In the Waiting Room

It’s been a long time coming. This one’s loosely based on not just two faves but another picture you might find in my profile, based on a movie you may have heard of. I own zero rights to the movie referenced, or to its follow-up that I still want to see.

Alan found the waiting room after that crazy corridor of twisted doors. He’d done as the book suggested, that strange book that appeared out of nowhere when he’d found himself at home. How did he get home?

Last thing Alan knew, he was doing a story on gangs in the city when they pulled a knife on him. Being a top reporter did have its drawbacks after all. He remembered one of the guys thrusting the knife at him, then, suddenly, he was home.

Sure, there was a hole in his chest, but what was really going on here? So he read the book, more like long-winded instruction manuals, finding that the answer could be found if he drew a door and knocked three times.

Somehow, the door opened up to that strange hallway. Everything seemed so twisted, so turned around, but here he was now, in what looked like an office waiting room. Everything was laid out familiar, but the other people waiting…

One of them seemed charred beyond belief, as if he’d burned alive. Another appeared to have a shrunken head.

He knew they must all have stories, everyone does, but the one he was interested in was this attractive girl, wearing something flashy, with pale blue skin and severed at her waist. Yes, her upper half, torso and everything attached, sat next to her hips and legs.

He realized what this was then, a waiting room for the dead. That knife must’ve killed him.

The burned guy, constantly fingering a cigarette, reasonably must’ve died in a fire caused by falling asleep when smoking. The guy with the shrunken head must’ve died, basically having his head shrunk. But this girl…

He’d always thought the trick of sawing a woman in half looked fake. After all, if any person were to actually have that done, they’d be killed. Was that why she was here? If so, what about her skin tone? What about this outfit both her halves were wearing?

“Uh, excuse me.”

She looked up, mildly fascinated that someone was talking to her. “Yes?”

“Alan, recent stabbing victim.”

She reached up a hand. “Carlie, crushed and suffocated.”

Carlie caught his look of sheer confusion as he glanced down at her severed half. Smiling understandingly, she invited. “Go ahead, sit down. It’s a story although nobody would believe it with this.”

She gestured to her lower half. As Alan sat, Carlie gave him a grin. “Well, it all started at a pool party my friend Jess dragged me to. We were playing hide and seek and Jess and I ducked into the garage, something that our host said probably wasn’t a good idea. We found a whole lot of magic props.

“I’d always been fascinated by that world, the idea of strange things being done. When I learned that much of it was fake, I felt so deflated, but I always had hope. Jess knew this and basically ran to what looked like a thin-model sawing-in-half box. Only thing is, it was too narrow, not like the typical box. When she opened it, I could see that the inside was lined with what looked like it was comfortable, but that there was no obvious room for the assistant to move out of the way.

“Jess, apparently, saw my intrigue. She dared me to get in. As it was a long-time fantasy of mine, I quickly did. She closed the box and slid the stocks in place. It was so thrilling, my fantasy coming true. I stuck my arms through the holes as Jess gave me another fetish I used to have, getting my feet tickled.

“It didn’t take her long before she found a saw.”

Alan stopped her. “Wait. A real saw? You were locked in the box, no way out?”

Carlie just shrugged. Alan had another question. “So did she use it?”

Carlie laughed good-naturedly, gesturing to her legs as they recrossed. “What did it feel like?”

Carlie’s eyes drifted back. “At first, Jess promised she’d stop before she reached me, and basically told me I should let her know. A feeling rushed through me as she slid the saw into the slot, a feeling that I might just be okay.

“After I promised I would, she started sawing. I could feel the blade getting closer to my waist every stroke, thrilling at that sensation before I felt the saw brush my skin.

“It didn’t hurt, not at all. It was sort of tingly at first as she started cutting into me. I couldn’t feel any blood or any pain, but something else was happening.

“It felt GOOD.”

Carlie’s eyes closed in rapture, as if she was reliving the experience. “I can still feel it, that marvelous, unbelievable sensation. As I felt the saw passing through my body, deeper and deeper, the sensation increased almost exponentially. I have no way to describe it better than that, at least until she started sawing through my spine.

“Jess realized the saw must’ve been going through me about then as her sawing slowed down. She asked, in shock, if she was really cutting me in half. I begged her not to stop, begged her to continue. As the saw cut into my spine, I felt a new fantastic sensation grow, the buildup, the increase. As it finished cutting through, I had a full on orgasm.”

Carlie’s face shown the ecstacy of the orgasm, that amazing experience. Then she went on. “I knew I was in half. I knew it. It made no sense, that I could feel my legs and feet. It seemed so incredible. I ran a hand along where the cut had been made, feeling the seam in my body. I had to know, so I slid a finger down into my body, feeling what was in there.

“Knowing what I felt, I urged Jess to push me apart. She looked for the dividers for a second before I just told her to do it. The sensation as she pushed my halves apart intensified the good feelings I had.

“Seeing what was going on, she had to know. She went down to the lower half box and ran a finger along the sole of my foot. I couldn’t help myself, I burst out laughing.

“Well, our host found us then, seeing my condition. I sighed, asking if this meant I had to be put back together or something bad. She looked at my halves and told me that I could stay like that as long as I wanted. She’d tell me how to get myself together when I wanted, but let me tell you a secret.”

Carlie grinned, leaning in as best a half girl can, raising a hand as if to whisper something. “I never wanted to.”

Alan didn’t know how he got so enraptured. “So what’s it like, living in halves?”

Carlie seemed excited by this part. “It’s incredible. It took me a bit to figure out how to move both halves around, but I found out that I could be in the sun for hours because of it. For some reason, it works out that, if I want to stay in the sun, especially when it’s hot, all I have to do is stick my bottom half in a cooler of ice. It equalized me so well. I realized I could be a great show, the living half girl. I started to develop exhibitions and demonstrations for how it works.

“Then I was dumb enough to take it to the Philippines. Not sure if you know their superstitions about aswang, but they’re generally very dangerous, proto-human creatures.”

Carlie sighed, her severed legs crossing as if she was going to lean forward and place her hands on her knees. “Well, one of them is a creature that’s usually female and can split in half to do her damage. I didn’t know that when I got there, but, when I did, the believers in it took my top half, determined to not face the threat, slipped me into a pair of wood slats and started pinning me in.

“I mean, my halves could survive being apart, they balanced pretty well, but, as the weights crushed down on me, I couldn’t breathe anymore. Next thing I know, I’m here.”

Alan looked at the lower half again as Carlie seemed to smile. “I know what you’re thinking. Everyone who comes in here thinks the same thing, that I died in a freak magic act accident. They assume it, so they don’t come over and talk to me. I’ve been here for...what is it now? ...3 decades and nobody’s bothered. Well, I can see you’re curious as to this, so…”

With that, Carlie took hold of the vicious looking severed end of what Alan thought was her waist and lifted it. It came apart, proving to be nothing more than a prop. Alan saw that, beneath that prop, smooth skin stretched across. “Yeah, we all bear the mark of how we died, all of us. But, hey, I’m still in half.”