Waking Up In The Hospital

        Robbie heard his name being called softly, he wasn't sure where he was.
        "Mr. Dalton? Robbie?"

        Robbie giggled suddenly, and slurred out "I had the strangest dream. I was being turned into a puppet."

        As Robbie giggled again, slightly maniacally, the person above him placed his hand on Robbie's shoulder. Didn't he? His whole right arm felt almost distant, "Mr. Dalton, I'm afraid it wasn't a dream."

        The absolute absurdity of that statement forced Robbie to open his eyes. A dark skinned man wearing glasses was standing over him.
"Uh. Am... am I in a hospital?"

        "Yes. I'm Doctor Marqea Please don't make any sudden movements. You had an... incident..."

        The doctor's hesitant tone gave Robbie a bad feeling. "An incident? And why does my arm feel so detached..." his eyes widened, "Is my arm!?"

        "No, no, you still have your arm. " Dr. Marqea said it with relief, almost as if he was glad to have some good news.

        "Why do I sense a 'but'?"

        Dr. Marqea sighed. He pulled a chair close to the bad and sat down. "I can't elaborate right now, but this is one of the strangest cases I've seen in the past month."

        Robbie gave the doctor an odd look, and tried lifting his right arm, thankfully it worked this time, and saw a marionette arm and hand.

        He was silent for a moment, then lifted his left and looked at it. That one was thankfully still flesh and blood. "What...?"

        "Tell me the last thing you remember."

        Robbie lowered his arms, he could still feel his right arm, but it was so odd. "Uh, last thing, I was talking to my friend Deb, in front of my boss' office, I was leaning on her desk. Then my right hand felt weird... and then here."

        Marqea nodded. He stood up and closed the door then sat back down. "When the paramedic got to you, you were hanging from the desk, arm straight out from the desk ledge. When they couldn't pry you away, they tried cutting your arm away. When the saw cut into the desk around your arm, it bled."

        "You mean my arm bled?"

        "No... the desk did."

        "The desk bled?"

        "Yes."

        "If I couldn't see my arm, I'd think this was the biggest prank ever." Robbie lifted his right arm and flexed his hand, oddly unsurprised that it moved on command. "I'm still not sure."

        Marqea smiled, "Yeah, I get that. Look, keep this to yourself, but," he lowered his voice, "You're not the first person to come in with something odd wrong with them."

        "I'm not?" Robbie struggled to keep his incredulous response down.

        "No. Never the same thing. The police have been making sure this is kept quiet. Don't want a panic. I can't tell you anything about the other cases... Now, I'm going to be frank with you. We've called the CDC and they've told us...", he trailed off. We're not getting help. Most of my staff thinks they already knew about it."

        "Oh, god."

        "Now. Don't panic. As far as we can tell, aside from having wood fibers in your arm, and some odd things with your blood, you're perfectly healthy."

        "Then why'd I collapse."

        "Shock, most likely. We're going to run tests for today and tomorrow, but then you're free to go back to your life. You'll come in for more frequent check ups as long as this persists," the doctor shrugged, "but beyond all that, I can't find anything at all wrong with you."