The accident in the school's chemistry lab was made worse by a loose gas pipe, which caused what would have been a medium-size explosion to take out the entire room and a good section of the hallway, where Sarah McMillan just happened to be standing. She was thrown by the blast like a rag doll and crushed under blocks of cement from the wall.
"Oh my god..." said Karyn. "Sarah, are you all right?" She looked over at Sarah's body. No, she couldn't possibly be all right. She was dead, there was no doubt about that, even without taking her pulse. There was blood all over and a piece of pipe had been slammed through her stomach by the blast, leaving her guts hanging out. Several square feet of her skin had been torn away by the explosion. Her right arm had been severed, and the stench of blood and body fluids was overwhelming after just a few seconds.
Then Karyn realized what she had said. Sarah was certainly as ugly on the outside as on the inside, if her body was mutilated enough to put the inside on the outside. "No, I didn't mean that! I don't know how that happened but I don't want Sarah to die. Put it back!"
She didn't know who she'd have to yell at, but Jon certainly did. Fortunately, he had planned in advance to reverse wishes. He concentrated and the explosion undid itself. Nobody was even aware there was an explosion, the room was again whole, and Sarah was once again standing in the hallway and there was no blood. Only there was a blank stare on her face.
One of Sarah's friends said, "Sarah, are you okay? You look like you're going to faint..."
Sarah said nothing and kept walking. Ten feet away the corridor turned and Sarah just kept going, walking into the wall.
Jon whispered to himself, "I wish I knew what just happened here."
A voice rang in Jon's head. "When Sarah died, her soul went away. This stone cannot tell whether souls go to the afterlife, or another plane of existence, or just travel off and disintegrate, but whatever happens to them, they go out of range of this stone's magic and therefore this stone cannot bring them back."
Which left Jon in a bad situation. But he had to do something--it wouldn't do to have Sarah walking around like a zombie. "I wish...."
