2

TORY

"That old thing?" Smiling. "I gave it to Joe a long time ago, shortly after I first met him."

Spinning around to face this new person, "How the hell did you get in here?" barked Big Joe, as surprised by this new person's presence as I was.

"Joe. Joe." Indicating both Joe's. "What are you two arguing about this time?" His voice was deep but pleasant to hear, it kept your attention, and he was deliberately dodging the question.

"Nothing really." Shrugging their collective shoulders. "Just seeing who's got the better wit." Then frowning at him. "But, you didn't answer the question Tory."

He walked from behind me, over to the opposite side of me from Joe and Joe. "No need. You've been so enraptured with each other that you've both lost total track of time." Tory said tapping his watch.

"What do you mean?" asked Big Joe, looking confused.

Smiling in a very knowing way, "Come on boys look around you." Sweeping his arms to indicate the rest of the bar, "The bar is jumping and Kate has called in Lela and Darl for help."

"What?!?" exclaimed Big Joe, lurching up to his feet from his position leaning on the bar. Looking over Little Joe into the bar proper. "Holy Shit!" he said, and took off toward the end of the bar to take stock of what was going on.

The new guy sat down next to me and taps a few of the inlays. A Killian's like mine appears in front of him. I say appear because that is what it did. There was no flash, no pop, no fizzle, or hum, it just wasn't there one second and was the next. Star Trek, eat your heart out.

For that I finally picked up my beer and took a long drink, my senses and my brain finally starting to communicate again. Not that it was doing me any good; the first thing I noticed was that the beer was still ice cold, even though it had been sitting on the bar for an unknown amount of time, probably an hour or more. Second, there was no ring of condensation as you might expect, even thought there was moisture on the outside of the bottle.

Looking past me to Little Joe he asked. "So Joseph, who's your friend here?" Indicating me with a nod, "He's not a regular."

Shrugging his shoulders and returning to the intense study of his drink, "Yeah. I nearly ran the kid over. He's just mildly down on his luck. So I figured I'd bring him here, get him drunk, and see if I couldn't help him out."

Cocking his head to one side, "Help him out? By bringing him here? What's his name?" He seemed confused that Joe would bring me there for such a purpose.

Little Joe seemed irritated to be bothered. "His name's Kyle. He's a writer with no muse, and yeah, help him out, just seemed like the thing to do at the time."

"Really? I see." Turning his gaze to me and sounding surprised. I suddenly became the focus of his full attention and that was a decidedly unpleasant place to be and I didn't understand why at the time, which made me that much more nervous. There was just something about his smile that seemed almost predatory. "So Kyle, did Joe here bother to tell you anything about this bar or its patrons?" he asked.

I turned to face him. Feeling even more confused by the statement. "No. I don't even know what the place is called." What could be so unusual about this place anyways? This is what I was thinking at the time.

Smiling in a most friendly, and yet still very predatory way. "Well this is Joe's. Joe's Bar and Grill to be specific." Motioning to the bar in general.

I wasn't impressed. "So. I'm in Joe's, doesn't sound very spectacular."

He raised an eyebrow and then after looked over me at Little Joe frowning. "A few questions before I tell you much about this place."

I was too confused to care much about the bar, but this guy made me exceedingly nervous for no reason I could figure out. "Sure, but first. Who are you?"

His predatory smile returning. "My name's Tory. I am co-owner of this establishment, one of several, but I'm usually too busy with my other business ventures to be concerned about it. Besides, Joe does an excellent job without me." Pointing to the bartender.

"No kidding." Looking into my beer. "Well fire away. Not like there is much to tell." Downing the rest.

I could tell he was smiling again, I could just feel it. "Okay. How old are you Kyle?"

"26" The question seemed innocent enough, so I turned to look at him.

He raised an eyebrow in surprise to my answer, but continued with the questions like he hadn't noticed. "You have a Job?"

"Yeah, dead end job at Artens and Company, with a jerk for a boss that hates my guts." I said angrily thinking about the job I hated so much, but needed so badly at that moment.

He got this thoughtful look on his face. "Hmm… Sounds normal, so what year is it?"

"2022. Why?" Now that got my attention. Why would he want to know the year? I was starting to wonder if I should be listening to my instincts.

He shrugged his shoulders "Just some background so I know what not to tell you."

I was feeling rather irritated. What did he mean by what not to tell me? "My life has hit rock bottom Tory. I doubt you could come up with anything so strange that I would freak, or even be bothered much by it. Besides, with the dull normal life I have been leading, I could use a little weirdness, or at least a few surprises. So shock me. Drop the bomb! Don't hold back, I can take it. Lose the cat and mouse act, and just tell me what is so strange," Pausing for sarcastic effect with a deep breath. "About Joe's Bar and Grill?″ He raised an eyebrow to my statement, very Spock-like. There was nothing else that indicated that he had heard what I had said, and I hadn't been especially quiet about it.

He got this serious look on his face, like he was going to divulge some secret. "First of all, Joe's caters to a highly unusual and diverse clientele. At least from your perspective."

Still irritated and not caring anymore about the consequences, I think my instincts were kicking in and since they couldn't get me to run screaming, they were going to try and get me thrown out. "So it's a private club then? Is there some sort of standard you have to pass? Like a certain monetary value?"

He smirked. "No nothing like that. Most of the clientele here are self employed or independent contractors of varying types, but we aren't a private club."

"Independent contractors?" The thought that I really didn't want to be there was getting stronger, but something was gluing me to the stool.

"Mercenaries to be blunt, but we also get leaders of business and government in here too." He said it in an offhanded way, as if that was no big deal.

I thought I had it figured out. "So only the elite get in here."

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Shaking his head and smiling again. "No. Look at it this way. Bill Gates is not a patron here. He doesn't even know this place exists. However, several of his researchers are regulars and about half of the scifi and fantasy authors you would find on the shelves of a bookstore stop in here from time to time." He paused for dramatic effect. Getting that I've got a secret look again, "Looking for material."

Now I was definitely confused, "So what are the criteria then?" I didn't think for a moment he was serious.

"An open mind and the ability to keep your mouth shut." If he wasn't serious, he was certainly convincing. I now know he was dead serious. Only thing is, the way he meant it isn't nearly as literal as it sounds, he was mostly referring to overhearing things.

I smiled ironically. "Well, sounds like I qualify then."

Smiling to himself. "We shall see. Remember, time is relative, if you become a regular customer here. You will always return the exact amount of time you have been gone, as far as you are concerned."

Now that was something out of left field; what did time have to do with a bar? "That seems sort of self evident. How can you return someplace a different amount of time then you have been gone?" I answered my own question as he answered me and it sent chills down my spine because I was beginning to suspect that again, I should have been running from this place at full speed.

"With some of our patrons, that can actually be a problem. It helps to keep people running into themselves to a minimum." He sounded dead serious, and I was beginning to think I was, dead that is. Being dead would have explained why I wasn't running from the place at full speed, although, thinking about it, I am glad that I wasn't dead and that I didn't run. I wouldn't have the life I have now if I had.

"This is really a problem here?" Without actually saying it, he had just told me that time travel was not only a possibility, something I accepted, but people were actually doing it, and some of them frequented this place enough to require such a trick. I had no idea how you would pull it off, although a dozen different scifi novels sprung to mind.

Then it occurred to me that if he was telling the truth, then those authors may have gotten their idea's here, something he did imply. I still haven't figured it out, although I think it has something to do with the key they all seemed to carry, and I now do as well. So yeah, after all this, I'm a regular at Joe's now, I am dating one of the waitresses after all.

Strangely enough I just accepted it, I must have been farther gone than I thought, so I decided to be sarcastic. In all honesty I was not expecting him to answer me the way I just knew he would. "So next you are going to tell me that many of the patrons here, like Little Joe and yourself are not even human."

He looked directly at me and if he was lying, he was the best actor I have ever seen, but I know that he wasn't at this point. "Well honestly no, Little Joe is not human. I was human in a manner of speaking, a very long time ago, but I've changed a bit since then."

"And Big Joe?" taking a long second pull on my beer.

Smiling and glancing down the bar. "He's human enough. At least in the way you think of as human."

"Humph. So what makes you so changed?" I was expecting anything at this point with the exception of what happened. What he did just wasn't on my radar or even in the realm of possibilities I had considered, this was so far out there it wasn't even an outlier.

As if on cue, a natural tendency of things in his vicinity as I would come to find, one of the waitresses walks up behind me and says. "Hey big fuzzy, what you doing wearing skin, and who's your little friend? He's cute." Referring to Tory then myself in turn.

Now, this is the first time I actually noticed more than my own reflection in the mirror, or Tory when he was standing behind me. Sure, I had looked at Tory, but he was human, or so I thought, and I hadn't looked past him. So you'll have to forgive my reaction.

I looked past myself in the mirror and saw the waitress, she is about my height, 5 foot 10 inches, and quite attractive actually, that is after I got over the fact that she was a cat. I mean full body fur, green slit eyes, and triangular ears on the top of her head, claws at the end of delicate fingers, and a tail to boot. Her fur was a golden brown in color and about an inch long. I could spend days describing her, I think I stared for a good 10 minutes.

Then my gaze moved past her to a scene out of Star Wars, and if they were costumes, any studio would kill to have access to them. But, you know how it is, some little voice inside tells you that the giant cockroach is exactly that, the squid floating there above the table was actually floating, and was if you'll believe this, having a conversation with the cockroach, and a werewolf. The roach was doing shots of something clear, the werewolf had a bottle of good old ‘Jack Daniel's No. 7,' and the squid was sipping a gold glowing liquid with one of those silly little paper umbrellas in it through a straw shaped like a frog of all things.

I saw all this and more in a moment then looked back at my own reflection. Nope, still there. So I slapped myself as hard as I could. Yes it hurt and no it didn't make things go away.

"Hey, that's not necessary." Putting a hand on my shoulder.

His grip was amazingly strong but gentle. "Yes it was. Needed to ensure I was still alive and dreaming."

"Oh. You're still alive and you're not dreaming." was his reply.

I turned and looked directly at him again and he changed. It took me a few moments to get my brain working again, with the exception of Joe and Joe. Everything I had seen so far had been through the mirror, I could write it off as a projection or something. This was right in front of my face, about 2 feet from it actually. When I could think again, I was completely convinced I was stark raving mad, and sometimes, just sometimes, I really wish that was true.

What changed in the time it took me to move my head? Well his eyes were now blue-green slits with a cold blue fire burning behind them. He sprouted midnight black fur about an inch long, large triangular ears grew up on top of his head; each had a little tuft of fur coming from the tip, and his face elongated into a long angular muzzle, larger then the waitress Kate's. That was her name; it was on her name tag.

He had whiskers that stuck out of both sides near his nose and a silly smile which showed lots of sharp white teeth, ebony black claws sticking out of large strong fingers, a thick muscular looking tail, and other minor details. If you could look beyond these minor things, his body shape was still basically human like Kate's. Humanoid is what they call it.

Waving one of those massive, claw tipped hands before my eyes. "Hey, Kyle. You okay?"

"Yeah sure, fine. I just had a fairly normal looking guy turn into a walking wall of fur right before my eyes. The waitress standing behind me is one of the best looking women I have seen in years outside of a movie theater, she just happens to be a cat, behind me there is a werewolf, a giant cockroach, and a floating squid. They are talking and drinking together, and I am obviously completely insane."

He looked away from me towards the end of the bar where I assumed the bartender. Big Joe was. "I think what you need is another drink. Joe!"

Shaking my head, "No, what I need is a gun so I can kill myself before I hurt someone."

Frowning at me. "Suicide is no answer."

Leaning down and setting my head on the bar. The cool of the bar felt good. I listened to the noise of the bar for a moment. It sounded busy, with quiet conversations mixing into a din of almost white noise. "You're right of course; suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. But things are looking pretty bad right at this moment."

"Now a truer statement I haven't heard in quite some time."

Rolling my head to the side so I could look up at him from the bar, "Assuredly so, but since I can recognize that all of this is completely insane and that I am completely mad, I therefore am not. Because if I was, I wouldn't notice how crazy all of this is. I'd just accept it, and since I can recognize the lunacy of the situation there are only two possibilities. One, I could still be crazy, and am currently in an asylum, enjoying a nice warm I Love Me jacket, also known as a straight jacket, along with a nice Thorazine drip; or two, I am accepting enough to not freak out, though there is actually two other options."

Cocking his head to the side in a most human gesture, "What are those?"

"One is that this is all just an elaborate practical joke. Designed to sucker in some poor bastard off the street and see just how long it takes them to lose it. Some hyper-rich jackasses idea of a social experiment. I should therefore be looking for the hidden cameras." This sounded like the most likely possibility, and in that moment I was rooting for that option.

Smiling and showing even more of those pointy teeth. "Or?" I was desperately trying to ignore the fact that when he spoke, his muzzle and lips moved just as you would expect it to in order to form words.

"Or, this is real, and I am in some seriously deep shit." Rolling my head back to face the bar.

He was quiet for a moment. "I see. Do you want me to answer your question, or do you want to decide for yourself?"

Sitting up, I had made a decision, though I didn't know I had. "Well. I was always told never to make snap decisions, especially under stress, so I think I will reserve judgment for a few hours."

He looked at me and smiled again, only this time he didn't show any teeth. "So what do you plan on doing till then?"