Subject Zero: Mirrors (Book 2)

Chapter 23: It's Been So Long

Friday, May 24, 1985
2:40p.m.
Melbreck Forest

Third Person's POV
Liam/Zero was sitting on a fallen tree. He kept the numb expression on her face, sitting still, even when the wind blew her hair into her face.

He was too lost in thought to realize Alexandria had found him after going out to search again. She was standing right behind him.

     "Liam," she said in a soft voice.

He was startled, but didn't look at her. She approached Liam/Zero, sitting down next to them. There was only silence filling the air for a brief moment.

     "What're you doing here? Hiding?"

He wasn't going to bother responding her. She doesn't deserve answers.

     "I think I can understand that..." Alexandria looked at the ground.

Liam scoffed and shook Zero's head, looking at the ground. Shut up... Why am I so angry? I want to scream at you... I can't control myself.

There was just another moment of silence before Liam said the word, "...Apologize."

Alexandria furrowed her brows a little, puzzled. "What?"

     "Come on..." He looked at her. "Apologize."

     "Liam, what're you-"

The facial expression on Zero's face slowly became serious and more angry as Liam spoke. "Apologize! Apologize. Apologize..."

     "Liam, stop."

He yelled, "Apologize!"

Alexandria flinched and stood up.

     "Come on...! Apologize...!"

     "You aren't doing well." Alexandria said to him.

     "Apologize. Apologize."

     "You're-"

     "Apologize... Apologize. Apologize! Apologize!!"

Alexandria shouted, "Liam!" and grabbed Zero's hand.

Liam instantly pushed her away and vanished, and Alexandria watched as she saw footprints running off again. She quietly sighed, feeling worried.

15 minutes later
2:55p.m.
Cabin, Bluebell Forest

Alexandria stepped onto the porch, immediately opening the door.

  "Did you see them?" Norman asked as soon as he saw her.

Alexandria sighs, "Yes. But he ran off."

Rei just laid down on the floor, annoyed with Liam.

Alio, sitting next to Rei, says, "That guy needs a high five right to the fucking mouth. With a chair. Or an atomic bomb."

Anne and Naomi nodded in agreement.

Alexandria looked around, noticing someone was missing. "Where is LeAnna?"

Jesper looked up at her and says, "She went to get something in her room-"

Then LeAnna stepped out of her room, with a large file. She instantly set it down on the coffee table in the living room, where everyone was. Rei sat up.

La, sitting next to Tui, looked at the large file. "What is this?"

LeAnna says, "Well, remember when I asked Zero to choose which picture looked the most like the Liam she knows?"

Norman nodded his head.

  "It was the only picture I was hoping she wouldn't choose, because that boy, Liam Smiles," LeAnna says as she opened the file, "was the suspect in a missing persons case, twenty years ago."

Jesper looked at the file, seeing the picture of the boy Zero pointed at last year, and Klaus looked as well. Alexandria slowly picked up the picture, gazing at it.

"Now, his family... wasn't the best. His mother was involved in some crazy lab shit, she wasn't allowed to talk to Liam, and he had to stay with his father. But on Thanksgiving Day, a young girl vanished after being seen around him." LeAnna explains, "Almost all of the evidence proved that he was definitely involved in this case. He claimed he didn't have anything to do with her disappearance, but the police didn't believe him and he was put as their main suspect. But then, on the ninth of December, he'd gone missing."

All of the children seemed very intrigued in what they were hearing.

"He was never seen by anyone afterward, and the cops have no idea where he is." She sighs. "A switchblade was found, with the missing girl's blood on it and Liam's fingerprints. So everyone found him guilty, yet had no explanation for his disappearance — whether he ran away without a single trace, changed his identity and left everything behind, or was killed. Evidence suggests that he was kidnapped. But no one could figure any of it out without his help or the missing girl's."

Alexandria was mainly intrigued about the part with his family. She never knew much about Liam's parents. She still goes on to say, "I met Liam, on the eleventh... of that very same December."

Her words made everyone look at her as she stood still, looking at the photo.

"He, uh... He was stuck in the Mirror World, and I helped him out... I let him stay at the lab with me, just until the news about the missing girl died down... He felt even worse once he was aware that a knife with the girl's blood was found by the bridge. He told me he never killed anyone or was the cause of someone's vanishing, and he was telling the truth."

Anne asks, "How did you know?"

Jesper, still looking at Alexandria, says, "Lie detection abilities."

Alexandria nodded once. "Yes. He was there for a year... Then I left. I'm not 100% sure what happened to him after that. I thought he would've been okay... I was wrong, and he's making that very clear."

Rei asks LeAnna, "LeAnna, why are you telling us this now?"

LeAnna just looked at her a shrugged. "I would've told you guys last year, but we thought Liam was gone, so I didn't think it was very important. Besides, it wouldn't be easy for Zero to find out about anyway."

Alexandria had a pitiful look on her face. She wanted to feel sorrowful for Zero, knowing the girl has known Liam all her life and was suddenly betrayed. A numb expression then shifted before she says, "We need to bring him here... We need to find him and bring him here."

The kids looked a bit surprised.

      "We need to talk to Zero."

{ End of Chapter 23 }

"I want you to feel pain like I did. I want you to cry like I did. Get a taste of your own medicine."