Sawnambulism

Based loosely on the fave “Experimentation,” the latest poll winner, and an old story I was considering a long time ago.

Carlie woke up, stretching with a huge grin on her face. The dream happened again, the same dream she’d had for the past couple of weeks.

A hand ran down to her waist again, both relieved and a little bummed that there still was no seam.

She had been dreaming that, during the night, she’d been in halves, at her waist, watching her hips and legs walk around without her being attached. It was surreal, it was bizarre and it felt SOOO good.

But, every morning, she’d wake up and be back in one piece, safe in her bed.

It was always a little eerie with her, always wanting to see magic shows, wanting to learn about magic tricks. She guessed that was why Jess, her best friend in the world, volunteered her when a magician asked for a volunteer from the audience.

Carlie, being highly encouraged to go up there, did so reluctantly, not really knowing what would happen, until the magician asked her to lay down on a table. He placed an ornate looking bracket over her waist, something Carlie wasn’t too sure of. When he powered on the jigsaw, she could only gasp. Did it mean what she thought it meant?

The jigsaw, pushed by the magician, did run through the bracket over her body, but Carlie could swear she could feel the blade inside. She could feel it going through her waist. Was he really sawing her in half like she’d always dreamed of?

But, all too soon, the sawing was over. The magician lifted the bracket off of her and helped her stand up. Carlie was still in one piece.

Or was she?

That was the first night she’d dreamed of being in two.

She had to wonder if there was some latent effect of this trick, some afterimage, some echo. Was she really in half? Did that magician leave something behind during the sawing?

Her mind was filled with so many questions. #1 of which was why? What was it that caused the same dream, night after night? What sort of darkness or light was it?

But that would remain a mystery. There was no way to actually determine what was really going on.

Or at least that’s what she thought.

It was a couple of nights later, during a rough patch of weather, when she got her answer. A seriously close lightning strike woke her up in the middle of her dream and Carlie had to gasp, maybe even whimper a little.

The top part of her body was upright, on a nightstand, but ending at her waist. The lower part of her body was, somehow, sitting a few feet away, her hips and legs, seemingly casually just sitting there. “Wait, what?”

She should’ve been scared, should’ve been screaming, as she checked that, yes, she was awake. She was, indeed, in halves.

But it felt so good. There was no pain. She could clearly see the stretch of skin over where her upper half should’ve joined her lower half. And the feeling was incredible.

She reached over to her hips, wanting to know. As she brushed the skin, she felt a tickling sensation and the impression that the skin was so soft. Even touching that, she knew she felt something good.

She wished she had one of her feathers to test this out on, one of those that would definitely tell if it was that ticklish.

But how to get back together?

At that thought, somehow, her hips bent forward, letting her legs stand up without being attached. They walked smoothly over to her upper half, Carlie noting the eerie effect, eerie but not frightening. It seemed they knew what to do apart from her as they reached her upper half and turned around, bending down a little.

Somehow, Carlie knew. She lifted her top half up, pressing the cut ends of her waist together. With an intense flood of emotions, Carlie finally felt whole again.

But was she? Was this the aftereffect of having that jigsaw go through her or was this some latent magic power she had?

She would never know.

But, better question, was she really in one piece that just happen to split in two or was she always in halves, but only appearing to be whole?