Half and Half

“This is the spell I was talking about,” said Ana. “If you think you could help me cast it.”

Ana slid her iPad across the kitchen table. Lydia smirked and looked over the website that was loaded.

“Well the runework or leycraft doesn’t look too difficult,” said Lydia. “But—“

She stopped and raised an eyebrow. Ana looked over with a slight that said she already knew what the ‘but’ part was going to be.

“This needs two people,” said Lydia, with a bit of a smirk.

“Yeah,” said Ana with a widening grin. “It does.”

“And do you have a second person who wants to do it with you?”

“I have someone in mind,” said Ana, meeting Lydia’s eyes.

“And what’s in it for me?” asked Lydia. Might as well skip the long drawn out part where she made Ana ask her.

“Anything you want,” said Ana. “Well, anything that me or Justin can offer.”

Lydia considered this for a second. It was a pretty easy decision. But she needed a few more details.

“How long?” she asked.

“Just the weekend,” said Ana. “Say until Sunday evening.”

“And which of these are you going to be?”

Ana just raised an eyebrow in response.

“Right,” said Lydia. “Well…”

She put a finger to her cheek and paused.

“Okay.”

“Really?” said Ana, her grin somehow brightening even further.

“Yes.”

“And what do you want in return?”

“For now,” said Lydia, “Let’s just say that you owe me. And so does Justin, since he’ll be erm… reaping the benefits here.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine with that,” said Ana, contemplatively.

“Wait,” said Lydia, another thought becoming clear to her, “Does Justin even know about this?”

“It’ll be a surprise for him,” said Ana. “Are you ready?”

The Preparation

Lydia checked and rechecked the formula she’d printed off against her own notes. The Ley lines had been pulled and laid down across the living room floor. A bronze shaker of arcanic catalyzer was ready and bubbling off an acrid smelling purple smoke. And the runes were traced over Ana’s and her own waistline, which meant the two of them were also down to a bra and shorts.

She’d also lit a scented candle and put on some Passion Pit not really for any reason other than it set the right vibe.

“Okay,” said Lydia, picking up the magic wand from the pencil jar on the end table. “Looks like everything is good to go here.”

“Where do I sit?” said Ana.

“It would probably be easier if we both lay down,” said Lydia. “On the rug here is fine.”

Ana enthusiastically flopped over onto her back. Lydia turned her so she was laying more or less across the Ley line, than laid down beside her.

“Shouldn’t we be in opposite directions?” said Ana.

“Doesn’t matter really. The runes take care of that part.”

“Ohhh,” said Ana. “I thought they only did the joining. I need to learn more about those.”

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

“One… two… thr—“

Lydia held the wand up and felt the magic connect, sending a bolt of energy up through her arm, like touching an electric fence. She held on tightly to the wand, allowing the feeling to pass, then started to shape it to the different elements of the spell. She could hear the catalyst start to hiss, and felt the runs around her midsection go cold and hot and cold and hot and—

Then everything wobbled. Magic consumed the whole room. Colors mixed into scents mixed into sounds mixed with the feeling of time passing and it was no longer possible to say what was actually happening. The moment stretched on in a loop going on and on forever.

The Process

She’d been teaching magic to Ana bit by bit for a few months now. It had all started when Lydia was at home one Sunday afternoon.

As had become her routine, she’d taken her head off her shoulders for the weekend. It was something she liked to do just to relax, ever since she first taught herself magic the summer after finishing college. She was just planning to do laundry and maybe watch some Netflix.

She’d gone downstairs to the laundry room, her head tucked under one arm, her Landry hamper awkwardly shoved under the other.

But it was the door to the laundry room that proved difficult. It was a heavy door that needed to be pulled, and on top of that it had a combination that needed to be entered so only residents could use it.

Since one arm was occupied with the laundry, Lydia was trying to ender the combination with the same arm that was carrying her head. As she finally got the door open, her face was awkwardly jammed into her boobs and she was in danger of dropping her head altogether.

“Do want some help?” came a cheerful voice from just inside the laundry room. Lydia had just gotten her foot around the edge of the door and was finally getting a better handle on her head.

She managed to turn her face around to see who was talking. There was a brunette with a pixie cut, in her best laundry-day promotional 5k t-shirt and second-favorite sweat pants.

That was Ana. She was helpfully holding her hands out.

“Um, sure, thanks,” said Lydia, dumping her own head into Ana’s hands. From there she was able to hoist the laundry bag over the door jamb and into the laundry room.

“Woah,” said Ana, holding Lydia’s head up to eye level with herself. “This is so cool.”

“Uh, thanks,” said Lydia. Not able to see herself, she felt the door shut behind her with a solid ‘chunk.’

Lydia paused for a second as their eyes both met. Something between them kind of clicked.

“Sorry,” said Ana, “You um, probably need to see your body don’t you.”

She turned Lydia around.

“I can usually manage,” said Lydia, lugging her laundry over towards the washer, which was currently running with, Lydia presumed, Ana’s load of clothing.

“This is so cool,” said Ana. “You know I’ve always wanted to try cutting my head off...”

“You should,” said Lydia. “The spell is one of the first things I learned. Just a few simple runes really.”

“I tried once from some directions on the internet,” said Ana. “But all I did was get it stuck on backwards. Had to have WizWorks fix it.”

“You probably traced a Ka-Har run instead of a Ka-Ruh one,” said Lydia. “They’re pretty similar.”

Ana turned Lydia’s head back around to face her.

“You know,” said Lydia. “I could show you if you want…”

The Result

The pieces of the world returned, one by one. There was the taste of air, something you’d never notice until you don’t have it around. There was the faint electric hum of the light and the ceiling fan. The music skipping over to a commercial on Spotify. The apple cinnamon smell of a seven dollar fifty cent store-brand candle.

Lydia licked her lips. Then she licked her lips. Blinked. And blinked. She was lying on her back. In her living room. She’d just done some magic.

She propped herself up onto her elbows, but that was about as far as she could get for the time being.

The spell had definitely worked. Its’ effects were plainly visible.

Looking down at her own body — her legs were gone. Maybe not really gone. They were just different. Or something like that.

Basically instead of legs she had … another upper body fused with her own upper body at the waist.

Specifically, it was Ana’s upper body. Which was also propped up on her other elbows, looking back at her.

From two points of view at once, Lydia could see her new self.

“This is so fucking cool,” blurted out her Ana-half.

“You know,” said her Lydia-half, “We’re sharing an awareness and consciousness we don’t really need to talk to--“

“I’m two girls in one!” returned her Ana-half. “And what’s the point of having two upper halves if we can’t talk to each other? Or um… myself. Whatever.”

The Lydia-half of Lydia rolled her eyes. Because she knew the answer already. The point was, Ana asked her to, and Ana was a cute girl who could … well there were benefits. Several benefits.

Speaking of Ana, both of Lydia’s heads turned to inspect the other transformation her magic had worked. The actually-intended result, and not just the side effect that had happened to her.

Ana was … well, just the opposite of Lydia. Two lower halves from each girl, joined end to end at the waist.

Ana was also apparently just beginning to stir to life, her legs stretching out and exploring the rug underneath her.

“She can’t see or anything can she,” said the Ana-half of Lydia, reaching out and drawing a finger across a startled calf.

Lydia already knew the answer without a reply from the other half of herself that Ana couldn’t see. Her whole world would only be touch. For the whole weekend. Fucking lucky little slut.

Now, there was another challenge that was just occurring to Lydia as she started to awkwardly drag herself over to the couch to where she’d left her phone.

How was she going to get Ana back upstairs to her own apartment?

And, then for the next question, how would she explain this to Justin?