Nora was scrolling on her phone, when she heard the sound of enthusiastic stomping. She looked up to see Bianca, her girlfriend, bursting through the door.



“Nora! I got something to show you.” said Bianca.

Nora rolled her eyes and looked up.

“Kay. I’ll bite. What you got?”

It’s worth mentioning that Nora and Bianca were as different as day and night. Nora was gothic, her fashion sense consisting of clothes and makeup that was blacker than the Black Album in a blackout. How much more black could her fashion sense be? None more black. She was also pretty reserved, and laconic. It took a lot to get her interested in anything outside her own little world.

Bianca, on the other hand, was bubbly and upbeat. She was the image of a Barbie doll come to life, her blonde hair and pastel-coloured fashion sense serving as a stark contrast to Nora’s dark aesthetic. She was always smiling, and it didn’t take much to get her excited about some things.

The two had been living together for the past two months, having hooked up nearly a year ago. Despite their differences, they loved each other very much, though there was the occasional argument.



Bianca cleared her throat.



“Alright, so while I was out shopping, I found this weird place that wasn’t on the mall map or anything, but the lady there, like, totally knew I was into magic, so she gave me this package of things…”

Bianca had a tendency to talk a lot when she was excited, and some people could find it annoying. Nora had a higher tolerance threshold for Bianca’s tendency to ramble on, but even Nora had her limits.



“B, you need to slow down.”



“B” was Nora’s pet name for Bianca.



Bianca paused. Then she resumed talking.



“She gave me a pack of tattoos and some magic markers,” said Bianca. “She told me they were magic.”



Nora rolled her eyes again. She shared a lot of weird kinks with Bianca, but she was also a staunch atheist.



“Okay, now you’re pulling my leg. There’s no such thing as magic.”

Bianca smirked, pulling some items out of her shopping bag - a pair of sunglasses, a packet of temporary tattoos, a packet of wet wipes, and a packet of what looked like whiteboard markers.

“Well, the woman in the shop showed me some cool things with this stuff. Hell, she even threw in some complimentary tattoos.”

Nora picked up the packet of tattoos. They were a bunch of nondescript smiley face emojis. Nora, on the other hand, had an actual tattoo on her bicep, and looked down upon the kind of ink that would be easily transferred to skin before it washed off after a couple of days.

“Seriously? This kiddie crap?” Nora scoffed.

“Hey, don’t knock those things. They’re gonna make these magic markers way more fun!” said Bianca, opening the packet of markers.

The markers came in several colours, but Bianca picked out the black marker.

“This one’s the most basic,” said Bianca. “Could you hold out your hand for me? I promise, these are non-toxic.”

Nora shrugged, and pulled up her sleeve. Carefully, Bianca drew a line around Nora’s left wrist, until a circle was completed. As soon as Bianca was finished, she took her hand away and began to count from ten.

Ten seconds later, the marker ink disappeared. Nora, however, was not impressed.

“Disappearing ink. Cute.”

“That’s not the fun part,” said Bianca.

And without warning, Bianca grabbed Nora’s left hand and pulled. Suddenly, Nora’s hand detached with a pop. And that’s when Nora’s usual calm and collected demeanor broke.

“What the bleeding hell? My hand!”

“No such thing as magic?” said Bianca, holding up Nora’s detached hand and teasing her with it.

“Give it back, you stupid…”



“Ah, ah, ah! Not until you say the magic word.”

Nora sighed.



“Please give me back my hand.”

Bianca handed Nora her detached hand. Nora was amazed - she knew her hand like, well, the back of her hand, and she recognised some of the idiosyncrasies of it, as well as her black nail polish.

“It’s weird,” said Nora. “I can still feel it and control it. Now I’m really curious about separating my other body parts.”

“That’s not all that they can do,” said Bianca, picking out a green marker. “Here, could you give me your hand?”

Nora shrugged, and laid her detached hand to rest on her knee. Bianca drew a green “X” on Nora’s hand, and waited for the marking to disappear. Suddenly, Nora felt a strange sensation.

“Whoa! It’s gone numb,” said Nora. “This isn’t permanent, right?”

Bianca, seemingly proud of breaking her girlfriend’s stoicism, just waited for nature to take its course.

Suddenly, Nora felt something on her knee. Her hand was moving. But Nora wasn’t making it do anything. The fingers of Nora’s severed hand drummed, as if it was waiting for something.

Startled, Nora jumped up, causing the hand to fall to the ground. Nora’s hand crawled around their apartment floor, like some big fleshy spider.

“This is just too weird for words!” said Nora. “My hand’s got a mind of its own.”



“Maybe if we treat it nicely, it won’t try to kill us,” smirked Bianca. Nora had made Bianca watch horror movies, which weren’t exactly to Bianca’s taste, and now Bianca was watching Nora act out a scene from the second Evil Dead.

Suddenly, the crawling hand stopped. It pointed towards Nora’s laptop.

“Can you hear me?” asked Nora. “Tap once for yes, twice for no.”



The hand tapped on the floor with its index finger once.



“Do you want me to open my laptop?”

The hand tapped “yes”. Carefully, Nora opened her laptop and signed in with her one remaining hand. The disembodied hand crawled up Nora’s leg and gave her thigh a squeeze. Nora squeaked nervously.

“Aw. I think she likes you,” said Bianca, addressing Nora’s detached hand as if it were a pet.

Nora was just too weirded out by the hand. As soon as she opened a word processor, the hand made a jump for the keyboard, and started typing on it.

This is Nora. Or at the very least, Nora’s hand. Can anyone reattach me to the rest of Nora?

Nervously, Nora gently picked up the severed hand and attached it to her wrist. Nora was whole again, but her left hand still seemed to possess a mind of its own. Nora’s left arm flailed around before facing Nora’s face and waved at her.



“Bianca! I’m sorry I doubted you! Can you reverse this?”



Bianca came in with the wet wipes from her shopping bag.

“Of course I can. Here, just hold still, both of you.”

Bianca put on a pair of sunglasses, and carefully looked at Nora’s left hand. Carefully, she rubbed off where she had made markings, both the black circle around Nora’s wrist and the green X on the back of her hand.

“Can you move your hand?”



Carefully, Nora flexed her left hand. She was fully in control of it again.

“That was one hell of a thing. Wait…I remember.”



“Remember what?” asked Bianca.



“I remember being a severed hand, crawling around. I couldn’t see or hear anything, but my sense of touch was so great that I could make out dialogue just by vibrations.”

“Were you scared?”



“Yeah, actually. I didn’t want to get stomped on, and I wanted to get back to my owner. Then after I was attached to the rest of me, I still felt scared, then you came in with the wet wipes and I just…fell asleep.”

Nora felt like she would go cross-eyed thanks to the two branching memories. Bianca gave Nora a hug.

“It’s alright, Nora. You’re safe with me.”

—--

Nora and Bianca sat down over a cup of tea.

“Nora, I’m sorry I gave you such a nasty shock”, said Bianca. “I know you’re the kind of girl who needs proof, and maybe I went a step too far.”

Nora sighed.



“That’s alright, B. I’ve been thinking about the possibilities these markers could have, and now I’m curious about what to do next.”

“Well…” said Bianca. “The blue marker has an interesting function.”



Nora’s eyes widened. “What kind of function?”



Bianca smirked and picked up the blue marker, drawing a closed line around her wrist. Then she held it out for Nora.



“Here. Give it a tug.”

Nora shrugged and gave Bianca’s hand a tag, taking care not to hurt her girlfriend.



Suddenly, there was a huge pop. In a split second, Bianca wasn’t holding Nora’s hand anymore. But Nora was still holding Bianca’s hand.



Nora was surprised - a delicate hand with pink nail polish was sitting on Nora’s lap. It was severed, the wrist ending at a stump of smooth skin, but still alive.



Nora looked up at Bianca, who was dabbing her wrist with a wet wipe.



“So that’s just three of the markers,” said Bianca. “Black creates a separation point, green gives it a mind of its own, and blue creates duplicates. By the way, these wet wipes are the only way to rub off the ink, they’re that indelible. Oh, that reminds me…”.

Bianca picked up the green marker and drew an X on the severed duplicate hand. Suddenly, the severed hand started twitching of its own accord, before it started to massage Nora’s thigh.

“B…it’s so cute!” said Nora. Nora was usually calm and collected, but she was not above expressing affection for kittens and puppies. The hand was different, though.



“Her name is Bibi, and she doesn’t need to be walked or fed. Just give her your love, and she’ll return the favour. After all, she’s basically a part of me, complete with my personality.”

Nora stroked Bibi, who seemed happy.



“This is great! Now I can have a piece of you whenever we’re apart!”



Bianca smiled. “We’re just getting started”, she said. “And believe me, it’s gonna be even more fun with one of these tattoos.”