After high school, Archie Costello drops off the face of the earth.

And it's weird, Obie thinks, because his parents moved away too. It seemed like no sooner had Archie graduated from Trinity that there was a 'For Sale' sign up on their front lawn, and his last memory was of Archie accusing him of being the bad guy. Of Archie accusing everyone. Of Archie making similarly no sense at all and all the sense in the world.

Now Obie's halfway through his third year of college and he hasn't even heard anyone mention they saw Archie. He went to the same college as Carter, and for the first year or so Carter was constantly on his guard, apart from on the football field or in the boxing ring – but now Carter's got that swagger back and doesn't do much more than a nod of acknowledgement when they pass each other. Like, hey, there's the kid I knew in high school but don't care enough about to do more than a passing nod.

He's managed to put high school behind him, but Obie hasn't.

He still has his notebooks. He keeps them in a box under his bed in the dorms – right under his four high school yearbooks, which he takes out about once a week to make sure that Archie was real, that he wasn't just a figment of his imagination, that Archie and all of the shit that happened at Trinity was real.

He tried to contact Jerry Renault, once. Renault had gone back to Trinity, the poor bastard – Archie had put people like Bunting and Emile Janza in charge of the school, and as far as Obie knew, Renault was still powering his way through high school, scarred… but only physically, it seemed. He'd bounced back stronger, and the strength that he'd told Obie off with over the phone was surprising.

It had helped to solidify the fact that Archie Costello had been real, though.

He'd debated going back to Trinity once, over one of his breaks, but he'd taken one drive past it and decided that it was a stupid idea. Trinity wasn't Trinity anymore. Without Archie Costello… it was just another (really) shitty private day school. He'd heard that Leon had transferred out, too. Left it seriously to Bunting and Janza, and then Bunting and some other musclebound animal, and then someone else entirely, probably even worse than Bunting.

But then one day Carter stars looking sickish again – he'd stopped shaving again, he was pale, and Obie is very near transported back to his senior year of high school. His first thought is Archie, it has to be Archie, right?

But no. Unless Archie was harassing him through the mail or phone, there was no way that Archie could get to him. Because Archie would have to be at college too, right? He wouldn't throw his life away on some sick sort of revenge?

Still, with Carter jumpy and sickish, Obie starts to get a little jumpy and sickish, too. Looking in the mirror feels like looking in a yearbook. He picks at his fingernails and he tries to watch Carter as much as he can – they're going into different things, Obie's eventually decided on Business, Carter's going into Education, for Chrissake – and then one day he gets a letter, too. It doesn't have a return address – in fact, it's just slipped under his door and his roommate sees it, is like – "Hey, looks like you've got mail", and he grabs for it, tearing it open.

Cut apart magazine letters, glued together to make a sentence – that's what's inside. And it's kind of funny, because Obie used to be in charge of making the summons – he'd either do it himself or have some sophomore who wanted to be in The Vigils do it – and the thought of Archie Costello sitting in some dorm room, cutting up magazines and painstakingly gluing them to pieces of paper makes him grin a little.

But of course Archie wouldn't get a dorm, or he wouldn't have one this far into college, at least – Obie's willing to bet he still hates the reality of the human body, Obie doesn't know how many times he's asked to meet in the gym just to piss Archie off. He has an apartment, chances are. A new girl every night, because he never really seemed to stick with one – he didn't have girls very often, either, Obie knows that he used to go to St. Jerome's and pick up Jill Morton a lot, Jill Morton who goes to the same college as Obie and mentioned Archie a few times in freshman year and hasn't talked to Obie since.

But the note says to meet on the football field at midnight, and for half a second Obie's making preparations to head back to Monument – he can make it in a night, it's not like he's going to college out of state or anything, and then wonders – is he really going to drop everything and head to Monument because of who he thinks is Archie Costello?

The answer is yes, apparently, because it's six and he's heading out to his car. Maybe he'll stop back home and mention off-hand to his parents that he decided to come home for the weekend. It's six-o-five when he runs straight into Carter, who's clutching a similar note in his hand.

"You got one too," Carter says. "You going?"

Obie swallows. "I guess," he said. "Haven't heard from him in a while."

"So it is from him."

"Who else? Damn, it looks like we're being summoned to a Vigil meeting the victim way."
"Victim way? Christ, that makes it terrifying."

"Well, no inverted – oh, for Christ's sake." Obie's just noticed that there's an upside-down 'Y' at the bottom of the page, completely out of place. He wonders why he didn't notice it before. "Didn't see that."

"Yeah," Carter snorts. Then he changes the subject. "I'm not going."

Obie shrugs. "Okay," he says. "But I wanna know what he's been up to."

Carter manages a sort-of smirk. "Probably busy murdering the elderly."

Obie tries to laugh, but it falls flat. They stand there for a few more moments before Carter heads past him, very pointedly throwing the letter away in the nearest garbage can, and Obie actually does laugh at that.

In the three-hour drive to Monument, Obie thinks. He thinks about Trinity, and he thinks about what Archie said when they last spoke, and he thinks about what must have happened to Archie now. He thinks that Archie probably went to a private college, though he doesn't know why – his family wasn't especially rich, though they definitely weren't poor, and Obie knows that Archie had pretty shitty grades half the time, but the image of Archie and a public college just don't mix right.

He stays at home until eleven-thirty, then heads off walking. It's a nice night, he thinks – warm, for early spring. He stopped at a gas station on his way into town and bought a Hersheys.

He has to wait, of course – he gets there at eleven-forty-five and sits down on the bleachers until a quarter past midnight. Then he looks up and it's like he's been standing there the whole time, facing the school, hands in his pockets. He's not wearing a coat. The moonlight is illuminating him, and Obie jumps up far too quickly and makes himself walk over to him.

It's like no time has passed, Obie marvels as he gets a close look at Archie's face. Maybe his face is a little thinner. Maybe his hair is a little longer. But other than that, he doesn't look a day older than eighteen.

"Beautiful," he says, voice low. Obie looks over. He's staring up at the school, up at the couple of broken windows and bit of graffiti that it's acquired. "They did just as I needed them to. Emile Janza, that beautiful bastard…"

"Why'd you call me and Carter?" Obie asks. Archie doesn't even spare him a glance.

"Not just you two," Archie says. "You're the only one stupid enough to show up, Obie. You just can't stay away. Got a Hershey?"

Obie hands it over, and Archie's smirk widens.

"That's what I thought."

"Christ, what the hell happened to you? Where'd you go? Nobody knows where you went, and it's driving us – well, me, anyway – crazy! And you've been messing with Carter again, I bet, he's getting paler and paler, and-"

"Slow it down, Obie," Archie says. His eyes haven't left the school. "You're the one who left."

"What? Your parents moved out as soon as-"

"I'm not talking about physically," Archie says. "That doesn't matter at all. Maybe I've been in New York. Maybe I've been in Los Angeles. Maybe I've been in France, for all you know. And I'm not talking about you personally, either, because you haven't left either. You remember everything that went on as clear as I do, don't you?"

"I couldn't even believe you were real, half the time," Obie says, and for some reason he's getting a little choked up. "You are, aren't you?"

"Am I?"

"For Christ's sake, Archie."

For the first time, Archie looks at him, eyes trailing down Obie's body, taking him all in. Obie hit a growth spurt his first year of college, shot up another three inches. He's currently cultivating sideburns.

Then Archie smiles. "You haven't changed a bit."

He opens the chocolate and takes a bite. Obie watches him, similarly disgusted and intrigued. He wants to know what Archie's been doing. Archie continues.

"I bet you still have your notebooks, don't you? Squirrelled away under your bed somewhere, to remind you that it all happened. That it's all real. Beautiful."

Obie's suddenly sure that Archie isn't real, that he's been a figment of their imagination, or just the essence of Trinity. He reaches out and grabs Archie's shoulder, hard, and Archie flinches for half of a second – just barely there, but Obie sees it – and then his expression neutralizes again.

"What?"

"I couldn't believe something like you could be real," Obie said. "But you are, right?"

"Haven't you already asked that question?"

"Yeah, and I'm still not sure," Obie says. He's seriously starting to get worked up now. "You- you had everyone under your thumb. Who does that? Who the hell does that? You're a- you're a fucking psychopath!"

"Aren't psychopaths real? The world is a mess of people, a mess of beautiful, fucked up people, and I'm one of them. As hard as it might be for you to accept, I'm a human like you, Obie. I eat, I shit, I can't jump off the top of a building and survive. But you are right in one thing. I'm not just another person. I am Archie, and I believe that has gained me a sort of immortality you won't ever reach. Because I am Archie, and you're just another stooge, a secretary with your little black notebooks."

And then Archie leaves.

And Obie never sees him again.

because i can't picture archie in the 'real world'