Chapter 1

My cousin has a screw loose. No matter what I do, she has to make it her problem.

I write a paper, she throws the breaker and calls it a joke.

I date someone, she goes around telling people I have an STD.

Then one day she decided I was a coward and dragged me to an abandoned haunted house to "toughen up."

That was when I stumbled onto her livestream: [Hey, guys...]

[Pranking My Big Sis, episode 27 is over, but episode 28 is going to be even better!]

For a second I just stood there. Then I watched her pull a ghost-bride costume out of the closet.

She lifted her phone like no one else was in the room and started talking into it.

[We're playing ghost tonight. Everybody got their costumes?]

[Whoever makes Arlene Henson cry tonight gets a bonus, an extra hundred bucks from me.]

Watching my cousin practically bounce with excitement, I quietly took out my own phone.

And in the gig group, I hired twenty NPCs from the most extreme horror escape rooms.

You love forcing me to toughen up, don't you?

Then let me give you a parade of a hundred ghosts.

...

1.

[Arlene Henson, what kind of big sister are you?]

[Genevieve was kind enough to go with you to toughen up. Fine, you didn't want to go, but why did you hit her?]

Mom yelled it, shooting me a pointed look she didn't bother to hide.

Dad leaned in near my ear and muttered, [Arlene.]

[My whole business leans on your uncle's support. Just put up with it a little...]

[You two used to get along so well, didn't you?]

By the time he finished, I'd already gone numb.

Genevieve Henson is my uncle Ronald Henson's daughter.

Their family really had done a lot for us, through all the business between them.

We were always grateful for it. Until half a year ago.

Genevieve couldn't stand the school dorms, so she moved in with us.

And from then on, like she'd caught some kind of madness, she went out of her way to make my life miserable.

I was worn thin, but my parents, with their eyes on that endless stream of contracts, played favorites to the absolute limit.

I figured if I just gritted my teeth until she graduated, I'd finally be free.

Then last night Genevieve insisted I sit through some European gore film with her.

The bloody scenes kept making me frown, and she took that to mean I was scared of ghosts.

So on the fall ghost-story holiday, of all the unlucky days, she invited me to go exploring in a haunted house.

Here's the thing: I'm a horror junkie. I've even written a few horror novels myself. None of it scares me.

But right before we were supposed to leave, I passed Genevieve's bedroom.

And there she was, posing for a livestream. [Hey, guys...]

[A Hundred Ways to Prank My Big Sis, episode 28 is about to start!]

[Have your tickets ready and push Genevieve to the top!]

Then she started spoiling it, laying out exactly how she was going to prank me, her big sister, once we got to the haunted house.

My parents play favorites. I knew tattling was useless, so I just lay on my bed and let it go cold.

I never imagined she'd run straight to them and lie about me, claiming I'd hit her.

Looking at the faint slap mark on her cheek, I knew Genevieve had gone all in on this act.

Looking at that face so sure it had already won, I smiled too.

You just want to get under my skin, don't you?

I've thought up a hundred ways to deal with you, too.