Cousin Forced Me to Train Courage, She Regretted Madly

The next second, I burst into tears. "Mom, Dad, you know how easily scared I am." "That place has been abandoned for years. Who knows if it's really haunted?" "What if something possesses me? What if something happens to Genevieve out there? How would we ever explain that to Uncle Ronald?" My words snapped them awake at once. After all, the life of their own daughter meant nothing. But her, the pampered, precious daughter of their money tree, couldn't be treated carelessly. I don't know what went through their heads, but the next second they were already on the phone with the security firm. "Hello, is this the security company? Yes, I need ten bodyguards!" Genevieve, mid-fake-cry, panicked and cut her performance short. She grabbed my mother's hand, her voice edging into awkwardness. "Auntie, there's really no need for all that. How could there be ghosts?" "Ghosts, monsters, that's all superstitious nonsense, none of it's real!" "Besides, my sister and I are going to test our nerve. With that many people around, how would we ever build any courage?" Genevieve scraped the bottom of the barrel for excuses, because I knew. She'd already filled that haunted house with every kind of prank prop and livestream camera. If ten bodyguards actually went in with us, how would her stream turn out the way she'd planned? I watched coldly as she made her promises to my parents. They agreed out loud, but their faces gave away what they were really thinking. I followed Genevieve into the car heading for the abandoned haunted house without a word. She sat up front, watching my expression again and again in the rearview mirror. I gripped my legs, held my body rigid, kept a look of unease on my face. Satisfied, of course, she slumped into the passenger seat and put on her earbuds to listen to music. I took the chance to open my phone. I quickly made a burner account and, through Genevieve's livestream page, got into her group. But the moment I joined, a payment code was shoved in front of me. 【Welcome, newcomer. Entry fee is $100 to join the group.】 【We play prank videos from time to time. The top donor can set the next round's prank.】 I froze, and only then noticed that the group files were all videos of me. The one where Genevieve pulled the breaker and forced me to rewrite my thesis, where I lost it and smashed my laptop: 27 likes. The one where she spread the rumor I had cauliflower disease and I sat furious on the rooftop: 56 likes. And the most recent one, where she took my boyfriend out to dinner and drove me to break up with him. The clip of me crying under the covers: 207 likes, somehow. I'd guessed Genevieve was making money off my worst moments, but I never imagined... She was hanging my humiliation up here, a public execution. I shot her a vicious glare, and it instantly put her on alert. But the next second she just smiled and rolled her eyes at me. "What are you staring at? Not my fault you're a coward." "If you want to blame someone, blame your mom. She's the one who made you such a chicken." "Haven't you noticed? Even your own parents don't protect you. Maybe they think you're useless at everything too." Afraid I might miss her smug little face, she leaned back toward me, her triumphant eyes blinking at me. I smiled too, and dropped a $1,000 exclusive cash gift right into her fan group.

The scent of money caught Genevieve's eye at once. The seat back blocked her view, so she couldn't see my hand clenched tight around my phone. She assumed some top-tier fan had dropped the gift, and instantly started fawning, gushing thanks into the group. She thanked them for a long time, but no reply ever came. So she had to smooth it over herself, close her eyes again, and go back to her music. I used the gap to type out a long message in the group. 【Honestly, these prank streams are getting more and more boring.】 【It's always just picking on the sister, and even her reactions are getting duller and duller!】 【We're paying to see something fun. If it's just take the money, no punishment, then the streamer clearly isn't putting in any effort!】 The whole block of text went out at once, and it lit up the other fans instantly. I knew exactly how these thrill-chasers thought. Making someone else's pain into their own fun. Selfish, shameless, no bottom line. The second they felt their own interests threatened, they'd be the first to jump out. The regulars in the fan group caught on the moment they saw my message. Almost instantly, a swarm of comments started flooding the screen. 【Right, we pay a hundred bucks a month……】 【And what do we get? It started at four episodes a month, now it's whenever she feels like it.】 【The whole point was that this sister acts it out so realistically, it was a good stress release.】 【If she can't film anything good and can't keep up the uploads, then refund us!】 One person said refund, and the rest lined up right behind. I switched my phone to silent, but Genevieve's phone started buzzing nonstop. She finally got fed up and picked it up. The moment she saw the screen, her face went dark. In the rearview mirror, she jerked upright, her fingers a blur as she typed. But in front of the fans, every line of explanation looked exactly like an excuse. I figured her little-princess temper would flare up on the spot. Instead, who'd have thought, she just gave a calm little smile and wrote back in the group. [Relax, I think this episode is going to satisfy everyone.] [If you're not convinced, I can turn on the platform's instant refund service.] [If nobody likes the new episode, you can pull back all your old gifts anytime.] [And if you do like it……] She said nothing more, just quietly posted her payment code. Then, not forgetting, she added a cute little sticker. [Call it a bet!] Genevieve's words dripped with confidence, and they hooked every fan in the group at once. Someone even sent a voice message, saying they should open a betting pool on how I'd die this episode. Clearly, Genevieve was fully prepared to scare me to death. What now?

My hand curled into a fist. I wanted nothing more than to give her a good beating. But I couldn't! Ronald held the lifeline of my family in his hands. Falling out with him would cost me far more than I'd gain. But who said I only ever had to be the one taking it? The car pulled up in front of the haunted house. Genevieve hopped out, thrilled, and even remembered to open my door for me. "Come on, sis, get out! We're going to test our nerves!" She'd never been this sweet to me before. But there it was, right at the tip of my nose, a faint, choking whiff of smoke. I'd dabbled in photography before, so I recognized it in a second. That was the smell of a smoke bomb. Smoke to blur the vision, then a few people dressed up as ghosts to scare you. If I really were afraid of ghosts, wouldn't I have gone into cardiac arrest and dropped dead on the spot? Seeing me stand still, Genevieve thought I was scared, and immediately hooked her arm through mine. "Sis, if you're frightened, how about I blindfold you and lead you through?" She didn't even ask. She just pressed the cloth over my eyes. Afraid I might peek at something, she wrapped the strip around and around, layer over layer. Her breathing was quick, and she couldn't quite hide the laughter in it. I wanted to laugh too. Thinking about what I was about to do, I could barely keep the corners of my mouth down. Genevieve took my hand carefully and led me into the haunted house. She deliberately snapped twigs underfoot, and I played along, trembling the whole way. In my pocket, my phone kept buzzing. Before we got out of the car, I'd muted every group chat and left only Genevieve's fan group open. I could guess it without looking. Right now that group was full of thrill-seekers, howling their heads off. I'd assumed Genevieve would keep steering me deeper inside. Instead, she let out a sudden shriek and bolted. I knew it had to be one of the ghosts she'd hired, rushing over to scare me. For any normal person, in a situation like this, they'd rip off the blindfold themselves and run. But I just stood there, straight and stiff, frozen like someone scared out of their wits. Even through the blindfold, I could feel the awkwardness of the fake ghost in front of me. The standoff dragged on for a good ten-odd seconds, and then I actually heard the sound of him scratching his head. The phone buzzed harder! I couldn't tell if they were laughing or losing it. But I knew Genevieve had to be frantic now, sweating bullets. Maybe she was out of ideas! All she could do was fake-cry while running back toward me. "Sis, help! There are ghosts over there too." "I was so worried about you, so I came back!" It couldn't have been more of an act. I pinched my thigh, holding back the laughter. She'd almost certainly seize the chance to yank off my blindfold, then watch a ghost lunge into my face and scare me to tears. And I was starting to look forward to it too. Looking forward to the expression on Genevieve's face once she saw what I was about to do next.