Inktober IV: Freeze

Tabitha held her jaw in a vice grip while looking around the sparsely-decorated parlor. No newspapers littered the tables, no pictures hung from the walls, and not even a window let in a sight of the outside world as she looked around for a distraction. She needed something, anything to keep her mind off both the excruciating pain that was still ringing in her molar, and whatever pain might be awaiting her in that spine-numbingly chilly steel chair.
So far she had simply been counting prime numbers, but the waves of agony intensified often enough that she couldn't think of anything but the pain, and had to start over from the beginning. Tabitha was sure that she had gotten as far as 59 at one point, but it certainly wasn't enough to make her feel accomplished.
A few painstaking minutes later, the door to her right creaked open. "Ms. Moreau?" a voice croaked. She looked at the man, only standing about five feet tall in a dark brown smock about two sizes too large. His hair was unkempt and greasy to the degree that she couldn't tell what his original hair color was as he swayed slightly in the light.
She could hear a choir of angels let loose in joyous harmony. Three endless days of torment would finally come to an end. At this point, she didn't care if it involved pulling a tooth or wiring her jaw shut so long as it meant some form of relief, much less what her dentist looked like. She leapt from her chair and followed the man down an old narrow wooden corridor, passing numerous doors until the man before her opened one that seemed indistinguishable from the rest to her. However, the room contained various trays of mirrors and pointy metal rods, screws, gears, and that chair.
Tabitha took a deep breath, cursing slightly as she felt the chilled air attacking her sensitive teeth and gums, and slowly eased herself into the chair. She grasped at the padded arms the entire time, careful to lower down onto anything other than -
A chill raced up and down her entire body as she let out a yowl. As her nerves calmed down enough to tell her exactly what she was feeling, she could sense metal at temperatures well below freezing all along her back. She quickly tried to maneuver best she could to avoid it, but it seemed unavoidable. She heard a chuckle from the dentist and saw him arranging his tools.
"Ah, yes, that chair. I always get remarks and complaints about the chair. You are thinking it is cold?" Now that she had heard him speaking at length, she could hear some sort of accent in his voice, but couldn't quite place it. It was oddly low-pitched and emphasized words at random.
"Mm-hmm," she mumbled in return. "It'sh ishe-cold."
"Well, I suppose that is what I am to get when using cheap amenities. It does keep costs of the practicing down for clients, though, doesn't it?" He turned to Tabitha, flashing a sincere smile that stretched back in his mouth further than she expected. "Tell me, Ms. Moreau, what price would you have had to paying over at Kroshman's practice? Seventy kyur? Maybe even ninety?"
She nodded, only paying half attention as more waves of pain rocked at the side of her face. She felt her teeth become broken glass dancing on the inside of her mouth. "I don't want to be rude, Doctor, but can we pleashe shtart?"
Tabitha heard a clatter of metal tools at the nearby table. "Doctor Raidesh," the man corrected her in a sudden, harsh tone. After a second, she heard him chuckle. "I am sorry, but I have spent long times at learning schools to earn that name. I would hope for you to be using it."
Tabitha adjusted herself in the chair to sit more upright, looking over to the dentist. He took a tray and made his way over to the chair, pulling a lever beneath it and sending Tabitha down to the floor within a heartbeat. She swallowed, doing her best to bypass the following bout of agony in her molars, and gave a nervous smile.
"Right, Doctor Raidesh. Shorry. What schcool did you shay you lear-" she started to ask as the dentist shoved what felt like a small metal plow against her tongue. Any other words became caught at the back of her throat.
"Ms. Moreau, I cannot have the dragon of the cave attacking as I examine the cave jewels, you understand?" Tabitha sat still in the chair, staring pleadingly into the man's eyes. The interruption was one thing, but the metaphor had made her blood run cold. He returned the stare before hesitantly removing the tool. "Say something if you are in understanding."
"Yesh, yesh," Tabitha squeaked. The man's expressionless face snapped to another smile as he promptly resumed his work. Tabitha tried to calm her racing heart and take as few breaths as needed. She had no idea what he would do if she ended up so much as cough, and she prayed to the spirits that she wouldn't have to find out.
Throughout the examination, though the man rooted around in her mouth with various sharp and prodding materials, she hardly felt any discomfort. However, the amount of non-physical discomfort only built exponentially as time went on. Occasionally he would frown when poking at a crown and poke at it a few more times before turning to his tray. She couldn't see exactly what he was retrieving, but judging by the clatter it made, she had a feeling it wasn't a little mirror. But each time he would look back at the area and shake his head. During one of these trials, she heard him whisper "no, this one is actually a decent candidate," through the metallic clanging as he returned the oversized tool. She tried her best to suppress a shiver.
After what felt like several hours of prodding and poking, she saw the dentist dip out of her sight, followed by the snap of rubber globes and a drawer sliding open. "Well, Ms. Moreau, I must say I am in impression."
"I'm shorry?"
"No no, it is nothing to be sorry of! Your jawline is of petrification. Simply beauty."
Did he mean perfection? Tabitha thought, but decided not to bother. So far he seemed to be happy with her, and she didn't want him to "remember" something he skipped over and return to inserting small knives into her mouth. "Thank you," she quietly replied.
"No, my thanks are to you now. Such a beauteous jawline as yours, despite the flaw you were coming in with, is now of perfection. You are truly a rare specimen, and I for that I am having a request to gather a sample for furthering study."
Tabitha felt something rise in her chest, and she rose in the chair with it. "Look, I think I ought to be going. I have an appointment in-" she turned back towards the dentist, only to find him right at her side. He pushed the lever underneath her and quickly released it, causing her to collapse onto the chair once again. The chill of touching the metal back mixed with her sudden impact as the pain spread throughout her body.
"No! The jaw is now a model of my miracling! I will not have another leave ungracious!" She felt fingers dart to each side of her mouth faster than she could react to try and sit up again. Overhead, she saw a hand holding a small white cylindrical crystal, roughly the size of a tooth.
"Open wide," she heard in a deep, abyssal tone. The hand carrying the crystal darted to the roof of her mouth, and Tabitha felt nothing as her entire form snapped into a cold freeze. Her saliva, her blood, her very flesh now sat as a slowly-melting statue in the short man's office.
He turned and grabbed a large set of pliers off the table behind him, readying two hands to each end, and walked over to his newest addition while growing into his full form. Robes folded into leathery wings, and sleeves trailing off his stubby arms became an extra set of arms. Flesh melted from his stomach and back and made its way down his body, extending into a form that allowed him to easily stand over the fussy possessor, even if she was (or could be) standing.
With a solid grip on the pliers, he hooked them around Tabitha's canines and with a short series of tugs, ripped them from their former possessor with relatively little effort. He let the body be and turned to a series of overhead cabinets, using his arms to stop several other teeth and jaws from falling to the floor. He precariously balanced Tabitha's over the rest and closed the door carefully.
He shrunk into his previous form, a waddling and harmless dentist, and closed the door to the room holding Tabitha. She would melt, yes, but it would be slow. Besides, he had other patients to attend to.

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Ice-IV - A substance that instantly freezes all forms of water it comes into contact with, to an extent. For every pellet of ice-8, the amount of water fitting within a sphere 20 feet in diameter (equivalent to a maximum of 418.8790ft³) is instantaneously frozen. This effect only applies to bodies of water and their contents that are within contact.