He ran the numbers in his head.
Two seconds.
That was the window. Even at peak velocity, the stranger couldn't have cleared the street. There was nowhere to hide. The wall was solid brick. The road was open.
"Where did he go?" Evan muttered, spinning on his heel.
One second, the world was a muted, greyscale buffer. The next, it was rendering at full speed again.
He looked down at the card in his hand. It was still cold. That was the proof.
Hallucinations didn't have weight.
Hallucinations didn't freeze your fingertips.
The white letters seemed to cut through the gloom.
He gripped the card tighter. It felt heavier and denser.
"Did I just… crack?"
Sleep deprivation.
Stress.
Caloric deficit.
The perfect formula for a system crash.
He shook his head hard. He knew that he was rational because the physics held up. Mass. Impact. Pain. That guy was solid.
Evan was still standing there, scanning the street like a debugger looking for a broken line of code, when a shout came from behind.
"Evan! Wait up!"
Evan didn't need to turn to know who it was. The voice was loud, cheerful, and cut through the city noise like a knife.
It was Jordan Walker.
Evan turned to see Jordan jogging toward him, weaving through the pedestrian traffic with the easy grace of a track athlete. He dodged a slow-moving elderly couple without breaking stride and slid to a stop in front of Evan.
It made sense why they were friends. In a city where everyone moved like they were wading through molasses, Jordan was the only one who could keep up with Evan.
They were cut from the same cloth, just stitched differently. Evan was wire-thin and ran on nervous energy and caffeine. Jordan was broad-shouldered, built of lean muscle, and ran on pure, unadulterated optimism.
"Man, I've been looking all over," Jordan said, grinning. He wasn't even out of breath. "You alright? You look like you just saw a tax collector."
Evan forced a smile. It felt stiff on his face.
"I'm fine," he lied. "Just… buffering."
Jordan laughed, clapping a heavy hand on Evan's shoulder. "Figures. Your… what do you call it? CPU?"
Evan laughed as he nodded.
Jordan continued, "Yeah. Your CPU is always running hot." He then added, "I swung by the bookstore, but Mr. Parker said you'd just left. Figured I'd catch you on the way to Edgewater."
Evan relaxed slightly. Jordan was a constant. A known variable in a chaotic world.
"Yeah. For once, I'm actually on time. A statistical anomaly."
"Alright then. Since you're on time, I need to ask you this. What's the plan for the weekend?" Jordan shifted his backpack higher. "You finally going to relax? Maybe sleep for more than four hours?"
Evan shrugged, sliding the black card into his pocket. He kept his hand on it, feeling the sharp, freezing corners pressing against his thigh.
"Nothing special," Evan said. "Might take some overtime if Mr. Parker lets me. Could use the extra cash."
Jordan watched him for a second. He wasn't a genius like Evan—he barely passed Algebra—but he had emotional intelligence in spades. He saw the way Evan's shoulders dipped. He opened his mouth to offer a loan, hesitated, then closed it.
He knew Evan too well. Evan wouldn't take charity. No matter how much Jordan was willing to help.
"Well," Jordan said instead, keeping it light. "Don't work too hard. You're making the rest of us look lazy."
Evan glanced at his pocket, then back at the empty street.
"Hey," Evan started, trying to sound casual and changing the topic. "You didn't see a weird guy just now, did you?"
Jordan raised an eyebrow. "Weird guy? Evan, look around. We live in New Orelis. I see three weird guys just standing in line for coffee."
"No," Evan said. "I mean… specific. Tall. Wearing all black. Big coat. Gloves. Boots. Had this weird tall hat and dark glasses. Like… an undertaker from a hundred years ago."
Jordan squinted, scratching his head. He looked down the street, scanning the crowd, then looked back at Evan with a confused grin.
"A top hat? In this humidity? Dude, he'd be dead from heatstroke in five minutes."
"I'm serious," Evan said. "I bumped into him. Hard. It was like running into a brick wall."
Jordan shook his head slowly. "Nope. Didn't see anyone like that. And trust me, I would have noticed a giant goth in a trench coat."
"You sure?" Evan frowned. "That's… impossible. He was right here. Two seconds before you showed up."
"Maybe he turned a corner?" Jordan suggested. "Ducked into a shop?"
"No," Evan said quietly. "No line of sight broke. No doors opened. And in a few seconds, it is impossible to cross the street."
He looked at the empty pavement again.
"He just… vanished."
Jordan stared at him. "Vanished? Like… a magic trick?"
Evan sighed, rubbing his temples. "I know how it sounds. But yeah. One second, right in front of me. I looked down at… something… and when I looked up, gone."
Jordan looked at him for a long moment. He didn't get the physics, and he definitely didn't get the logic, but he got that his friend was stressed. He let out a short laugh to break the tension.
"Man, maybe you really do need that overtime—but to pay for a therapist, not rent. You're hallucinating Victorian ghosts now? That's a new level of stress."
Evan paused.
He felt the cold card in his pocket. It was still freezing against his leg.
Evidence, he thought. Hallucinations don't drop the ambient temperature.
Besides, the card was a proof. But he didn't pull it out. Jordan wouldn't understand. Jordan saw the world as it was; Evan saw the code underneath. And most of the time, it was hard for people to understand what was in his mind.
"Maybe…" Evan muttered. "Maybe I really do need sleep."
He slipped his hand deeper into his pocket, ensuring the card was secure.
"Anyway," Jordan said, nudging him with an elbow. "You heading home? Or are you going to stand here and hunt for that Victorian ghost?"
Evan shook his head, clearing the fog. "Got to stop by the grocery store first."
"Oh, perfect," Jordan said, instantly cheerful again. "I can grab a few things, too. I'm out of snacks."
"You're always out of snacks," Evan pointed out, starting to walk.
"That's because I eat them," Jordan countered, falling perfectly into step beside him. "It's the circle of life, Evan. Buy snacks, eat snacks, regret nothing."
Evan smiled. It was faint, but for the first time in an hour, the variables felt manageable.