivia flailed her arms in the air. “What’s not to like about isekai anime? You got magic, you got pretty girls, you got hot guys, you got cozy fantasy world feels.”
Krista rolled her eyes, leaning back against the headboard. “Where do I even begin? The whole genre is just a steaming pile of shitty wish fulfillment. Every protagonist is the same dense, clueless, bumbling idiot who somehow ends up being all-powerful. They get an army of one-dimensional girls who fall head over heels for them… or their dicks, which I don’t care, yet the guy couldn’t flirt his way out of a paper bag.”
Olivia chuckled, nudging Krista with her elbow. “Oh, come on. You’re being way too harsh. Not every isekai is like that.”
Krista raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced. “Alright, let’s break this down. First off, the main characters are always OP to the point of being gods. They get summoned to these worlds to save the day, but instead of fixing anything, they waste time bumbling around, gathering a harem, or debating whether or not it’s morally okay to kill monsters that are actively trying to eat them. Like hell yeah it is, bitch. That’s a 100 feet long fire-breathing dragon. You don’t question moral, you fuck its eyes with your sword. Period.”
Olivia opened her mouth to argue, but Krista cut her off, her voice gaining momentum.
“Second, the girls are just tropes. You’ve got the tsundere who can’t admit her feelings, the kuudere who might as well be mute, the ditzy airhead, and the yandere who’s there to spice things up by making the protagonist’s life hell. They’re not characters—they’re cardboard cutouts with big, Kat Dennings-sized boobs. And don’t even get me started on the supposed hot guys. Half of them are there to act as rivals, and the other half might as well have neon signs over their heads saying, I’ll betray you by episode twelve. Like yeah, bitch, I know. You tried to kill me seven different times in the first episode alone!”
Krista sat up straighter, her tone shifting to one of mockery. “And the worldbuilding? Oh, sure, it’s cozy and cute, but where’s the danger? If there’s a demon lord threatening the world, why isn’t it a hellscape with rotting forests and rivers of blood? Instead, it’s always rolling green hills, cheerful villages, and everyone baking bread like nothing’s wrong. It’s like The Sims: Fantasy Edition. Why don’t they just sing along to country roooooads… take me hooooome… to the plaaaaace… I beloooooong… West Virginiaaaaa—Like, shit. Fuck outta here.”
Olivia couldn’t stop laughing now, clutching her stomach as she tried to protest. “Okay, fine, but there are good ones out there!”
Krista tilted her head, a sly grin forming on her lips. “You mean Overlord?”
“Yeah!” Olivia perked up. “See? Even you like an isekai!”
Krista smirked, shaking her head. “I like Overlord, but only because it actually knows what it’s doing. The world feels real—dangerous, even—and it doesn’t shy away from showing the consequences of power. Overlord is great because the author is not a fucking pussy. He delved into some actual thought provoking and taboo things—not just mindless harem and orgy. But even then, I have exceptions.”
“Like what?” Olivia asked, her curiosity piqued.
Krista crossed her arms, her expression turning serious. “I like Momonga. Not Ainz Ooal Gown. Not Satoru Suzuki. Just Momonga.”
Olivia frowned, confused. “But they’re all the same person.”
“No, they’re not. That’s like saying Christianity and Catholicism are basically the same worship God, don’t do sin type of religion. Technically correct, but not really,” Krista said firmly. “Momonga was the guild leader who cared about his friends. The guy who stayed behind in the game, who valued the legacy of the people who made Nazarick what it was. He’s someone you could root for—someone with real connections to the world. Ainz Ooal Gown, on the other hand? He’s a role that Momonga plays—a mask. And Satoru Suzuki? He’s barely a character anymore. He’s just there for the sake of the plot.”
Olivia blinked, taking in Krista’s passionate rant. “Wow. I didn’t know you thought about this stuff so much.”
Krista shrugged, leaning back again. “I don’t like most of the genre, but I respect the few that try to be more than power fantasies. It’s rare, but it happens.”
Olivia chuckled at Krista's sarcasm. She nudged her arm like she wanted her to stop.
“Surely you have an exception,” Olivia said.
“By far? LLENN,” Krista replied out loud.
Olivia perked up to her choice and leaned forward. “The pink chibi with the P90 from SAO?” She asked. “What’s so special about her? I think that she’s mid at best and trash at worst.”
“She’s not overpowered in a way that breaks the game. She never tries to be idealistic, optimistic and is majorly flawed. She has genuine connection to her friend—the lunatic who dual wields grenade launchers—and the freaky, bumbling creep—M.”
“Umm…” Olivia recalled the anime from her memories, “Didn’t she annihilate players left and right during that competition? You sound a bit hypocritical here—”
“No she was not. Her only power is being really fast and really small, enough to turn her hitbox into a flying saucer. She’s also not overpowered in the sense that her aims are horrible and she needs to shoot from close range bearing too close for anyone’s comfort, which is why she uses a submachine gun with a high rate of fire and large magazine capacity. She didn’t need to be accurate, she just had to throw enough shit at the wall and some of them would eventually stick.”
“Alright alright, chill.” Olivia pouted. “Isekai is fun for me. I didn’t need to use my brain too hard to understand the premise and concept.”
“I’m fine with the genre, Liv. Don’t get me wrong. It’s the writing, the horribly predictable characters and the god-awful amount of tropes its shows have.”
“Alright. Let me ask you something different then—If you were transported or summoned to another world, what power would you want and why that power specifically?”
“I’m not going to another world, Liv. Who would take care of you?”
“It’s just a hypothetical question. Answer it.”
“Alright fine,” Krista sighed then cupped her chin in thought. After a moment she replied, “Logically, the most broken of any fantasy power—summoning.”
“Summoning?” Olivia repeated. “What’s so good about being able to summon something?”
“No, not something—anything,” Krista said, “Imagine being able to get anything you want or need at any given moment. Summoning is simple in its face value but unbelievably broken if you break it down to each of its principles and every possible thing one can summon.”
“I don’t get it…”
“Think of it this way—The power of summoning can negate basically any debuff anyone could ever have, can prevent said debuff before it can occur, outright deny the debuff caster from being able to cast said debuff, feed the hungry, alter entire market and economy, educate the stupid, turn entire tide of a battle with just a snap and a thought and permanently change how a world sees itself.”
Krista took her phone out and flashed it to Olivia.
“This is a cell phone. One of the most basic things anyone on Earth has. It has internet that can connect you to Wikipedia—the biggest archive of human knowledge, play music from a library of near infinite song, provide a fully functional map, help people calculate equations beyond their own brains, take picture or video or sound, communicate with other holder, scribble notes down, detect dangerous electromagnetic waves, light a dark room, and many more… and that’s just a basic modern day cell phone—If I’m including AIs like Gemini, GPT—the people from another world are gonna lose their goddamn minds. If we’re talking about modern Earth’s military might, even the most powerful sage, mage or demon wouldn’t survive through sheer firepower and confusion alone. We homo sapiens evolved from throwing rocks at each other to hurling nuclear missiles traveling at several times the speed of sound across the continent. You’d think a fictional character with a summoning power in a fantasy world wouldn’t be a new deity from the amount of things they could do with even the most basic Earth things?”
“Alright alright! Damn… You’re so passionate.”
“I’m just voicing my thoughts.” Krista raised a hand as if telling Olivia to hold the thought. “Well, yes and no—technically speaking… statistically speaking also, the most broken power in any kind of fantasy ever in the history of everything is the command console, but that's for another topic entirely.”
“By the way… What took you so long?” Olivia asked Krista curiously. “You said you'd be back before 11 yet it was 1:25 when you stepped inside.”
Krista shrugged as she pretended nothing happened despite just cutting someone up hours ago.
“I had to take out a rat,” Krista smirked, twitching her eyes, “I hung out with my boss and a dick of a coworker after I was done.”
“Must be hard being in a pest extermination business,” Olivia said. “Sudden calls to shift in the middle of the night right before bed.”
Krista let out a side eyed giggle. If only she was taking out a rat. “It is what it is… It paid our bills, your food, my education.”
“Well that's too bad. I was going to ask you to stick around for my stream. Chat has been curious about you.”
Krista then turned to Olivia's still powered computer. Being unable to move around freely like she used to, Krista gives Olivia her support to start streaming.
Going from three viewers to a hundred to now tens of thousands of subscribers and an official partner, sponsored by various gaming brands from the likes of Asus and Razer alike.
When Krista was out, Olivia would stream for hours after she finished her online private school class.
She wanted her to have the necessary twelve years of education before she fully delved into the entertainment world.
“What do they know about me? What did you say to your chat?” Krista asked.
“Just the basics—You taking care of me, your age, your daily routine, the fact that we're California based—Nothing too personal as you told me.”
“You did do what I said, right?”
“Of course, I very rarely slipped back to our Florida accent.”
“I see… Maybe I'll join your stream when I have some free time.”
“Great! By the way…” Olivia turned her TV, switching from the Netflix UI to news channel, “... Somebody got killed near your office. Look—”
Krista watched the news broadcast. The same man she killed and harvested. The same alleyway she committed her deeds.
She carefully observes Olivia's eyes. There was yet a hint of Olivia knowing her work.
“Good night everyone. Breaking news, a man was just recently murdered not hours ago in Werdin on 5th Street. Police report confirmed that he is now the 76th victim of an unknown and illegal organ harvesting in 2024 alone. Forensics are now trying to uncover how the gruesome act was done. In a surprising turn of events, the FBI is now jumping in on the hunt for these individuals who murdered these people and illegally harvesting their organs.”
Olivia wowed in surprise and Krista silently and nervously glanced at her sister's eyes as she kept watching the news.
“Damn! Even the FBI is involved too!” Olivia tapped Krista's shoulder, gesturing at the TV.
The reporter then turned to an elderly homeless man sitting down on the ground and leaning against the garbage.
“We do have a witness here that partially saw the act… Sir, good night, would you explain to our audience at home what you saw?”
“Yeah yeah. So I was just looking at the dump right and this young girl with an ice box slung around her approaching me. She crazy I can tell you, she give me a hundred dollar and a sandwich but only if I stay out of the alley for an hour. I ain't gon’ lie, I thought that she was a gold digger at first but nigga no gold digger carries around no damn ice box and a sword.”
“Wait wait… a sword?”
“Yeah like them swords from old Japanese cartoons and comics. You know, the curvy swords that samurai used…”
“This girl… What does she look like?”
“She young definitely. Maybe 20 or younger, big titties and black hair.”
“What about her face?”
“I don't know man she wears a face mask like them nurses or doctors. She creepy as hell I know for that fact tho.”
“And how did you found the victim?”
“I was going back here from a liquor store down the block. I saw a nigga on the ground I thought that he just another homeless like me. Wasn't until I'm like four-five feet later that I noticed that he dead. A whole cavity on his chest and blood all over the puddle. It was disgusting I tell you.”
“Is there anything else you noticed about the girl?”
“Hmm… maybe an ID or a tag? It looks like a Uni card.”
“What do you think, UCLA?”
“It does look like a UCLA ID, though. She does look young. I wouldn't be surprised if she was a student.”
“Alright. Thank you very much, sir.”
Krista took the remote and turned the TV off. Her eyes twitch slightly. Olivia turned at her sister while taking a bite of her garlic bread.
“That’s a bit close to your place, isn't it? 5th—Isn’t that like five minutes away from your office in Skid Row? I know that bar too… Damn! You're lucky…”
“Yeah,” Krista rubbed her head, “... I'm very lucky.”
Her phone rang as she finished. It was just the letter B—Bradley. Krista was hesitant whether to pick it up or not.
Olivia looked at her ringing phone and nudged Krista. “Are you not gonna answer that?”
Krista stood up from the bed and headed out. “Give me a minute.”
Once she exited Olivia’s room and entered her own. She swiped the animated green button up. Bradley’s voice sounded worried and frustrated.
“Hey.”
“Yeah, wassup?” Krista answered.
“I’m canceling your job next week.”
Krista was surprised as the more time she took between jobs, the less money she would make. She needed all the money she could make, especially considering how costly the implant she sought was.
“You… You can’t do that!” She whispered through her hand covering her mouth. “I need that money—”
“I know, Kris. But the FBI is on the case. I’ve been hearing words that they have begun their investigation. A birdie told me of a whole pack of black SUVs gunning it down I-66 on Gainesville, heading West here to LA.”
Krista went silent for a moment before responding to his information. “Oh, shit…”
“Correct—Oh, shit.”
“So that’s…” Krista made a quick approximation in her head. “—about 40 hours, give or take?”
“They’d be driving much faster than that considering the sensitivity of the case.”
“So… tomorrow night at best?”
“Exactly. They’re gonna be here by Friday.”
“Damn it!” She punched her desk whisperingly. “I have class on Saturday. I can’t skip it if I want to pass.”
“Well you better hope they won't find you…”
“Thanks!” She said, her tone bleeding with sarcasm. “I’ll be sure to grab a lawyer on my way to the campus!”
“Just relax and act like nothing happened.”
“Wha-Wha-What… Have you ever escaped their searches?” She asked Bradley, curious for any tips or tricks.
“No, they definitely will get whoever they’re looking for. You are now on borrowed time… but you just act natural and don’t give them any reason to sniff you, they might back off due to the lack of evidence gathered and they’ll be back to Langley.”
Krista began to sweat. Her mind was wondering about the other result. “What if they sniffed me?” Her tone now dreaded with worry.
“Then you better say your goodbyes—From the amount of people you killed, your charges will most likely result in an instant death penalty. I mean 700+ kills… You surpassed even all US serial killers combined. You should consider yourself a living legend, Kris.”
She hung up the call and looked around her room nervously.
What to do, what to do, what to do?