Drrinnggg.
“Ben, can you get the door? I’m not yet done with the snacks.”
“Sure thing!” Ben headed for the door and let Sebastian, Lena, Carl and Maggie in.
“Thank you guys so much for coming. Means a lot to me”, he said while taking care of their coats.
“Happy birthday, dude! Of course we come. This will be a great evening!” Sebastian grinned and they bumped their chests together with a thump. Ben greeted the ladies and repeated the same procedure Sebastian and he had done with Carl. Then he directed them to the living room, where they were greeted by Emily, who was now done setting everything up.
Drrinnggg.
The doorbell rang again. “Make yourselves at home. I’ll be right back.”
Ben went back to the door and opened to see Lisa. “Hey there, so great of you to make it!” He smiled and let her in.
“Happy birthday, man! Thank you for the invite.”
“Oh, for sure. Emily was dying to meet you, after the stories I told from work. I think you two will get along splendidly.”
“I was looking forward to that too. Nice place, by the way!”
“Thanks.” He dealt with her coat and led her into the living room.
“Everyone, this is Lisa. We work together. Lisa, this is Sebastian, his girlfriend Maggie, Carl and this is Lena. Carl, Seb, Maggie and I went to school together, and I know Lena from college. And this is Emily.”
Everyone said their hellos and settled in.
“So”, asked Lena. “What’s the plan for tonight?”
I smiled at Emily and she got up to fetch the box that was on the sideboard.
“Emily discovered this shop last month, and we’ve been having tons of fun with it. They sell stuff that can….temporarily alter your bodies. It’s completely safe, don’t worry. We’ve tested their stuff extensively.”
Emily giggled at that and everyone grinned.
“Uuh, I’ve heard of that”, said Lisa. “I’ve been dying to try that, but never really found the right time or people to do it with.” She looked around. “I guess tonight is the perfect opportunity.”
“My thoughts exactly”, I smiled. “Emily got me this game for my birthday.”
I held up the box.
“It’s basically ‘King’s Cup’, but with the reduction technology integrated. Every card that is drawn gets scanned by the cup, which then in turn randomly selects one of the limbs of the group designated to that card and makes it disappear to a random level. So, you lose more and more limbs as the evening goes on.”
Everyone’s eyes widened at that.
“Whoever draws the fourth king will lose all four limbs once the cup is empty. From that moment on, the effect lasts twelve hours for everyone, so everyone should be back to normal by tomorrow afternoon.”
There was a brief moment of silence and I looked into the round.
“So…Who’s ready to give this a go?”
Lisa was the quickest to answer. “Sounds fun, I’m in!” She grinned.
“So am I”, said Carl.
“This is weird”, said Lena. “But could be interesting. I’m game.”
“Count me in as well”, said Seb.
Everyone looked at Maggie. “I…I’m not sure”, she said hesitantly. “I never really though about removing any part of me. That is kind of an odd thought.”
“Oh, come on, Maggie. It’s Friday, we have the entire weekend ahead of us”, said Lena.
“Yeah”, said Seb. “I will take care of you while you are under the effects of this thing. Let’s be a little adventurous here.”
“If you’re still able to…”, Maggie muttered.
“How about this”, Emily interjected. “Maggie can go last, so she can see it happen to everyone else first and then decide whether or not you want to join in.”
“Sounds good to me”, said Seb. He smiled encouragingly at his girlfriend.
“Al…Alright.” Maggie sighed. “Let’s see how this goes.”
“Awesome!” Ben grinned. Let’s set this up, gather around the table and try this out.
10 minutes later everyone was sitting around game, which was set up in the centre of the table.
“I guess I should go first”, said Lisa and nodded to Maggie on her right.
She drew a card. It was an eight. The device in the centre of the table hummed and writing appeared on the small screen.
“Lower arm – left”
Then the effects set in, and Lisa’s left hand vanished. A few seconds later the change was complete. Her left arm now lacked a hand and ended just before the wrist. Lisa’s eyes went wide.
“Wow!” She turned her arm and viewed her new stump. She took a deep breath and smiled. “That is incredible.”
“Holy cow”, Carl exclaimed.
Lena and the boys stared at her stump with a mix of awe, shock and fascination. Emily and Ben exchanged a knowing grin. Maggie’s expression was more horrified than anything else.
“How do you feel?” She asked Lisa, her voice strangely high pitched.
“I…I feel fine. This didn’t hurt at all.” Lisa smiled, her eyes constantly returning to her stump, with a glimmer of fascination.
“Okay then… Can I see?” Maggie was visibly fighting with herself to open up to the strange situation.
“What? Oh…sure!” Lisa snapped out of her trance-like state, smiled warmly, and presented Maggie with her stump, which Maggie began to inspect. There was no sign that Lisa had ever sported a left hand. No scar or other sign of injury. It was as though she had been born this way. The apparent lack of injury and overall cleanness seemed to calm Maggie’s nerves a bit.
“How does it feel?” Seb still stared at Lisa’s stump.
Lisa though about that for a moment. “It…it’s strange. Like…my mind remembers what is was like to have a hand, but my body doesn’t. I keep trying to move my fingers or my hand, but nothing happen. It is as though my hand is asleep, but instead of this unpleasant prickling you get when a limb falls asleep, I get absolutely nothing. It’s just…not there. Sorry, it’s hard to explain. You probably need to experience it yourself.” She shot Seb an apologetic look.
“I wanna try”, said Carl, who was sitting to Lisa’s left. He reached for the card stack in the machine and drew a card. It was a five. The device hummed and the little screen lit up again. It read:
“Toes – Random side: left”
Carl looked disappointed and took off his left shoe, then his sock. His big toe was missing entirely, and the pinky toe was just a nub, as was the centre toe.
“Oh, come on, that’s not fair. Why does she get to lose a hand and I just get a few toes?” He was visibly dismayed.
“Calm down”, said Lena. “This is the first round. I’m sure you’ll have better luck next time around. Let me try!”
She reached for the card stack in the device and drew the next card. It was a four. Once again, we were all staring at the little screen on the humming device. It lit up and displayed a message:
“Upper leg – right”
In an instant, Lena’s right pant leg deflated. Lena slowly got up and accidentally knocked her now empty shoe and sock over. She carefully hopped three “hops” towards the couch and turned around. Here eyes were wide.
“Woah, this is freaky!” She wriggled what was left of her leg in her dangling empty pant leg. Her right leg ended a few inches below her hip in a very short stump, just enough to have something left to wriggle.
“This is super weird”, Lena exclaimed. She hopped around the table once and everyone got a good look at her. “Can anyone help me tuck my pant leg away? I don’t want to trip over it.”
“Sure, come here.” Emily turned towards her and she hopped over. A few moments later, the pant leg was neatly folded back and tucked into Lena’s pants. It now hugged the stump of her right leg and highlighted its abbreviated shape.
“Thanks”, Lena smiled, before she hopped to her seat and sat back down.
Next it was Emily’s and then Ben’s turn. Emily drew a jack of hearts and lost her right arm mid-biceps. Ben drew a two and lost his right leg a few inches below the knee.
After Ben, Seb reached for the card stack and drew a seven. The screen read:
“Fingers – right”
All the fingers on Seb’s right hand except for the index and the middle finger completely disappeared. His palm narrowed down to suit the smaller number of fingers. Within moments, Seb’s right hand had a striking similarity to that of a T-Rex.
Maggie giggled. “Hello, Rexie! God, that hand looks cute as heck!”
“Thanks”, Ben muttered. “Feels super odd, though. I can’t wrap my head around having a thumb.” He attempted to pick up his phone with his right hand, but couldn’t get a good enough grasp, and it slipped and landed back on the table. “Argh, this is frustrating!”
“Frustrating, but cute”, said Maggie.
“Yeah, laugh all you want”, Seb said. “It’s your turn now.”
“Maggie, do you want to participate? You have to make a decision now, but once you decide to join, you are stuck like this until we finish the game and the 12 hours are up.”
Maggie thought for a while.
“Come on, Mags”, Seb prodded. “It’ll be fun. We’ll watch out for you.”
“Al…alright!” Maggie sighed and nervously smiled into the round. “Let’s do it.”
She took a deep breath and drew a card from the stack. It was another eight.
“Oh yeah, stump sisters”, said Lisa and lightly punched Maggie on the arm with her long stump. Then she hesitated. Maggie’s stump was also below the left elbow, but unlike Lisa’s, it didn’t end just above the wrist, but a few inches below the elbow.
“That looks super cute”, said Emily and waived her own short arm stump.
“It really does!” Seb gave his newly amputee girlfriend an encouraging smile. “You’re a hottie, Mags! That stump suits you.”
“It does”, said Lena and Lisa nodded in agreement.
Maggie seemed to relax a bit. “You guys think so?”
“Hell yeah”, Lisa said, which caused Maggie to grin.
“This really is fun! Thanks for being patience and supporting me. It means a lot!”
“Oh, honey, you know we’re always here for you”, said Lena. “Sometimes you just need a nudge into the right direction.”
Maggie beamed at that.
“Shall I continue?” Lisa looked into the round.
“Sure, go ahead”, said Ben.
Lisa reached for the cards again and drew an Ace of Spades. The screen lit up again and said:
“Lower leg – left”
Similar to Ben’s reduction, her left leg suddenly ended a few inched below the knee.
“Nice!!” Lisa laughed. “I really liked how you hopped, Lena. I was kinda hoping for a leg.” She grinned, got up and hopped around the table once.
“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself”, said Emily.
“Oh, I absolutely am!” Lisa came back to the table and sat down again. She looked at Carl. “Better luck this time, dude!”
“Thanks”, said Carl and reached for the cards. 10 seconds later, Carl was missing his left arm at the shoulder. He had drawn a Queen of Diamonds. Apparently, Queen meant you lost a random limb at the hip or shoulder. From the looks of it, he seemed to have a hard time processing his new configuration.
“I don’t understand how…”, he muttered and shrugged his shoulder, now devoid of any hint that there had been an arm in place just moments before.
“Are you okay?” Maggie eyed him with a concerned expression.
“I think so. Would…would it be okay with you guys if I removed my top to get a proper look?” He shyly looked into the round.
“Fine with me”, said Lisa.
“Yeah, me too!” Emily agreed, as did the rest of the ladies.
“Don’t worry about us guys. Go ahead”, added Ben.
“Thanks!” Carl smiled and began struggling out of his top. It took him a while, but he eventually managed.
“There’s a mirror in the restroom, if you want to have a proper look.”
“Thanks Em, be right back.” Carl got up and left.
“He’s kinda cute”, said Lisa. “What’s his deal?”
Something about her bluntness flicked a switch, and everybody began snorting.
“What?” Lisa maimed being shocked and offended. “Never hurts to ask…”
That caused Emily to giggle. “True. Carl is single, as far as I know..?”
She shot Ben an inquiring look. “Yeah, he’s free. Go right ahead, Lisa.”
A few moments later, Carl returned. He seemed to have collected himself quite well.
“You look different. What’s new?” Lisa asked.
“I wasn’t sure about the game, but have now decided that I like it. It’s different, and…fun.”
“You can say that. Doesn’t hurt that the folks I’m playing with are…” She faked a cough. “…fiiine!” She added with a raspy voice while tracing Carl’s naked upper body with her eyes.
Carl blushed and a shy smile crept onto his face.
“Can I see? I mean your shoulder, can I have a look?” Lisa used the stump of her left arm to point at Carl’s shoulder. He turned towards her and gave her a good view.
“Mmh, that’s a beauty”, Lisa muttered, which made Emily giggle again.
“Get a room you two”, Seb laughed.
Lena looked around with an amused expression. “It’s my turn, isn’t it?” She asked.
“Yeah, I think so!” Carl nodded.
“Right…” Lena leaned forward and drew a card.
“Ooh, a King. Right, no limb loss for you this round”, Ben said. Lena dropped her King of Clubs and sighed disappointedly.
“Aww, really? Man, I was looking forward to it.”
“Eh, you will get another chance next round. This time, though, you get to fill something into the Cup. Choose your… Damn, we forgot to put out the alcohol!” Ben grinned.
“Yeah, I was about to ask about that”, said Maggie. “Where’s the booze?”
“I still have two legs”, said Emily. “I’ll go and fetch it. I could need another hand or two, though…”, she said, waving her short arm stump again, the sleeve of her top flapping around emptily.
“I’ll come with you”, said Lena. “I still have two arms.”
“Yeah, but only one leg. You sure?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. If I am to be behind on terms of limbs lost, I want to make the most of what I have.”
“Alright then!” Emily smiled.
“I’ll come too”, said Sebastian. “I am the most intact person left here.”
“Great! Okay, let’s go. We’ll be right back.”
The three got up, and Lena hopped around the table to join the others.
They left the living room and headed towards the kitchen, accompanied by the tap, tap, tap of Lena’s hopping.
“Okay, there’s spirits in the kitchen and beer in the fridge. And Seb, there is a case of bigger cider bottles in the cellar. You know the way, right?” Emily inquired. Seb nodded. “Would you be okay with fetching that case?”
“Sure!”
“Awesome, thanks. Here’s the key.” Emily handed Seb a key and he slipped out of the door towards the basement.
“Follow me, Lena”, Emily said.
tap, tap, tap
“Can you carry the beer? I will fetch the spirits. We’ve got Whiskey, Vodka, Gin and Absynthe.”
“Ugh, Absynthe. Fun stuff, but tastes dreadful!”
“True, but that makes it perfect for King’s Cup”, said Emily. “I will also bring some soft drinks and juices, but that’s on the second run. Here’s the beer.”
She handed Lena as many bottles of beer as she could carry. Lena turned around and slowly and carefully hopped back towards the living room.
tap….tap….tap
Emily lodged a bottle of Gin between her stump and her chin, grabbed the bottle opener for the beer bottles and then loaded with the other spirits. She slowly made her way into the living room, where Ben got up and hopped towards her to take some off the bottles off of her. Emily unloaded and then returned to the kitchen with Lena to fetch the juices and soft drinks.
Meanwhile, Seb came back in through the door, breathing heavily. The way his right hand clung onto the case of cider did not look very comfortable. He went straight to the living room and placed the case of cider next to the table.
Before long, everyone was back at the table with either a beer or a glass of cider or some other alcoholic mix. They all said cheers and began drinking.
Lena looked through the spirits, picked up the Vodka and filled a healthy swig into the cup in the centre.
Then she looked at Emily. “It’s your turn, Em.”
“Before we continue, I’ve got another question”, Maggie said. “Would if be okay for you guys if I did the same Carl just did? I want to have a better look. I’m wearing underwear, but I think I would like to have a better look at my arm. If it’s okay with everyone here..”, she looked around and her eyes lingered on her boyfriend in particular. Seb smiled and gave her a nod. “…I would like to lose my shirt as well.”
Lena spoke up: “How about we all do that? I propose we lose our clothes, except for the underwear. Nothing either of us hasn’t seen before. We’re all adults, so at east from my end, I’d be cool if we all dressed down a little to explore this.”
“I was about to say the same”, said Emily. “Everybody cool with this?”
Everybody nodded.
“You guys are fun”, said Lisa. “Sure, I’m in!”
Lena, Emily and Maggie smiled at each other and began dressing down, as did Lisa, who quite obviously enjoyed putting on a show for Carl. Carl in turn didn’t seem to mind Lisa’s show either.
Once everyone was done inspecting their bodies and had returned to the table, Emily drew the next card. She drew a nine. The screen flashed again:
“Lower arm – right”
Nothing happened. Then another message popped up:
“Error: Limb not found. Drink up!”
“Wow, this machine is incredible”, said Ben. “It realised you already lost your lower arm on its own.”
“Yeah. As much as it sucks that I won’t lose anything else this round, I like that it handily presented me with a solution. Lisa, would you pass me the Gin please?”
She took the bottle of Gin from Lisa, filled a generous serving into her glass and downed it.
“Okay, Ben, your turn.”
Ben drew a three and lost his left leg mid-thigh. “Guess I won’t be hopping anywhere anymore tonight”, he chuckled.
The evening progressed and the limbs vanished one by one. After the third king had been drawn, and the Vodka in the cup had been topped up with some lemonade and a very generous helping of Absynthe, Emily, who was now missing her left leg above the knee and only had her thumb and ring finger left on her left hand on top of still having her stump in place of the right arm, proposed they take a break and order pizza. The others readily agreed.
“Alright, who wants what?” She had hopped out to fetch the phone and the menu and just came back into the living room.
“I’ll have frutti di mare”, said Ben, who on top of still having no legs, was now also lacking his right hand and his entire left arm.
“Same for me please”, said Lena, who was now also lacking her left leg mid-shin and her right arm just below the elbow. She grunted while making her way from the table towards the bathroom.
“I’ll have a pepperoni pizza”, said Carl, now lacking his right arm just above the elbow, in addition to his complete lack of a left arm. He also missed his left leg just below the knee.
“And I will have the pizza with ham and rucola”, said Lisa. She was missing all her toes on her single right foot. Otherwise, she was still intact. To her dismay, her right arm was still complete. She was on the couch, cuddling with Carl. They were cute together and constantly giggling like teenagers. Apparently the alcohol made them forget that they were both in their late twenties.
“Awesome”, said Emily. “That leaves you two, Seb and Maggie.”
“Hang on, I’m coming around”, said Seb. He grunted and used his single arm with only two fingers to lower himself from his chair to the ground. His left arm was just a small nub that ended near the shoulder. Both his hips were completely devoid of anything that suggested they had once sported a pair of legs. Everyone waited while he slowly wobbled around the table, using his half hand for stability and to pull himself forward.
“Huh, this is way more exhausting than I imagined.” Emily gave him the menu, which he quickly scanned, before he ordered a pizza quattro formaggi.
Maggi, like Lisa, was fairly intact. She had lost her right arm around the same hight as the left, leaving her satisfyingly symmetrical with two stumps a few inches below the elbows. She had also lost a couple of toes on her left foot, but that didn’t really hinder her.
She ordered a pizza margarita. Emily left the room hopping to order the pizza, and twenty minutes later a flustered delivery guy delivered the pizzas to the weird collection of amputees. They all had pizza together, the people with hands and fingers helping those without, and managed to keep the mess fairly manageable. Afterwards they sat back down to complete the game. They managed an entire round without adding new limitations, since everyone had already lost their limbs at a higher point than what the cards demanded, and slowly they all got drunker. And suddenly it was over. Carl was the one, who drew the last remaining king. In an instant, all his limbs vanished at the shoulders and hips.
“Aaw, bugger”, Maggie and Lisa both exclaimed, before they both started laughing. Carl had to ask Lisa to fill some more lemonade into the King’s cup for him, and Lisa placed a straw for Carl into the cup as well. The conversations around the table continued.
All of a sudden, Seb said: “Lena, Ben and Carl, I bet you guys can’t beat me in a stump race down the corridor, from the bathroom to the kitchen and back.”
“You’re on”, said Ben. “Winner get’s a bag of reductive gummy bears. The do what this game does, the effects last 24 hours. But no hands. That’d be unfair.”
“Let’s do it”, said Carl, grinning.
“Sounds great”, said Lena. “I’m in too.”
The others helped move them from their seats to the ground and slowly they made their way to the bathroom, where they lined up. The others stood along the corridor.
“Ready, set, go!” Emily gave the start signal and the three legless friends began wobbling forward. Ben had trouble dealing with his different length stumps and no complete arms to use as counterweight to keep balance, and soon he fell behind. Lena quickly learned figured out that she was far quicker than the two completely legless dudes, when she used the longer one of her stumps to lift herself up and bounce sideways. She finished far ahead of the other three, accompanied by cheering from the watchers. Ten minutes later, they were all back in the living room, and Emily hopped to fetch the box with the gummy bears that were prepacked into the small bags.
“You know what, you all get one, to have some fun with those at home. Lena gets two. After all, she won the race”, Ben said when Emily came back hopping into living room.
They all said their thanks and tucked their gummy bears away.
The evening went on and many laughs were had. Suddenly the screen on the device lit back up:
“King’s Cup empty. Time starts now. Thank you for playing!”
The message was replaced by a countdown, counting down from twelve hours.
“Alright”, said Ben. “The countdown starts now. We will get our limbs back in 12 hours. It’s now almost 1am, so we’ll all be back to normal by tomorrow afternoon.”
“We have to decide how to go about the night. This couch can be converted into a bed”, said Emily. “There should be enough space for two people, maybe three in our current state. We also have an inflatable mattress. But that’s just if any of you want to spend the night here.”
“I think Mags and I would like to head home soon. You know, test this out some more”, said Sebastian. Lisa gave Emily a knowing grin and both giggled, causing both Seb and Maggie to blush.
“I don’t know how I would manage alone at home in this state…”, said Carl.
“You could come with me. I could take care of you until tomorrow”, offered Lisa.
“If….if that’s what you want, sure, that’d be awesome”, Carl said and reddened.
“What about you, Lena?” Ben looked at her.
“I’d like to go home and try dealing with that. It’s a fun challenge.”
“Alright, so Uber for you all it is. Seb, Maggie and Lena, you all live pretty close to each other. Would you like to carpool?”
All three agreed. Emily pulled out her phone.
“Calling two Ubers now. I’ll say you are special needs guests”, said Emily. Lisa chuckled.
“There should also be the option to tell the driver beforehand that you do not want conversation. Maybe you should select that too…”, said Lena.
“Good idea. Okay, the Ubers are booked. 15 minutes. Let’s get you all ready to go”, Emily responded.
They got dressed again and then made their way to the front door, where they wriggled into their coats. Emily hopped to the kitchen and came back with a couple of bags for currently useless shoes and socks. Then they all said their goodbyes and the guests made their way to the street. After the door closed, Emily organised the mess in the living room as best as she could, while Ben made his way into the bedroom. She joined him shortly after he arrived, and she helped him get changed. Then she brushed his and her teeth, put him on the toilet one last time and then went herself. Afterwards, she placed him in their bed, before she hopped to the other side and slipped in next to him.
“Emily?” Ben wriggled and turned towards her.
“Yes, Ben?”
“I love you so, so much. Thank you so much for everything. This was the best birthday ever! I am the luckiest guy alive.”
“I’m glad you liked your day. I love you too! You make me just as happy, do you know that?”
They hugged and then cuddled up against each other.
“I can’t wait to try out the handheld version of the Atomizer tomorrow.”
“Me neither”, said Ben. “I still can’t believe you actually got me that, that is insane!”
“It’s not like I don’t get to enjoy that myself”, Emily chuckled. She turned him to face her again and gave him a kiss.
“Sleep well, Ben. I really really love you. Happy birthday.
He smiled and snuggled up to her again.
“Good night, Em. I love you too.”
They were both fast asleep within a few minutes.