Cousins (3) - Evan's POV

Nobody believed Luke that a light sneeze couldn't ever become life threatening. My eyes went wide when Rika kneeled on the floor again. Her eyes glimmering with misery, eventually blinking angry tears, her voice wobbled, "you're breaking your promise. I'm really not sick. This isn't fair."

Luke stared down at her, "we can return to the first district then."

"Please? You rarely let me visit my parents. I'll be more careful next time. It'll be too cruel to drag me back," she pleaded, tugging on his shorts.

The way Rika begged was extreme, desperately clasping her hands together and abandoning her pride in hopes they would change their mind. Turning my head towards my parents, they struggled to keep watching with the sounds of her sniffling and sobbing filling the room. My grandma found Luke and Alex to be heartless. Meanwhile, my cousins began to fear them more as they witnessed their strictness. My aunt and uncle began to pity Rika when her pleas were all ignored.

"It's ok Rika, you can stay," my mom interfered.

"Really?" Rika slightly perked.

"The school promised an entire month, I'll make sure you will be able to stay here for the entire time," my mom tried to assure her.

"Have you seen your daughter's health records? We need her to get medical treatment as soon as possible," Alex turned hostile.

"It is a light sneeze, if it gets worse, we can bring her to the hospital," my mom coldly faced him.

"Will you be responsible for her life then? My cousin works very hard to keep her alive and healthy. You are dismissing all our efforts for the past ten years," he got angry in Luke's place.

"Rika is my daughter. You are passing the line on what I can tolerate," she fought back.

"It is us that takes care of her each time she gets sick. Have you taken care of her before? If you did, you wouldn't treat this lightly," Alex argued.

"Thank you for your efforts until now. I can take care of Rika for the rest of the month," my mom acknowledged their hard work.

"We want something in exchange. If Rika's condition gets worse and you cannot take care of her anymore, we want the ability to leave any time afterwards," Luke sternly looked at her.

"I can agree to your condition," my mom won the fight.

"Rika, I'm only going to do this if you agree to alter our deal," he turned to her.

"It's better than staying in your villas or returning to the first district," Rika dusted her dress.

For the first time, new arrangements were made so Rika would stay with us instead of using the same room as Luke and Alex. Grandma gave a large room for my parents and I, adding one more bed with Rika joining us. When Rika entered the room, she frowned at the poor furniture. It was understandable, the former storage room was turned into a luxurious bedroom, the room she usually used.

"Can we go shopping today?" Rika turned to our parents.

"What do you need?" My dad wondered if our room was lacking.

"I don't have any clothes to change into. I can't wear this dress for the rest of the month. I'm also lacking other basic necessities," she explained.

"We can go a few hours from now," my dad immediately accepted her request.

"No, we can go right now. I should have done this from the start," my mom grabbed the keys.

Rika happily hummed while skipping out of our room. She brilliantly twirled and playfully walked backwards, "it's been a while since I've been inside a shopping mall."

"Are you perhaps leaving the house?" Luke ran into us.

"I'm going shopping with Rika. There's some things we need to buy for her so she can live with us for the rest of the month," my mom explained.

"Please don't take Rika outside. I can give you the things she needs," Luke pleaded to us.

My mom melted under Luke's eyes glistening with worry, looking helpless. We canceled our shopping trip as Rika hung her head down, her joyful mood gone. Luke soon entered our room with a large suitcase, opening to reveal the necessities he brought. He went through each item with great detail, "these are her nightgowns, one for each night. Her undergarments are located here, the tops in this section and the bottoms right underneath. New slippers should be worn for each day, laundry instructions written in this notepad."

My parents stared at everything Luke provided for her, and attentively listened to his instructions. Eventually, Luke began to show demonstrations for the more complicated parts. He pulled out a new dress, "Rika struggles to change on her own so you will have to help her."

Rika dejectedly walked towards him as he helped her take off her current dress. I was surprised by the number of ribbons and buttons hidden inside. The complex way to untie them and the stiffening layers of fabrics made sense why my sister couldn't do this on her own. My mom looked anxious when the new dress was equally as hard to help with. It took Luke many steps, and took around thirty minutes. I became thankful the clothes we wore were simple and practical in the third district.

"I can help with certain tasks to lessen the burden," Luke held a section of Rika's hair.

"You really do everything for Rika," my mom accepted the offer.

Luke left the room after setting up a bed for Rika, abandoning the one grandma provided. Since it was late evening, Rika flopped onto her silky bed and hugged her fluffy pillows, rolling around like she was bored, wrinkling her dress. It was like this room was separated into two. Ours appeared dirty compared to the sparkling walls and floors in her section, the place Luke cleaned. He had also installed some shelves, filled with some items from the suitcase, nicely organizing everything.

"It took him so long to leave," Rika grumbled.

Not under Luke's eyes anymore, Rika instantly pulled out all the accessories on her, and her long hair tumbled down. Instead of putting them on the shelves, she placed them on random spots on the ground like they were disposable toys. She was surrounded by dazzling jewels, twinkling and reflecting light all over the walls. My dad carefully collected them into his hands, and placed them on the shelves, knowing the expensive price of each one.

Rika was beautiful even without any items to accent her appearance. I couldn't stop staring at her delicately pretty eyes, blinking to show she was human. Her perfectly symmetrical features, alongside her slender figure, resembled a mannequin. Maybe my parents were the same, unable to stop paying attention to her. After getting a notice about Rika visiting us, they instantly took the longest holiday in their careers, sparing an entire month.

It was understandable, my parents rarely got the opportunity to meet my sister. Her school was strict with visitations and any form of communication to contact her. All the pictures in the album displayed the great wealth she was surrounded by, making my parents more reassured. The brilliant garden and courtyard she played inside overflowed with large and dazzling roses, lilies, and marigolds. Another common building she visited was the café, eating fancy cakes with her affluent friends.

"Do you have any games on your phone?" Rika turned to me.

"I do," I wondered what she wanted.

"Can I play with it? Please?" My sister clasped her hands together.

I passed her my phone, and showed her my password. As soon as she went through the apps, her eyes sparkled, getting filled with excitement, leading me to ask, "do you not have a phone?"

"I do, but it's empty. I'm not allowed to install these kinds of apps," she passed me hers.

My eyes went large, discovering hers was the latest model, the most popular one that was instantly sold out. Soon realizing she didn't give me her password, she unlocked the screen before going back to gaming. When I went through her phone, my envy slowly vanished, and turned into pity. There were strict controls on nearly everything. It didn't allow me to go on certain websites and the app store was extremely limited with the setting not able to be adjusted. It was like its use was only for calling and messaging.

"You're getting along well," my mom watched us.

Unexpectedly, Rika was chill and easy to hang out with. We gave each other some gaming tips and complained about school together. She never looked down on me and was a great listener, and took my side. My dad had to interrupt us, mentioning it was around time to go to sleep. However, he gave into Rika when she pitifully looked at him, "can I stay up for this one night? I want to catch up on the time I missed out on. I'm always forced to follow a strict schedule in the first district where I don't have a choice or the freedom to choose when I can sleep."

Eventually going to sleep, I let my sister use my phone for the night, and woke up the next morning. With my groggy mind, I searched for my phone, taking minutes to recall it was with Rika. Once I discovered it beside her bed, I tapped on my screen, discovering it was nearly out of power. Since my parents knew Rika nearly stayed up the night, we left the room without her, and headed to the dining room for breakfast.

"Where is Rika?" Alex noticed she was missing.

"Sleeping," I answered.

However, nobody expected Rika would continue to sleep even when the evening came, and my parents started to get worried. My mom placed her hand against my sister's forehead to check her temperature. When she was silent, my dad asked, "is there anything wrong?"

"Her body temperature is dangerously high, and her blankets are wet," my mom opened the blankets.

"It's at the level where we may have to take her to the emergency room," her voice slightly shook.

My parents began to search for some fever medication we had brought with us, hoping it would help with Rika's condition. They were hesitant to reveal this to Luke and Alex, and didn't want to admit they were right and possibly her taken away from us.

My mom tilted a bottle of water into my sister's mouth, trying to get her to take a pill. But Rika wasn't able to swallow anything, and the water accumulated and spilled onto her nightgown. Instead, she was slowly becoming conscious, and her eyes fluttering open.

My dad sighed in relief as it would be easier to take care of her while she was awake. Not expecting this would be the start to a hellish nightmare.