Awakenings

“Where did you take my wife?” Jim Tome asked

He stood there feeling helpless among the activities going on around  him.  He had just finished giving a statement to detective Jon James and  now he wanted to see his wife.  It had been about an hour since the  detective hustled her away for a medical examination.

“I already told you, we took her to see our specialist.  You see, your  wife is very lucky to have survived this assault, normally we don’t  catch up to Crucial in time and it’s typical that his victims either  vanish completely or in other cases, they perish due to the severity of  the transformation.  On very few occasions someone like your wife  survives this attack, your wife is a vital witness and her safety and  well being is a top priority to us.”

“I just need to know that she is ok” Jim said.  “I need to see her”.

“All in time” the detective said “but for now, please be patient and  understand that we are doing this in hers as well as your best interest.   Please excuse me, I have to interview a few more witnesses.  Make your  self comfortable and someone will call on you when we know more.”

And with that he turned on his heal and walked back toward the stage area.

“Janice?  Hello?”  She heard a man’s voice say.  Squinting, she slowly  opened her eyes to see a concerned, unfamiliar but not strange face  looking at her with concerned eyes.

The taste of vomit stung her tongue and she fought off nausea as she came more and more alert.

“Where is my husband?” she asked.  For a moment she had forgotten what  had happened, blocked it out as some kind of nightmare but the strange  vibrations in her lower abdomen as she spoke reminded her of the current  situation.  She looked down at her body, thankfully covered with a  cotton blanket.  She shuddered to think what was down there, and what  her face had been altered as.

“He is waiting outside” the male voice responded.  “Would you like me show him in?” he asked

Janice paused before answering.  She felt humiliated and on one hand was  mortified to have her husband see her like this.  She reached up and  felt the bands of the surgical mask that covered her lower face below  her nose but stopped there.  She didn’t want to touch what was beneath  it as if touching it suddenly made it all real.

“Go ahead” she said, softly as if not to cause the unnerving vibrations  in her lower belly, certainly caused by the reconfiguration of her  larynx and throat.  She could even feel the breath warm against her  inner thigh as she spoke.  “Oh God” she thought and started to  hyperventilate.

“Easy” the doctor said “Take it slow, your diaphragm is working double  time to bring air into and out of your lungs.  When you feel anxiety you  should focus on breathing only from one or the other, be it your nose  or your mouth until you get better coordinated with your new anatomy.”   He continued as he moved to the door and whispering to one of the nurses  “Go find Mr. Tome” and she walked out of the trailer.

Jim wasn’t sure what to expect as he stepped into the trailer.  Even  though it had only been a few short hours since the assault and he had  seen first had already what Von Crucial had done, he still wasn’t  prepared for what was going to encounter when he walked into that  trailer.

Nervously he stepped into the doorway and he saw an older gentleman  standing beside an examination table that was facing away from the  doorway.  He recognized the woman as his wife.

“Jim come over here” the doctor said

He walked over to the examination table and he saw his wife.  She was  wearing a surgical mask that covered her face below the nose and her  body was covered with a baby blue blanket.

“Hi Sweetie” he said sheepishly and grabbed her hand to hold it.

She squeezed his hand but said nothing.  She looked at him with tears in her eyes.

“Are….are you ok?” he asked

She nodded her head and then started shaking it side to side and began  sobbing.  Her eyes welled up with tears and her nose began to run.  She  sniffed

Jim thought he could hear a sobbing sound come from further down the  table and beneath the blanket.  He remembered the horror as he awoke  from the trance when the police busted the show and saw clearly what Von  Crucial had done to his bride on stage.  “Surely it had been an  illusion” he first thought as he looked closely at her face on stage and  how where her mouth had been was what looked to be a puckered, pink  anus.  Later, it wasn’t until she had passed out on the couch that he  was able to see the full extent of the transformation.  Lying on the  couch naked and the fetal position, he could see protruding out of her  butt crack the red lips of a mouth…her mouth.

Glancing down to her crotch  he thought again of what lies  under the blanket.  Looking back at her face, he thought again of what  lies under the surgical mask.  He felt sick.  His wife had been horribly  disfigured.  “Is this a life worth living?” he asked himself and then  immediately felt ashamed and the thought.  This was his wife, loved her  and she needs him more than ever.

“I’ll do whatever is necessary” he said looking at her and then leaning  over to embrace her.  He kissed her softly on the forehead.

The doctor began to explain what physical changes had been made to her  anatomy.  He explained that through x-ray he has been able to determine  that the magic had inverted her upper and lower GI so that the lower  intestine and colon now ran up thought her chest and neck connecting to  the rectum and anus that now consisted of lower portion of her face  above the chin and below the nostril.  The upper GI on the other hand  now consisted of the mouth, tongue and throat complex, complete with  bronchial and larynx complex ran inverted from below the pelvis,  connecting to the stomach below the diaphragm which had by his best  guess been divided into two halves.  The top half controlled respiration  through the nose and the bottom half controlled respiration from the  mouth/throat.

“In all, barring unforeseen injury or illness I think you should live a  normal life expectancy for a woman of your age and overall health  profile.”  He said

This relieved both Jim and Janice but once again they were faced with  the fact that their lives had now been greatly altered, especially  Janice’s.

She looked at Jim and finding the courage to speak, softly she said “what are we going to do?”

“I don’t know he said, we can move, we can move anywhere and start over.”

“I wouldn’t if I were you.” A voice said

Turning, Jim saw detective James come into the small room.

“You see, Von Crucial knows who you are, and he won’t stop at nothing until he gets his merchandise”

“Merchandise?” Jim asked

Handing Jim a business card he said “Von Crucial is in the human trafficking business”

Jim looked at the business card.  It was a strange purplish iridescent  color.  In bold letters it read Crucial Wholesale…the #1 source for bio  art in the galaxy.  Below that, was some markings that Jim didn’t recognize.