The Chair With No Teeth

Phoenix heat shimmered outside Tooth & Flutter Dental. Inside, the waiting room smelled like mint and sticker sheets.

Dr. Skull sat on the counter, boots swinging. His long black hair fell down his back, bangs hiding one eye. He stared with the other—bright green—and did not smile.

Dr. Pinkie waved her phone at him.

“Look. Window reflection. Your hair is basically a cape.”

“It is not a cape,” he said, fangs showing by accident.

Dr. Mikey leaned over a tray of tiny toothbrushes. “It is also in the way of… everything.”

Dr. Hearts lifted a spray bottle like it was a peace flag. “No scaring today, Dr. Skull. We are dentists.”

Dr. Skull tapped a skull hair pin. “I scare people into brushing. It works.”

The front door chimed.

Collin, Brandon, Will, and Brooke stepped in, shoulders tight. A faint drill whirred somewhere down the hall.

Brooke whispered, “Nope.”

Dr. Skull slid off the counter, wings twitching.

Dr. Hearts put a hand out fast, stopping him mid-step

The Sticker That Stayed

Dr. Hearts, a tooth-fairy dentist with neat red hair and tiny wings, put his palm on Dr. Skull’s chest.

“Sidewalk reset,” he said.

A minute later, the four kids stood outside the clinic, squinting at the bright Phoenix sun. Cars hissed past. The mint smell still clung to their shirts.

Dr. Pinkie, a tooth-fairy dentist with pink pigtails, held up three small mail boxes with shiny stickers.

“No drills yet,” she said. “Pick a box. Do the dare. You can keep the sticker.”

Collin swallowed. “What kind of dare?”

Dr. Skull’s bat-like wings twitched. “The kind that makes your knees tell the truth.”

Will flinched. Brooke stared at his fangs.

Brandon grabbed the box with a cartoon cricket. “Fine.”

Dr. Skull snatched one too—then his long hair hooked on a rolling mail cart parked by the door. The cart tipped. Boxes popped open.

A silver haircut cape slid out. A kid-safe scissors case clacked on the sidewalk.

A jogger’s tan dog yanked the leash and barked at the cape like it was a ghost.

Brooke scooped up the scissors case and looked up at Dr. Skull’s covered eye.