Milo sat in the thralls of the Dreamscape. His friends sparred without a care in the world. Milo looked down at his right arm, it was completely fine. He looked back up at his friends. Juno was laughing as Wallace weakly attempted a "cool move" his Awakened Instructor had shown him.
Milo stretched his arms. Only to notice that his right one was missing now. Must be a glitch, faulty Dreamscape pods can do that, and Milo doesn't exactly have the best allowance in the world. That was until a pain erupted. A fear entered his body.
'Die... I'm going to die!'
His friends morphed, their bodies breaking and bleeding as Nightmare Creatures broke out from within. One was massive, with ruffled feathers and a large black beak. Milo screamed out...
Then he woke up to a bright white light. Milo squinted his eyes, he felt soft silk sheets embrace his body, and a prickish feeling on his left arm. He looked down, multiple IV's entered his body, leading to different machines with liquids within them.
It was only then that he noticed a soft weight on his leg, he looked towards it. Lucy was laying on his lap, comfortably asleep. Milo looked to his left, his mom was held in his dad arms, snuggled together in sleep.
Milo smiled softly, reaching out to tap her awake. Only no arm was there.
'Ah, shit, I forgot.'
His right arm was entirely gone from the shoulder down, having been eaten by that Nightmare Creature, the only question was... why wasn't it back yet?
Most hospitals had an Awakened healer in the building ready to tend to serious or life threatening issues. Unless the healer had a slow working aspect, but even then it had likely been hours since he passed out considering his family was asleep.
The curtains to his bed were opened. A young nurse walked in, he seemed slightly surprised to see Milo awake.
"I'm glad to see your awake Milo... there are somethings I need to discuss with you and your parents."
Milo nodded, and reached out with his left hand towards Lucy, nudging her awake.
"Lucy"
Lucy stirred, lifting her head lazily.
"Five more minutes... Milo! You're awake!"
She reached out and gave him a big hug, startling Milo slightly.
"Yes I'm awake- Oh dear gods why are you so strong?"
Milo felt the air leave his lungs as Lucy practically crushed him in her embrace.
"I can't breathe" Milo said weakly, it was only then that Lucy let go.
"Can you please wake up mom and dad?"
She nodded and walked over to them, nudging them awake as well.
They stirred and woke up, looking over to see Milo giving them a weak smile. His mom teared up and hugged him. His dad offered a soft smile and patted his head.
"Oh thank gods... I was so worried."
"I'm glad to see you up champ. I knew you would survive."
Milo nodded. Then looked over at the nurse.
"He said he had something to discuss with you guys."
The nurse cleared his throat.
"Right, you see, there is an issue in Milo's healing process. As you know, an Awakened healer tended to him, but his arm has shown no signs of growing back. The healers abilities did seem to staunch the wound and prevent it from worsening instead of bringing it back. Even stranger, after the gate was contained, the personnel on site attempted to retrieve his arm in order to hasten the healing process."
The nurse paused, took a breath, and continued.
"Simply put, the arm was gone. There were traces of Milo's blood found on the Nightmare Creatures corpse, but his arm was nowhere to be found. It is unlikely to simply be a trait of the Nightmare Creature considering that the instructors remains were found intact within the Nightmare Creature's body."
Milo nodded along, pondering how in the world was this even possible.
"So, unfortunately, it seems there is no way to bring back his arm. It was as if some force is preventing it from growing back entirely. However, we do offer plenty of prosthetics that your insurance should cover." The nurse then turned to Milo. "Would you like to take a look once you're all ready to go?"
Milo looked over at his parents. He wanted to contain the grin on his face, he really did, but this was just too cool.
"That would be lovely." Milo responded. A wide grin on his face.
He could already imagine the awe-filled stares at school as he passed by with a sick metal arm. He could alter its design in so many ways, paint it whichever color he liked. He might even be able to ask Ron for some small additions if he's really up to the task.
***
Milo looked at multiple display stands. Each arm could be tested. Milo's only surprise was the low price really.
Prosthetics weren't exactly popular outside of niche fashion spaces. Was there really a need when any competent healer can fix you right up? Sure, they looked cool, but that was about all they were. At least, to everyone except Milo.
He looked over each arm. Most felt a little bit clunky, a little bit too big or small. Then Milo reached the last one.
It was a sleek and shiny silver. With a angular surface that almost seemed to represent plate armor, the ends of the fingers were slightly pointed, like a duller version of a knitters needle. It made perfect sense. The only thing off about it was the golden accents running along the seams. They seemed like golden strings, and they were growing terribly brighter.
Milo squinted his eyes, one moment they were there. The next they were gone with the wind. Milo looked towards his parents and the attendant.
His father raised an eyebrow "Something wrong, son?"
Milo shook his head. "Maybe, I can't tell if I'm seeing something. The doctor said I was good to be discharged, right?"
His father nodded, and Milo shrugged.
He fitted the arm into his socket. It was a perfect fit, too perfect really. It was the same size as his left arm. It was everything he was looking for.
"I'll take this one."
The attendant smiled. "Perfect, now I'll just have to get you one custom fitted."
Milo tilted his head. "Would it be fine if I simply just took this, I mean it feels like a perfect fit."
Milo waved the arm, threw a punch, then played rock paper scissors. The arm whirred as it performed each of his actions without fail.
The attendant looked over at the only other person in the store. He was a middle aged man with a scar running down his face, likely an Awakened. The Awakened nodded.
"Alright, we'll just have to run through the purchase process and you'll be good to go."
Milo gave a swift nod, his attention quickly returning to the prosthetic. It was very flexible, even more so than his actual arm was.
Milo's parents had most of the cost covered by insurance, which was a real shock, such a beauty of an arm being that cheap felt like a crime really.
It was Saturday, school would likely be cancelled for the week due to the incident. Outside of nearly dying, Milo actually had it better than before. More importantly, his birthday was tomorrow.
Milo felt a smile creep up on his face. Then he felt tired, which would've made sense... except he had nearly slept through the entire day. Was it normal to feel this drowsy?
Milo looked towards his parents.
"Mom, dad... I feel... tired."
His dad and mom stopped what they were doing at the house. They looked at each other, then back at Milo.
"Do you think it could be the Nightmare Spell?"
Milo turned to his father, shrugging. "Better safe then sorry, right?"
His father looked at his mom, who nodded and headed off to go take care of Lucy.
His dad grabbed the car keys once again.
"Come on kid, lets get you to the police station."
Milo nodded as he headed into the car. What would he even be like in the First Nightmare? He was cripple, and he doubted the Spell would be so kind as to provide him with a prosthetic.
'It's all because of Lucy and her stupid antics! If she hadn't hexed me yesterday I would've been just fine.'