Nikki, fully dressed is standing above me. I close my eyes again and turn over.

“You’re blushing. Fun dreams?”

“Kinda,” I say. They inform me there's been a change in the book. They hand me mine.

“Check the last page.” I do and there’s nothing there. I tell Nikki I don’t see anything and they look confused for a moment. They kneel to check it out, and are satisfied that my book is the same as it was. “Well mine definitely changed. I woke up and found a letter between two pages.” They show me the letter – written on scrap paper.

“So, you wrote this?”

“Well, I didn’t. I don’t remember writing it. But it’s in my handwriting, and it mentions your given name. It’s also written on my notebook’s paper, but I can’t find any page that matches the way it’s been ripped.”

“Is it part of the point collection event?”

“I think it might be, but I don’t know. This isn’t what I was expecting to happen. Regardless, there’s something else. Have a look at the next page.” I do. There is “107” written large, and in bold, and beneath it some instructions and an address.

Please send requests for all Ideals to

Your Company,

Earth

Sincerely Yours

“We have points now?”

“Yes. I think the point collection event already happened. It said it begins and ends at the same time, on the same day. So maybe we already did it and remember none of it.”

I nod. “So, what should we do?”

“Well, it seems we want to buy some stuff, so we might as well.” Nikki takes out a piece of paper from their notebook. “I’ll write something. You can go get an envelope and a stamp.” After getting changed inside my sleeping bag, I get up and go to Nikki’s study room, slowly, so that I can’t be heard. There I find the envelops and stamps, and return to Nikki who has already finished the letter (which was hardly a few words). The place it in the envelop and open their door. I ask if they’re planning to post it now, and they nod. “It might be an instantaneous thing. I want to find out. Also … I want to follow the letter. Obviously, no-one will know what to do with it, with an address as vague as that, but they must expect it to reach them at some point. Unless it’s some kind of joke.”

They are already heading down stairs, so I hurry after them, but as we reach the front door we hear knocking. We both go still. A second later the doorbell rings.

“Hello? Maggie? Jim?” I don’t recognise the voice, but Nikki whispers that it is an acquaintance of their parents, who doesn’t stay too far way. Nikki gives me their bag and tells me to hide in the kitchen, so I do. I don’t know why they’re suspicious, but there must be a good reason. Nikki opens the door and I listen to the exchange that follows.

“Oh, hello, Mack,” Nikki says, their surprise real and evident.

“Oh my, Nick. I wasn’t expecting you to be up now. Well, no matter. I’ll get right to point, if I can come in?”

Nikki’s mother descends the stairs then, slow since she just woke up. “Mack? What’s the matter?”

“It’s those books, Maggie. You know the ones on the news. Well everyone’s getting into a bit of a panic about them, and so we decided the best thing to do was round them all up, immediately, so if you have any, could you please give them to me? I’ll hand them right to the police station. I’ve got a box-full in my car right now.”

“I’ve not seen anything,” says Margaret, now at the bottom of the stairs. “I would invite you in, but seems you’re in a hurry.”

“No trouble, Maggie. You haven’t got one, have you, Nick?”

“I don’t,” they say

“Sure? You’re not in trouble if you have one. I heard you and that friend of yours were around when they dropped the crate off. Thought you might’ve picked one up.”

“I’m sure,” Nikki says.

“Did your friend take one then?”

“No, we just walked past.”

Margaret interferes at this point: “If he says he doesn’t have it, he doesn’t.” I can imagine her glaring at Mack, but I don’t dare risk peeking around.

“I’m sorry,” says Mack. “But I know Nick’s lying. There were witnesses. One was a friend of my son’s, and they say Nick and his friend take a pair of books. Like I said, he didn’t know what they were at the time, and he’s not in trouble for it. We just need his book.”

All is quiet for a few moments. Then Margaret says, “Nick, be honest with me, do you have one of those books? If you do, you need to give it up,” and I start to move further from the interaction, keeping still unless they’re distracted by talking. If they’re collecting these books, and Nikki can’t convince them we don’t have any, we’ll need to run and hide. And even if they can, we still need to eventually because there might be someone going to my house – it’s not far from here – and they’ll realise what happened there, and suddenly I’ll be in a lot of trouble.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Nikki says, “I looked at the books, but I never took one. My friend didn’t either.”

“Look.” Mack’s gotten louder. “My cousin saw you take it. You need to give it to us. I didn’t want to give you any concern for alarm, but this is urgent, and if you don’t give it to me, other people are going to be around later, and they’re going to be a lot rougher.” Again, everyone is quiet, so I go still and wait.

“I’m sorry,” says Nikki. “I do have one, I just didn’t want to give it up. It’s interesting, you know? I’ll go get it. Just give me a moment to find it. I think I left it in my bag in the kitchen.” A few moments later they enter the kitchen and motions to the utility room. I leave the bag and hide there. Very soon after, I can hear Mack and Margaret both enter. Nikki goes to the bag and takes out a single book, which they hand over. “Here,” they say.

“Thanks. I’m sorry for going off on you, but this is really urgent. Thanks for understanding.”

“I’m sorry for being so difficult about it.”

“Well, see you all later then.” Mack then leaves, and everyone is quiet until they hear the door shut.

“What was all that about?” Margaret asks.

“I just didn’t want to give up the book,” says Nikki. I hear her sigh, but I think she accepts the answer. It is true.

“What are you doing up so early, anyway?”

“I was going to get some water.”

“You do have an excuse for everything. As always.”

“I guess I do.”

Margaret goes back upstairs and once I come out of the utility room. Nikki looks at me, and gives a small, relieved smile, but their expression changes as they regard the bag. “I really didn’t want to get rid of the extra book like that.” They put their bag on. “We have to leave right now.”

“I know. They’ll probably be at my house soon, if they haven’t been already. It won’t be long before they figure out you’re here–” I’m is cut off by a knock at the door. Nikki doesn’t pause; they unlock the back door and hurry out.

“That’s probably Mack. He might have gotten a call or something. I know where to go, just follow me.”

Nikki jumps over the garden fence, and we pass through a row of trees planted outside the house. We cross the road, which is fortunately not very busy, go straight through a field, and keep going. By now they’ll have realised we ran, and I’ll seem undoubtedly guilty. Nikki will be considered my accomplice. So, I guess there’s no turning back now. Not that I have any desire to. These books are too important to let go of.

“Where?” I manage to breathe.

“I have a friend. It’s not far.”

We keep running, and about a minute later we’re in another residential area, although a much smaller one. We must have travelled over half a kilometre by now, and we’re probably already being looked for. Unfortunately, we don’t get to where Nikki wants to go, since we can see a few cars parked around the houses, and other people going door-to-door. Nikki pauses for a moment, and looks thoughtful, but ultimately ends up swearing and running towards another road – it’s too risky, regardless of which house Nikki’s friend stays in. I don’t know what their plan is now, but I follow them anyway.

We have to stop again, because we see another interesting sight. We hide behind bushes to the side of the road, hot and panting, and watch as four people, two in police uniform, and two in suits, inspect a Your Company truck which has crashed into a signpost. The truck isn’t too badly damaged, overall, but its front has caved in. I hope the driver is okay, but don’t see any bodies in the area. I can see a white lorry off to the site, though, which is mostly unharmed, except for scrapes along its side. This isn’t something I expected, and by the look on Nikki’s face, they’re just as surprised. We stay still and watch the people collect the books – as well as other equipment – out the truck. They do it quickly, but are apprehensive about even touching the books. I suppose that’s sensible; we know nothing about them.

One of the people receives a call, and Nikki whispers, “I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s about us. They’ve already got estimates on how far we’ve travelled.”

“Why haven’t they sent out a helicopter by now?”

“No idea, but we have to look out for that. They might just be busy with the book thing.”

I nod and keep watching. One uniformed person leaves after this call, probably to check the immediate area. He doesn’t check where we are. I guess they assumed we wouldn’t be hanging around, watching them. A couple people walk by, and stop to watch, but the remaining uniformed person shoos them off. We see about three people pass after that couple, and only one even pauses to look. A few minutes after that person passes, a small truck arrives to take all the books away, and I’m disappointed that we were so close to so many books, but can’t take any.

With their work done, one of the suited people leaves, and the rest wait around, quiet, not talking to each other. Maybe they don’t know each other that well. The uniformed person returns, the other suited person, easily the oldest there, takes a bite out of a sandwich.

A tow-truck arrives to clear the debris. I look at Nikki’s uneasy face. I can guess the source of their worry: we’ve rested by now, but the cold morning air is especially uncomfortable since we’re both covered in sweat from our long run, and we really need to keep moving, but we’re only about twenty metres away from the people. Any movement would be very obvious, especially since they’re not distracted by work now.

“Both of you, be quiet and listen to me,” a voice says behind us. Nikki whips around to see the voice, and I gasp, but cover my mouth. I turn too and see the person in the suit from earlier. “I assume you’re the two who went running? I’m not going to hand you in, but I need to know something. Do you have any books on you?”

“No,” Nikki says. They’re always this confrontational, but the officer doesn’t know that.

“I know you’re lying. Show me the books. I don’t want them, and I don’t want to hand you in. I just think we can help each other.” Help each other? I doubt we have anything to offer her, and even if we did, there’s probably someone better.

“Okay, we have the books.” Nikki opens the bag and pulls one out. They put it back quickly.

The person nods. “This is going to take a while, so come with me. I’ll pretend I’m arresting you.”

“And how do we know you’ll actually be pretending?”

“Because I would have done it already.”

“Fine, but no handcuffs.”

“Relax. I’m not even going to have this job after today. I’m Amelia, by the way. I already know who you both are, Nick Towers and … Lollipop Penn.” I frown at hear my birth name, but she just grins for a second. “My parents were weird too, pal.” Once the grin subsides, she leads us to her car and beams a look at her co-workers: Look, I found them, and this isn’t even my job. She tells us to get in the back, and so we do. It’s not a police-car. It looks expensive – not that I know much about cars – and smells new. We watch her talk with the people outside for a bit, and give a note to the other person in a suit. Then she gets in the driver’s seat and as we leave, says, “I had to convince them to let me take you to the station myself – which I’m not going to do, obviously.”

“Where are you taking us?” Nikki asks. I wonder if we made the right choice to go with her – she clearly does work for the police at the moment, and I don’t believe she will be arresting us, but her intentions might be anything. She might want to kill us and take our books; they’re becoming rarer by the second and will be worth a lot soon. If she wanted books, though, she could have easily smuggled them from the wreckage, so I doubt that’s it. It’s an example, anyway. She might want to kill us for other reasons.

“A friend’s hideout. We need to hurry.” Saying that, Amelia accelerates, and though I can’t see what speed we’re reaching, it’s way over the limit.