I sat on the couch, rubbing the back of the amulet with my sleeve. The red tint, which I now knew was my own blood, just wouldn’t wash off. I scrubbed and scrubbed until the fabric of my shirt was worn down to almost nothing.

  “Cease this!” Dragon demanded, its voice booming in my skull.

  “Fuck!” I replied, lifting a finger to catch a drop of blood that fell from my nose.

  Dragon flooded me with his presence, but lowered his voice. “Your blood… It is sign of our kinship. Of our joining. Do not try to severe it.”

  I leaned back until I fell into the couch. “I’m not,” I replied. “But people tend to notice blood marks. I’d rather not have anyone ask any questions.”

  Dragon seemed to understand, his presence lessening.

  “Also,” I continued, “we haven’t talked yet. What happened at the motel? How are you back?”

  “I was never gone. You simply could not hear me. Yet, as you must know, I could still influence you. You would have died to those… machines. The ones that smell terrible. Like sulfur… nothing like pure dragon fire.”

  “A gun,” I explained. “Firearms… they are tools of war. Of death.”

  Dragon fumed. “Fire… that is for dragons, not humans. They should be destroyed.”

  I laughed. “Don’t say that to the 2A crowd. You think wererats are bad? You haven’t seen anything like a raging yokel clamoring about “2A” this, and “Constitution” that. Stupid… just another topic used to divide us. The elite don’t give a shit about those of us on the bottom.”

  Dragon seemed to consider for a time.“I do not understand these human words. But… if you seek to rally against the natural order, I can be of assistance.”

  I waved my hands to no one in particular. “My goals aren’t so lofty as that. I care about one thing right now: rent money.”

  “Rent… money?”

  “I need a place to stay,” I replied. “To sleep. To keep my shit. You’re a Dragon, right? Didn’t you have a cave or something to hoard gold in? Treasure? Well, I mean before you became like this?”

  “Cave? Gold? Treasure? Your human mind is too small. Too weak. You cannot even imagine what I am.” Forcefully, Dragon delved into my skull, sending an awful pain, like an icepick, through my eyes and into my brain. Eventually, he retreated, leaving me breathless. “Bah! Human understanding of my kind is… insulting.” The creature growled with anger. “To think of us as mere lizards with wings… preposterous. You’ll see, my young friend. You’ll see.”

  “And what will I see?” I replied, rubbing at my temples.

  “You’ll see what I truly am. What I will become once we complete my mission.”

  “And what are you truly? What mission?”

  “I… don’t remember. But that place… through the portal. The key to finding it lies there. Somewhere out in that world.”

  Barking a laugh, I reached down, lighting a cigarette. I took a long drag, exhaling slowly through my nose. “Well then,” I mused. “I suppose you’ll want me to help you get your memory back?”

  “But of course. It is but a pittance to the power I offer in return.”

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  Taking another large huff of my cigarette, I said, “Can’t, sorry.”

  “Can’t… you can’t?” Dragon boomed. It lowered its voice. “What possible reason could there be for you not to assist me?”

  “Rent money,” I said. “Remember? Treasure. Riches. If I leave, then I’ll lose everything. I’ll have nothing to come back to. And, as interesting as it was to fight a werewol—wererat, I don’t think I could shit in a hole for the rest of my life.”

  “If it is treasure you seek, then there is sure to be plenty.”

  I could tell that the Dragon lied to me, but its words did make sense. If the knife had earned me an easy hundred, then imagine if I had come back with something truly rare.

  “And let’s say I did help you,” I asked. “Then what? We part ways?”

  I felt Dragon’s excitement well up. “That’s the spirit, young human. As for what’s to come, I could not say. But help me and become more powerful than you could have ever possibly imagined.”

  Then, I remembered something—something potentially disastrous. “Wait,“ I replied. “Last time I was only gone a few hours there, but it was days in my time. Weeks. I… I can’t risk that happening again.” I sighed out, leaning back into the couch. “Guess I need to go get a real job after all.”

  “That won’t be a problem,” Dragon replied. “During our time together, I’ve been able to weave together small bits from my fragmented past. I can now control the opening of the portals, although it takes a tremendous amount of energy. But, and this is most important, I believe I can connect the passage of time from your world to there.”

  I ran my hand through my hair. “Wait… so like a sync? You can sync my world and the other world so that the passage of time remains the same?”

  “Precisely!” Dragon boomed excitedly.

  “Well,” I said, calming my nerves with the inhalation of smoke. “That changes everything.”

  ***

  I grabbed some essentials: food, a change of clothing, flashlight, and some other items. Dragon impatiently breathed in the back of my mind like the crackling of a fire.

  “Are you not yet ready, human?“ Dragon asked, booming into my head.

  “Nearly,” I replied, scribbling a note on a piece of paper on the kitchen counter. I set the pen down, lifting the amulet to eye level. “There, finished!”

  Dragon pressed its discontent against me. “What did you write?”

  Holding my head, I replied. “Just a note to Grant. I left him all the money I’d earned with a promise of more to return. Hopefully we can find what you’re looking for, and I’ll grab some good stuff on the way out. A few hours, tops.”

  Dragon sent a wave of uncertainty through me, but said nothing further.

  “By the way,” I added, “How old are you? Are you male? Female? What even is your name?”

  “I am ageless, genderless—at least in the terms you refer to. But to make this simple for your fragile, weak mind, you can think of me as male. As for a name…”

  “You can’t remember?”

  “… I can’t remember.”

  “Of course,” I replied, stuffing the last items into a backpack. “Well, maybe after this trip you will. You managed to piece together memories from your past, so maybe after we find what you’re looking for, you can again.”

  “We can only hope, young human. We can only hope.”

  I felt Dragon do something; the amulet burning in my hand. Just as before, the air in the apartment shivered, rippling outward. A line of silver light broke from nothingness, becoming longer and longer until eventually it stood around my height in size. The air shook again, sending out a wave that struck me like sound waves at a concert. The silver line suddenly split in two, moving apart until it was just wide enough for me to walk through. It was a silver portal. Just like the one I remembered.

  I breathed out, my nerves rattling with anticipation. “Well… here we fuckin’ go.”

  As I stepped through, I heard something behind me. Turning, I saw the front door open; the air pulsated as the portal began to close.

  “Ike?” Grant said as he stepped into my vision. As time turned, he became blurrier and blurrier. When his eyes met mine, he yelled, “Ike!“

  I tried to speak, but the words—they just wouldn’t come. I felt my body getting pulled on its own now.

  It was too late to go back.

  With nothing left to do, I gave in. Shrugging my shoulders, I let myself be whisked back into that world.

  A world of fantasy, wonder… and hopefully, riches.

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