"Game over!" "Try again?". The old arcade machine said, "Ugh! I was so close this time". My sister said as she began to insert another quarter into the old faded machine," I'm sure you'll win next time," I said as I smiled at my sister; she always looks so cute when she pouts." I'm almost positive you say that every time I lose," she then looked around to see if there was any other game that would catch her eye but came up empty "let's get out of here I'm bored" she said as she marched out of the "Second life" the arcade. We had been coming to this arcade for nearly seventeen years now, and It's become a ritual of ours to go here to catch up every couple of weeks and then have a lengthy conversation, though this one has been long over-scheduled. "Anna, we need to talk," " Talk about what, Michael? I told you I'm fine." This had become our ritual; I would tell her we needed to talk, and she would say everything was fine when it was not. "Anna, you need to take better care of yourself. You haven't taken your pills for a while now". "Wow, you look pretty," I heard from a little girl passing by. Anna and I looked at her and smiled as she blushed while staring at us. "Thank you," Anna and I said at the same time, and then we stared at each other, "She's so obviously talking about me, so I don't know why you're talking," she said. "Why don't we ask her and clear up your delusions' I then turned towards the little girl and asked her," You were talking about me, right sweetie?". " Miss! Miss! Why are you so white?" the little girl said, causing my sister to giggle." My brother and I are white because we were born on Christmas." She always told other curious little kids that this was a little joke about our skin condition.
Anna and I are identical twins; we were born with Albinism that prevented us from staying out in the direct sun for too long or at all. Sadly, along with Albinism, we were also born with congenital heart defects, defects that put our parents in deep medical debt after the countless surgeries we had to have in our childhood. After the myriad of surgeries, they started us on ACE inhibitors so that the pressure on our hearts could be relieved. Due to this, I saved up some money to get us the medical care we needed. Our parents shortly passed away in our teens from working to the bone to make money to pay our medical debts. Because of this, I had been fighting in backyard MMA matches to save money to care for us and pay our debts. It was during one of those matches when I started feeling my vision blurry and proceeded to get knocked on my ass; this had been a bit of a common occurrence due to my medications. They had told us that there would be side effects but that they are usually different for everyone; I had blurry vision, dizziness, fainting, and, sadly, a lowered libido. My sister had mind-splitting headaches, fatigue, and a hoarse voice.
"You know I can't think straight when I take those pills; they just get in the way of my work.". She said in frustration, looking me in the eyes with worry. I assumed that worry was because I had begun to look worse for wear lately. I have been good at fighting since I was young; the other kids always picked on my sister and me because of how different we looked, but I usually ignored them and paid attention to my manga. But my sister desperately wanted friends, so she would always talk with them and try to join in their games, only to be bullied by them; it always surprised me how brutal children can be. She would always come crying to me every time they hurt her, and every time, my heart would because of how angry I was at them for hurting my sister; it was then that I discovered my talent for fighting when I beat her bullies up. After that incident, my sister retreated into herself; it was only when talking with me that she would leave her shell; it took a long time to return to her old self, that beautiful, energetic, and passionate girl.
"You should be more concerned with yourself; you look like you got hit by a car," she said, looking me in the eyes with deep worry. " I thought you said you would stop fighting; I can help you with the bills," she said as she stared at my arms. I looked down at my battered arms and broken knuckles and recalled the fight I had been in earlier this week with someone who would not go down. He didn't look fast or strong, but he seemed completely crazy. Initially, it looked like a one-sided fight with the number of jabs I kept landing on his nose. Even after it had been broken, he acted like it was nothing, and then it took a turn for the worse; he began wailing at me relentlessly before tackling me to the ground. I kept hammering away at his arms desperately to break free of his grip on my throat. My ears were ringing as I kneed him in the crown jewels with little effect; it was only when I broke the fingers on his hands that I could finally breathe, then I reversed the top mount he had on me and punched him until he blacked out, looking back at that fight it was pretty evident that he was on something.
She was pointing at my bruises as she told me," This is why you can't get any girls, you know." I could feel my cheeks flare in anger as she said that; I had been asked numerous times before, but I always turned them down because of meds. I. Not like you're any different; I bet I could find a date before you," I said. "Oh really? then how would you like to test that theory of yours tonight?" she said as she proceeded to grin at me like I had no chance."I would be happy to correct you in the error of your ways tonight if I could, but I'm going to be busy with a fight," I said, already prepared to be called a pussy."Perfect, we could find willing participants there for this little experiment".
***
"I know it's pointless to say, but they know they're wrecking their engines when they do that, right?" My sister said as she pointed at the people in the parking lot revving their engines in excitement for the fight, she was an engineer and a car lover, and it always pissed her off when she saw others did not take care of their cars like she took care of hers. I looked over to the group she was talking about and saw that they were mostly comprised of Latinos and their lowriders; what are you looking at gringo!?" They yelled at me as they caught me checking out one of their girl's asses to test if I could at least get hard even after I took my meds; sadly, I could not. "Are you sure you're good to fight? It's not too late to back out of here, you know," she said. "Please, I got this fight in the bag," I said so that she would calm down. "Yo Michael! we've been waiting for you, man; where have you been?" My bookie Miguel asked me as he checked out my sister, "And who is this fine piece of white me?" He asked as he licked his top lip."I'm only going to tell you this once; I catch you looking at her again like that, then you're going to go blind, and not because of how beautiful she is.
"What was that about?" My sister asked me as we walked over to my corner after placing a bet on myself with Miguel," Miguel's a bit of a pervert, and having him look at you like that disgusts me, okay?" I said as I hopped over the fence into the cage." My white knight, however, would I survive in this terrifying world without you to protect my virtue?" she said jokingly while helping put on my gloves and mouth guard to get ready for my fight. "Hmph, so you've finally acknowledged how knightly I am," I said as I stuck my nose up, humoring her little joke. "Yeah yeah, just kick that guy's ass so we can get out of here, alright," she said as she motioned toward my opponent on the other side of the cage. I looked across at who I was fighting and found a stout man riddled with tattoos; he had a powerful-looking body and seemed like a wrestler. He must have been 250 pounds with all that muscle and fat. I only weighed about 190 pounds, but I had greater reach than him; I was about 6'1, while he seemed to be 5'5 barely; even my sister stood taller than him as she stood at 5'10.
"You know, I don't think we're going to find any dates here, sis," I said to my sister as I looked around. The crowd was primarily men, and the few women there were already being held possessively by them. "Which is why you should get this fight over with so that we can go to a bar so that I could school in the art of courting fair maidens drunk on tequila," she said, chuckling while pushing me to the center of the cage. I walked toward the center of the cage and stood before my opponent; I could hear him mumbling a prayer as we waited for the sound of the bell. I was never religious and couldn't find any faith in any god or church. Still, I always believed there was more out there because it made it easier to fantasize about life as a protagonist like the ones in the isekai mangas I always read.
"Ring! Ring!" the bell sounded as it rang, signaling the start of the fight; immediately, my opponent rushed towards me to do a single-leg takedown, only to be met with a knee to the face. I quickly punched down on the top of his head to knock him toward the mat; after he fell towards the mat, I mounted his back and began hammering away at his sides where his ribs should be; it was hard to tell precisely where they were because of how fat he is. I could feel him stirring underneath me, preparing to grab my leg and pull me down, so I immediately backed away and waited for him to stand up again. He stood up and looked at me, bewildered by the onslaught he had just experienced. I began to motion for him to come over to me so I could get this over with. For the rest of the round, he kept his distance with a look of fear on his face until after the bell rang, and the fear on his face was replaced with relief. "Wow, I said finish it fast, but I didn't mean that fast. Just look at him; you completely traumatized that poor man." " Well, I'm hungry and want to get out here already; I don't like the look some of the people here are looking at us with," I said to her as I watched the crowd. Most of them were staring at me and my sister with looks of lust and anger; I guess the poor big guy across from me had a lot of friends here, or they were the ones who had bet on him. Anyway, I wanted to get me and my sister out of there as soon as possible.
"Ring! Ring!" the bell sounded as it rang, signaling the start of the fight's second round. However, the second round didn't last very long as I opened up with a roundhouse kick to his head. The entire crowd fell silent as they watched the big man fall unconscious; I grabbed my sister at that moment and rushed off to find Miguel to collect my winnings and get out of there.
***
Vroooooom! Her car roared as we raced down the street toward the destination of our chosen fast food restaurants." I still don't understand how you managed to get this car," I said to my sister as she sped down the streets in her brand-new car. She had picked me up in this car earlier today when I texted her to pick me up for our talk. "I told you I could carry my weight; if you had just let me, you could be driving around one of these yourself," she said as she smirked. "Sure, maybe, if you're sugar mamma felt like having twins for a two-for-one special," I told her teasingly. "I do not have a sugar mamma, okay? She's just a smart investor, okay?" She said as she began to blush furiously. "What is she investing in? sex?" I asked her, now more curious about her relationship with this mysterious woman I had never heard about before. "Listen, alright, things are starting to get serious between us, alright, so she gave this car to me as a present, okay?" She told me as she began to speed up that she was now going well over the speed limit."What do you mean she gave you this car as a present, Anna? Are you sure this mysterious woman of yours is someone you should be associating with, much less having a relationship with? You don't just give cars as presents," I asked her. I began to hold on for dear life as she began weaving through the few vehicles before us." Who the hell are you to judge the people I choose to have a relationship with?! when you have never been in a relationship!" She yelled at me as the tires screeched before barely coming to a stop at a red light. "You should be thanking her, you know; she's the reason we're even here talking," she told me as her eyes began tearing up, making me uneasy. "What do you mean? what did she tell you to do, Anna?" I asked her as my throat began to go dry. "She told me to. "As I hung on her words, I could see her pink eyes start to open wide in terror, and then I felt the reason for her terror.
I felt nothing but hot flashes of pain as our car was t-boned, my legs now pinned under the dashboard as we were pushed into the river, and my head spiked on the dashboard as our car began taking on water. As all this was happening, I couldn't help but think," The airbags didn't even go off; her sugar mama must be a cheapskate." I began to fall unconscious as our car sank to the bottom of the river. I was no expert, but I don't think rivers should be this deep, I thought to myself as we kept descending. We must have already sunk 50-100 meters when my sister began trying to free my leg, "You need to get out here before we sink any deeper, Anna," I told her as the blood leaking from my head began leaking profusely." No!, I almost got you free. We're getting out here together!" She yelled at me as she dove back under the water to free my legs again; the water was already now at chest height. "Anna, even if you free my legs, I won't be able to swim up; you still have a chance to get out of here." She looked at me with trembling eyes filled with defiance as she told me, " If you don't get your shit together, I'm going to drown you myself. We're twins. We were born together, so we're going to die together, and nothing is going to change that, so shut up and help me save you".