My first sign of trouble was a bruising force smashing the headphones off my ears. My second was the wooden shaft, long as my forearm, quivering in the cubicle wall.

  My third was the shrill screech from behind me.

  I froze, mouth gaping. The violence was so sudden, so juxtaposed to my mundane workload, that I couldn’t process it.

  From overtime to warzone in an instant.

  Then, my brain caught up to reality and went into overdrive.

  I kicked the ground, spinning my little office chair, loose tie flapping. I stilled the motion with my other leg at one-eighty degrees, using it to spring upright.

  The dim room looked empty, my co-workers long gone for the day, or long let go. And yet, weapons didn’t appear out of nowhere. Someone was here.

  The still-running overhead lights made my section of the open-plan office easy to search. There was no one in sight, I was sure of that. The adjoining sections, then.

  My gaze darted around, left, right, up, and then down. There! A dark figure stalked down the aisle to my right, three feet high at most. The sight made no sense, yet there it was.

  Had a child attacked me? Someone with dwarfism? How had they even entered the building?

  The figure advanced while I stood, lost in a whirlwind of conjecture. It crossed the light threshold, revealing twisted, unnatural features.

  The creature’s body hunched forward, overbalanced except for the long tail snaking behind it. Its head was distended and reptilian, jutting from squat shoulders atop a hunched body.

  Dirty brown scales covered every inch of its skin, flexing as it shifted.

  The sight chilled my soul, worsening as I spotted the inch-long claws on its stubby arms and the crocodile teeth lining its long jaw.

  Monster.

  My thoughts shattered into buzzing static, everything I knew crumbling to dust.

  This wasn’t possible; things like this didn’t happen.

  The creature continued its advance, the oncoming threat demanding attention. I had to move, had to do something, anything. The monster was a terrifying unknown, but it was small.

  My gaze snapped back to my cubicle; I had reach, mass, and a large bludgeoning instrument. I could do this.

  I spun to grip my former seat by the backrest and lifted, dumping my overpriced jacket without a second thought. A grunt escaped as I hefted it over my shoulders; it was heavier than I’d thought.

  Good. I needed this to be a devastating strike.

  The monster paused as I turned back, hesitating for the first time. The worst choice it could make.

  I charged before it rallied, a scream erupting, unbidden, from my lungs. Sprinting steps devoured the distance with astonishing speed, forcing me to judge the right moment.

  Now!

  I swung the chair in a vicious arc over my head, channeling the full momentum of my charge straight down. Elation surged as it stood its ground instead of dodging—a foolish move when I had every advantage.

  It locked eyes with me as the attack fell, horrific mouth opening upward in a mocking smile. Those eyes showed no sign of terror, and my instincts screamed a warning. Something was wrong.

  Too late. At the last instant, it bent backward. The movement folded it almost in half, bringing its stubby arms up to catch my attack.

  The impact rattled my entire body, driving the creature into a stable crouch.

  All that momentum stopped in an instant.

  Impossible.

  Time froze as we locked eyes again over the stalled chair. My grip loosened, weakness creeping through me in terrified realization. It was stronger than me.

  How could a beast half my size be stronger than me? I didn’t know, couldn’t compute the deviation; the creature should have been a crumpled heap on the floor.

  With a mocking hiss, the reptilian creature wrenched the chair from my hands and tossed it aside. The motion pulled me forward, and I stumbled in dazed horror.

  I should have run.

  Its arm blurred as I struggled for footing, raking lines of agony across my chest.

  I shrieked as the worst pain I’d ever experienced struck me. My vision blinked out, my consciousness going with it.

  When I came to, I was on my ass, scrabbling away from the creature. Only a few seconds could have passed, yet there was one stark difference. The pain had vanished.

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  Adrenaline? Shock? My body shutting down? I didn’t know, nor did I have time to worry about the consequences.

  All I knew was that it gave me a chance to act.

  The creature stalked forward with slow steps, licking my blood from its claws—malevolent cunning glimmered in its eyes, relishing my pain. It was treating the fight like a game now, toying with me for amusement.

  Rage crashed through me at the realization, ice-cold in my veins. It drove the fog out of my brain, banishing terror and restoring my focus.

  I slid back again, cowering away from the creature. It was an easy bluff with every muscle in my body still shaking. The beast grinned, realising another mocking hiss as it slowed further.

  I’d bought a precious few seconds to recover, to think, but I still needed a plan. It was faster than me, stronger than me, meaner than me. How did you fight back?

  I searched my surroundings with frantic haste, gaze darting around the aisle. There were no surprises that might turn the tide, nothing even within reach.

  The situation seemed hopeless until my eyes fell on my own chest, and inspiration blossomed.

  I still had reach on my side, still outmassed it, and I still had my silk tie.

  A gift from my mother that I’d never been more thankful for.

  I rolled onto my side, curling into a ball as if I’d given up. From this angle, the motion would block the creature’s line of sight and might buy a few more seconds of twisted enjoyment.

  I slipped the tie over my head with hidden hands, widening the loop and testing its strength with a grim smile. This would work.

  Strong as the creature was, it was small and twisted. I’d seen how it moved to block my attack: all spinal flexibility, none in the limbs. It wouldn’t be able to escape my trap.

  Another hiss sounded from close by. It was time to act.

  I pushed hard on the ground, tie gripped tight in one hand, forcing my tired body to spring upright. My feet caught their balance, and I turned to watch the monster’s final approach.

  My sudden movement did nothing to halt its slow, confident steps, giving me a precious moment to prepare.

  At a few feet, it lunged, one arm extended like a spear. The movement was a blur, too fast to react if I hadn’t been waiting.

  As it was, I counter-charged the instant it committed.

  My heartbeat pounded in my ears as I tried to slip outside the attack without burning my momentum. It was a gamble I almost lost as the creature changed target, claws glancing off the outer edge of my hip.

  Fresh agony bloomed, dragging a scream from my lungs as I pushed on, too committed to stop.

  I was out of danger now and had little trouble slipping the wide loop over its head as I sprinted onward. The instant I passed the creature, I shifted my hold on the length, dragging it over my shoulder.

  A moment later, I felt the tie go taught, the sudden weight of the creature jolting me to a sudden halt.

  Every muscle tensed as a struggle glurk sounded behind me, waiting for the critical moment. Something thumped into my back, and a long tail slipped through my legs.

  I slammed my thighs together the moment I felt it, catching the upward swing just before it struck something important. “Got you.”

  The creature thrashed on my back, falling with all its strength to escape. All in vain. Without leverage, there was no way for it to put its terrifying strength to work.

  I could picture its struggle perfectly as I gripped the tie-end with white knuckles. Hanging off my shoulder, its entire body would be about the size of a toros ending its angled tail caught between my legs.

  With that held in place, there would be no twisting around, no bringing its claws or feet into play. Its limbs would be waving in place, shocked horror on its face as gravity tightened the knot around its neck.

  Helpless and hopeless, just as I’d planned.

  I sank to the ground, exhausted, empty. Never again.

  There was a thunk as the creature’s corpse hit the ground, finally still. While it had never come close to escaping, its struggles lasted far longer than I would have ever thought.

  At times, I’d almost let go, thinking it dead, only for the beast to erupt in another flurry of movement. It was as if the creature kept drawing fresh strength from somewhere, only to spend it again in vain.

  A horrific struggle of endurance, I’d only one by holding the upper hand.

  All I wanted to do was pass out and forget this ever happened, but I was far from out of the woods. If I didn’t fast, I’d bleed out and join the creature in death.

  Despite no longer feeling it, the first wound was the deeper and more concerning of the two. I poked around the bloody rents in my shirt, expecting agony to return at any moment.

  Nothing; just smooth skin under my fingers.

  The cloth was heavy with blood, proving I’d been struck, yet there seemed to be no source replenishing it. My thoughts ground to a halt as I resorted to patting my entire chest. Had I been mistaken on the location?

  No matter how much I looked, I found nothing until I moved on to the second injury.

  The slices across my hip still stung, though the pain had faded since the initial strike. I could feel the edges of the wound, rough and tender as if it had clotted on its own.

  No one healed this fast, yet the proof was beneath my fingers.

  My examination paused as an odd sensation formed in my chest; it felt warm, vindicating, and filled with potential.

  Liquified progress was my tired mind’s best comparison, as if someone had bottled the triumph of noticing hard-won progress.

  A shimmering haze appeared in the air as it spread through my body, touching every part of me. It shifted and thickened as the energy reached my eyes, creating a translucent, blue screen.