Henry got to his old truck after a long job, he tossed his climbing harness into the passenger seat and cautiously bundled his ropes so they could be unwound quickly, he set his chainsaw on the backseat floorboards with a a delicate care not at all needed for the rugged machine.

His coworkers might jab at him for coddling his tools but Henry just laughed along. There was a reason his tools never wound up breaking while he needed them, he noted it needed sharpening when he got home, maybe some oil as well.

He grabbed a slim-jim from the cupholder and savored a bite stopping then for a minute to admire his work.

Two old trees, a complicated task with multiple limbs hanging over Rachel's little antique store. The trees were old and weary cottonwoods their grey bark set with deep grooves all up the length of the trunk, and up near the crown of the trees several limbs had died and were bound to fall soon, And now they had, guided to the ground and away from the storefront with ropes and clever cuts.

It had been a hot summer and Henry had his work cut out for him. Often trees would sacrifice limbs when they couldnt get enough water, and this was no exception.

But it was done now. Henry was going to go home an- "Well?" An old voice interrupted his thoughts. Rachel was standing there, the short woman with salt and pepper hair tied in a bun leaned on her cane expectantly.

"What?" Henry sputtered, trying to remember what she said.

"What?" Rachel mocked mischeviously.

"I asked you first" Rachel scowled then though still smiling, "I said you can take something home sonny" she faked hurt then "but you're too busy chewing cud to hear a little old lady"

He swallowed then, "Rachel you feeling allright? You already paid up front, are you starting to get that old-timers disease now?" Henry said, chuckling at his weak jest.

"Disrespecting the elderly eh?" she raised a brow "They don't raise them like they used too, no sirie" she turned and hobled back inside with her cane.

Henry sighed and followed, it was a wonder Rachel could keep her shop afloat with the number of things she gave away. He knew better than to turn down Rachels offer, the old bat would pout for a week when anyone did.

A bell rang as he entered, the low sun cast golden rays on the old furniture and baubles that filled Rachel's domain, the light danced on the glass of kitchen chandeliers casting small prismatic shapes on their surroundings and dozens of old clocks counted in perfect sync, the beating heart of the room. Henry walked down the alleyways between the wood dressers and shelves stacked with trinkets; necklaces, old lighters, books with timeworn covers and frayed pages bearing illustrations in that old Golden book style, and the hollow places where the dust had parted leaving only an impression of the items that fled.

The place was allways under the cloying fragrance of old rugs and the mothballs that protected them, no matter how many air fresheners Rachel hung on the vents.

Henry sighed to himself again, "every time" he thought to himself, this was the third or fourth time he had been called by rachel over the years. though the first two were paying a broke highschool kid to help with lifting, she insisted he take something home even that first time. He rested his hand on the Ka-Bar knife at his hip, that iconic blade that caught his fancy 5 years ago, "A relic of from a world at war" he often told people, getting them excited just before he told the truth, "perfectly preserved too, being made the month the war ended does that". Chortling to himself he wandered past old fine dresses and antique mirrors, and there he saw it.

An old hatchet, there on a table it lay, surrounded by bent yard tools and rusted sickles, and an old green pushmower propped agianst the wall. Henry marched slowly towards it, certian of his choice, but something tugged at his attention, something wrong.

He paused looking then for the source of his disturbance, Henry was always first to know when something was up, an instinct that had made him double check and often find problems that avoided others detection, and this time was no exception. An open door where there was none before, leading to more of Rachel's stock, "Thats new" he thought to himself, he was right after all. Henry had wandered this place twice over in the past and this was never here. Hesitating twice, he walked to it and through the threshhold

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The sounds of the counting clocks faded as he stepped through, It was a collection He had never seen; filled with oversized rings and necklaces of metal, bone, and stone. strange statues of animals, massive scrolls and...

He stopped then, the sight was out of place among the oversized but understandible articles, he was standing on a massive and ornate rug, it was made of thick threads, its edges laced with fluffy tassles, the border around it some green fabric framing a well rendered desert landscape, but no, what really stopped him was the dragon in the forefront. The creature was paused in time with mouth agape, its wings flared as it stood reared on its hind legs like a european coat of arms. And at its base a trapezoidal rock on which it stood. Written into the rock in a red jagged script, like crescent moons and tounges of flame, something unreadable and foreign. The art's black eyes seemed to burn through him, its stinger tail coiled around the stone with a drop of clear poison at its point.

"Since when does rachel collect this sort of stuff?" henry whispered pulling his gaze away from the rug and walking deeper into the gallery puzzling over every oddity

Are these props for a movie? He thought, running his hand over a beaked helmet bigger than his chest,

I think the Lord of the Rings did something like that, these folks must have spent all their budget on props though and had to sell it all to rachel. Continuing down the isle He lifted and unsheathed a heavy sword with a handle almost as long as the blade. Hell it looked like a dagger more than a sword,

"Who the hell made all this?" He said to his reflection in the blueish metal of the blade.

Henry sheathed it then and set it back on the shelf, and as he did he heard a loud clattering on the other side of the shelf.

He jumped a few inches at the almost cocophonous clatter. "Rachel?" He said facing the source of the noise "You there?" He started a walk towards it then firstly trying to find his way around "when'd you get all this weirdness? I thought you didn't like fantasy stuff" he muttered a curse under his breath after finding a a dead end "I ain't poking fun though, this stuff is impressive" he finaly found his way and stopped. Rachel was nowhere to be seen but a pile of large tubular cases had fallen from the shelf and several more teeteted precariously.

Oh Henry thought I might have set that down too hard. He reset the cases on the shelf, stopping to open a few and admire the illegible script before setting them back again. After a few minutes he decided to go and ask Rachel about this room but just when he started to head back his shoe knocked into something small.

He stopped to look and there was the most normal thing in this outlandish corner of Rachels shop.

An orninarily sized band of green tarnished bronze sat agianst the toe of his shoe, He stooped to bring it up to the light, he dropped it when a shivering sensation ran up his arm. He shook his hand slightly and picked it ip again, the ring would belong better in a musuem than among these props, the oxidised metal felt warm in his hand, he could see a yellow gemstone peeking from between the green tarnish.

Little thing prolly got lost in here he thought turning it in the light, I'll bring it back to rachel she'll know what to do with it.

He walked down the isle again at a more leisurely pace, Dorothy would love this stuff he thought to himself passing a huge open scroll on a great lectern bearing that illegible text and an illustrated dragon skeleton.

I'll come back for you in a minute he thought nodding at the yellowed vellum, it would make a good gift for his sisters sweet 16.

Passing the helm, rug, and jewelry the sound of the clocks grew more and more audible, their quiet counting rendered deafening by his stay in the silent room, he heard Rachel testing vinyl records near the front and plotted his course.

♪We'll meet again♪

Ah, Vera Lynn. Henry hummed along to the familiar tune standing just out of view behind a shelf.

♪Don't know where, don't know when♪

Now, he stepped into view "♪But I know we'll meet again some sunny day♪" Rachel jolted and turned smiling "Carefull now sonny all the folks I knew sang my days music are gone" Rachel said her tone turning slightly somber.

Henry chuckled, "I'm still too spry for ol' Cloak-and-Scythe to catch me granny" Rachel pouted then "Be carefull who you call old, I used to call my grandma Betty a rasin and look at me now"

"I'm not there yet granny, im gonna live a little before karma catches up" He said then, "Also when did you get the building expanded and who sold you all the props?"

There was a long pause where Rachels face contorted with confusion, "I didn't?" Rachel finally uttered, "What?" Henry said, "But it was this whole extra room, you filled every shelf what do you mean you "Didn't" ?"

"Are you feeling allright Henry" concern crossed Rachels face, He huffed then "Im fine you old bat, you just forgot about some rennovations you did. Come on I'll help you remember."

"All right I'll play pretend" Rachel got up to follow grumbling all the while, they walked and... It's gone... Henry stared at the plain wall, "Henry" she said then slowly pointing "Thats still a wall", "I see that" he said blankly looking at the tarnished ring in the palm of his hand and the wall in sequence. "Sonny what's that your holding?" Henry shook himself slightly, "I found this on the ground in the room that alledgedly doesn't exist" he handed the green band to rachel, "It didn't fit in with the rest of the stuff in there so I thought you misplaced it" he said while knocking on the wall and running his hands looking for any fault in the unbroken wallpaper.

Nothing, it was all smooth and solid without a single sign it bore a doorframe moments earlier, "It doesn't look familiar" rachel mumbled "and yet..." she rambled on quieter and quieter untill no sound escaped her. Rachel sighed "It's too tarnished for me to say, if you could be a dear I know you have stuff to clean it at home."

Henry pushed off of the wall and snatched the ring, "Rachel I swear if this is some prank I am personally going to nail your trees back together this ain't funny"

"You should give that offer for storm damage, I know a lot of folks who lost trees they liked"

"Daft codger" Henry spat.

"Daydreaming idjit" Rachel drawled.

"Well if you feel like coming clean you know who to call" he pocketed the ring and picked up the hatchet, "In the meantime Ive been wanting one of these"

Rachel nodded, "stay safe now, its getting dark out."

"I will I will" the bell rang as Henry left Rachels shop and the cool summer wind greeted him. The world was cast in a dim yellowish orange tint as the suns dying rays lit the clouds in the west.