eagle51364

“My friends, we have achieved so many wonders so far. We have streched people, we've woven them together. But what else can we do? But, we have not yet completely separated someone. That is, we've always kept them in one piece, stretched out though they might be. But, starting with that, imagine if we could do the old Sword trick, for real? Or how about the giant Buzz-saw? For couples we could even have a game of swap, swapping arms, legs, heads, from one body to another.” We all nodded silently, almost in awe. How awesome would this be if we could do it? The Magician opened the curtains, and unveiled a new stage tool. It was another box, with separate slots for head, arms, legs, and torso. The box was built into a frame, like one of those old-fashioned puzzles with tiles that slide around to make a picture. There were boxes all connected into the shape of a body. Hands and feet would stick out the ends of 4 of the boxes, and there were spots for 'separators' to slide through various

It was a routine morning, the alarm went off and sunlight filtered through the blinds. David, a 25-year-old man with taned skin and black hair, a not-too-muscular physique well maintained by the gym, got out of bed to start his day. David put on some jogging bottoms—he had a habit of sleeping in underwear and a tank top—and headed to the bathroom. Still a little sleepy, he bumped into a wall as he walked out the door, letting out a small groan as he wiped his eyes and slowly woke up completely. In the bathroom, David washed his face and brushed his teeth before taking a quick shower. Upon exiting, he dried himself off and hung up his towel before going to the kitchen to make breakfast. On his way to the kitchen, David heard the doorbell and detoured to his front door. "Must be the pills I ordered..." he said to himself. Looking through the peephole in the door, he saw a delivery man. It wasn't the same young man as usual, but he simply let him in. So he opened the door. The delivery man handed him a box and a sheet of paper to sign. David did so, although he noticed a few irregularities, such as a liability contract related to the pills he had ordered. A few weeks ago, David had seen an ad on the Internet for some pills that claimed to protect against accidents of almost any kind. At first glance, David thought it was a scam or one of those exaggerated ads. However, when he was about to close the pop-up tab, he accidentally clicked the wrong one and opened the product page. Once there, the page looked quite professional. He also saw a few comments where some users said the pills had saved their lives. These comments didn't seem to be from bots or scammers. The user photos showed a variety of people, mostly men who appeared to be working in situations that could put them at risk, such as construction or transport. In fact, what made David decided to buy a box of these pills was that, among the comments, he saw a photo of the delivery man who usually brings the packages to his house, assuring him that the pills work wonders... The delivery man brought David back to the present. "Any problems, sir?" he asked. David shook his head and signed, returning the paper to the delivery man. Before leaving, the delivery man instructed him to read the contraindications and side effects of the pills. He signed off by telling him that the first thing he should keep in mind was that they weren't conventional pills and that he should remain calm while they were doing their job. This left David quite confused, as he didn't quite understand what the delivery man was referring to; pills that claimed to save you from accidents already sounded pretty unconventional. David opened the package. Inside was a box labeled "Decaplex." It contained 20 pills, even though the instructions only stated that one pill was enough and that its effect was permanent. David's attention was drawn to the precautions, nothing new. "Do not take if pregnant or undergoing any other treatment. Keep in a cool place and out of reach of children." David rolled his eyes, but then something further down caught his attention. "Side effects: increased libido, mild loss of joint control, and numbness." "Great!" David exclaimed sarcastically. "As if waking up wasn't hard enough already..." David went to the kitchen taking the pills with him, after thinking about it for a while he made up his mind and took a pill along with a sip of coffee... Nothing happened, he didn't feel any of the side effects and in fact the pill had a slightly sweet taste... "I must have fallen for a scam..." David thought, somewhat worried about having spent his money like that but he simply dismissed the thought, in an attempt to stay optimistic, since today's delivery man seemed to be confident when he gave him that last piece of advice. David continued with his day as planned, he dressed for the gym and packed his clothes for the rest of the day, he took his helmet and put it on, got on his motorcycle and went to the gym, he finished his routine pretty quickly and headed to work, his day was perfect, a day even better than his usual ones, at the end of the day he met up with some friends to drink and chat for a while and even flirted a little with one of the waiters who was also an acquaintance of his and they had that game between them, he didn't drink too much but he did feel a little dizzy, still, nothing serious, he could drive to his apartment. Late at night David said goodbye to his friends and got on his motorcycle to go back home, on the way down the road there wasn't much traffic at the time, after all who goes out drinking on a Tuesday... when he was going around a curve a stray dog ​​appeared out of nowhere which made David swerve, maneuvering to avoid the innocent animal and he managed to. Although to his regret and concern he lost control of the motorcycle falling into a pothole that made him fly off the bike and fall, rolling around, spinning on the ground until he crashed into a nearby tree, his jacket had been destroyed and his shorts from that day stained by the dirt, his helmet had been thrown off, landing not far from the tree, David felt dizzy and quite scared by the situation, however, he didn't seem to feel pain or anything to worry about, from his perspective everything was in place and his helmet had done its job, David tried to bring his hands to his head to take off his helmet and take a little air before standing up, it took him a while to lift his arms, but he believed it was the least of it after the accident he had just had, however, when his arms reached where he expected to touch his helmet he felt nothing... There was an empty space that made him feel strange and little by little the worry and panic invaded him which made him lose control but not the sensation of his arms, he quickly felt like one of his arms was touching grass despite feeling it moving as if it were heading towards his head, while he felt like his other arm was frantically touching his shoulders and what seemed to be his neck... but on his neck he only felt that there was a covering of soft skin that made him shudder when he felt it for the first time, partly out of fear and partly because of how sensitive it felt, but there was no trace of his head or his helmet, David tried to look to the sides but all he saw were the roots of the tree he had crashed into and what seemed to be the silhouette of a person moving on the other side of the trunk, fortunately there seemed to be no traces of blood, which made him calm down a bit... "Hello?" David shouted towards the tree "Can you give me a hand? I had an accident and I can't seem to move properly..." just as he said that he felt the arm that he felt was touching the grass began to move, David could feel it dragging but he didn't really understand how or why he felt that, he wasn't entirely aware of his current situation, but he also didn't have much time to think as he saw what looked like an unknown creature moving the grass towards him, in his confusion he little knew that it was his own arm approaching, David began to scream for help, but at that time and on that road there weren't many people who could help them, his screams died away for a moment when he saw an arm and hand crawling towards where he was which left him in shock, even more scared... a sensation of soft bites and drool on his legs brought him back, he could see the puppy from a moment ago playing with something at the same time that he felt the drool and bites. This made him refocus on the feeling of his arm, and made him notice that the arm was approaching... Was it his right arm? All this only confused David more who became scared again when he saw the silhouette of a body, headless, without an arm and without a leg, trying to get up and jump while maintaining its balance, the little dog seeing this playfully lunged at the body making it fall on itself, something that David felt... and that was when finally all his doubts were cleared and little by little he began to understand everything, he took a deep breath and refocused on his right arm making a greeting, to his, not so, surprise, he saw how the arm in the grass followed its movement, while the body caressed the little dog with its only arm and the latter playfully licked his hand. David's right leg, the one that was detached, began to drag awkwardly, but fortunately for David, it was heading in the direction of the tree. It seemed that his dismembered parts could maintain a certain level of autonomy when he wasn't focused on their movements. Putting the pieces together in his mind, David came to the conclusion that this was the work of the pills, and that this was what the warning about "lack of joint control" referred to. Luckily for him, his parts seemed quite dedicated to being back in one piece. David focused on his right arm again and dragged it until it reached his head. To his surprise, it took less time than he expected, and so he began to roll his head with clumsy pushes to where his body was. Although the tree roots made it somewhat complicated, and he didn't expect a head, or rather, his head, to be so heavy... Amidst several groans and sounds of effort, he achieved his goal; his body, by its own reaction, lifted the arm he had been pushing and placed it back in place. To David's surprise his arm stayed put, sticking like some sort of human Lego, concentrating he managed to control his body except for his right leg which was still detached and moving on its own, David tested the mobility of his arms and to his good luck everything seemed to be in order, of course, leaving aside that he had ended up dismembered and decapitated by the accident, but at least he was okay, clumsily turning his torso in his direction and picked up the helmet with his head inside, putting it on his lap and again petting the puppy, who was wagging its tail with excitement David pointed to his leg which had begun to deviate by the roots and said "Go, go, bring it here", the puppy that seemed trained jumped and ran towards David's leg nibbling on his shoe while pulling it to be next to David, David's body took it, and under David's direction he put it in front of his head inspecting it, surprisingly there was no open wound, and just like what he had felt on his neck, there was a soft stump of skin where it had separated, free of dirt and bites, it looked like it didn't have a single scratch. David pressed his leg back into where it should have been and after a few seconds he felt it snap back together as if nothing had happened, once his leg was back in place he stood up confidently to celebrate his triumph, however, he had forgotten that his head was in his lap and when he stood up the expected happened, his head rolled back to the ground which made David lose concentration and his body regain control of itself, clumsily he knelt down and began to blindly feel the grass looking for his head as if they were a pair of glasses, David tried to concentrate again but the little dog, thinking it was a game, began to sniff him and kick him around which made it even more difficult for David's poor body who continued to feel the ground. David whined and tried to get the dog's attention to stop, but unfortunately, due to the alcohol and the side effects of the pill, he couldn't even form a word. After a while of finding nothing, David stood up, and with his arms outstretched, he walked forward. This caused the dog to stop and focus his attention on the body. But by the time David focused his eyes again, all he saw was his shoe about to hit the hoof. This not only caused him to roll a little, but his body ended up stumbling and falling. Fortunately, not hard enough to send any of his body flying again. The worried dog tried to help him by licking the stump of his neck, which caused his body to squirm due to the sensitivity of the area. However, it helped David barely concentrate on regaining control. Without getting up, he reached out and firmly took the hoof again. Now, he stood up, holding his head in his hands. Just as he raised his head to put it back in place he saw a group of 3 guys passing by somewhat drunk, joking and drinking from a bottle they still held in their hands, they stopped to look at David's motorcycle and upon seeing the accident they began to look around, to try to help the person, or well those were their intentions until seeing David, who to them was just a headless body holding a helmet, they immediately turned pale and one of them even let out a scream before running away even dropping the bottle of vodka they were carrying with them, David let out a sigh between chuckles and put his head back in place, he thought that now he could have a good costume for Halloween. Once complete he looked at himself again noticing his dirty clothes and his destroyed jacket, David sighed again, he would have to get a new jacket and pray he could wash all those stains off his clothes, however what worried him most now was that his motorcycle could take him home, he walked to it while the dog followed him excitedly, he lifted his motorcycle off the ground and saw that luckily for him, besides many scratches and a broken rearview mirror, it seemed that everything else was in order, even the light still worked, David got on his motorcycle and looked again at the dog, which was sitting looking at him closely, David approached but couldn't see any collar, and considering how lonely the road was it was most likely that they had brought it here to abandon it, David clicked his teeth, he couldn't believe that people seriously continued doing those things, David picked up the dog and put it in front of his lap, holding it well and started his motorcycle until he reached his building. Once there, he rode the elevator with his new friend to his apartment. They both got in, and the puppy started sniffing everything. David, somewhat tired, pulled on his helmet to remove it, accidentally detaching his head with a *pop*. David was so tired that he didn't pay much attention. He simply maneuvered a little until he removed his head from the helmet and carried it under his arm to his room. He took off all his torn and dirty clothes until he was naked and simply threw himself down on the bed and fell asleep. In this way, the day that had been going quite well for David also ended well despite its setbacks. Now he only had to take care of taking his motorcycle to be repaired and buying a new jacket, but he would think about that, and a few other things, in the morning. Right now, he just wanted to sleep, and that was how his day ended, David was definitely grateful he took the pill that morning. To be continue...