(This story is the second half of the previous one here).

"Bring it on, little sis!" Carla answered, just as fired up.

She had barely finished uttering those words when Sofia’s hands closed tightly around her body, skillfully squishing and compressing her older sister “For the next squishing, we’ll need to take a pretty long detour, so I’ll have to give you nother shape first... consider it a warm-up” Sofia said with a grin, as she compacted Carla’s form, shrinking it gradually with practiced hands.

When she was finished, Carla’s flattened body had been reduced to just a few dozen centimeters in length and a few centimeters thick, shaped into a rectangle vaguely resembling the sole of a foot. The surface of her flat body was a chaotic mess of disorganized body parts, dominated by the uniform grey of her clothes and a lone patch of brown from her hair.

“I really feel like going for a jog to get to this place, and you’ll have the honor of being my insole all the way there!” Sofia said gleefully, waving Carla’s flat, limp body in front of her face. From the tiny insole came muffled groans of protest, which only made the little strip sway more in Sofia’s hands “Oh? Am I hearing complaints? Does that mean the challenge is over and I’ve won?” she teased, and Carla’s protests stopped immediately, almost as if defiantly refusing to give her sister the satisfaction.

“Much better” Sofia approved, taking off one of her sneakers and unceremoniously dropping the freshly made insole into it. As soon as it landed inside, Sofia wasted no time and SQUASH! shoved her foot back into the shoe, squashing and trapping Carla’s flat body beneath it, compressing her even further.

With that done, Sofia retied her sneaker carefully, making sure to press down firmly on her new insole, stomping the shoe on the ground and bouncing on the spot to ensure everything was in place before starting her run. Meanwhile, each repeated compression was flattening Carla’s body even more, shaping it exactly to the contour of Sofia’s foot.

“Perfect, let’s go!” Sofia announced, starting to run and retracing in the opposite direction the path they had followed through the park, since their destination was on the other side of the city. With every stride, she could feel Carla’s soft body squishing more and more beneath her foot, and the sensation spurred her to run even faster.

Meanwhile, Carla was trapped in an extremely compressed space, subjected to constant and frequent flattening. Though it wasn’t easy to endure the incessant pressure, it wasn’t the first time her sister had squashed her into an insole, and Carla was more determined than ever not to let Sofia win “Even if it SQUASH takes all SQUASH my willpower SQUASH I won’t SQUASH let Sofia SQUASH win... SQUASH SQUASH SQUASH SQUASH!” she kept repeating to herself, trying to stay conscious and focused.

About twenty minutes later, Sofia arrived at her destination and was cooling off at a nearby drinking fountain. Once she finished, she took off her shoe to pull out and inspect the state of her sister: Carla’s body had taken on the exact shape of Sofia’s foot, like a mold, and had been so forcefully squashed that Sofia struggled to get her fingers between it and the sole of the shoe to peel her out.

When she finally managed, Carla’s body detached with a SKRRRRRCH, revealing that she had been reduced to an incredibly thin layer, no more than a few millimeters thick, like tissue paper. But despite the extreme condition, faint groans of defiance still came from Carla’s body.

“Wow, sis, your endurance is as amazing as ever!” Sofia praised, holding the thin strip of Carla under the fountain’s stream to clean her and help her regain a bit of volume. Clearly, it wasn’t the first time she’d handled Carla’s squished body like this “But now it’s time for the real reason we came here,” she continued, pulling Carla out from the water stream and wringing her out with force, twisting her into a grayish braid as every last drop of water was squeezed from her.

As soon as Carla was completely dry again, Sofia began fiddling with her body to give her the new desired shape. By the end, Carla had been squished into the size and shape of a coin, entirely grey along the edges: on one side of the coin was nothing but her mouth, with the rest of her face compressed and not visible, while the other side showed the soles of her sandals.

“How are you doing, sis? Think you can hang in there a little longer?” Sofia asked teasingly, addressing the tiny form of her sister resting in the palm of her hand “Pff.. That was nothing... but I can’t see anything, where are weeeee!” Carla tried to reply, just as Sofia flicked her up into the air with a snap of her fingers, sending her spinning at high speed and catching her again, only to toss her right back up.

“What? Don’t recognize one of our favorite childhood places? We’re in the last arcade still open in town!” announced Sofia, walking through the automatic doors and entering the venue, which was packed wall to wall with arcade cabinets of every kind: from the classic ones to more elaborate setups with pistols, steering wheels, and even dance platforms for rhythm games. Besides the cabinets, there were pool tables, and in the back, almost like a place of honor, a glorious pinball machine. Dozens of players crowded the arcade, giving it a cheerful, chaotic energy, like stepping straight into the ‘90s.

Sofia made her way to one of the closest free cabinets, still tossing the coin-shaped Carla into the air and spinning her around “Sis, do you remember that old Tom and Jerry episode where Tom squishes Jerry into a coin?” she asked, pausing her tossing.
“Yeah, of course… and then he inserts him into an arcade cabinet... Jerry becomes part of the game...” Carla replied, still a bit dazed from the recent squishings. “Wait, you’re not actually thinking of..” But she didn’t get to finish her sentence. Sofia pinched Carla’s coin-like body between her fingers and, without hesitation, inserted her into the coin slot of the nearest arcade machine.

Carla’s body disappeared into the narrow opening, and for a few moments, the machine made a few clanking noises. Sofia watched the screen with anticipation, waiting for something to happen… but after a few seconds, Carla’s small, disk-like form slowly rolled back out from the rejected coin slot.

“Too bad, for a second I really thought it might work” said Sofia, slightly disappointed, picking her sister back up “I’ve never been inside an arcade cabinet before, quite an interesting experience” Carla muttered, having recovered slightly “Oh really? I’m glad, because now you’re about to explore another game from the inside” replied Sofia, grabbing both sides of Carla’s coin-shaped body and pulling hard, stretching her into a long grey tube before balling her back up in her hands to reshape her again.

“Good thing these nerds are so absorbed in their games they haven’t noticed a thing I’m doing” thought Sofia to herself, absentmindedly squashing and rolling Carla’s body in her hands as she walked toward the back of the arcade. By the time she reached the pinball machine, she had compressed Carla’s body into a perfectly spherical shape, about the size of a pinball, its color nearly a uniform grey, except for a single eye that miraculously peeked out from the messy tangle of compressed body parts.

“Here we are!” announced Sofia as she stopped in front of the massive pinball machine, which luckily was free of other players “Let’s see if they still haven’t fixed this panel…” she muttered, glancing around to make sure no one was watching her before fiddling with the machine’s side panel near the ball launch ramp. In the meantime, Carla,trapped in Sofia’s hand, could only watch, with her one free eye, the rather obvious fate that awaited her.

With a triumphant grunt, Sofia managed to pry open one of the pinball machine’s side panels, giving her easy access to insert Carla’s spherical body into the launch ramp.
“Just like the old days, remember? We got so many free games with this trick…” Sofia reminisced, closing the panel and stepping into position to play “Now make sure you help me rack up a good score, got it?” she added, pulling the lever to fire the ball and start the game.
Meanwhile, Carla could do nothing but brace herself (however her compressed body allowed) and prepare for impact.

SBAM! The plunger released by Sofia slammed into Carla’s spherical form, launching her at high speed through the starting lane until she shot into the main playfield. After bouncing off a few bumpers during her descent, the Carla-ball rolled faster and faster toward the center hole, guarded by the two flippers under Sofia’s control.

“Game on!” exclaimed Sofia, who launched the flipper with a decisive strike, sending Carla flying like a missile back toward the top of the board..
SPLAT!
She slammed directly into the central bumper with full force and stuck there like glue.

“Oops…” muttered Sofia, sounding slightly guilty. Carla’s body was now nothing more than a small, circular grey sticker, firmly plastered onto the bumper wall and showing no sign of coming off. Not even a few strong knocks on the machine helped.
To the unaware eye of a passerby, Carla looked simply like a dull grey dot amid the vibrant colors and flashing lights of the pinball machine.

“I think it’s time to call the staff…” Sofia thought to herself.

**********************************************

Sofia and Carla were walking through the city park once again. Carla had returned to her original form and was practically bouncing around her younger sister with enthusiasm.
“How long has it been since we last got scolded by the arcade owner? What a throwback!” said Carla. Aside from her somewhat crumpled clothes, her cheerful mood gave no hint of the bizarre ordeal she’d just been through.
“Tsk, that old geezer still remembered us even though we haven’t set foot in there for years. Does he still think we’re little kids, giving us a lecture like that?” Sofia grumbled, angrily kicking a rock off the path and pulling out her phone from her pocket.

“So, little sis? We’re almost home and you still haven’t managed to make me give up” Carla teased with a bright, irritating tone that Sofia found particularly irritating “You really think it’s okay to let me stay this long in three dimensions?” “Shut it, big sis” Sofia snapped, reaching blindly to grab Carla’s face while keeping her eyes on the screen “I’m looking for more ideas”

“What are you watching?” asked Carla, curiously leaning in beside her sister to see the screen. A stream from the channel SquishingWithGlory was playing.

The stream showed a group of young people in an open park tossing around a colorful frisbee. At first glance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, until the frisbee landed near the camera and its details became clear.

The frisbee was actually the flattened body of Glory: the girl had been squished into a perfectly round disc, just a few centimeters thick. On the upper face of the disc was her face, sporting a deeply annoyed expression, framed by her big curly hair that took up the top half of the circle. Her torso and arms were crumpled and pressed into the bottom half.

When the group picked her up again to throw her, the stream briefly showed the underside of the Glory-frisbee: it was almost entirely made up of her bright pink leggings, with a pair of stylish sandals squashed in the middle like stickers, before she was flung back into the air, her spinning form once again making it hard to make out any details.

“Well well, little Glory’s still going with her squishy streaming channel!” Carla said, a bit surprised “And you actually follow her?”
“Apparently she convinced a few of her friends to join her streams” Sofia explained, dodging the question “At first, the idea was for her to do the squishing, but ever since her debut with your timed challenge idea, the chat and donations won’t stop asking to see her get squished. This ticks her off a lot, which the viewers seem to find adorable, so it just goes on”

“Wow, you even know her lore...” Carla began, before a realization struck her “So all those squishy ideas earlier... the umbrella, the yo-yo, the pinball... you got them from her streams??” Caught red-handed, Sofia had no choice but to nod and slip the phone back into her pocket.

“I don’t know whether to be disappointed by your lack of originality, or honored that you’ve been studying a streamer just to find new ways to squish me...” said Carla with an unbearably smug grin, but suddenly dodging a swipe from an annoyed Sofia.
“Ah, oops, sorry. Force of habit” Carla added, stepping back toward her sister with arms outstretched “The challenge is still on; feel free to squish me however you please” Sofia glared at her, reaching toward her again before giving up with a sigh “Tsk. I bet a weirdo like you would love being squashed into a frisbee, wouldn’t you?”

At that exact moment, the same image flashed through both their minds: Carla, flattened into a disc just like Glory, spinning gleefully through the air, laughing in delight “You know me so well...” Carla replied after a beat, pretending to blush in embarrassment.

Sofia let out a frustrated grunt and resumed walking, with Carla still following closely behind. They were almost at the park’s exit, and the road home was practically just around the corner.

Sofia was torn: from the very beginning of the challenge, she had kept a secret weapon ready, something she was certain would finally win her the match against her sister. But using it would feel like admitting defeat, which is why she had kept it as a last resort. Unfortunately, that last resort now seemed necessary.
Besides, even though she could try a few more tricks to make Carla give up, she had to admit (though never out loud to her sister) that she was actually enjoying the time spent together, talking like this. Carla seemed to notice her sister’s hesitation, which was pretty out of character for Sofia, but for once she chose to leave her alone with her thoughts.

“To hell with it, there's no way she’ll back down now that we’re this close to home. I’ll have to use that method…” Sofia thought, finally making up her mind “And honestly… these rare moments of normalcy aren’t so bad after all”

With the decision made, Sofia looked visibly more relaxed, and the two sisters fell into a calm, lighthearted conversation. That was until Sofia remembered something Carla had said earlier that day: “Hey, sis, earlier you mentioned how we don’t often talk like this, and it’s true. I too remember when we were little, we were inseparable. But at some point, our relationship got so bad we didn’t speak for years” As Sofia spoke, Carla’s expression shifted to something more serious.

“The thing is… I don’t really remember what happened to make us fall out like that” Sofia admitted, looking thoughtful “You started saying something earlier, but you stopped… What exactly happened back then?”
“You really don’t remember?” Carla asked, surprised. Sofia shook her head “No, it was years ago. All I remember is how angry I was at you… and that for years we basically had no relationship, until a few years ago, when we started squishing each other again.”

“Honestly, I feel kind of stupid not remembering the reason for a fight that lasted years… if you can even call it a fight at this point” Sofia added with an awkward chuckle, avoiding eye contact. Carla, meanwhile, watched her with an unreadable expression.
“So, are you gonna tell me or not? Don’t make me beg!” Sofia finally snapped, slipping back into her usual brusque tone as she locked eyes with her sister.

But now, it was Carla’s turn to avoid eye contact: “Well, you know... I don’t know if this is the right moment… All of a sudden like this… I don’t think I really remember either…” she mumbled, clearly uncomfortable “But what matters is that we’re closer than ever now, right?!” she added, trying to sound hopeful; but she was only met with Sofia’s exasperated glare “Why is it impossible to have a serious conversation with you?”

Looking around desperately for any excuse to escape the topic, Carla spotted something in the distance behind Sofia: two young people were performing in an open clearing in the park, surrounded by a small crowd.
“Oh! Aren’t those the twins? It’s been ages!” Carla exclaimed, pointing excitedly. As Sofia turned to look, Carla immediately hooked arms with her and began dragging her toward the crowd “Come on, let’s go say hi!”

“She clearly doesn’t want to talk about it… I won’t get anything out of her if she keeps this up” Sofia thought to herself, resigned, as she allowed herself to be dragged along by her older sister toward the group. Still, Carla’s reluctance to talk about the past left Sofia with only one lingering feeling: a growing curiosity to find out the truth.

**********************************************

A short while later, the two sisters came within sight of their house. Despite Sofia’s repeated attempts to bring up their past, Carla had skillfully avoided the topic every time, and Sofia had reluctantly given up.

“Little sis, maybe you should be more concerned about the fact I won the challenge!” Carla declared proudly, walking up the garden path toward their house “I’ll admit you were more creative than usual, but it still wasn’t enough to...” Her victory speech was cut short as Sofia grabbed her by the collar and yanked her back onto the sidewalk.

“Hold it right there, big sis. Who said I was done with my errands for the day?” Sofia said, continuing to walk down the sidewalk, passing right by their house. Carla gave her a puzzled look, and Sofia went on: “If you’d bothered to listen to what was being discussed at dinner last night, you’d know I’ve got one last task to do today” With a smug grin, Sofia turned up the neighbor’s walkway, forcing Carla to follow her.

Like a flash of lightning, Carla suddenly remembered Layla’s words from the night before: “Sofia, could you babysit Isabella tomorrow afternoon until late in the evening? Her parents are busy with…” A look of despair crossed Carla’s face: the look of someone who sees the marathon finish line just ahead, only to suddenly realize they haven’t even made it halfway.

“No... You sneaky little cheat, you had this win in your pocket from the very start, didn’t you?” Carla stared at Sofia, her expression torn between resentment and reluctant admiration. Sofia just grinned triumphantly and nodded.

“I don’t think I can last a whole day at Isabella’s mercy… But if I give up, according to the terms of our bet, you’ll still make me be her squishy toy for your victory day, won’t you?” “Of course! I wouldn’t dream of babysitting her without bringing her a toy” Sofia replied with a threatening grin, stepping closer to her older sister.

“There’s only one option left.. run!” Carla spun around and tried to bolt, but Sofia, already expecting the move, effortlessly grabbed her again by the collar and began, as she had done so many times that day, to squish Carla’s body in her hands.

“Despite your pitiful attempt to go back on your word, in my great magnanimity, I’m willing to cut you a deal” Sofia said, addressing Carla’s still-visible face, while the rest of her body was being compacted smaller and tighter. “You’ll serve as a squishy toy until Isabella goes to bed, and then you’ll be free. Oh, and because you tried to run, you’ll have to accept by saying: ‘At your command, mighty Sofia’” she added with a smug smirk.

Carla’s face twisted into a conflicted expression for a few seconds, before she finally groaned in defeat: “Ughhh!! At your command, mighty Sofia...” she whimpered, just before her face was squished down under the rest of her compressed body "Good girl" responded Sofia, pleased.

By the end, Sofia was holding a small grey sphere, roughly the size of a golf ball. This time, she had made sure no part of Carla’s body was visible on the surface: only the uniform grey of her clothes remained.

Sofia held the Carla-sphere between her thumb and forefinger, giving it a firm squeeze to test its squishiness, then let it bounce on the pavement a few times. Extremely satisfied, she turned toward the neighbor’s house “Always a pleasure doing business with you, big sis”