“Fair play! I guess we’re even…” I trailed off, getting distracted by something. Something about Emily was different. I hadn’t noticed it before, when I was too busy being terrified. Emily’s right hand was missing. A few inches below her elbow, it ended in a round stump.

“Emily”, I asked, “what happened to your arm?”

“Uh, that? Yeah, I was about to tell you. I decided to get rid of it, at least for a while. What do you think?” She looked at me with a challenging expression.

“That is super odd. I mean…how?”

“There’s this new place at the mall and a few colleagues and I decided to check it out. My arm will be back to normal in a week.”