Mari’s ringtone suddenly going off distracts her from the dilemma she’s mulling over, but she’s not sure who would even be ringing her out of the blue on a Monday morning like this. She’s usually the one who reaches out to Cassandra first, and she can’t say she was expecting any other calls. She almost dismisses it as a spam call, but her phone’s dispy says that the number belongs to a local so she decides to answer just in case, even if she’s not exactly in the mood to talk right now.

  “Hello?” She says as she picks up the phone.

  “Hi, am I speaking with Marielle?” The somewhat familiar voice on the other end says.

  “It’s Mari.“ She answers sternly. “But yes, that’s me.”

  “Apologies. This is Dr. Summers from Westside General Practice, I wanted to speak with you about your recent blood test.”

  Ah, that’s why she sounded familiar. Dr. Summers is just about the only medical professional Mari even remotely trusts after everything she’s been through, and is in charge of handling the prescriptions for her medication. They were able to work out a setup where Mari can just pick up her scripts from the reception after the results from her blood tests come back, so it’s been a while since she’s had to go in for an actual appointment. That doesn’t expin why she’s calling now though.

  “Is something wrong? I’m kinda dealing with something on my end right now.” She asks.

  “I’m not entirely sure myself, that’s why I’m reaching out. I’ve heard back from the b, and apparently the results from the tests they ran on your blood sample don’t make sense.”

  Mari’s eyes narrow in confusion. “Huh? What does that even mean?”

  “It seems like they’re not entirely sure themselves, but there seemed to be something wrong with the hemoglobins in the sample. They said that if they didn’t know any better, they’d think you managed to swap it out with some strange kind of fake blood after it was collected somehow. You’ll need to have another test done to see if we can get something more useful this time of course, but I was hoping you might have some idea why this could have happened in the first pce? Do you remember seeing or feeling anything unusual when you got the test done?”

  “Not really. I went to the regur collection pce, and everything seemed fine. You sure they didn’t make a mistake on their end?”

  “While it’s not impossible for some kind of clinical error to occur in the analysis process, those are incredibly rare. Even then, you would get results that are inaccurate, whereas in this case they were unable to read your sample at all. They seem convinced that whatever they were sent wasn’t human blood. Are you sure there wasn’t anything on your end that could expin what’s going on? Anything that’s changed since your st test a few months back, maybe?”

  Mari furrows her brow. “Well sure, a lot of things have changed for me since then, but nothing that would expin why my blood wouldn’t show up as human. I mean it’s not like someone’s blood can just start to-”

  Something Mari was already thinking about before the call comes to mind, and a horrible feeling washes over her as she realises it might expin what’s going on. It couldn’t really be that though, could it? But if not, what other expnation is there?

  “Fuck…” Mari puts a hand to her brow. If it really is what she thinks it is, that’s going to be a massive problem.

  “Mari?”

  “Sorry.” Mari takes a breath. “Look, I’m not really sure how this has happened, but I might have an idea of what’s caused this.” She says anxiously.

  “If you have a theory, I’m eager to hear it.”

  “Okay well, I think it’s because I started practising witchcraft recently.”

  There’s a short pause before Dr. Summers responds.

  “With all due respect Mari, I would say about a third of the patients who see me for the same reasons as you have told me something along those lines, and none of them have had any issues with their blood tests.”

  “No no no, actual witchcraft. Not just like burning incense and reciting poems in a circle or whatever, the real thing.” Having to expin herself is getting Mari a little agitated. “Look, I can prove it. You’re at the clinic right now, yeah?”

  “I am, although if you’re pnning on coming in ter you’ll need to make an appointment.”

  “Don’t worry about that, just watch this.”

  Mari closes her eyes, focusing on her memories of Dr. Summer’s office. Moments ter she’s standing in that very office, with a very startled doctor adjusting her gsses as she sits at a nearby desk.

  “See?” Mari puts her phone away and takes the seat next to the desk.

  “I… see…” Dr. Summers says slowly, taking in this new development. “You said this was witchcraft, correct?”

  “That’s right. Honestly it wasn't really by choice, but I’ve been learning how to use it for a lot of stuff recently.” Mari points at an empty mug on the doctor’s desk, and it starts to float towards her so she can show the fruits of her recent efforts.

  The doctor watches as the mug hovers above Mari’s hand, spinning around in thin air as she draws a circle with her finger. “And you think this has something to do with the blood test?”

  Mari sighs, she really doesn't want to acknowledge this possibility, but she’s not sure what else could be going on here. “Yeah, look… I don’t really know how this works myself, they told me it wasn’t even going to happen for a long time, but apparently if you do this for long enough it starts to change how your body works. Like… it stops relying on your organs to function and stuff like that. That sounds like something that could be causing this problem.”

  Dr. Summers types up notes on her PC as Mari talks. “Could you tell me any specific changes you’re aware of? Like how excatly it would be affecting your blood?”

  Mari looks down, her voice starting to shake a bit. “Not really… I only found out about all this recently myself. I… I’m not even sure if I want to keep going with all of this, and I thought I had years before I’d have to worry about it so I haven’t asked about the details yet… All I really know is that it’s… p-permanent, apparently…” The mug starts to waver a bit as it spins.

  The doctor sighs as she finishes her notes. “Well, I don’t exactly have any way of confirming this information myself, and I certainly don’t have any other theories as to what could be happening, so I suppose I have no choice but to take you at your word. You do understand what this means though, don’t you?”

  “No, what does it mean?” Mari looks at her in confusion.

  “Well, Mari, if this witchcraft has resulted in you no longer being able to get your levels tested, and as far as you’re aware this change is permanent, I’m afraid I’ll no longer be able to write prescriptions for your estrogen patches and blockers.” She says pinly.

  The mug floating above Mari's hand suddenly shatters, with most of the pieces falling to the floor. She doesn’t seem to even notice as she looks at the doctor in sheer disbelief.

  “W-What…?”

  “I understand this is upsetting news, but without the ability to check your hormone levels there’s no way to make sure you’re maintaining a safe dosage. I could get in trouble for malpractice if we continued with your treatment in this state.”

  “N-No, y-you can’t take away my HRT.” Mari stammers in response. “W-What am I even meant to d-do?”

  “I wish I could offer you some guidance, but witchcraft is far beyond my area of expertise. To be honest, if your body has changed so much that your blood is no longer recognizable as human then I’d be hard pressed to believe either of the medications could be having much of an effect on you at this point anyway.”

  “O-O-Of course they are… You don’t think I would have noticed if they weren’t?” Mari says, starting to tremble as a mixture of sadness, anger, shock, and confusion starts welling up inside her.

  “We cannot say for sure without the proper tests though, and apparently that is no longer an option in your case.”

  “S-So what, that’s it?” Mari clenches her fists. “You can’t… Y-You can’t do this to me! I-I-I-I need that medication!” HRT is one of the only reasons she made it out of a very dark period in her life. She can’t go back to that.

  “I really am sorry about this, Mari. I can only suggest you find someone more knowledgeable in this field who can assist you.” For all her words of sympathy, she doesn’t seem particurly bothered about any of this.

  “You’re sorry!?” Mari yells, her anger winning out. “You’re fucking me over just like all those other doctors did and all you have to say is that you’re fucking sorry!? If you were actually sorry you wouldn’t be doing this in the first pce!”

  “Look, I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but there’s nothing I can do about this. The guidelines don’t account for witchcraft, and for all we know continuing on HRT could be a massive health risk.”

  “You think I give a fuck about the guidelines!?” Mari stands up. “You’re not taking this away from me!”

  “C-Come on now, Mari.” Dr. Summers says nervously. “Let’s be civil about-”

  “Civil!? You really think I’m gonna be fucking civil about this!?” Mari’s body starts going hot as her rage reaches a breaking point. “I’m not taking this shit! Do you know how many times now someone’s tried to get rid of me because they don’t know what to do with me!? I’m fucking sick of it! You’re going to give me my fucking meds or I’ll… I’ll…” Her heart’s almost beating out of her chest, and the hot feeling only grows more intense.

  Mari takes a step towards the doctor, who recoils in her chair. The heat builds up even further in her hands alongside a strange pressure she doesn’t understand, and her body is screaming at her to let it out.

  “YOU DON’T GET TO TELL ME WHAT TO FUCKING DO!”

  Mari holds a hand out in the direction of the doctor, and she can feel everything, all the anger, and the sadness, all the pain, flow to her fingers. It reaches a bursting point, and she realises that it’s too te to stop whatever’s about to happen.

  Then, right before the release, she has a moment of reflection. Maybe it’s the look of horror of the doctor’s face, maybe it’s the fact that she has no clue what this spell her body is almost casting on its own is even going to do, maybe it’s the fact that she’s just taken a look at her outstretched hand to find that everything up to her forearm has turned an inky bck, and her fingers have lengthened into sharp points, but she’s realised she’s almost certainly going to regret this.

  Mere split seconds before the magic leaves her fingers, Mari jumps back to the lobby of her home as it shoots forward, bsting an old cabinet that happened to be in the way to smithereens. She pants heavily, looking between her inhuman hands and the remains of the furniture as it starts to sink in what might have happened if she was even the slightest bit slower in getting out of there.

  “Miss! What happened!?” Naomi comes running over to investigate the noise, but Mari doesn’t say a thing. The moment Naomi gets close, she immediately throws her arms around the doll, pulling it into a hug as they both fall to the floor. Her wailing sobs fill the mansion, quickly growing raspy and hoarse as her lungs start to reach their limits, and the both of them just stay there like that for some time as the reality of the situation sinks in.

  How did everything get so bad so quickly? Why is her body already starting to change? What is she going to do without her HRT? How… How did she almost do that to Dr. Summers?

  …What is she going to do now?

  Mari doesn’t know how long it’s been, but she eventually starts to calm down, more out of exhaustion than anything else, and holds out her hand to see that it’s returned to normal. She takes as deep of a breath as she’s able to manage, and opens up the messaging app on her phone without letting go of Naomi.

  (Hey Cass)

  (Can I come over?)

  (I almost did something really bad)

  SyntaxSpeedway