Talia
I’m trying to concentrate on my work, a paper that’s due in three days, but my mind keeps going back to Kitty and the men who might or might not have been following her. She hasn’t replied to my last text, and I’m this close to asking Matt to reassure me, but what if he doesn’t? What if I’ve made a terrible mistake?
My phone rings, and I jump out of my skin, snatching it up. “Hello?”
“Hey,” Kitty says, and my heart beats funny. “I was texting you back, but I’ve got too much to tell you.”
I frown. “What happened?”
Matt appears at my desk almost lightning fast. “Is that Kitty? Put her on speaker.” I don’t even bother rolling my eyes, just put the phone on my desk faceup.
“You know those guys I texted you about? They were following me.”
“What?” Matt and I yell at the same time.
“No, no, don’t worry,” she says quickly. She laughs breathlessly. “It’s fine, really. They’re like me.” She drops her voice to near a whisper. “They can do magic.”
Matt and I share a look. “How do you know?” I say.
“They showed me. I didn’t know there was anyone else out there who could do this stuff. Mum never talks about anyone else. I mean, I suppose I should’ve guessed, but I never…and they said there’s a whole society of them! I’m going there for orientation on Wednesday.”
“Fuck’s sake, Kitty.” Matt groans and slaps his forehead.
“Are you sure about this?” I ask. Never would have thought I’d be the more diplomatic one. “How did they find you?”
“I dunno,” Kitty says, still sounding too giddy to be taking this seriously. “Magic, I guess.”
“Oh great,” Matt says. “And why now? Why didn’t they find her earlier?”
“Is this safe?” I ask. “How do you really know who they are?”
She sighs. “I don’t know,” she admits. “I…this is the first time I’ve ever met someone like me, you know? Other than Mum. I need to find out more about, I dunno, everything. My heritage, I guess.”
Matt groans out loud. I manage to keep it back. “Yeah,” I say at last. “I get that.”
“Fine,” says Matt. “But I’m going in with her.”
“You’re what?”
“What?” Kitty says.
“Sorry. It’s Matt, he says he’s going with you. Matt, have you forgotten all this?” I gesture between us, trying to encompass this ridiculous, impossible situation.
Kitty laughs. “Matt, you can’t, you’re a ghost.”
“Oh shit, you’re both right, what would I do without you?” Matt deadpans. “Look, being a ghost is perfect for this. Nobody else can see me.”
“But they can see me, and you can’t go anywhere without me.”
“Well, Kitty’s going to have to separate us, isn’t she?” Matt says, tilting his chin up like the arrogant little twat he is.
Kitty gives a little awkward chuckle. “What are you guys saying?”
I grit my teeth. “Matt wants you to separate us so he can go with you, keep an eye on you.”
“I’m trying,” she says. “I’m sorry I haven’t worked it out yet, I—”
“No, Kitty, it’s not your fault. You don’t have to apologise. Matt’s just being an arse.”
“Och, arse,” Matt teases. I hiss at him.
Kitty hums to herself. “I think…would you be able to come here before this weekend, Talia? I think I’ll be able to see Mum again and ask her for some help, then maybe I really can separate you? Or even…”
My mind races through schedules and timetables. If I get up a couple of hours early tomorrow, I can get my essay done. “I don’t have lessons on Wednesday afternoon,” I suggest.
“Really? Oh, that would be perfect. Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“No, it’s fine,” I say, and try to remind the heart hammering in my chest that this is not a date.
* * *
I’ve always been a good liar. To everyone else, at least. Inside my mind, the voice that sounds too much like my mother roots out the most secret parts of me and throws them broken at my feet. “You’ve got a crush on a girl you just met? A girl you’ve seen face-to-face for less than a day, and that was at a funeral? The girl who only asked you over because you’re inconveniently stuck to the ghost of her best friend? You’re pathetic, Talia. Laughable.”
It’s a poisonous rhythm that pulses through me along with the beat of my heart as I drive to Kitty’s house once more, Matt tense in the passenger seat. I open the creaky car door, by now almost dreading it, but then she runs out of the block and stops in front of me, bouncing up and down. For a wild moment, I think she might hug me. The thought terrifies and intrigues me all at once.
“Talia,” she says, beaming. “Thank you so much for coming. Did you have a good drive?”
“Uh, yeah, it was fine.”
“Come on inside. I’ve done some digging and found some of Mum’s old stuff. There’s this book I remember from when I was a kid, and I’d forgotten I even had it, you know how it is. Anyway, there are some really interesting suggestions in there that I think I can use. I dunno if it’s going to work, but even if it doesn’t, I was thinking maybe we could ask someone at the Society.”
She rambles on, and in the effort to keep up with her stream of consciousness and the impossible new ideas she’s coming up with, the cruel little voice in my mind slips away unheard.
Kitty unlocks the door to her flat, ushering me in. It’s warm in here, a little stuffy for it, but it doesn’t smell of cigarette smoke and old takeaway. The living room is bathed in weak winter sun, and I tuck myself to the side, tugging off my jacket.
“D’you want a cuppa, Talia?” Kitty asks, following me, picking up a hoodie from the sofa and semi-folding it, snatching up a little pile of crumpled tissues from the side table and trying to hide them behind her back as she steps into the kitchenette. The bin lid clangs.
“I’m fine, thanks.”
“You sure? I’m gonna have some tea. I need the sugar. I think I’ve got some biscuits around here somewhere.”
I hesitate. “Okay, tea please.”
She pops her head around the wall to bestow a sweet, dimpled grin at me. I can’t help quirking a smile back. It relaxes me.
Matt flops onto the sofa and laces his fingers under his chin, looking at me with a worryingly thoughtful smirk. I tear my eyes away and look around instead. Snooping without being too obvious, I hope. Last time I was here, I was a bit distracted.
There’s a shabby but clean air to it that I can’t help but like. A dining table with stacks of homework and envelopes shoved to one side, a couple of mug rings marked into the varnish. The sofa looks like one of those lumpy ones that folds out into an equally uncomfortable bed, and it’s covered in a random assortment of homemade pillows.
Most alien of all is the pot plants. They’re everywhere, hanging from the balcony, on the windowsill, and the shelves. One particularly venerable spider plant has its own little table, runners cascading off it with young clones sprouting off at all angles.
“Here you go,” says Kitty, and I turn to see her holding out a mug with a little smile on her face. She has this openness about her that’s too bright for me, makes me want to turn away, lay my gaze somewhere else.
I sip my tea to fill my hands and my time. “I like your plants,” I mutter when the silence drags.
“Oh, thanks.” Her face lights up. “I love them. We can’t have pets here. I spend so much time dealing with dead things, a bit of life is just what I need some days.” She giggles at her dark joke. Then clears her throat. “Where’s Matt right now?”
“Hey, she remembered me,” Matt says. “I was beginning to feel like the third wheel on a date.”
I glare at him and gesture toward the seat he’s occupying. Kitty’s smile widens, and she holds up her magical magnifying glass and waves. He smiles fondly and waves back. “Hey, Kit. You going to separate me and Talia, then?”
“He says hi. And asks if you’re going to separate us.”
She makes a face. “Not exactly. I’m sorry, I was hoping to see Mum again and ask for suggestions, but sod’s law, I haven’t had a case. I think, though, I might be able to make Matt permanently visible to me. I know it’s not much.”
“It’s a good start,” I say. I’m not sure if I’m disappointed or relieved that I’ll have to stick around.
“Would you mind sitting on the floor?” she asks.
“Yeah, sure, whatever you need.”
“Great,” she says, relieved, like it mattered what I felt about things. “I was gonna do it on the table but we, um, we need to hold hands, and sitting opposite each other would be uncomfortable ’cos of the distance, but sitting beside each other would be, like, at a weird angle, so…” She trails off.
“You want to start, then?”
“Yes. Um, if you wouldn’t mind?” She ushers me backward off the rug, then rolls it up to reveal a set of scribbles in white chalk, various symbols and a circle split into three.
“Wow,” I say. “I wasn’t expecting it to be this stereotypically magic-looking.”
“I know what you mean,” she says with a grin. “Most of the stereotypical stuff you see in movies is just for show, but there are a few important parts like the symbols themselves. I could make these look a lot fancier if I wanted, even add a pentagram or two, but I don’t need it. Maybe some people do. I guess I’ll find out at the Society.”
“Makes no difference to me. Not like I thought magic existed until a week ago.”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” She guides me to sit between two of the lines, then sits cross-legged right on the longest one, opposite me. She leans over to grab a few mismatched tea-lights and a lighter, and fiddles with it for a while, swearing as the flame licks over her thumb.
“You want me to do it?” I say at last.
“If you can. The wick’s really short.”
I take the candle and turn it almost upside down over the lighter so the short wick catches. Kitty sighs and slaps her forehead. “I feel dumb now.”
I laugh, and she stares at me. “What?”
“Nuffin’.” Her cheeks darken with embarrassment. “Just…that’s the first time you’ve laughed.”
“I’ve known you for days, and for literally the whole time, we’ve been thinking about your dead friend,” I protest, my own pale skin surely showing my blush far clearer.
“Yeah, I know,” she says, her face falling, and I regret everything.
She takes the candles, placing them in some obviously important positions around us. I fidget with the fraying heels of my jeans until she holds her hands out for mine.
They’re gentle, the skin of her palms firm and a little calloused but very warm. My own bony fingers seem abnormally long next to her hands, almost blue against the warm brown of her skin.
I don’t know if I’m meant to close my eyes when she does, but I find I can’t. As she starts chanting—almost singing—softly in a rising-falling cadence, I stare captivated at the fine skin over her eyes, delicate as a petal. The curve of her cheek, the tight curls of her hair following the shape of her skull, they all seem to stand out against the darkness of the room, darkness that grows with her chant.
I know I’m staring. I know this is the time I’d usually turn away both physically and emotionally before I’m caught, but somehow, the growing dark and the music, and I guess the magic, seem to put me into a calm state I can’t remember ever feeling. I notice there’s a smile on my face. I didn’t even realise that was happening, but there it is, and I don’t hurry to brush it away. It’s all so peaceful.
“Kitty?” says Matt, and Kitty and I startle.
“Matt,” Kitty breathes and drops my hands. The dark and the magic that I’ve started feeling in the very air remain, but the warmth is gone with her touch, and I drop my gaze to the centre of the ritual circle. I don’t know if I’m needed anymore, but I’m not moving. I won’t be the reason she loses her best friend again.
“It worked,” Matt says, a wide grin obvious in his voice. “That was awesome, Kitty.”
“Oh my God, Matt,” she says and bursts into tears again.
“Ah, Kitty,” he says and bends down with her.
“I’m sorry,” she sobs. My hands itch to reach out to her and comfort or something. “It’s…hearing your voice again, seeing you without the glass. I miss you so much.”
“I miss you too,” he says, his voice rough.
“I’m gonna get you back, Matt,” she says, wiping her face. “I have to. There’s got to be something I can do. There’ll be someone at the Society, I know it.”
Matt and I glance at each other and away. He pats her shoulder. His hand sinks too low into her, a jarring sight I can’t tear my eyes away from. “I know you will, Kit,” he says. “You’ll rock it.”
She smiles up at him and blows her nose. “I wish I’d been able to speak to Mum again, find a way to separate you two at least.”
“Don’t worry about that,” I say quickly. “I was thinking about it earlier. What if I drive you to the Society—”
“Which, by the way, sounds Illuminati as fuck,” Matt adds. Kitty shrugs.
“And if they won’t let me in with you, at least I can sit outside while Matt goes with you as far as he can.”
Kitty looks up at Matt, who nods. “Won’t it be weird, though?” she says. “You don’t take someone with you when you’re starting a new job.”
“This isn’t exactly shifts at Tesco,” Matt says. “Two creepy guys come out and solicit you on a dark creepy street? I’d say you’d be crazy to go alone.”
“If they’re not okay with you having someone there with you, to support you and keep you safe, then they’re dodgy,” I point out.
She sighs. “Yeah, I guess. I just want it to be real so bad. I don’t want to do anything to mess it up, you know?”
“You won’t,” I say firmly. I can’t imagine her messing anything up.
“Thanks,” she says, gifting me one of her sweet, sweet smiles. I wish my smile was nice enough to return it. She takes a deep breath. “Okay, we’d better get going, hadn’t we?”
The warehouse she directs me to looks like it hasn’t been used in years, but Kitty assures me that this is a gateway to the real Society building or dimension or whatever magic bullshit they’ve fed her. I park right up against the door and get out with her, scuffing broken glass and litter out of the way as we walk up in the dying light.
The door creaks open as we get closer, and a skinny Asian guy looks out. He catches sight of me, and his face hardens in anger and fear, a subtle shift, but it’s noticeable. “Who’s this?” he asks Kitty.
“This is Talia. Talia, this is Shivam, he’s one of the—”
“I thought we told you to come alone.”
“Um, I don’t think you did, actually,” she says, and I’m proud of her for not sounding apologetic. She just sounds like she’s searching her memory and checking her version of events.
“Fuck,” says Shivam under his breath.
“I’m only looking out for her,” I say. I want it to sound firm, but it comes out sullen, teenager. “A girl going alone to meet two guys? It’s a bit—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, I know,” he says, flapping at me and muttering. I’m about to say that I’ll wait outside when he glances back to the warehouse and back to me. “You stay silent, you hear me? I can’t mask sounds, so you trip, you fuck us all, okay?”
“Uh, yeah?”
He glares at Kitty like it’s all her fault, then says something, gestures at me. Green lights like old computer graphics flow from his hand over me, and all I can see is sparkling lights for a moment. I squeeze my eyes shut. When I open them, Kitty is staring at me in amazement. “Oh my God, that’s so cool! Can you teach me that, Shivam?”
“No, your magic won’t do it. Now come on, we’ve got to go.”
“Holy shit,” Matt says right by my ear. “She’s invisible.”
“What?” I hiss.
Kitty gropes for my arm like she’s blind, smiling and grabbing it when she bumps me by accident. “Come on,” she says. “Keep quiet, stay close.” She looks back at Shivam. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, yeah, come on. And keep your pet ghost out of the computers too.”
“What?” Kitty squeaks as Matt’s jaw drops. “You can see him?”
I glance at my arm as Kitty lets go to chase Shivam, bubbling over with questions. I’m relieved I can still see myself, but there’s a sheen over my skin, a green mirrored effect, subtle. My hair prickles as I remember even Matt can’t see me, and I stumble to catch up with them.
Shivam glares at my feet. “Walk quieter.”
I make a face at him, and he rolls his eyes. It’s a weird relief to know he can see me, at least. I feel a sudden kinship with Matt, who’s been visible to only me for days. I’ve got a new respect for him. If it had been me, I’d be freaking out. He’s just been an annoying, sarcastic bastard.
I slip off my shoes as I follow them into the warehouse, my feet silent on the cold floor. I creep closer to Kitty, almost glad she can’t see me doing so. Shivam leads us through a corridor with a faint glow on the walls. The glow increases until it’s almost blinding, all of us but Shivam squinting through it so we don’t fall over our own feet…and then suddenly, we’re out.
“Holy shit,” Kitty breathes and laughs softly.
“Bloody Illuminati,” mutters Matt. He’s not wrong. The place looks like something out of a James Bond movie, all industrial steel and white, with metal stairs and gangways lining the walls around a vast central floor. Below us, people bustle from door to desk, passing papers to each other, calling out instructions I can’t make out over the general noise of feet on metal stairs and whirring fans in the corner.
“Kitty, come on,” Shivam calls, and we turn to see he’s waiting near a nondescript white door like all the others around the atrium. “In here.”
Kitty rushes over, almost skipping. Her face falls when the room is mostly a regular office, a desk with a PC in one corner, another empty desk across from it. The only unusual feature is a mirror taking up most of one wall.
“This is going to be our room,” Shivam says, sitting at the desk behind the computer. “You’ll be working with me, mostly, but Anderson says he wants to give you some of the training, see where your limits are.” His eyes flick up to her and away.
“What is it we actually do here?” Kitty asks.
“A variety of things,” Shivam says, distracted by passwords on the computer. Matt peers over his shoulder until Shivam holds his middle finger up right in front of his eyes. “It really depends on your skill set.”
Kitty sits in the chair across from Shivam, a little deflated. Then she stands straight back up again like a child for the headmaster when the door opens, and in comes a middle-aged man who looks like he stepped right off the Monopoly board.
“Ah, Miss Wilson,” he says, and of course he sounds like that. “Ready for your first shift, I see?”
“Yes, Mr. Anderson,” she says, her face lighting up with that smile. “Though I don’t yet know what it is I need to do.”
“That all depends on your magic. Tell me, Miss Wilson, what is it you can do?”
“Well,” she says, tangling her fingers together and glancing up at Matt briefly. “I mostly bring people back from the dead.”
There’s a beat of silence, like the whole place just took a breath. Shivam looks straight up to Anderson, eyes wide. In fear, maybe?
“A reaper,” says Anderson. His voice sounds bored, but every nerve in my back is twanging, all my hackles up. I may not be a magic user, but I’ve learned from eighteen years of living with a woman whose mood can change at the slightest provocation that you do not ignore the signals. I want the wall at my back because I can feel threat in every pore, and I can’t look in all directions. This man is anything but bored.
“I guess,” says Kitty, shrugging, still with that sweet, almost apologetic smile. Even Matt doesn’t look like he’s picked up on this, still poking at Shivam’s computer, his finger going right through the screen. Kitty continues. “I didn’t really know there were types of magic, if I’m honest.”
“Well, of course,” Anderson says, moving farther into the room and placing his umbrella and black leather gloves on Shivam’s desk. “Shivam here is a seeker. He can find anything lost or yet to be found.”
“Cool,” Kitty says, smiling at Shivam. “That’s how you found me, then, I guess. What about you, sir?”
Anderson looks pleased to be asked. “I create,” he says with entirely too much drama. “My magic allows me to change time and space.”
“So you made this place, right? That’s how it fits into the warehouse?”
“Not a bad guess,” he says. “In fact, I simply created pathways from the various entrances to this central location. You are no longer in Leithfield.”
I slip my phone out of my pocket and bring up Google Maps because I’d love to prove this smug bastard wrong. No signal, though. Which could be due to the massive warehouse we walked into or okay, Lord Anderson’s magic dimension or whatever.
“This is freaking cool,” Kitty says, her eyes bright with excitement, glancing between Shivam and Anderson. “My mum never told me about this kind of stuff. She taught me whatever spell we needed, and we didn’t talk about the theory of it much. Kinda made it up as we went along.”
Anderson sniffs like he smells something nasty. “Hedge witchery. I suppose there’s not much we can do about that.”
“Was there something wrong with it?” Kitty says, and the way she’s deflated makes me want to puff up and stand in front of her. How dare they do that to her?
“It sounds like your mother didn’t have much magic herself,” Anderson says, and he sounds sympathetic, but even Matt’s side-eyeing him now. “It’s possible that’s why you didn’t show up on our radar until now. Your powers may not be very strong.”
“Oh,” Kitty says like she believes him, the idiot.
“Wait, that’s bollocks,” Matt says, loudly enough to make Kitty, Shivam, and I jump. “She’s been bringing people back to life for years. How can she possibly be weak?”
I nod vigorously, though nobody except Shivam can see. Kitty does a grand job of pretending everything’s totally normal, ducking her head like a scolded schoolgirl to hide her grin. Anderson seems oblivious, thankfully.
“These two are talking out their arses, Kit, don’t listen to them,” Matt says, walking almost through me to stand next to her, and I’m grateful to him. I can’t do that. I’d like to think I would if I wasn’t under some sort of invisibility spell, but I’ve always been a coward, and I still don’t know what these guys can do.
“Never mind, Miss Wilson,” Anderson says. “Any magic is useful magic. It just means you might be working one on one with Shivam to complete your tasks, rather than joining the rest of the reapers for big jobs.”
“There are other reapers?” Kitty says, and she looks like she might jump at him and shake him for information. “Can I talk to them?”
“Not now,” he says, checking his watch. “I must warn you, we’re not exactly a ‘meet up for drinks after a shift’ sort of group. Magic users are a solitary breed, from necessity. One gets used to one’s own company after keeping secrets so long.”
“A society that isn’t very social,” Matt snarks. “Sounds perfectly sensible and not a load of bollocks at all.”
“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Anderson says, “I’ll leave you in Shivam’s tender care. Good luck, Miss Wilson.”
He dips his head in a little bow, pauses a moment like he’s studying Kitty’s face, then leaves in a bustle of self-importance.
There’s silence for a moment. Shivam seems to slump slightly. “Right,” he says. “Let’s see what you can do, shall we?” He shoots daggers at Matt, then glances at me and jerks his head to the side. I take a few steps back and lift myself onto the second desk, which creaks. Kitty’s head snaps right to me, and she smiles in my direction before turning back to Shivam.
Now I’ve got over the existential dread of being invisible, I don’t mind it. I’m glad Shivam hasn’t taken this glamour off me the moment Anderson left. It would be just my luck to have him walk right back in the room for some reason. I’m good at moving quietly. In fact, if I had control over this power, it would have made my life a whole lot easier. While Matt’s wandering about, already bored, I’m settling in to watch Kitty’s first magic lesson.
“The sigils you use, which ones are they? Who taught you?” Shivam asks.
“My mum taught me,” Kitty says. “She taught me everything I know about magic. Well, and then I made some stuff up too.”
“You made it up?” he asks, frowning.
“Yeah, I mean, magic’s all about your will, right? I linked a couple of things together and you know, decided they were going to work.”
Shivam stares at her. “And…they did?”
“Yeah, well enough,” she says with a shrug. I try to catch Matt’s eye, but he’s poking his head right through the wall.
“Right,” Shivam says. “Well, you’re going to have to stick to the script here.” He seems to recover his composure and walks her to the big mirror. “I’ll be finding the cases for you from now on. We can’t have just anyone getting to you. They’ve got to go through the proper channels.”
“What do you mean?”
He gives her a jaded look. “Where do you think you’re going to get your pay from?”
Her eyebrows shoot up. “What, you mean we’re charging people to bring their loved ones back? That’s not right.”
“Why not?” he asks, an edge of defensiveness creeping in. “Haven’t you ever heard of the expression ‘cross my hand with silver’? Magic should be paid for.”
“But why? We can help them, so why are we charging them?”
“Doctors help people, but you don’t bat an eyelid when they earn fifty grand a year, do you?”
“Yeah, but the NHS—”
“When was the last time you had a good night’s sleep, Kitty?” He crosses his arms and raises his eyebrows when she looks away. “You’ve been working all sorts of shifts for fuck-all money, then getting up at all hours to bring people back. How long do you think you can keep doing this? Wouldn’t it be better to actually get a regular sleep schedule, take care of your health, be paid enough to do this for longer?”
And well, when he puts it like that, I’m angry on Kitty’s behalf that she’s been left to deal with this situation on her own for so long. I’m almost grateful to these guys for finding her and giving her what she deserves.
It’s still sketchy as hell, of course.
“Come on,” says Shivam. “Show me these sigils you use.” He takes out a whiteboard marker and sketches a square onto the mirror, putting some little scribbles in the corners.
“What’s that?” Kitty asks.
“It’s to keep your magic contained, of course, so you can make the sigils for demonstration purposes. How did your mum teach you without a demo box?”
“She’d draw them in the air and sing the alphabet so her intent was to teach, not to cast,” Kitty says. “What’s this from? What language?”
“It’s modified from Khudabadi,” he says. “You won’t recognise it. My family’s from Pakistan, so that’s what they’ve always used. What does your mum use?”
She laughs. “I think Mum and I are both magical magpies. All sorts of different ones. All I know is that the flowing ones work better for me.” She bites her lip. “Is that bad?”
Shivam hesitates. “Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know many other magical families. I don’t know if it’s different for other people.”
“Really?” she says with a frown. “What about all the other reapers?”
He blinks rapidly. “Oh, well, yeah. I mean, there’s loads of them. From all over the place. But fair warning, they’re stuck up, okay? Maybe best not to try to talk to them. They aren’t very friendly.”
Kitty smiles. “That’s fine, I’m friendly enough for both of us. And I’ve talked to snobby people before. I can handle ’em. It’ll be worth it to learn a little more about magic.”
Shivam bites his lip. “I really don’t think you’ll get much of a chance to talk. They’re always really busy and rushing about.”
“But surely you have some free time, right?”
“We don’t spend it here,” he says quickly. “We leave straightaway, and we don’t come to work early or anything like that. It’s not like any of the shifts go through mealtimes. So, no, there’s no socialising really.”
“That’s…sad,” Kitty says.
“That’s bullshit,” Matt says. I nod.
“Just is what it is,” Shivam says. “Now, let’s do a dry run, I’ll see what you can do, and then we’ll call it a night.” He bustles Kitty to the mirror to do her thing and doesn’t give her a chance to bring the subject back up.