Chapter 3: New Disappearance
Sophie looks at her invisible hand front and back questionably. "B-But why? I don't understand." Sophie said. Markl quickly grabbed her visible hand and said, "Come on! We got to go back inside and find out why!" Sophie followed him back in the castle and sat down in a chair in front of the fireplace. She continues to look at her right hand with frightful eyes. Calcifer's eyes widen. "Whoah!" he exclaimed. "How the heck did your hand disappear like that?" "I don't know", Sophie replied. "But I hope it wasn't from the soap I used to wash the laundry." She gasps in thought. "You don't think it-" Calcifer interrupts, "No, it wasn't the soap. Howl doesn't create those kinds of soaps that make things disappear. It's got to be something else." Sophie thinks hard to herself, until an old cackling voice appears.
"Do you think it's a part of your curse?...
Sophie, Calcifer, and Markl turn around to see that it was the Witch of the Wastes who spoke. Sophie could not believe what she heard. "What did you say?" The old woman inhaled from her fat cigar and exhaled a big cloud of smoke through her nostrils. "Well, you did turn ninety years-old for a reason, right? Then, maybe that curse cast another kind of spell for the same reason", the witch said, while inhaling again in her cigar. Sophie thinks that she could be right. That thought made her very angry because the witch was the one responsible for placing that curse on her. So, she got up from her chair and walks towards her, demandingly. "How much more do you know about that curse?" The witch laughs in her thick, fat neck. "That's all I know about it, dear." Sophie could not take anymore excuses. So she grabbed the witch by her furry neck collar. "Don't play foolish with me. It is your fault for putting that spell on me. Now, answer me!" The witch sighs and says, "I'm telling you the truth. I do not know anymore of it, nor can I break it."
Sophie eyes and mind come to a remembrance. The witch's powers were erased by Suliman when she went to visit her at the palace. She loosens her grip off of the witch's collar and sits back down in her chair. Sophie looks at her missing hand once more. "Now, what do I do?" She places both of her hands on her face in worry. Calcifer suddenly gasps and shouts, "Oh no! Whoah! Oh my gosh! Sophie!! Your other hand! Its gone!!" Sophie suddenly takes hands off her face and looks at both of them and realizes they have both vanished.
"………What is happening to me?!", she asks desperately. Markl looks at Sophie and asked, "Do you think Howl might figure out what this means?" She still looks at her hands and thinks. "I think so. But Howl won't be back until nightfall. We're just going to have to wait." She starts to feel brave. "I'll be alright. Its just two hands. I'm not going to disappear entirely, right?" Calcifer shakes his head. "No, Sophie. I've seen spells similar to this and they don't last very long. You'll have to be extremely cautious about this." Sophie looks at Calcifer, not deserving to hear that. "However", Calcifer remarks, "There are spells that undo curses and Howl will figure out a way because hey! He's a wizard!" Sophie gives a little smile and looks back at her hands. She talks in her mind. "Oh, Howl. Please return quick. If this is a part of my curse, I want to get rid of it completely. I don't deserve anymore of this. I just want to live in a safe life………with you."