Tropical Magic

Admittedly, this is based on the cover image.  Had a hard time deciding what to do.

Carlie could feel the sun warming her skin in that most wonderful way, closing her eyes and just letting it soak into her.  It seemed so surreal, so dreamlike, being here, on Isla Holbar, with Jess.

They didn’t know exactly where they’d go on this brief summer break, but they knew it had to be somewhere special, somewhere they’d remember forever.  Jess saw the tagline, that Isla Holbar was truly a magical place, that the beaches were, in fact, pure magic.

So far, the island hadn’t disappointed.  So much snorkeling, so much drinking, so much sunbathing.  Carlie felt her soul lifted up higher as she thought of how wonderful it was here.

But, tomorrow, they had to go back home. “Hey, Carlie, look at that!”

Jess pointed to someone, a muscular man, swinging what appeared to be a large scimitar around in dangerous arcs.  Carlie could see him concentrating, trying to keep focus.

She remembered something about sword dancing, and wondered if he was practicing it as Jess grabbed her hand and started dragging her over to him. “C’mon, let’s go...whoops!”

Jess tripped and Carlie felt herself falling forward just as the man, who apparently didn’t see her, swung the massive sword at her.  She felt it connect with her body, but, strangely, nothing else.

As she gasped, wondering what was going on, the man stopped, his face turning ragged. “I’m so sorry miss.  I had no idea you were even….”

Carlie raised a hand as Jess got up.  She felt there was something not right with her, and, as she tried to take a step, she was proven right.

Carlie’s top half slid off her bottom half, tumbling to the sane. “AAAHHHH!”

She caught herself, barely, and scrambled to try and see how much damage had been done. “Uh...Jess?”

Her lower half was still standing, somehow.  She worried there’d be blood or guts spilling out, but there wasn’t anything of the kind.  Jess helped her top half up as she felt underneath, feeling, strangely enough, skin over what should have been a gaping hole in her body.

Carlie looked around, the panic easing a little as she sat her lower half down.  Yes, skin covered where she’d been cut, and she could still feel her legs. “Whoa.  What’s going on here?”

The man knelt beside her, again apologizing, before he mentioned that he might have been a descendant of Mayan priests and that this place could have, indeed, channeled all that, but he had no idea.

Carlie looked between him and Jess. “Uh, can I get back together?”

After a couple of minutes, they decided to just try putting her halves together.  Lifting her top half up, they aligned her body before lowering her top onto her bottom.  Carlie felt nothing different, but tried, experimentally, to stand.

Her top half fell off again with a grunt.  After getting situated, they thought some more. “What if we try pressuring her back together?” Jess suggested.

As they lifted her top half back onto her bottom half, both the man and Jess pushed down on her shoulders before Carlie started to complain that it hurt.  Again, her top half slid off.

It took a couple more minutes before another suggestion was tried, laying her two halves together, but that had the same result.  Still, Carlie noticed something. “It kind of felt...hopeful.”

Jess had the idea. “You know how, when magicians do the trick onstage, pulling the girl’s halves apart, they have a metal plate separating the halves?”

Carlie knew what she was talking about. “But we don’t have metal plates.”

Jess grabbed the man’s sword. “We have something very similar.  Can we use this?”

The man shrugged, not sure what else to do, as they laid Carlie out flat, her two halves pressed together.  Tentatively, Jess slid the scimitar between her halves as they waited.  A moment later, Jess lifted the scimitar out of the cut and Carlie felt a rush of such wonderful feelings she smiled big, moaning a little as she did so.

She knew she was back in one piece, knew everything was okay.  As she sat up, glad to not slide in halves again, another thought struck her. “Uh...okay...uh...now that we know how to fix it...can I...can I have you cut my head off?”