For years, I wanted to look exactly like my older sister. She was perfect. Thin and beautiful. Always got whatever she wanted. In envy, I watched how she would twirl herself in front of mirrow asking if she was fat. Quickly, I shook my head.

"But there must be some fat hanging somewhere, Lisa. You're not telling me the truth."

There wasn't an inch of fat on her. "You're perfect, Anna. There's nothing to worry about."

She gave out a sigh and left the room. I tip-toed to her closet and pulled out a pair of jeans. They were a size negative zero. Considering that she was tall enough to be a model, Anna was really skinny.

Hesitantly, I struggled to pull them on. However, the pants only reached half past my calves. That was all they could afford to go. Any further and they would rip.

Stripping them hastly, I carefully folded them back and walked out of the room. There was no way I was going to fit in them.

Days passed and I came up with a brilliant plan. I would model my eating habits after my sister. After all, she barely ate anything.

The next day, I woke up early to catch up on my sister's eating time. She took out a small shake. I grabbed one too and slowly drank it. Curiously, she observed me suspiciously.

"Are you on a diet, Lisa?"

"Whadda ya think?"

She shook her head and continued to take small gulps.

"You don't need to diet, Lisa."

"And why? You don't have any fat on you, unlike some others. Just lay it off, Anna."

"Whatever, Lisa."

We headed out the door and seperated in different directions. My stomach was still growling from the lack of food.

School came and I was invisible as ever to the mob of students. Sadly, I had no friends. Nobody would even want to hang out with a girl who barely talked during class and had thighs like a tree trunk.

Once at my locker, I spotted some jocks hanging around. They stared at me strangely and suddenly, I felt myself blush. Slamming my locker shut, I hurried to first period.

Weeks had passed and I felt myself getting thinner. Anna's eating regiment had paid off. I was amazed to find my legs becoming slightly more slender.

However, I still wasn't satisfied. I need to lose weight faster. I knew that Anna would never exercise in her whole life but now I was going to. Maybe running would help more.

By Saturday, I started to run a mile. While huffing and puffing, I felt my lungs about to burn. My chest was heaving up and down continuously. When I passed my first mile, I still wanted to run more even though I felt like I was nearly dying. Pushing myself further and further along the track, I ran until my knees gave way. Sitting on the side of the track, I examined my bloodied knees. They were badly scabbed. Pushing myself to a standing position, I limped all the way home.

Even after the incident, I continued to run at least everyday. A mile progressed to 3 miles. Soon after, I was able to run 6 miles a day. It was a great accomplishment and sped up the losing weight process.

One evening, I checked my weight. It was down to 105. For once, I had lost nearly 30 pounds. Happily I danced around until I faced the mirror. My arms still had some clumps of fat around the biceps and my thighs still had some excess baggage. For sure, I looked better but not better enough.

I did some online searching later that day. There must be a stock of laxatives somewhere. That would boost up the whole progress. After a couple hours, I found a site where it delivered the laxatives directly to its customer. Instantly, I clicked and felt a surge of satisfaction.

Anna came in one day to my room.

"Lisa, why are you still dieting? You're already good enough."

I had my CD player propped up beside me. There must be some way to avoid her questioning. I turned up the volume of the music.

"What? I can't hear you, Anna? Speak up."

"Argh! Lisa, listen to me. Stop with this. It gets annoying when I see that you're eating the same things as me and keep on running those freakin' miles when you're already skinny."

"But I'm not skinny as you", I thought to myself.

"What? I can't hear you, Anna."

"B****." She left, slamming the door behind her.

I took off my headphones and stared at the door. Did she really mean that? Drawing out my case of laxatives, I plopped one pill in my mouth and downed it with water.

Over time, I ignored Anna's comment. My weight plummetted down to 95. But I still wasn't happy.

More weight fell. I was at 90. Anna looked worried. She would try to add more food to my plate but I refused. I had a feeling that she was jealous. By now, I could fit easily into her pants. They were a bit loose on me.

"Lisa, I'm worried about you. Stop with this."

"You're just jealous, Anna. I can see it in your eyes. Admit it."

"Oh my god, Lisa. I'm not jealous. You're getting so thin that you're going to die someday."

"That's someday, Anna. Not now." I faced my back towards her. She didn't understand anything. All she worried about was her freakin' reputation for her image. I was thinner than her now and she knew it.

On one of my daily runs, I suddenly felt faint and dizzy. Everything was revolving around me. My vision became blurry. The last thing I saw was Anna's face in panic. She was screaming something to me but I couldn't hear.

The sunshine poured through the window. I felt its warmth grazing upon my cheek. Lifting my eyelids, my gaze scanned the room I was in. The white-washed walls surrounded me. The cot I was lying on had tubes connected to it. Several needles were injected in my arm. My gown was plain white. Everything seemed to slowly absorb into my thoughts. I was at the hospital.

Voices were heard outside of the room. Anna's was distinctly heard above the rest. The door bursted open and Anna rushed to my side, sobbing.

"What did you do, Lisa? Why did you do this to me?" I stared blankly at her, watching her silliness unfold.

"I didn't do anything to you, Anna. It was just a stupid fall. I tripped over something."

"That's not the truth", she cried out. "There's more to it. It's because of your dieting and obsessed running. Just stop, Lisa. Do it for me. What do you think will happen if you die?"

The question was like a slap.

"I won't die, Anna."

"How do you know, Lisa? It'll happen before you know it."

"Anna, stop being ridiculous. For the first time, I'm happy for myself."

"No you're not, Lisa. You just say that but you're still not satisfied. That's who you are. You'll keep on going until there's nothing left to do."

Silence fell. I didn't want to reply to her foolishness. I wasn't doing anything wrong. I hated it when people butted into my business.

"Anna, just stay out of it. It's my life, not yours."

"It's mine too. Everything you do affects me. I'm not backing down on this one."

A nurse came in and asked Anna to step out of the room for a while while they did some operations. She hesitanted but finally filed out.

When the operations were done, I felt a bit light-headed. There weren't any doctors in sight and Anna was back at home for some business. Looking around, I crept out of my bed. Peeking out, the hallway was empty. It was around midnight. A run around the hospital would be nice.

For an hour, I ran bare-footed, dodging behind corners whenever a person was in sight. I ran until my feet started to bleed from the hardness of the floors.

Returning to my room, I let my feet rest in hot water and wiped streaks of blood away. The doctors allowed me to wear socks if my feet got cold. That would be a good cover-up.

Soon, I had my daily regiment going. Whenever the nurse set a tray of food on my bedside, I would eat a couple of small bites and then snatch the tray to flush the remaining contents in the toilet. It was clever and demising.

However, one night, I was caught. They strapped me to the cot and injected a needle to get me fatter. I protested. They didn't care. Sneakingly, I pulled out the needle when the doctors weren't looking. I didn't eat a morsal. Days and days passed. I felt weaker. My arms were at its thinnest. My thighs never touched each other. I could see my rib cage even when I wasn't pulling in my stomach. Anna stood by my cot. She looked paler than ever.

"For the last time, Lisa. Just stop. Do it for me."

I laughed. "Anna, I'm fine. The doctors, nurses are being foolish. You're being foolish too."

Finally, I couldn't breath one night. My limbs felt heavy and I had trouble focusing my vision. Gasping for breath, I felt myself slowly deterioate. My energy was wasting away. And up to the last moment, I gave up.



*The body of the girl was motionless. Doctors shook their heads as she was slowly carried out of the room.

"Such a shame", one nurse noted.

The girl's sister walked in a daze. Her eyes were blank. Her hand fumbled for something beneath her coat. A loud bang sounded and in an instant, the sister fell to the floor, a pool of blood forming around her. In an uproar, the doctors and nurses rushed to her side, only to find that she was dead.