Hertzan Chimera - also known occasionally as Mike Philbin - is an Oxford-based computer games artist (most recently the senior artist on the PC/PS2 game Ghost Master). But that's not all. He also pens the most outrageous and surreal fiction you've ever read. His credits include the psycho-erotic novel Red Hedz (1990 Creation Press, London), the chapbook Neurone Fry-up and the just-released sci-fi horrotica novel Szmonhfu, both from Eraserhead Press. Here, for the first time, Paul Kane presents the complete version of his short story 'Sibling Rivalry'
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Montage Images (C) Namco Corporation
It's like any "promotional overhead", sustainable only as long as you're the only Holy Cow worth milking. That was me, in my heyday, the Holy Cow of R&D City. On two wheels round every corner. I was the original IT girl. My test driving banner held aloft in a sleazy blaze of 'come get some, fellas'.
My driving name was Reiko, Nagase. A nice enough moniker the corporation decided upon. Don't care really. I got to drive all the R&D prototypes. Real high profile position. Any new hardware came out, throw Reiko Nagase into it and see how fast it goes. I had all the right moves, a right proper piece of art.
Then my younger sister reached maturity. We had never got on. Not really. She turned up at the annual conventions in Tokyo's Makahura Messe. I was real pleased to see her in a sad way. I knew she was not half as pretty as I but, because she was blood and all, I hoped she could make herself noticed. She had on these ratty hot pants in the middle of Winter. She must have been freezing.
They gave her my job. The front end and everything. It became a fate neither of us could escape. They gave her a driving name, Ai Fukami, and they offered her my job, taking away the only thing I lived for.
It is December, here in Hiroshima Park. A chilling wind rips through my meagre jacket making my nipples hard and cold, my thighs are pure goose flesh. The Glock semi automatic cold against my ribs. Across the river, the Prefectural Building for the Promotion of Industry's big glass dome catches the morning light. Young guys cruise by in their dads' cars, honking their Dukes Of Hazzard horns and stripping me with their eyes as the snow starts to fall.
A white limo pulls up and my younger sister, Ai Fukami, gets out, a brilliant smile across her piggy little face. We had arranged a private celebration of her new career move. How could she possibly think I would be anything other than furious? The wind lifts her ankle length pigskin coat into the air, revealing the same old ripped hot pants that have become her trademark. I check my wristwatch - 8:15 am, at least she was still punctual.
She jogged up to me, to give me a hug, I was sure. I took one step back and slapped her full in the face. I must have put too much of my shoulder into it, because she hit the floor. I pulled out the Glock and held it against her forehead. She looked up at me and a tear grew in her eye and tracked slowly down her cheek like olive oil. Even her tears looked fake. I pulled the trigger.
She moved like a rattle snake. So fast, I didn't even see her move before she had my arm up my back. The pain was excruciating. How could she not be dead. I had the gun to her head. I pulled the trigger. This was not possible. She took out a short sword and held it to my neck, there was a crazy scent of vaginal juice coming off the steel. I couldn't believe this had all gone so wrong.
'This is how it will end, sister,' she said.
Just then a light glimmered over the Prefectural Building for the Promotion of Industry. We both instinctively shielded our eyes. Our bodies painted long winter shadows across the canvas of snow.
(C) Hertzan Chimera 2002