It was mid-afternoon, and although I wanted to relax with a nice round of TV, I couldn't ignore my stomach's constant cries of "FEED ME!" Besides, it was a commercial break anyway, and if there's one thing good about commercial breaks, it's that they give you enough time to get whatever you need before the show starts again.

It's been roughly two weeks since Shannon and I went on our little magic escapade. While I managed to mentally recover from the incident, Shannon, on the other hand, has become rather infatuated with magic and the industry surrounding it. She has just not been able to shut up about it, and of course she's asked me multiple times if I wanted to perform the trick again, which I have respectfully declined each time. I know Shannon is always up for experimenting, but I feel like she's changed entirely since then.

Well, I digress. I went into the kitchen for some delicious Hot Pockets. Yes, they're not really healthy, but they are satisfying and will certainly be done before commercials end. As I prepared my food, I couldn't help but notice a rather large cloud outside my window, though to me it looked like a large piece of popcorn and only made me more hungry.

A few minutes passed and I grabbed my food from my microwave and made my way back towards the couch. I heard a low rumble that certainly wasn't coming from my stomach. The clock showed it was 2:30.

"Really? It wasn't supposed to start raining until 4!"

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I am an avid weather geek. I finally got my bachelor's degree in meteorology from Penn State several months ago, but I haven't found work yet. I tried convincing Shannon to go for it too, but she never really had an interest and instead went for an teaching degree from HACC (Harrisburg Area Community College). We both settled in Harrisburg, ironically (and perhaps fittingly) right next door to each other.

Anyway, the TV, showing a Peloton ad for what seemed like the 50-billionth time, suddenly went to black. The content was replaced by a white, computerized font that, to me, was instantly recognizable, a look that pierced deep into my very soul: the Emergency Alert System. And of course, let's not forget that infamous tone, punishing me for having the TV volume up too high by almost making me drop my food.

After a few seconds of cringing from the unbearable noise, I finally sat down, as an obviously computerized voice began speaking from the TV.

"The National Weather Service in State College Pennsylvania has issued a tornado warning for..."

This did not surprise me, as there was a tornado watch for the area, but I was still irritated as this was the fourth time today I had to bear the pain.

"We get it, WE GET IT. Nothing ever comes from these things up here anyway now shut up so I can get back to my show."

I started eating, but I almost choked when I heard what came next.

"...a confirmed large and extremely dangerous tornado was located near Enola, moving southeast at 30 miles per hour. This is a particularly dangerous situation! Take cover now!"

At that rate, we only had 10 minutes to prepare, at most. The first thing I did was call Shannon. When she picked up, she sounded like she was disturbed from a nice, long nap.

"Uuuuuugggghhhh...Colin what do you want?"

Judging from that, her TV was probably off and she probably did not have emergency alerts enabled on her phone. She was completely ignorant to everything going on right now.

"Look, I don't care what you're doing right now but apparently there's an actual tornado heading straight for us!" By this point, the System had signed off and a news broadcast was showing a radar map of the storm, with a large debris signature approaching the Enola Rail Yard. (Side note: debris signatures on radar usually indicate a strong tornado is in progress)

Shannon, for whatever reason, didn't believe me at first, despite my frantic tone of voice. I repeated myself to show I was serious.

"Colin, please, at least let me wake up first before throwing all this at me. Now what are you trying to say?"

I was almost at the breaking point. "Turn on the news if you don't believe me!"

She did just that. A news helicopter was following what was indeed a tornado, as it plowed into the rail yard, lifting several train cars in the process. As this happened, I heard nothing but silence from her end of the line.

"There's not much time! We gotta move, NOW!" We probably had only five minutes to get to safety at this point. I mean, if it had the power to lift a couple train cars off the rails, then imagine what it could do to our homes.

I tried my best to explain everything to Shannon before both the power and the phone lines cut. Now I was essentially blind to her position, and all I could do was pray and hope for the best. I did think about running next door to check on her, but then I saw the tornado approaching the railway line a few blocks down the street, lofting additional train cars and shipping containers. This was the endgame.

My house didn't have a basement, so my best bet was a closet near the middle of the house and I rushed there as fast as I could. I still couldn't get my mind off of Shannon and her well-being, as she also didn't have a basement, but I don't remember if she had the interior closet as well.

I made it into my closet as the air was filled with the deafening roar of the swirling death machine from the sky. The walls shook, and I shut my eyes and braced for impact.

What was actually 30 seconds felt like an hour and I just sat there, completely powerless. After the storm subsided, I waited a little bit to collect myself and brace for what I was about to see. I exited my closet but I was surprised to find my house mostly intact, save for a portion of the roof torn off.

But then I walked outside. It turns out the tornado barely scraped past my house, and destroyed everything else off to my right, including Shannon's house. My heart sank as I stared at the wreckage, her house reduced to nothing but rubble, and I genuinely thought she was dead. That was, until I heard a muffled voice from over there.

I made my way over to the rubble and started digging. I was overjoyed to find Shannon was still alive, and at first it seemed like she wasn't hurt at all; then I uncovered the rest of the story.

"Colin, help me I feel so much in pain right now..."

Two things were wrong here. The first was that it appeared a wooden plank had impaled her in the stomach. The sight was very unsettling and I probably would've thrown up had there been a lot of blood. But somehow, she wasn't bleeding from the wound despite it being very clear how deep the plank was embedded into her.

"Are...are you alright?"

"I have a giant plank sticking out of my stomach, do you think I'm alright?" Shannon was bewildered by my question.

"Point taken. More importantly, are you able to get up?"

"Uhh...I think? Let me try quick."

And here was the second issue. She did get up, but she was missing something rather critical: her head, which was still on the ground. When I first saw the scene, I thought Shannon was dead, but now, I started thinking I was dead. There was no way this was happening. Seeing my best friend with no head and a wooden plank sticking out of her stomach, all with no blood or guts spewing out, felt like something I would see in the afterlife.

Shannon was oddly calm, as if completely unaware of her predicament, but she still felt like something was wrong.

"What the hell? I feel my head on the ground but I don't feel my back."

I checked for my own pulse to see if I was actually dead. I felt it. Then I went over to Shannon and checked for her pulse to see if she was the dead one. Again, there was a pulse. This truly was happening.

I stood back and stared at what sat in front of me, my mouth wide open in disbelief. To me, there was no doubt that Shannon should be dead, but against the odds, she wasn't. However, my reaction did not go unnoticed.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

I started pacing back and forth. "Okay, this is bad. This is bad. This is so bad!"

"What's going on?"

"Well, how do I put this lightly..." I went over and picked up Shannon's severed head and held it up to face her headless body. "...your head has become DETACHED FROM YOUR OWN BODY!"

She tried her best to keep herself calm, and...no, I lied. She screamed at the top of her lungs.

"OH MY GOD LOOK AT ME! I'M...I'M...I'M..."

I still pondered how this happened. My main theory was that she was initially struck by a different wooden plank, with enough force to decapitate her. Theoretically, that should result in instant death, but somehow only managed to knock her out cold. Then, she got impaled as her house collapsed around her.

Shannon soon caught on to the idea that she should be dead. But, despite the lack of blood, she felt as though she was going to die if she did not receive medical attention.

"You have to get me to the hospital! This...this needs to be fixed!" Shannon still had trouble coming to terms with her condition.

Collecting myself, I tried to reassure her. "I'll at least try, but this ain't gonna be easy."

I could try to drive her to a hospital downtown, which was fortunately spared from the storm. However, more than likely, it was flooded with other people who also had medical emergencies. Plus, did I mention it was downtown? The area was probably being plagued by heavy traffic at the same time.

Also, I had a nagging feeling that someone would call the cops on me if they saw me driving around with a headless body in the car. Hiding Shannon in the car would also look very suspicious on arrival.

Of course, I could always call 911, but assuming the phone lines were somehow back up and running (remember they were severed earlier along with the power), they might be so overloaded that my call wouldn't even go through. And even if it did, how could I describe her outlandish condition to the medics and convince them it was real?

And if I do nothing, well, with someone like Shannon that's not an option.

Oh, what to do...what to do...