Her Beauty on My Bones

Lately, I’ve been gaining weight for absolutely no reason. Even on days when I eat nothing but a single hard-boiled egg, the scale somehow climbs another two pounds. My sister, Josie, is the exact opposite. She binges on takeout and junk food all day long, yet her body remains effortlessly runway-ready. Frustrated and utterly confused, I posted about it on an online forum, hoping for some advice. Instead, a stranger in the comments revealed a terrifying truth. “Your sister has bound you to a Gluttony Pact. No matter what she eats, she will never gain an ounce. She is anchored to you, destined to stay exactly half your weight.” I froze, staring down at the digital scale. One hundred and eighty pounds. The numbers glared back at me. The user messaged me again. “Did she give you some kind of personal keepsake? A piece of jewelry you wear close to your skin? Listen to me: take it off and fasten it to an animal. You will see what happens.” I did exactly that. Taking advantage of my job at the local zoo, I slipped the silver necklace my sister had given me onto the neck of an elephant in my care. Within three days, Josie completely lost her mind… … “Oh my god! Oh my god! What am I supposed to do?” It had been barely three days since I fastened her necklace to the elephant. Now, my sister’s hysterical screams were echoing through the drywall from the bedroom next door. My parents, hearing her breakdown, rushed to her room to soothe her. But when she couldn’t give them a straight answer, their panic curdled into anger. Together, they stormed down the hall and kicked my door open. The heavy bang of the wood hitting the wall shook the room. Before I could even blink, my mom ripped the blanket off my body, dragging me upright by my arm. It was a stark reminder of exactly where I stood in this family. “Iris! How can you sleep right now?” my mom shrieked. Her fingers dug painfully into my shoulder. Because I weighed a solid hundred and eighty pounds, she couldn’t easily budge me, which only made her angrier. She began to pinch my arms. “Did you do something to your sister? She’s in there crying her eyes out! Are you deaf? Didn’t you hear her?” My dad joined in, grabbing my discarded comforter and tossing it out into the hallway. My bedroom was a converted pantry—barely wide enough for me to turn around in, let alone fit my frame. It was a miracle my bed even squeezed in here. Yet, they had no qualms about crowding in, reducing my tiny sanctuary to utter chaos. But they didn’t care about my space. Their only concern was Josie’s endless, shrill sobbing. “Listen to her!” my mom demanded, shaking me. “She’s heartbroken, and you’re just lying here like a lump of clay! Why aren’t you comforting your sister?” “And what exactly am I supposed to say?” I asked, my voice flat. I looked at them with cold, tired eyes. I’d spent twenty-three years watching their favoritism play out; the armor I’d built was thick. “Just go in there and say something nice! Tell her how beautiful she is! You can’t just pretend she doesn’t exist!” Yes, that was always their playbook. I was the older sister—the bigger, plain, unpromising one. I had no grand ambitions; I was perfectly content working a quiet job at the zoo. But Josie was different. Josie was beautiful, slender, and fiercely determined to be a high-fashion model. A few weeks ago, she had registered for a major regional modeling showcase. By all standard agency metrics, her body fat and weight shouldn’t have qualified her. Yet, through some miracle I couldn’t comprehend at the time, she passed the physical screening with flying colors. The second-round callback was only a month away. To build up her confidence, my parents had spent years tearing me down, offering my self-esteem as a sacrifice to feed her ego. They shoved me down the hallway and into Josie’s room. She was stepping on and off her digital scale, weeping as she watched the numbers blink. “How is this happening? I gained half a pound! Half a pound!” Just half a pound. And it was enough to make her tear her hair out. Meanwhile, I had packed on fifty pounds in a matter of weeks, and my parents hadn’t batted an eye. Terrified that my organs were failing, I had begged my mom to take me to the clinic. She’d laughed it off, telling me I was overreacting. “Big girls are sturdier anyway,” she’d said, waving her hand to dismiss me. My dad had agreed. He said it didn’t matter if I got fat—this family only needed one star, and my extra weight would actually help Josie feel better about her own body. They treated me like a stray dog, tossing me scraps of attention only when it served their golden child. I’d ended up taking the bus to the clinic alone. The bloodwork, the thyroid panels—everything came back perfectly normal. Desperate, I turned to Reddit, posting a detailed breakdown of my sudden, inexplicable weight gain. That was when a user messaged me about the “Gluttony Pact”. Before all this started, I was a healthy hundred and ten pounds. But because Josie’s height required her to maintain a certain frame, keeping her at exactly half my weight meant she could eat whatever she wanted. She had spent the last month gorging on deep-dish pizzas, greasy burgers, and milkshakes—things she’d never dared touch before—all while staying skeletal. Meanwhile, the physical toll of those calories was mapping itself onto my ribs, my thighs, my face. Now I knew the truth. Every bite she swallowed was metabolized by my body. And the anchor keeping this curse locked in place was the necklace she’d given me on my twenty-first birthday. It was a delicate jade pendant—the only semi-valuable thing I had ever received from anyone in this house. The front was carved with my zodiac sign, and the back was inscribed with my exact birthdate and time. It was beautiful, small, and seemingly innocent. I remembered how my parents had smiled that night, their voices unusually warm as we blew out the candles on a cheap grocery-store cake. Josie had clasped it around my neck herself. “Happy twenty-first, Iris,” she had whispered, hugging me. “Twenty-one means new beginnings. I love you.” They had all clapped for me. For two years, I kept that necklace on, believing it was a token of real, albeit late-coming, family love. How foolish I’d been. Even after the internet stranger warned me, I hesitated to take it off. I cried for two nights, mourning the illusion of their affection. But as my joints began to ache from the sudden weight, the survival instinct kicked in. I unclasped the silver chain, my heart heavy with a grief far worse than physical pain. At the zoo, I worked with the African elephants. I chose Shirley, a massive female with a voracious appetite, and hid the pendant deep inside the leather strap we used for her enrichment monitors. Within seventy-two hours, Josie gained half a pound. “This can’t be happening!” Josie screamed, pacing her room. “I’m supposed to be the star of the showcase! I’m the youngest girl they scouted. I can’t ruin this now!” As she dissolved into another fit of hysterics, my mother’s eyes darted to me. A sudden, sharp realization crossed her face. She lunged forward, grabbing my hair with one hand while her other hand clawed violently at my collar. “Where is your necklace? The jade piece your sister bought you?” And there it was. She knew. She had always known what that necklace was doing to me, and she had let it happen anyway. Her fingers dragged against my chest until she felt a cheap red cord. She pulled it out, letting out a breath of relief. “It’s right here, Mom,” I said, forcing my voice to remain steady. “I wear it every day. Why?” I had ordered a five-dollar replica from Temu days ago. My mom stared at the cheap green glass, failing to spot the difference. She scowled, dropping her hand. “Nothing,” she muttered, smoothing her shirt. “It was expensive. Josie saved up for months to buy you that jade. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t being ungrateful.” “I’d never lose it, Mom. Don’t worry.” My mom’s eyes narrowed, her mind already pivoting. “Starting today, Iris, you’re on a strict diet. Look at you—you’re a balloon. We’re doing this because we care about your health. No more solid meals.” I nodded, playing the submissive daughter. “Thank you, Mom. With your help, I’m sure the weight will just fly off.” And so, the starvation regimen began. She locked the pantry and prepared all my meals herself—mostly raw celery, boiled cabbage, and watery vegetable juice. In a week, I lost eight pounds. But there were no celebrations in our house. Because as I shrank, Josie swelled. “Oh my god! I’m up eight pounds! Eight pounds!” Josie shrieked, her voice cracking as she ran wild through the living room. “Dad! Mom! Do something! The showcase is the day after tomorrow!” Everything was riding on this showcase. My parents had liquidated their savings to buy her a custom designer gown shipped overnight from Paris. They had even taken out a second mortgage on our small house to pay for her full-body laser treatments and skin-brightening therapies, ensuring every inch of her would glow under the runway lights. But Josie was gaining weight rapidly, and in the worst way possible. It wasn’t an even distribution. The fat settled entirely around her midsection, bloating her once-narrow waist into a thick, swollen tire of flesh. She screamed, punching her own stomach, before grabbing a pair of sewing shears from the counter. “Get it off me! Why is it all sitting here? It’s ruining my life! I’ll just cut it off… if I cut it off, it’ll be gone…” She had a manic, glassy look in her eyes. Thank God my dad was fast enough to tackle her, wrenching the heavy metal shears from her grip. “Josie! Are you out of your mind?” he gasped, pulling her into his arms, his face pale with terror. She sobbed against his shoulder, her ego shattered. “Dad, look at me! It’s disgusting. I look like a monster! I can’t even zip up the Paris dress. My career is over before it even started. How can I walk a runway like this?” My dad didn’t answer her. Instead, his gaze slowly shifted over her shoulder, locking onto me. His eyes were cold, hollow, and utterly devoid of fatherly warmth. He guided Josie back into her bedroom, telling her to lie down, and then grabbed my wrist, pulling me into the master bedroom. It was an interrogation. They cornered me against the wardrobe, their faces dark and menacing. “What’s wrong?” I asked, keeping my voice soft, playing the role of the innocent, dim-witted daughter they thought I was. My mother sneered, looking at me as if I were a piece of rotting garbage on the kitchen floor. “Iris, what did you do?” she hissed. “Tell us the truth, and maybe your father won’t lose his temper.” “I don’t know what you mean, Mom. What happened?” Without warning, her hand cracked across my cheek. The force of the slap sent a sharp sting through my jaw. “Don’t play dumb with me!” she screamed. “I’ve seen the way you look at us—you hate us! You’ve always hated us! Why are you acting like a saint now?” So she did know. She knew how much their cruelty hurt me, and she simply hadn’t cared. “Tell us the truth, Iris!” “Mom, I am telling the truth,” I whispered, rubbing my burning cheek. “Or is there a specific lie you want me to tell you?” My mom lost all control. She grabbed a fistful of my hair, her mouth opening to spit out the secrets of their ritual, completely oblivious to the phone recording from my pocket. But my dad, always the calculating one, stepped in and yanked her back. He saw through the act. He knew I was fishing for a confession. “That’s enough, Miriam,” he said smoothly, placing a calming hand on my mother’s shoulder. He turned back to me, his expression softening into a false, oily smile. “Don’t mind your mother, Iris. She’s just stressed. Josie is our only hope, and with the showcase tomorrow, emotions are running high.” He cleared his throat. “Oh, by the way… let me see your jade necklace. The priest who blessed it said it needs to be recharged every three months to keep its protective energy.” They both stared at my throat, waiting. The air in the room was thick with unspoken threats. To keep the peace and buy myself time, I reached behind my neck, unclasped the cheap Temu replica, and placed it in his outstretched palm. My dad took his keys and left the house immediately. He didn’t return that night. Josie cried herself to sleep, praying for a miracle—hoping that when she woke up, the roll of fat around her waist would be gone. As for me, I received an emergency call from the zoo. Shirley, the elephant carrying the real jade pendant, had gone into labor early. She gave birth to a beautiful, healthy female calf. Because she was exhausted and weak from the delivery, the veterinary team brought in two truckloads of high-protein feed and sweet potatoes to help her recover her strength. Shirley, absolutely famished, dug in. In a single feeding, she happily devoured over a hundred and fifty pounds of food. The next morning, Josie exploded. I mean that quite literally, though not in the way of fireworks. The fat around her waist hadn’t vanished. It had multiplied. The single roll of flesh had mutated into three thick, heavy folds. Because the weight had piled on so rapidly overnight, her skin couldn’t stretch fast enough. The epidermis had literally split open, leaving angry, weeping red tears across her torso. The skin that remained was dry, grey, and deeply creased—coarse and leathery, bearing a terrifying resemblance to elephant hide. And it wasn’t just her waist. Her ankles had completely vanished, swallowed by thick, columnar legs that looked like tree trunks, struggling to support her top-heavy frame. But the most horrifying part was the smell. A heavy, musky, primal stench of animal sweat and damp straw radiated from her. You could smell her from down the hall. My mom gagged the moment she entered the room, which only pushed Josie deeper into madness. “Mom! Mom, don’t look at me like that!” Josie shrieked, clawing at her own face. “I’m a model! I’m going to be on billboards! How did this happen? What went wrong? I can’t live like this! I’d rather die! Mom, please, you have to help me. Transfer it back to Iris! Make her take it! She’s supposed to carry this for me!” She lunged at me, her newly thickened fingers wrapping around my throat. She threw her heavy weight over me, pinning me to the floor as she shook me violently. “Why aren’t you the fat one?!” she screamed, her eyes bloodshot and wild. “You’re already plain, Iris! You’re already a nobody! Why can’t you just let me have this? If I make it, the whole family wins! You’d get to live in my shadow and enjoy my money! Why do you have to be so selfish? All you had to do was suffer a little for me!” The grip on my windpipe tightened. I could see the genuine, murderous intent in her eyes. Her heavy, elephantine limbs pinned me down. I couldn’t breathe. Spots danced in my vision, and my lungs burned as I thrashed beneath her. My mom finally rushed over, but she didn’t pull Josie off out of concern for me. She did it to protect Josie from exerting herself. She pulled her into a tight embrace, stroking her greasy hair, whispering words that carved a fresh hollow into my chest. “Oh, my sweet Josie, my beautiful girl, it’s okay. Mommy’s here. No matter what happens, we love you so much. You’re our star. Don’t ruin your hands on a creature like her. It’s not worth hurting your future. Just breathe, sweetie. Mommy will fix this.” My mother’s tears fell softly onto Josie’s shoulder. Every teardrop felt like a hot drop of lead searing into my soul. I lay on the floor, gasping for air, feeling an overwhelming, crushing exhaustion. I was so tired of fighting for scraps of love that did not exist. The front door slammed open. My dad walked in, his clothes disheveled and his eyes bloodshot from a sleepless night. He locked the deadbolt behind him with a heavy click. He walked toward me, his boots heavy on the linoleum, his eyes sharp as broken glass. With a sudden, violent swing, he hurled the Temu replica at my head. It struck my temple with a sharp crack before clattering to the floor. “This is plastic!” he roared, his voice shaking the small apartment. “The temple priest laughed in my face! Where is the real jade, Iris? Where did you put it? How can you be so vicious? Your sister gave you that beautiful gift out of the goodness of her heart, and you use it to poison her? Look at what you’ve done to her!” I let out a wet, hollow laugh. The physical pain of the blow was nothing compared to the dark amusement bubbling in my chest. “I’m vicious?” I spat, wiping a trickle of blood from my forehead. “Who let her bind me to a curse? You’ve treated me like her shadow, her trash bin, my entire life. I starved myself, I got sick, and you laughed. I tried so hard to make you love me, but I was never even human to you. Well, I’m done begging. If you want the real necklace, you’re going to have to crawl. Otherwise, watch your golden child turn into a monster.” My dad’s face purpled with rage. He raised his heavy hand to strike me again, but before he could, Josie let out a blood-curdling shriek. “It hurts! Dad, it hurts so much! Don’t hit her—just make it stop! I feel like my chest is going to split open!” The fury vanished from my dad’s face, replaced by pure panic. Without a second thought, he dropped to his knees right in front of me. “Iris, please,” he begged, his voice cracking. “I’m begging you. Just tell us where it is.” Behind him, my mother slowly sank to her knees as well…

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