"So you're saying you can't cure me?"

The woman behind the examination table closed the folder in front of her. "This case extends far beyond the reaches of my abilities as a practician. For now, no, there's not much I can do. But," she said, interrupting her patient, "all the people coming in today are put on an extreme urgency list. As soon as we have any developpment on these assaults we'll let you know."

The lady across from her shrugged. "Alright, I understand. There's no use being mad about you for this anyways, you're only doing your job. Thanks." 

"You are most welcome. Before you go, I would need you to sign this form. Considering the circumstances of your visit, it doesn't matter if the signature isn't an exact match."


Scooting forward on her chair, she reached out to seize the pen that was being handed to her and secured it between her right ring finger and thumb, the only two surviving digits on her hand. The others had vanished, taking away part of her palm with them in the process. With some help from her other hand, on which five short finger stubs still wiggled, she managed to sign what could barely be deciphered as her name. She thanked the Enchantress yet again, struggled to open the door, and went on her way. 


"Next!"


There seemed to be a brief commotion beyond the door leading to the office before it opened again. Stanley's face appeared in the doorway.


"Excuse me miss, these two would be coming in together if you don't mind."

The doctor gestured towards the door. "Sure, sure. Let them in."


Stanley disappeared again, soon to be replaced by yet two new patients. Even though the temperature had been about 30ºC for just about the entirety of last week, both girls wore voluminous winter coats that extended almost down to their knees. Upon seeing the lady waiting for them inside, one of them quivered, glanced at the other girl, and hesitantly sat down. The second one seemed to put on a serious face by force, like she was hiding the true nature of her emotions. 


"Alright girls." She leaned forward on the table and joined her hands. "My name is Manal. I am an Enchantress and I'm here to help you. I suppose you're both here for the same reason as everyone else?"


Nothing. At first, neither of the girls answered. From the preliminary file, she knew they were called Rory and Dakota. Upon giving them an insisting look, the nervous one of the two started speaking.


"Um, so it happened two or three days ago. We uh.. were hanging out at her place like always... I was actually staying there for the week..." As she talked, Manal noticed some slight movements happening from beneath her coat. "We had just stepped outside and she saw a ball laying on the ground. She thought... she thought the kids around the corner may have kicked it too far so I tried to pick it up but it just seemed too heavy for me.." The sleeves of her coat rustled. "However, Dakota lifted it without any problem and threw it back on the other side of the street but the ball just.... vanished and never hit the ground."

"Were there any unusual symbols on the ball?"

The girl responded immediately. "No."

"Was it a different shape? Color? Did it differ in any way, except for it's weight, from a normal ball?"

"I don't think it did. Or I didn't notice." She briefly looked at her friend again. "That's about when... You-know-what happened."


The Enchantress nodded respectfully. Both girls looked healthy, but obviously must've had it rough during the last few days. The talkative's eyes were reddish, as if she had cried a lot, their clothes bore an impressive collection of stains that looked fairly recent, and their hair were messy. As for the reason of their visit... The objects and circustances kept changing between patients, but it was basically the same story all around. Mysterious random object appears out of nowhere, people are confused at first but ended up coming in contact with it. Then...


"I would need you to remove these coats for me so I can... Inspect what happened."


The silent girl got visibly tense and looked for approval in her friend.


"Come on", she said in a murmur, "that's what we're here for..."


The first girl slid her coat off her shoulders without much effort and let it fall on the chair behind her. She first laid her arms on her sides and, as if feeling exposed in the current situation, joined them on her stomach. Just as Manal had expected. Having touched the object with her hands, they had entirely disappeared from the girl's arms. Her forearms extended almost all the way to her wrists before suddenly coming to a stop in the form of two round stumps. No fingers, no wrist, and most importantly : no scars. She fidgeted clumsily with her shirt, it's light blue color ruined with various foods and fluids.  The Enchantress now noticed that the girl was in her pajamas. 


She gestured her to come forward and gently extended a hand. Slowly, the girl reached out and placed her left arm in the Enchantress's hand, resting her elbow on the table. Using both her hands, she examined it from all possible angles before passing on to the next one. They seemed to have the exact same length. Still holding on to her right arm, she asked her to perform a few tasks for her, like flexing her arm towards her to test her strength, or try to clench her fist. When attempting to perform the latter, the girl seemed to space out, her eyes drifting on a particularly uninteresting knot on the wooden desk in front of her.


"I'm sorry this is really hard", she said, her voice cracking. "I just can't... I can't..." She sighed and moved restlessly on her seat. "I can't seem to remember how." 


In the Enchantress' palm, the stump remained lifeless. Lastly, she asked her to put her stumps together, as if to join her hands in front of her. As she did, she asked her if she felt anything eery in her limbs. Like cold water running through her veins or the feeling of her hands touching or even phasing through each other. Nothing. The Enchantress sighed herself.


"Well thank you very much." The girl sat down and wiped a tear using one of her stumps. "Now up to you. Would you please."


Her attention had turned to the second girl, still wearing her winter coat. Without making eye contact, she scoffed and stood up. She leant backwards and rotated her shoulders, the coat effortlessly sliding off her body and to the ground. Her shoulders were entirely devoid of arms but she wore a long sleeved shirt in a feeble attempt to hide her current condition. The way her torso ended midway through her collarbones, how narrow her upper body appeared to be, as well as two empty dangling sleeves left no doubt to what had happened to her.

Fascinated by her patient, the Enchantress walked around the table to examine her. Her posture was slightly off due to the missing weight of her arms having moved her center of gravity. Her shoulders were constantly active, either shrugging on one or both sides, or hardly extending one forward to act as counterweight for her balance. When asked if her shirt could be removed, she tensed but didn't say a word, which the Manal considered a positive answer. The width of her shoulder had been dramatically reduced, even beyond the anchor points of her arms. Just like her friend, there was no use in trying to move her arms : her upper body didn't budge. It's as if she never had any in the first place. 


"So how come you're not both affected the same way?" She asked.

"As I said earlier," she recalled, "I only touched the ball with my hands." She gestured with her stumps as if trying to present their missing ends. "After picking it up Dakota threw it back with a... chest pass? I'm not sure how it's called, I think it's from basketball. I guess the ball must've touched both her shoulders at that moment somehow."

"And the voice?" She turned from one girl to the other.

"Oh it's still there, trust me. She yelled loud enough for a while. I think she's mostly in shock still..." She brought her arms together to yet again play with her shirt. "I basically forced her to come here." 

"I understand." She took a few notes on a new form she had prepared before returning to the girl. "As you may or may not know, I can't undo this magic at the moment." The girl's face melted. "We have agents on the case 24/7 since these have been more frequent, as you can tell by the amount of people in the waiting room."


Tears rolled on Rory's cheeks but she seemed to understand the situation. She slid her arms back into the sleeves of her coat and swung it over her shoulders. Manal helped the other girl put her own on while asking them if they needed any support to help them cook and take care of themselves in the meantime. Dakota remained silent, but Rory nodded.


"I'm going to write this recommandation for you then," she scribbled something on a prescription paper, "you can give it to the receptionnist before you head out and she'll make a few phone calls for you."


Rory stood up and thanked her. She raised her arms to free them from her coat's oversized sleeves and cautiously grabbed the prescription between her stumps. The Enchantress stood up, walked up to the door and opened it herself, leading them out of her office. 

Sitting down again, she quickly finished the girls' paperwork before another patient would come in. There had been an estimated 500 attacks like these in the city in the last week or so. Surely this wasn't the work of a single person, was there a terrorist organisation behind this? She wouldn't know. All that mattered to her right now was to document these cases the best way she could. 

Rotating her chair to reach the filing cabinet behind her, she knocked down a cup of coffee precariously sitting on the edge of her desk, spilling its content on the worn out wood and her clothes. She gasped. First because it had soaked most of the file she was still holding on to. Second when she realized it had stained part of her blouse as well as her lap. And third when she realized she had never seen this cup before. She stopped her right intact hand, instinctively reaching for the damp clothes to scrub the excess off, halfway through her motion. Her limbs went numb. Holding on to a dry spot on her chair, she watched as her arm was sucked right back into her body, up above her elbow before coming to a stop. Still crossed under the desk, her legs underwent similar changes. Her shoes hit the floor softly as her feet lost their toes and shrunk away. Her skirt, once filled with the flesh of her legs, laid flat on the seat of her chair. Carefully, she leant forward to reach for a red button next to a speaker.


"Stanley, would you please hold the next patients please, I need you in my office. Bring a few clean towels and a box of medium-sized nitrile gloves."