“What’s your name?”
The man jerked away from the wall as if someone had just slapped him across the face. “You mean I haven’t introduced myself yet, well shit son, why didn’t you ask me before. You wandering around my store listening to me prattle on like some old hen on the coop stoop; you don’t even know my name yet, shit.” The man jabbed his hand out toward William midsection, “The name’s Robert Beauford Jones. You can call me Billy.” William wasn’t quite sure what to make of Billy just yet but he reached his hand out and Billy grabbed it in a solid handshake. “Now that we made with the introductions, you want to see some of the other stuff I got?”
“Why do some of these have an enlarged, uh, what did you call them, trigger something?”
Billy ran his hands through his brown hair. “I’m guessing that you mean the ‘trigger guard’, right?” William nodded his head. Billy heaved a sigh and shook his head from side-to-side. “You really don’t know anything do you, pup?” William didn’t want to respond to that at all, the only thing he could do was stand there. Billy looked over William’s shoulder toward the street. “Ah, shit you going to learn one way or the other right? Ok” Billy grabbed one of the handguns in question off the wall. “Look, kid we’re at war.” William stared at Billy, who slapped him upside the head with his empty hand. “Are you paying attention, pup? I said we’re at war and I make the weapons we use to fight it.”
William shook himself and tried to not rub the stinging sensation on his temple. “What war? Who are we at war with?”
“Jesus H Christ! Come on pup, I know you’re not this slow. We’re at war, son.”
William tried to compose himself as best as he could. “Billy? For a moment let’s pretend that I don’t know anything about werewolves, shape shifters, or the phases of the moon and just tell me what the hell is going on.”
Billy gave the younger man a quizzical look and shaking his head he walked over to a bench and sat down. William watched as Billy looked at him and gently patted the worn wood next to him. William glanced toward the ceiling one more time and sat down next to the middle-aged man with the questionable sanity.
Billy took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “You know, William,” he said as he replaced the glasses on his angular nose, “I’ve been alive for a good many years.” Billy twisted his body so he was looking the younger man in the eye. “But I have never seen one of our kind as old as you that knew so little.” Billy closed his eyes and twisted back around so he was facing forward as he coughed out another laugh. William had to concentrate to not breathe a sigh. He chose instead to lean back on the bench and rest his back on the cool polished black stone of the wall.
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Billy leaned forward, propping himself up on his knees by his elbows. “Ok, look we, that is the shape shifters, you and I, right?” William nodded in acknowledgement. “We are fighting a multiple front war, you might say. I make the weapons that we use to fight with.” Billy scratched his head. “Well, some of the weapons that we use to fight with.”
William opened his eyes and studied the various tools that were around him. From the guns hanging on the wall, to the tools that he assumed were used to make them, William was pretty sure that the contents of this store could supply a small army.
“Of course, my weapons only work in this reality.” Billy gestured around the room encompassing the contents that were inside. “I still haven’t found any other weapon other than these” with that Billy’s hand changed and instead of the hard calloused human hands he wore only a moment ago, now his hands were the claws of a werewolf, “to fight the Shadows.”
“I’ve had a run in with those,” William said.
Billy gave him a sideways glance, his hands once again the hands of a human, “Yeah? Shit you did, pup. Very few of us have had run ins with the shadows solo and survived.”
William knew better than to try to explain himself. He was just a pup, and he didn’t really want to remember how he almost got himself killed so he let the subject drop. He motioned with his arm. “You were saying?”
Billy seemed to shake himself and he hunched down on his elbows. “Right, where was I?”
“Something about how our werewolf claws are the only weapon you’ve found to use against the Shadows,” William said.
“Shit, look pup I’m sorry if I said anything that upset you. You need to know this stuff if you’re going to survive. Your teacher should have been telling you this stuff since day one.”
William closed his eyes. “Maybe he was just waiting for a good time?”
Billy barked out a laugh. “Yeah? And when do you suppose a good time would be? When you’re dead? Shit.” Billy spit on the polished stone floor. “Look pup, I got to get back to work.” Billy stood up. “If you want to come by a little later, I could probably tell you a little more so that some of this makes sense.” Billy offered his hand to William one last time. William opened his eyes and saw the offered hand. He took it and Billy yanked him up off the bench. William stumbled for a step or two trying to regain his balance. Billy slapped him on the shoulder hard. “Come and visit anytime,” Billy said as he turned to go back to the workbench that William had seen him use when he first entered the shop.
William took a few steps toward the open street. William raised both hands above his shoulders and turned around to face Billy once more. “Just a question Billy. If we’re at war, and guns don’t work against Shadows, then what good is having all these things in the first place?”
Billy looked up from his work with a sly grin on his face. “It’s not just the guns, pup. It’s the ammo.”
“Ok, I’ll bite, so what kind of ammo do you have? I’m pretty sure what you are talking about can’t be bought from a store.” William’s hands dropped to his side.
“Well, pup.” Billy stood up from his work bench. He walked over to a counter and reached over the top to open a drawer on the other side. William watched as the older man rummaged around half leaning on half lying on top of the counter as one of his legs was lifted off the floor. Billy kicked his leg down and heaved the rest of his body back to a standing position. He held in his hands what looked to be a box of bullets. Billy brought the box to where William was standing and he opened it. William was looking at what he supposed was regular bullets.