Welcome to Ulrich Antiques Emporium

It was an approaching evening. The sky was beginning its shifting of orange and pink colours as the sun sunk lower and lower with each passing minute. For Otto- it was nearly closing time.

And unfortunately for him, today had been too quiet. It wasn't that he hated the sound of silence--no, no, he actually enjoyed it--quiet as in, no one had visited all day. There was no business and it certainly was not looking good in the shopkeeper's records; it had been unusually still for the past week.

But- perhaps it wasn't too bad, at least for today-

He had to close shop during the morning hours as he had run into a bit of trouble. Though, in his mind- all of the morning's troubles had begun to fade away into other thoughts while he found the late afternoon hours perfect to indulge himself in rearranging the shop's interior a bit. There were no customers for a while, so why not?

In the silence, he made himself dance with the broom and duster. Little hums interrupted the still air as he moved from shelf to shelf.

Until there was the sound of books falling.

"Oh, great heavens-" There went the poor busy man after those encyclopedias scattered about on the dusty floor. He took careful movements in scooping every last fallen hardback; his hands were all bandaged up and--quite in fact--still slightly humid from earlier. Humid with those spots of red that seemed to bloom like flowers against a snow-covered ground; he had not cleaned the cut properly and only used a loose cloth to stop the bleeding before he simply wrapped his whole palm in bandages. Some of his movements bothered it and it would leak against the cloth bandages. He intended to tend to it properly later, and even though it was now "later", he still had nothing to actually clean it with. "I'll have to visit after closing... hm..." he muttered to himself, eyeing his wound.

There was another sound- much more pleasant than the last. It was the sound of those small tinkling bells tied to the front doors of the store; alerting the shopkeeper of a potential customer.

It was two university students.

"Welcome to Ulrich Antiques Emporium!" he called out from behind a shelf, still very much occupied with tidying up the mess that was made before he could tend to the newcomers.

"Hello!" one of the students replied while she peered across the front of the store; the man was nowhere visible. "Ah- I'll be there just a moment!"

Thump.

"Ow-"

Both of the students looked at each other, with slight concern over what had sounded like the guy bumping his head against furniture. One of them was reluctant to walk over to the source of the sound to check the situation out, but the man walked out before they took another step. He hauled the pile of several thick books in his arms onto the counter before turning. He offered a dusty and bandaged-up hand. Actually, it wasn't the only thing that was dusty; the man himself looked like he had used his head as a duster.

"Good evening ladies," Otto greeted with his hand still outstretched. It earned him a look of concern from one of the students. "Oh- what happened?"

"I had an accident earlier in the morning-" Otto nervously chuckled, taking back his unshaken hand. "Worry not- it should be in the process of healing now."

Both of the students nodded, now much more relieved.

The shopkeeper hummed, "What can I help you two with, today?"

"We wanted to look around since me and m- her- recently moved to this part of town," the shorter of the two replied, her hands fidgeted nervously in the pockets of her flannel jacket. "Yeah, your shop caught our attention. We like vintage stuff," the other added, taking a glance back to meet the eyes of her partner.

"Ahh, I see I see-" Otto nodded, fixing his glasses afterwards. "Well, we have vintage, antique, a-and everything in-between!"

The dark-haired girl raised her eyebrows and exchanged a quick knowing glance with the other. "Everything in between, huh?" He nodded.

"Also, I do not recall seeing teenagers like you two...to be as interested. You don't really see young people going after second-hand, I'm afraid."

"I guess you can say that, yeah-"

"Anything in particular that catches your eye?"

The shorter girl seemed to have wanted to say something, but she looked back at the entrance door and shook her head. "I think we'll just look for now, Mr-"

"Ulrich. Otto Ulrich," he answered with a warm smile.

"Ohhh, well that explains the name of the store then," she commented. Otto nodded.

"So you're the owner?"

Otto nodded again.

"That's a cool name. It reminds me of something, but I don't know what it is..." the taller girl stated as she picked up a stone necklace from a shelf beside the counter. "Probably a video game character or something," she finished her thought out loud.

"Erm... veedee-o? game?" Otto repeated; confused. "Like television?"

Both of the students looked up at the glasses-wearing man, their eyes widened at his confusion. "Woah, you don't know what a video game is? Mister- you sound like you never stepped out of this shop or something," the taller girl snickered. "Samantha- don't be mean," the other girl scolded lightly.

Otto gave a small smile and let out a light laugh. "Oh, not at all-" he swatted the air with his unbandaged hand. "It wouldn't be far from the truth..." he admitted, squinting and looking away, his smile turning into one with pursed lips. The older man's attention drifted to Samantha's sweater and he nodded to himself before he waved a hand at her; beckoning. "I think you'd like some things back here, I got a handful of sweaters that look like the one you're wearing right now," he hummed.

Samantha's eyes lit up. "Oh sweet- I was hoping there would be some. Thank you, sir."

"Let me know if you need anything," he commented as she made her way toward the racks and shelves of clothes. She nodded in response and turned back momentarily to the slightly shorter girl. "Hey, I'll be over there, Evelyn. You should look around too, maybe ask, y'know." "Yeah, yeah- I will-"

The shopkeeper in the meantime, began to occupy himself with sorting the books he had set on the counter. Evelyn slowly attempted to muster up the confidence to ask for something as she approached the oblivious brown-haired man, who was so quickly absorbed into trying to recall which encyclopedia went in front of which on the shelf before they had fallen.

"Mr. Ulrich-" Evelyn started, fidgeting with her hands as the gears in her head turned to find the right words.

"Yes?" Otto turned his head before shifting his entire body to face the girl, it was an awkward movement that could have made her chuckle if it weren't for the fact that she was riddled with anxiety.

"You don't happen to have any old books on... erm- vampires?" she asked Otto, while nervously avoiding any eye contact.

Otto blinked. "Vampires?"

"Preferably if they're from the 19th century or earlier," she added with a whisper as she was starting to regret asking.

"I believe..." the shopkeeper trailed off, never finishing his response, and instead began leading her to a bookshelf towards the back, past Samantha, who was still going through hung-up sweaters and shirts. Otto pulled out a stool, carefully elevating himself to peer through the topmost level.

Reaching for several books, he chuckled somewhat to himself. "Now, why would a lady like yourself want to read about these vampires?"

"Ah... well..."

"I hope you know that they're not real," Otto hummed warmly, still a bit amused.

"Haha- yeah... but you never know though..." she crossed her arms and shrugged with averted eyes. "There's nothing wrong with learning about myths of course!" the shopkeeper added, afraid that he may have accidentally offended or upset the young university student. "I think vampires are fairly interesting, one of the most well-known mythical creatures out there, I'd say," he said while gently handing the books over to Evelyn. All four books bore hardback covers, one of them was made of thick leather while the rest were made of starched book cloth.

"Whichever ones you like, I believe these are the only ones I have about vampires."

Evelyn flipped carefully to skim the contents of each book--including letting out a delighted hum, when she noted genuine handwriting in one of them; a journal. "You wouldn't mind if I took all of them?" she asked, not taking her eyes off the books.

"Oh, not at all," Otto drawled. "I was actually conflicted in putting these up on the shelves for sale, but seeing you enjoying them sounds much more pleasant than having them hoarded up on my own personal shelves," he commented, smiling when she finally looked up at him.

"T-that's actually very sweet, thank you," she said as she closed the cover of the final book she inspected. The girl hugged the hardcovers to her chest as she made a beeline for Samantha, who was just barely finished with her selection of two sweaters and a shirt. Both university students briefly shared their findings with each other, excitedly exchanging ideas and comments as they made their way to the front of the store, where Otto walked over to meet them.

The older man immediately began to ring up the items, being careful in folding each article of clothing into a white canvas tote for Samantha. There was a slight pause as Evelyn set the books down on the counter for Otto to bag, but it was enough for the shopkeeper to notice. "Did you not want these bagged? I can assure you that the bags are fairly cheap, but I can understand if you rather not- or would you rather have them wrapped? Yes, I think that would be better," he said, nearly whipping around to inspect the shelves behind the cash register and him for wrapping paper. "No no- it's just-" she stammered out, taking a moment to pat her pocket pants. "I forgot my wallet in my dorm," she confessed dissapointedly.

"I'll tell you what- I'll give you these books, free of charge," Otto grinned, clapping both hands together.

Evelyn blinked in surprise while Samantha let out a laugh. "Mr. Ulrich, you know that's no way to run a business," she exclaimed, slightly raising her eyebrow and pointing a finger--almost wagging it--towards the shopkeeper. "Oh, but I insist. It's my treat."

"Then this must be some advanced business technique to get us to come back then, huh. I'm onto you mister-" Samantha added, playfully accusing him as she squinted. "Maybe I am..." Otto replied, pointing a finger back at her in the same playful manner. This made Evelyn chuckle lightly.

"Thank you so much Mr. Ulrich--you really didn't have to," Evelyn expressed as she took the tote from his hands. "The bag too?"

The brown-haired male nodded, "But of course," he answered, taking Samantha's payment for the clothes and issuing her the change. "I'm telling you, baaaad business practice," she added as she took her receipt and bag.

Both university students began making their way to the door before Otto briefly stopped them. "I'll have a sale next week, if you two are interested," he chimed, giving them a polite smile as they turned and paused. "You better let us pay though, can't let you run out of business," Samantha replied.

"Alright, just make sure you come back next time then," Otto hummed.

"We will!"

The door swung open and the sound of the little tied-up bells above jingled, signaling the departure of the two girls. The shopkeeper kept his green eyes on the pair before they completely disappeared from his sight at the windowed front of his antique store.

Otto was alone once more.

"Vampires, huh," he said to himself. His thoughts were occupied with the delight he witnessed from the student.

And it was true--what he said--he was much more content knowing these books went to someone with genuine interest rather than sitting any longer to collect dust on his store shelves or to be stuck, also untouched in his own personal bookshelves. He let out a sigh, accidentally catching a glimpse of himself through the long mirror next to him; maybe he was also something else that needed to stop collecting dust.

"Bah- good heavens..." he muttered, patting down his hair that resembled more of a lion's mane than anything--a dusty lion's mane. "Did they really see me like this?" he asked himself, dusting off his knitted sweater and chino pants as he made his way back to his propped-up broom in the corner against a shelf. The same shelf he bumped his head against.

Grabbing the broom, he paused and looked down, now remembering. He took a moment to acknowledge the forgotten state of his hand, unwrapping it and analyzing the wound before sucking in a breath. "Yeah, I should probably get something for this." For a moment, he looked seemingly lost in thought, finally making a face before sighing. With a quick glance at the antique analog clock that hung above the store's entrance, he made his way back to the front of the store, behind the counter.

He had an old rotary phone, still surprisingly--or unsurprisingly--in service, he began spinning in a number to call.

Holding up the phone to his ear, humming to himself before hearing a familiar voice answer.

"Hello?" a soft accented voice spoke through the old speaker.

"Hey old friend," Otto replied, smiling despite knowing no one was physically there to see it. "I know I haven't said anything in a while, for that I apologize- but I need..." he paused for a moment, looking at his free hand--the bandaged one--before continuing. "I need a few things and I was wondering if you were still where you're staying at."

The other end of the line seemed to take a slight hesitation before a slight "ahh" was heard. "Yes, I'm still here. I don't think I'll be leaving anytime soon, Otto," the soft voice confirmed, there was a slight crackle accompanied by static noise for a second. The downsides of using old technology perhaps, but Otto had a feeling and quickly decided to wrap up his conversation.

"If all is well, I will see you this evening. Same place," the brunet muttered, pausing for confirmation or another noise from the opposite side.

"I'll see you then."