She opened her eyes. A monster loomed over her.
An enormous man-reptile with creepy green skin crouched over her. Stared at her with dead, ink-black eyes. A nightmare, she was having a nightmare. That's the only way to explain waking up in bed with a creature next to her. Her whimper sounded real, but this had to be a nightmare.
"Marcie."
"Oh God, it can talk."
"Marcie, stop this," the reptile said in a voice more like a bear than a reptile. It was deep and rough, rumbling, as if someone had taken some of the silver metal surrounding them and was scraping it together. He talked in a measured way, almost as if English was his second language. Which was a really stupid thought because reptiles wouldn't speak English. They wouldn't sound so sexy either.