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He came rushing forward as I clutched my jacket to my front. My heart thundered in my chest. He shouldn’t have been there. He shouldn’t have been able to see the place, let alone come in. He couldn’t see me like I was.

He took off running and vaulted over the counter, half in tears as he near-tackled me in a hug, arms wrapping tight.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I haven’t messaged you. I understand if you’re mad at me. I mean I’d be mad at me too…” Syl parted from me when I didn’t hug him back and my facial expression probably wasn’t one of delight. I opened my mouth to say something several times. It was like seeing a ghost.

“Now, how the hell did you get in here?” Isa’s snide voice jerked my attention away from Syl, my panicked expression amusing her.

Syl nearly jumped out of his skin with a shout and swear. “Holy fuck, they need to put a bell on you!”

Isa rolled her eyes as the pages of her book flipped, aging her a few years as she walked straight through the counter, arms crossed.

Syl didn’t jump, didn’t panic. “Oh. Oh, you’re one of those…”

“One of those. A lesbian?” She sniffed.

“No! No. Like… A book person. A thing. The journals with people in them… An uh… what do you book guys call them. A soul backup.”

“Hold up, a what?” I glanced from Syl to Isa.

“Category Y, Phantom—Salvus?” Syl glanced her up and down.

“I’m an archived inscriptor, yes.” She glanced at me and gave me a nod of approval. “And Lex here is an archivist requisitor. What are you?”

“I… Pictus.” Syl wrung his hands. “Subclass crawler.”

“Holy shit… Where have you been, Syl?” I released a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.

“You wouldn’t believe me—Okay, probably would. So, I’ve been—someone’s after me.” He flinched as one of the books scuttled about in the background, drawing his gaze off that way.

“Okay, so there’s like this debate… Archivists and the pictus are the same thing; we just evolved with different media.” Syl cleared his throat. “So, I’ve been using my gifts to do things for money. Nobody in my family knows, but like… I can find things easily.”

I nodded slowly, my heart still racing in my ears as he rattled on.

“And we’re not like you guys. There’s no syndicate or higher up or restrictions. It’s wild out there. I mean… They don’t want competition and there’s this big thing where they are kidnapping us and holing us up in warehouses to do dirty work and find crypto currency units in blocks instead of mining the blockchain because apparently a good pictus can nab a token an hour so—”

“Token?” I held up a hand.

“Crypto. Bitcoin, Etherium?” He stared at me, and I just nodded slowly.

“So, I’ve been on the run and I can’t get into my funds and I can’t just call my parents—” Syl sighed heavily. “They’re probably worried sick.”

“I tried calling them. They seemed really just… flat. Like they thought you’d be back any day now.” I tightened my grip on my jacket.

“I ditched my phone two months ago. No emails, nothing.” Syl rubbed at his shoulder, glancing around anxiously. “So, like, is this place safe?”

“Should be,” I said

Isa nodded in agreement before slipping off with her book.

I stepped back, still holding my jacket as Syl paced, eyes wild. “Syl, you know you can talk to me. Are you on something?”

“What? No. Fuck no. I’ve not slept in two days and am on my eleventh energy drink in that time-span. I’m crashing.” Syl stared at me with bloodshot eyes.

I nodded. “Let’s get you someplace to sleep. I can—”

Zeke came jogging up a moment later, squinting at Syl with distrust spelled plain on his face.

“H-he’s the carcer, right?” Syl gestured at Zeke, and I took a breath, ready to tell him off before Zeke nodded once.