Eat All You Want, Sister

Nora's POV

My twin sister Mallory and I were the kind of girls who could gain two pounds just from smelling fries. On top of that, we both loved to eat, and we both had the same dream: walking the runway at Fashion Week.

Right before our eighteenth birthday, Grandma got so tired of us begging that she went into the woods outside town to find a witch. She came back with two glass jars.

One held a hunger worm. Swallow it, and you could eat anything you wanted without gaining weight.

The other held a glass beetle. Every time its host gained a pound, it took a bite out of her bones.

In my last life, Mallory nearly jumped out of her chair when she heard she could eat whatever she wanted and still stay thin. She grabbed the hunger worm's jar and hugged it to her chest. "Eat all I want and stay skinny? Who'd pick the stupid beetle that bites?" That left me with the other one.

To keep the bites to a minimum, I watched everything I ate and trained like crazy. I lost ninety pounds and signed with a top modeling agency.

Mallory, on the other hand, let that worm drag her into a hole she never climbed out of. She ate until her stomach ruptured, and even then she couldn't stop. The day she was diagnosed with binge eating disorder, she came to get me in Dad's old pickup and said she wanted to have a heart-to-heart. When we got onto the reservoir dam outside town, she floored it, smashed through the guardrail, and drove us both into the black water.

When I opened my eyes again, the two glass jars were back on the birthday table.

This time, Mallory beat me to it. She unscrewed the beetle's jar.

"Nora, the runway's mine this time."

She had no idea what kind of hell she'd just chosen for herself.

Mallory set the empty jar down hard on the table, and the glass clinked.

She pushed the other jar over to me. At the bottom, a grayish-white worm was slowly wriggling.

"This one's all yours. Hope you're hungry."

Mom drummed her fingers on the table. "Your sister already took hers. What are you waiting for? Grandma spent half the day getting these. You think she'd do anything to hurt you?"

Dad kept cutting his roast beef without looking up. "It's one worm. Quit acting like it's gonna kill you."

I picked up the jar and looked at Mallory. "Do you have any idea how bad it hurts when it bites?"

She pulled the empty jar into her arms, like I was about to reach down her throat and yank the beetle back out.

"So what if it hurts? You put up with it your whole life, and look what it got you. Covers, contracts, every camera in the world pointed at you."

"That was all supposed to be mine."

Grandma's fork clattered onto her plate.

Mom gave her a funny look. "What do you mean, her whole life? She's eighteen."

"I mean she's never gonna be a model, not in this lifetime," Mallory said quickly. "Big as she is? The beetle would be wasted on her."

I didn't call her out. I unscrewed the lid, tipped my head back, and poured the worm into my mouth.

It slid down the back of my tongue, as cold as a gulp of ice water, and curled up at the bottom of my stomach. A second later, I felt it roll over.

Mallory's eyes lit up so much it was creepy. She leaned in and whispered, "Bet your stomach's growling already, huh?"

I looked down at the fork on my plate and didn't answer.

She patted my shoulder. "And it's only the first night."

She was waiting for me to turn into what she'd been last time, shoveling food straight out of the pot, her stomach literally bursting, and still whining that she was starving.

Too bad for her. Two of us went into that reservoir, and two of us woke up.

As for how those two bugs really worked, she didn't know the half of it.

Mom brought out the birthday cake. Mallory blew out the candles, scraped the frosting flowers off to the side, and took one bite of the plain cake underneath.

Mom slid the rest of the cake, almost the whole thing, over to me. "You've got a worm eating for you now. You won't get fat."

Dad dropped a big slab of roast beef swimming in gravy onto my plate. "Your sister gave you the good one, and now you're pouting?"

"Come on, Nora," Mallory said, her chin in her hand. "You could eat a whole cow now and be totally fine."

The smell of the gravy drifted up, and the thing in my stomach lurched hard.

My hands started shaking. My mouth wouldn't stop watering, and all the food on the table blurred together.

Mallory nudged the plate closer. "Why are you just sitting there? Want me to spoon-feed you?"

I picked up the plate, walked over to the trash can, and dumped it all in. Meat, gravy, everything.

Mom screamed and slapped me in the same second.

"Have you lost your mind? Your sister was being nice to you! Who's this little show for?"

Half my face burned, then went numb.

I'd been through scenes like this for eighteen years in my last life. No matter what happened in that house, I was always the one in the wrong, and Mallory was always the one everybody felt sorry for. Even after she drove me into the reservoir, Mom and Dad cried for her at the funeral. They said she was just sick and told me not to blame her.

I didn't touch my cheek. I turned around, went upstairs, and dragged my suitcase out from under the bed.

Dad came in after me and kicked it into the corner. "You walk out that door today, don't you ever come back!"

The suitcase popped open, and T-shirts and jeans went everywhere.

I scooped them up, one armful at a time, shoved them back in, pressed them down, and snapped the latches shut.

"Fine. I won't."

Dad's raised hand froze in midair.

I rolled my suitcase through the living room. Mallory was leaning against the doorframe, twirling her fork. "Kinda late, isn't it? Off to raid the convenience store?"

"The gym."

She stared at me for a second, then laughed so hard she doubled over. "Well, better sweat buckets, then."

I pushed the door open and walked out into the night.

The 24-hour gym in town still had its lights on. I used the last sixty-some bucks in my account to buy a monthly pass.

The steps on the stair climber had barely started sinking under my feet when I heard a faint tearing sound in my stomach, like something was breaking out of an old shell.

I gripped the handrails and turned it up one level at a time, all the way to max.

It was about to shed its first skin.