Page 4 of Fallen for the Two-Headed Dragon

“Good morning! Name, please?” the woman at the front desk chirped.

“Hello. I’m Dana Gretchens.”

“Take a seat and fill this out. Bring it back up when you’re done.”

“Thanks,” she said cheerily and accepted the form.

A few minutes later, an impeccably dressed woman in high heels called out her name and led her to a cubicle covered in little pig figurines. She peered at Dana through black-and-white checkered glasses. Suddenly, Dana felt her whole personality was underdressed.

“So, Dana…Gretchens,” the woman said with a glance at the clipboard. “I’ve reviewed your information and I believe we have a perfect fit for you!”

“Oh, really? That’s great news!” Ignoring the sharp pain in her arm, Dana leaned forward, eager to find out what the perfect fit was. Did they have a creative writing job? Even something a little more technical would be fine, as long as she got to write. She loved stringing words together.

“It is! Wonderful. Can you start tomorrow?”

“Well, yes. What’s the job?”

“It’s a customer service representative position at Fielding Collections Corp. Early morning hours are available, full time, full benefits, and they have a wonderful maternity program!”

Oh. My. God.

This had to be the reason the universe had provided so many miracles lately. For this joke, right here, this punch line delivered directly to her face by an eccentric temp agency worker. The universe was literally laughing in her face.

Dana simply smiled. She choked down her disappointment and the wild urge to burst out laughing. She leaned back and nodded emphatically, as though the lady was absolutely right, a collections representative was her destiny. Her true calling. The perfect fit.

“Okay. I’ll take it!”

“Oh, wonderful! I’ll email you the details. Be there on time or early and make us proud!”

“Wonderful.” Dana watched the woman light up even brighter with her seemingly favorite word stated back to her.

Well, that could’ve gone worse. They could have turned her away entirely. Although the irony was palpable.

She needed to use the restroom, but she had to get out of this godforsaken building first. The more she ignored the pain of her elbow, her aching muscles, and the open sore of her leg, the worse it hurt. She couldn’t guarantee she’d be able to stifle her groans while easing down onto a toilet seat.

Unable to throw her leg over the bike, she gripped the handles with white knuckles and grimaced all the way down the few streets leading to a park. As she leaned into the turn, she noticed a large bird circling overhead. Squinting to make out something that far in her contacts, all she could see was a big, fuzzy red lump.

Crimson. Oh, God! She’d almost forgotten about that cave. The memory sent a shiver down her spine. She didn’t really want to think about that. It had to have been a hallucination, right?

She leaned her bike against the community bathroom building and double-checked that the stick person on the sign wore a triangle dress. It wouldn’t be the first time she couldn’t see well enough and walked into the men’s.

She entered the last stall and eased onto the toilet, keeping her scraped leg stiff and straight. Someone came in as she finished, so she held in her tears, pulled up her pants, and slung her backpack over her shoulder.

A monstrous growl snatched her attention. The toilet in the stall beside her flushed. The door opened with a squeak. The woman’s scream pierced the air, followed by an inhuman roar.

Dana’s stall door flew across the room and slammed against the opposite wall, narrowly missing her nose.

There stood a humanoid reptile the color of blood. It lumbered into her stall and loomed above her, so tall that the largest horns of its spiked crown scraped the ceiling with a force that had chips of debris falling to the ground. The reptilian form stooped down to her, close enough for her to make out his features perfectly.

Its body was covered in scales, with the torso of an abnormally ripped bodybuilder and an entirely inhuman amount of abdomen muscles. Its nose was more like a snout, but the feature she gravitated to the most were its gorgeous eyes. The left was yellow with a burst of red around the pupil, while the right had two irises fused together, the colors of coconut jam and cherries bleeding into each other like watercolor paints.

What was this creature? Some kind of reptile, or some ancient deity?

Dana was as starstruck as she’d been that time Beyoncé made eye contact with her. She was so entranced with its peculiar eyes when it dragged in a deep nose-full of her neck. Her eyelids fluttered closed, a shiver trickling down her spine. She stumbled forward and opened her eyes, which locked on something over the creature’s shoulder. Wings?

She stepped back and subconsciously reached for her glasses to wipe them on her shirt. It took a few pinches of her forefinger and thumb to remember they weren’t on her face.

Those captivating eyes stayed intent on her, dancing with something she couldn't pinpoint.

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