Tough Decisions - Chapter 1 (Patreon)

The first chapter of a new short story commission from an anonymous Patron.

"Oh," Rebecca didn't even bother hiding her eye roll as she opened her door and found her younger sister, Cindy, standing outside. "It's you."

"Well, don't sound too excited," Cindy smirked, pushing her way inside, not bothering to ask for permission, or to see if Rebecca had time to deal with whatever had brought her here this time. 

Rebecca sighed, closing the door, following Cindy into her lavishly decorated living room. "What is it?" she asked bluntly.

"What do you mean?" Cindy flopped down onto the sofa, like she owned the place. "Can't I just come visit my favorite older sister?"

It was a little joke they had - they were the only two children in their family - but one that, if Rebecca was being honest seemed less and less sincere, at least on her end, every time she said it. Cindy was, technically, her favorite younger sister... There were definitely days when she wouldn't describe her that way, however, even in jest.

And today... Today hadn't been a great day already, and a surprise visit from Cindy meant, inevitably, that it was going to get worse. She probably should have had a bit more patience with the girl, but she'd had to bail her out multiple times over just the past couple months, since their parents had cut her off financially, and she wasn't in the mood to do it again so soon.

"You could," she nodded. "I know that you aren't, though. You didn't come to the dinner party I invited you to so you could meet some of my friends, and try to get on their good sides so you could maybe get a job with them... You didn't help me organize my storage shed, even when I offered to pay you to do it... You barely remembered my birthday!"

Cindy glared at her, wrinkling her nose in the way she always did when she got called out on her bratty behavior, something that clearly didn't happen often enough. Rebecca had wanted her to find a good position, but Cindy hadn't cared, because their parents were paying the rent on her apartment, just handing everything to her, like they'd always done with her, since she was the baby. She hadn't shown up to assist her sister, since she knew, if she needed money, Rebecca would cave anyway, without her having to do any manual labor to earn it. And she'd probably been off partying on Rebecca's birthday, and noticed the event on her phone's calendar mere moment away from midnight.

"I am not that much older than you, you know," Rebecca sniffed. "I'm twenty-five, and this house is mine. I own it. I've worked very hard at my job to get to a position where I could do that, and buy a car, and... It's taken a lot of tough decisions to get to this point."

"I've made tough decisions, too," Cindy pouted.

"Oh, have you?" Rebecca raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

Cindy reached into the front of her shirt, fishing out her necklace, which was what looked to be a very old, ornate, gold medallion, a figure carved into it. It was so old, Rebecca couldn't tell right away what it was meant to be, parts of it having worn down, but it seemed to be, odd as it sounded, a marionette on strings, not the sort of thing she would have expected Cindy to be into, or for anyone to have bothered to make a piece of jewelry that fancy depicting.

"I had to decide whether I trusted that weird old shopkeeper enough to spend all that money on this," she said.

Rebecca sighed again, shaking her head. "And your decision was 'yes?' This is why you needed mom and dad to pay for everything for so long, and why you need me to do it now. How much of my money did you spend on that stupid thing?"

Cindy grinned. "Looks expensive, doesn't it?"

"Yes, it does," Rebecca said. "Return it, or sell it... Whatever you paid for it, it wasn't worth it, not if you're having to come to me to..."

"No," Cindy refused. "I'm not getting rid of it."

"Well, you're not getting another cent from me until you do," Rebecca put her foot down, the way she should have a long time ago. "If that's what you're spending my money on, then that's the last of it you're getting."

"Aww," Cindy's lip jutted out in a pout, one that seemed fake, though it was sometimes hard to tell with her. "In that case... Why don't you do it for me?"

"What?!" Rebecca's nostrils flared. "Are you serious?!" She didn't know why she was surprised... This was so like Cindy, to have the solution to her problems right in front of her, but be so lazy she wouldn't follow through on it herself, forcing somebody else to step in and get their hands dirty. "Fine!" She stepped forward, hand shooting forward, grasping for the necklace. "Honestly, Cindy, I don't know what you'd do withou..."

As her hand brushed against the gold, she froze. Not on purpose, not to prove any kind of a point... Her body simply stopped working, other than her heart, which started beating faster and faster as her mind struggled uselessly, fighting to make her fingers close around the medallion, or her feet to step back, or her mouth to open to ask what was going on. 

"And this was another tough decision I had to make," Cindy mused, scooting to the other side of the sofa, away from Rebecca's still, reaching fingers, getting to her feet and walking around her older sister. "It would only work on one person, he told me... The next person I got to touch this," she dangled the necklace in front of Rebecca's face. "I thought about mom or dad, but... Well, since they live together, whichever one I picked might notice the other was acting weird, and, eventually, they might figure it out. There are plenty of hot guys I wouldn't mind having control over, though most of them don't have such a nice house, or as much money as you've worked so hard for." She chuckled, clearly pleased with herself, being able to throw all that back in her sister's face. "You, on the other hand, my favorite big sister? Or... Hmm... You're not that big, are you?"

Rebecca breathed in sharply as her body straightened up on its own, standing up tall - or as tall as she could, anyway. As seemed to be the case with most siblings she knew, she was the shorter of the two, despite being older, a fact that definitely rankled a bit, especially when they'd been younger, and everyone assumed she was the little sister. She'd never really felt like that, until now, being utterly powerless before whatever was happening. Cindy's story that it was the necklace doing it was ridiculous, and yet... What else could it be?

She had no control at all as she lifted her foot, her hand casually sliding her high heel off, tossing it casually aside. In an effort to be taken more seriously, her heels were quite big, adding several inches to her height, and she typically would put them on, or take them off, while sitting down... She felt herself wobble, thought she was about to fall, only to stay upright, in place, almost as if she were being held there with a multitude of invisible, yet very strong, strings.

With both shoes off, the height difference was all the more pronounced, the sensation of helplessness heightened further as she stared up at Cindy. "I bet that's not the only place you're not as big as you try to make yourself seem," Cindy sneered, Rebecca's hands obediently unbuttoning her shirt enough to let her unfasten her padded bra, dropping it to the floor with her heels. Her feet started to move after that, marching her through the house, Cindy merrily trailing after her to the nearest bathroom, where Rebecca watched herself wet a washcloth, scrubbing her face with it, taking off all her makeup, before grabbing a pair of scissors.

Her eyes widened, not knowing what she was going to do with them, what Cindy's plans were, the sharp blades certainly worrying her. She didn't think Cindy would do anything to actually hurt her... Although, when she saw them lift up, towards her immaculate, professionally cut hair, she almost wished it was that instead. The scissors snipped and sliced, in no time whatsoever turning the perfectly maintained hairstyle into a mess, making her look like a toddler who had tried to change her own hair while her Mommy wasn't paying attention.

"Look at you!" Cindy mocked. "You look like a little girl playing dress-up... A very, very little girl..." Rebecca swallowed, staring at herself in the mirror, not liking the sound of those words, even before she noticed the warmth growing in her underwear, saw the wet spot forming in the crotch of her gray dress pants in the reflection, realized she was peeing herself, adding to the illusion of her new immaturity.

"I think we ought to get you something a big more appropriate to wear, don't you?" Cindy winked, stroking Rebecca's mangled hair.

"No!" Rebecca gasped, taken by surprise at being able to move her mouth again, to talk, to protest, at last, what was happening to her. 

"What was that?" Cindy's eyebrows arched, staring down at her.

"No!" Rebecca repeated, glad for the chance to do that, finally, when she'd wanted to ever since this had all started. "You can't do this!"

"Oh, but, sweetie... I can," Cindy informed her.

"Nuh-uh!" Rebecca shook her head, realizing she could do that, too. Had whatever had come over her worn off? She attempted to move her hands, to push Cindy away, but they refused. Maybe those would take time, would come along eventually... If she could survive whatever humiliations Cindy had in store for her until then. 

For now, like it or not, Cindy was proving her point by making her grab a towel and walk through the house, wet spot still very visible on her pants, going out to the garage, where her car - far nicer than Cindy's clunker - was waiting. She handed over the keys and laid her towel out in the back seat for herself, buckling herself in, confirming that, at least for now, she was still partially under her sister's power, since she'd never have let the girl drive her car otherwise... She only hoped things would have before they got to wherever they were going, and she had to get back out of the car like this, around other people...