Down through the left hand corner of the bar, through a brown cedar door, and down another winding hallway was a series of different white doors, all unlabeled, except for one. The singular labeled door also had what looked like a little flap at the bottom, possibly a pet door. At the top of the door was a plaque with a single “A” written on it, and for a moment he wondered if the door was for him until he remembered that Forin was the “A”rchiver for the group.

  Holding a newer bottle of his sour aardvark in one hand, he knocked on the door with the other after clearing his throat. “Forin? Gray and Abbey told me I’d find you here.” He didn’t receive an answer, but if he listened closely he could hear gentle thumps coming from the other side as if someone was pacing the floor. Without getting a proper answer, Ash next said what he was told to tell the door if he didn’t get a reaction.

  “I’m fresh to the job today and wanted to know more about Broolhaven’s soul sea.” The thumping suddenly ceased. A couple of seconds passed before he heard rapid footsteps approaching before a heavy mass made clear contact with the door. He took a half step back, protectively clutching his fresh sour beer, as he heard several metallic clicks from the other side.

  The door suddenly opened a crack, and through the tiny window a singular black and tired eye under glass lens stared back at him. A chain was right above the glare, keeping the door from being opened any further.

  “You’re the new guy…” the eye spoke, but he couldn’t see their mouth.

  “Fresh out of the coffin,” Ash spread his arms a bit, as if to display what he meant.

  The eye peered around the corners of his little window to the world for a moment, checking what little of his surroundings that he could. The door suddenly slammed shut again as Ash heard metal quickly being slid to one side before the door was thrown open. Before he could react, he was grabbed hard by the vest and yanked across the threshold in a second. The door quickly shut back behind him, every single lock adorning the other side of the door clicking back into place at once.

  One of his palms suddenly felt hot as his heart rate spiked, his eyes quickly scanning over the dimly lit room he was now in. The force that grabbed him wasn’t in front of him anymore, he was standing alone in a room with every wall covered by a stuffed bookshelf, with the room’s owner illuminated by the blue light of a screen behind a big desk.

  A single chair was off to the side in front of the desk, possibly for visitors. Forin, on the other side of his desk was audibly typing away at something. His features were barely recognizable behind messy black hair, dark glasses frames, and a black mask that covered the rest of his face. “Take a seat…” he said without looking away from his screen.

  Ash didn’t feel like the danger had completely passed, but also wasn’t sure if he could die a second time or not. He took the offer for now, awkwardly shuffling over to the little chair before plopping down to earn a groan from his new seat. “Welcome to,” he coughed a little into his mask, “the other side of Broolhaven.” Ash nodded, holding up the bottle he was still clutching a little. “Yeah, cheers.” He twisted the cap with a little hiss, and as he held it in his other hand while wondering where to put it, he just slipped it into his vest pocket.

  “New souls have many questions,” he continued typing, occasionally taking a glance over at Ash, “ask and I’ll answer, as long as you answer mine too.” Ash felt a small smile behind the mask, which helped soften the dark atmosphere. “My one big one is about Divers, I still don’t really know what they are, or even what I am now really.” Ash looked at the bottle in his hand before he took a sip from it.

  “Problem solvers,” he let out a small cough again, “Divers solve problems on Broolhaven’s other side.” Forin reached for a bottle of water that was on the other side of his desk, and turned away to drink from it for a second. “Diver souls are deep, wide, enrapturing...” He looked over at Ash again, and through Forin’s dark eyes he could see a small shine. “Yours has a lot of room…” he trailed off before coming back into focus. “Your soul is drawn to others lost at sea, and you help guide them to safer waters.”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Ash thought back to when he first woke up on the other side, inside the “clog” that Gray called it. “My turn for a question.” Ash nodded, gently swirling the large amount of sour left in his bottle. “Do you know your bond? Your weapon at sea?”

  Ash stared at the back of his hand, feeling the slightest amount of unnatural warmth from it, but no mark appeared. “A gun,” he answered, “a tiny little revolver that only ever fired once.”

  Forin continued to type, still looking at his screen. “Good, a complex but simple instrument, good for growth. You’ll be able to summon it at will soon, your soul is adjusting quickly.” Ash figured it was his turn again, so after another sip he figured out another question. “So what exactly is the angle here? Are we like ghost cops and part of a ghost network? Everyone has been talking in water metaphors a lot and I just kind of want a plain answer.”

  “If thinking about us as soul police makes it easier to understand,” he coughs again, stopping his typing for a moment, “I think that’s a fine way to look at it. You’ll be dispatched to problem areas soon, and be expected to resolve them.”

  “How dangerous is it?”

  “You’ll need to be able to summon your gun before you can go out. Souls release a lot of dangerous energy when they’re free, and Divers are the best at getting it under control.”

  That answered his question pretty well as he flexed his fingers again. “I think you’ll get the hang of it soon. Your soul looks like it’s craving a job.” He turned away again, probably for another sip of his water. Ash took a sip too, not wanting to comment on how much his soul was selling him out.

  Forin held up a hand as if he was waiting for a teacher to call on him before the room lit up with a sudden burst of flame beside him. Ash’s eyes went wide as an arm obscured in shadow reached across the room to one of the wall shelves, and plucked a book from it. With impressive speed, the arm retracted, bringing the book along just far enough to drop it into Ash’s lap before it disappeared again.

  “All the basics of Broolhaven’s other side are in there, and about bonds too.” Forin leaned to his side and Ash heard the sound of something opening beneath his desk. Forin pulled out a little notebook and very quickly wrote something on it, as soon as he was finished, with a quick flash a hand appeared beside him to rip the paper from the notebook and toss it Ash’s way. With his free hand, he reached up and caught it, revealing what looked like a phone number scrawled onto a slightly crumpled piece of paper.

  “Texting is easier,” a small cough interrupted him as he placed a hand over his mask, “if you have any questions about what you read.”

  “Thanks,” he replied as he put the paper into his pocket, realizing that as soon as his hand went inside his phone wasn’t there. He had left in a rush, so he must have forgotten it back at his apartment, probably hiding somewhere under his sheets.

  “I’ve been dead for 30 years now, so I can answer a lot of questions most people can’t,” he looked back at his screen as he went back to typing, “It’s confusing at first, but it gets easier, and you start to realize the little perks here and there.” His eyes glanced at the bottle in Ash’s hand “Alcohol isn’t quite the same though, it takes a lot to feel anything.” Ash realized this was probably his third sour aardvark sitting in his hand, and he only felt like he had taken his first few sips of that rancid cheap malt he always bought.

  “I’ll keep that one in mind,” he told him as he raised the bottle up, tipping it back to take a few bigger gulps. “Gray said you’re the building’s archiver, so I should probably let you get back to work, you seem a little busy.”

  “I’m always busy,” he remarked, still typing as he did, “but company is okay as long as it isn’t noisy…” Ash felt like he could still hear Abbey faintly laughing from all the way down here, so he didn’t push the topic any further. “You coming here brings our Diver count back up to five, so I guess it’ll get a little lively again.”

  “Back?” Ash couldn’t stop himself from asking. “I didn’t think this was the kind of job you could quit.”

  “You’re right,” Forin continued typing, his eyes locked on his screen, “you don’t.”