If not for one profound difference, Sadie Byrnes would have otherwise identified as being a fairly typical representative of her age group, bordering on unremarkable. Recently, that profound difference had reared its head enough to land her in a doctor's waiting room at the north end of the city. 

Sadie scooted back in the overstuffed waiting room chair to rest her head against the wall. Next to her, her mother flipped through a magazine. On the other side, her father twirled a ballpoint pen between his fingers, staring at a printed document he'd been annotating while they were idle. Sadie was under specific instructions to yank her sleeve cuffs down and throw up her hood to cover her face as fast as she could in the event that ‘it’ started happening. This was always the protocol for whenever she was in a public setting, and though this strategy had come in handy on a few occasions, today it felt especially futile to Sadie. 

The local news droned from a small TV hung high in the corner of the waiting room.

The local news broadcast had been a fairly common fixture in all the waiting rooms they’d visited, and it had been equally common for Sadie’s mother to quietly comment that she wished they would play another channel because the news was “too depressing.” Sadie, on the other hand, always appreciated the local news channel, and would watch certain broadcasts religiously, as it was the only means she really had to stay informed of what went on outside of her small sphere of existence.

 It was the part of the day when the least eyes would be on the channel, so the broadcasters were engaged in a talk-show-like filler segment where they brought in a “local expert” to talk about their focus area as it pertained to things going on in the city. Their current guest, an anthropology professor at the larger of the two universities, was walking the hosts through the folklore that had been native to the area around the time the city was founded. Given that it was a coastal city, much of this had to do with the ocean and the creatures that might emerge from it. 

While it wasn’t Sadie’s first choice for content, it was a fairly interesting topic, and still more engaging than the tedious grind of online classes waiting for her at home. She would take listening to the Anthropology professor discuss native folktales and the origins of sea shanties over rewinding a confusing Biology video to try and parse out details from her professor’s unenthusiastic narration - at least this guy seemed to actually like his job. 

The anchor on the screen seemed to agree, as she continued the interview with, “You certainly know your stuff, Professor Nishimura! What got you interested in this particular field of anthropological study?” 

The professor, whose delivery up to that point had been glowing and exuberant, dimmed slightly and took on a bit of a meeker tone, “Oh, you know… there’s something fascinating about the stories that emerge in different cultures around the world. To some, I think a lot of these myths bring comfort. For example, when I lost my daughter a few years back- I was devastated, but I found comfort in some of the stories I entertained to explain her disappearance. Of course, at some level I was aware of what likely happened to her, but those stories were what helped me sleep at night. I think of that when I hear various urban legends crop up - take for instance, the ‘Carbon-Jack’ story.” 

Sadie’s ears perked up.

“I’m not sure I’m familiar with that one, can you explain it?”

“Well, it’s an urban myth unique to this area - describing a tall, ominous ‘ghost’ or man who will be seen watching, or sometimes even interacting, with people in the city - only to vanish into thin air before their eyes.”

“Why do they call him Carbon-Jack?”

“The name originated on an online forum dedicated to local cryptozoology sightings. The members of that particular forum are often adamant about the validity of sightings that have long since been debunked. It’s one of the many reasons I would personally file the Carbon-Jack story squarely in the ‘fiction’ column, but anything is possible I guess.”

He finished the statement with a derisive chuckle that made Sadie wince. 

“They apparently chose the name ‘Carbon-Jack’ because he doesn’t just ‘vanish’ so much as ‘disintegrate’ - that was the word they used - you can evidently see his body ripping apart into trails of dust or something right before he vanishes. Some amateur physicists on the forum speculated it had something to do with the bonds of the omnipresent carbon atom.” 

Sadie nodded thoughtfully. She had long been following what breadcrumbs she could find of the Carbon-Jack story, but her access to the internet was far too restricted for her to have stumbled upon that particular forum, and so the origin of the name came as news to her. She supposed it could make sense, given what little she could remember from her last interminable set of science lectures. 

“Sadie?” 

Sadie turned to where a physician’s assistant in pink scrubs gestured to her to follow. She meekly rose from the waiting room chair and shuffled over. 

“Did… you want them to come with you?” The woman asked, casting a confused glance over Sadie’s head at her parents.

“Yes.”

A momentary look of disbelief crossed her face. She met eyes with the pale, redheaded receptionist next to her, who shrugged. With a stiff posture and flat tone, the physician's assistant then instructed them, “Come on back.”

Once in the examination room, Sadie launched into her usual routine of shedding the hoodie and long-sleeved T shirt she wore underneath, stuffing them under a chair and hopping up on the exam table. She kicked her legs out in front of her, scanning the sterile, green-beige room. 

“You should probably remove your socks,” her father commented from the chair in the corner. 

“Do you really think that will help?” Her mother asked, tiredly. “It’s not like her feet have typically been the issue.”

“We need to keep giving this every chance we can…” 

Her mother sighed. Sadie understood - they were both as tired of this as she was, but continued to serve as her advocates in the quest to get a diagnosis or workable solution to her apparently highly unusual “condition.”

She reached down and yanked the socks off, tossing them onto the floor. Interestingly enough, having polish on her toenails had once given her confirmation of the fact that if her foot, or any other part of her body appeared to vanish - it was actually still there, but doing some bizarre sort of trick with the light to make it look as though you could see through it. She had heard of Chameleons changing colors to blend into their surroundings, and she supposed it was maybe some advanced version of that. She recalled also that it had been mildly depressing, in an unexpected way, to see a floating set of freshly painted nails fluttering through the air with nothing behind them.

“Sadie,” said her father, “Have you made any progress figuring out what triggers it?”

“Not really,” Sadie said with a shrug, “I think it might happen more often when I’m nervous, but…”

She was interrupted by knock on the door. The three of them turned to face the exam room entrance as probably the youngest doctor they’d had to date charged into the exam room with an exuberant, “So, you must be Sadie?”

He didn’t check his chart, so Sadie supposed someone must have been briefing him in the hallway.

He moved around the room in a half-circle and carefully shook the hands of all three adults, “I’m Doctor Anderson. Nice to meet you all.” He turned to Sadie, “what is it that brings you here today?”

Sadie cast what felt, by this point, like a semi-futile glance at her parents, quietly asking for their permission to delve into the reality of the issue up front. Off her mother’s subtle nod, she looked the doctor in the eye and said, calmly, “I disappear.”

Doctor Anderson stared back at her with a lightly puzzled expression, but his smile didn’t wane, “Can you explain what you mean by that?”

“I mean I literally disappear- something happens with my skin, and I’ll look down and suddenly part of my body just- isn’t there…”

This time, his smile faded considerably. He glanced over at her parents for a moment. When he evidently didn’t get whatever nonverbal confirmation he’d been looking for from them, he turned back to Sadie. 

“Now, Sadie, I mean… I know sometimes in this world it can be easy to feel like you don’t matter …”

Sadie breathed an aggravated sigh through her nose. This was the speech most doctors launched into after she gave an explanation of the issue she faced. No matter how she phrased it, their immediate concern became one of her mental wellbeing, assuring her even when she pressed that what she was experiencing was psychosomatic or “all in her head.” Unless her condition somehow chose to show itself in front of the doctor, the mental health lecture was the route they usually went, save for a couple who had been even less genial about it. 

She had been staring past him, focusing on nothing in particular when the Doctor’s monologue suddenly halted. Sadie was momentarily confused until she heard her parents sharply inhale and saw Doctor Anderson’s facial expression, at which point she knew exactly what had happened.

"Yeah," she said, looking him pointedly in the eye. He startled. “This is what I was talking about." To illustrate, Sadie lifted a hand and surveyed it, but was surprised to find it still visible. 

“It’s your neck, sweetie,” her mother answered the unspoken question, “and part of your face.”

Doctor Anderson hastily recovered, visibly shaking off his stunned silence, “I understand now." He chuckled weakly, "I have to say, I was a little surprised when you started to... talk... since I can't see your mouth right now." 

“This is an unusual pattern,” her father chimed in, “it’s not typically this prolific.”

The doctor nodded thoughtfully, eyes fixed on Sadie, “and how does it feel when this happens?”

“It doesn't really feel like anything,” said Sadie, “sometimes it tingles, sometimes I don’t even know it’s happening until someone tells me.”

“Okay, then, if you don’t mind… let me just…” he stumbled over, setting his clipboard on the edge of the sink and making his way over to Sadie as though he was approaching a wild animal. 

He hovered over her with obvious trepidation and slowly reached his hands out, almost flinching as his fingertips collided with her face, his ring finger unintentionally tugging at the corner of her mouth. He breathed in, sparsely, and then opted to work his way lower by moving his fingers in a kind of ‘spider’ motion until he reached her lower jaw.

“Can you feel my fingers?”

“Yes,” Sadie replied flatly. She’d gone through a similar routine with the other doctors who’d been there when her condition happened to manifest, and had grown somewhat tired of the tapping, prodding, and gaping in awe at her vanished appendages, only for it to ultimately yield no answers.

“Okay, I can feel your jawline,” he carefully inched his fingers lower, “here’s where your lymph nodes should be, and those feel normal. Can you feel me touching them?”

“Yes,” Sadie repeated.

Doctor Anderson glanced to the floor, keeping his fingers still on Sadie’s jaw and throat. She couldn’t tell if he was pondering something, checking for a pulse, or planning to jet out of the room. 

Eventually, he withdrew his hands and stood back a few feet, gazing at Sadie in what was now undisguised wonder. 

“I’m not going to lie, I’ve never seen anything like this,” he uttered, almost under his breath, and though she should have known better by now, Sadie’s heart still sank.

“So you can’t help her?” 

“Honestly? I’d hesitate to try,” he answered, “Even if I knew what this was, if I had a name for it, I wouldn’t have a way to treat it.” 

“We’ve seen so many doctors…” Sadie’s mom said wistfully, “Is there anything you can do for us?”

Doctor Anderson’s face contorted in thought. He looked to Sadie, “You said it doesn’t hurt?”

“Not so far…”

“Then, I mean, are you sure it’s something you need ‘cured?’ If it doesn’t cause you pain or discomfort…”

“We can’t be sure she’s safe with this going on,” her mother cut in, “sure it doesn’t hurt right now, but what if that changes? Also, since we don’t know when it’s going to happen…”

Her mother trailed off with a sad look in her eyes, giving Doctor Anderson a moment to turn a discomforted glance on Sadie. 

Sadie shrugged, “They think someone might kidnap me, or that I’d become the subject of somebody’s experiment.”

Doctor Anderson cleared his throat, “I don’t know that that would happen, but I’m sure someone would want to study you.” He suddenly looked straight ahead, as though he’d had an epiphany, “Actually, I just remembered something…”

Sadie eyed him as he reached into the depths of his coat and produced a smartphone, which Sadie recognized as being one of the newer models that had come out the prior year. Outside of the one her dad’s firm had paid for, she hadn’t seen one up close, so she couldn’t quite keep herself from leaning forward to get a good look at it.

Doctor Anderson didn’t seem to notice as he furiously tapped and scrolled through several screens, hastily explaining, “The last time I can remember hearing of anything like this in a medical study, it was many years ago and I think the guy who wrote it lost all his credibility. I’m looking it up in case it might help you.”

An anxious silence enveloped the room as his furious tapping and scrolling continued. At one point he looked up and sheepishly addressed them with, “These things are little miracles, huh? You can kinda see why they’ve taken off so fast.” 

Seconds passed which felt like an eternity as they waited for any information they could get. The only sounds to be heard were the sharp, nervous inhalations of Sadie’s parents and some banging around out in the hallway. 

Finally, Doctor Anderson looked up with a smile, “Got it. Doctor Eustache Chevalier. Looks like he’s the only one. I can see why most docs might be a bit skeptical. If I hadn’t just seen it with my own eyes, I would be, too.” 

“Thank you,” said Sadie’s father, “We haven’t even gotten this much before.”

“Yes, thank you,” breathed her mother, meeting Sadie’s gaze with a relieved one of her own.

“Absolutely. I would love to be of more help, but this is the first time I’ve ever witnessed anything like this.” His eyes flitted between the three of them and he grabbed up his clipboard before awkwardly shuffling to the door, “it was nice to meet you all. Feel free to reach out if you need anything else.”

As he ambled out into the hallway and shut the door, Sadie met eyes with her parents, who were practically beaming in comparison to the hollow, hopeless expressions they’d been carrying to such appointments recently. 

She felt a surge of returning hope at what might come next.