The Hanging Tree (Zianourry)

Chapter Three

"I can't believe we have to play basketball, isn't this more of an American thing?" I asked Niall. He was frowning at the thought of us playing the loathsome game, everyone running around and dribbling why we stayed on the sidelines. I looked at him in agreement as we sat here, wondering what exactly was there to do. Neither one of us knew exactly how to play the game. All we did was run around and dribble the ball and shoot it into that little small hoop.

We watched as the curly haired boy dribbled up and down the field, his lanky arms moving in a fast motion as the stick for legs that he had carried him up and down the court. Niall and I unfortunately sucked, though we were the fastest out there we were terrible when it came to shooting a ball so we were benched.

"It's not even about the sport." Niall said. "They honestly want to see our reaction in the changing room." He told me.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Niall smiled his crooked smile with a tip of his head. "I mean think about it if we are checking each other out too much while we're sweaty and changing then they can spot out who to eliminate. I wonder who they'll find." He said, eyeing all of the players with a curious glance.

"You figured all of that out from one day?" I asked him.

"Well think about this." Niall said softly. "We're all going to be here for a couple of years, though what they didn't say was that we're going to be here until we're at least twenty or twenty-one."

"I'm sorry what?" I asked him in surprise. He looked at me, his deep blue eyes darkening. He looked around for a few, making sure nobody was eavesdropping on our conversations.

"Well I got a little birdie that told me that we're here until we're twenty-one. Apparently in America that's the legal drinking age and that's when they're truly considered adults so every other country is abiding by their age limit. I know it sounds crazy but that's the truth." Niall told me.

"So what about the whole sports class early in the morning?" I asked him.

"Think about it Louis, we all have morning wood. We wake up happy but it goes down some throughout the day. However, us guys are at our most vulnerable in the morning, that's when we're really horny. So if a guy gets a super boner early in the morning in say the shower, well he's a target, which means...well you know." Niall said. My eyes started to water at the thought but I bit my tongue and looked away at the court.

"So even though it's only our first day they're already trying to spot out the gays?" I asked completely shocked. My eyes furrowed at the thought of me taking a shower and seeing anyone that I like, so I decided I'm going pick a shower in the corner.

"So what now?" I asked him. Niall surprised me with all of his wisdom about everything around this place which made me feel kind of safe. It was like he was the Marauder's Map of Torchwood Academy.

"Well I think you should stay low." Niall said, catching me completely off guard. I looked at him in surprise and he just simply said, "You are really jumpy, and you'll catch the wrong attention. We don't want them thinking a straight guy is gay right?" He asked.

"Well yeah, everyone is quite suspicious of each other." I whispered to him. He nodded in contempt, again gazing at everyone on the court. I started to grow paranoid of Niall, the thought that there might be a slight possibility that he was with the so called authority. They were slightly scary but they were borderline invisible, an organization of prosecutors who worked in the shadows. They were the judges and the jury and most definitely the executors.

The whistle blew and that made both of our heads jerk up towards the court. They were looking around at us and I looked at them, a smirk on their smug barbaric faces because they were oh so good with their hands. They probably wanked off every morning just so they could get their rocks off.

"Stop staring." Niall said. "He's not looking at you because he thinks you're slow for not being able to play basketball but because he likes you. He's literally staring you up and down." Niall said, looking back at the dirty blonde guy who's hair was matted against his face from sweat. He had boyish features with dark green eyes. Niall was somewhat glaring at the guy and he placed his hand and made me look down as he squeezed me thigh. I hissed and looked at him in confusion.

"What's going on?" I asked him.

"They're here." Niall whispered. I glanced sideways and he nodded with his head towards a man who was walking towards us with his nostrils flared.

"Dude, run." I hissed to the guy who was staring at me. He smiled at me, surprised that I was talking to him. He took a step towards me but Niall shook his head, mouthing the words "Run!"

The guy didn't understand and by the time he finally caught on to our pleas to head straight to the shower he froze. We watched as his body shuddered and he looked at us with wide green eyes as he fell to the ground. The guy had caught up to him, his suspicions confirmed. We saw the taser that was still attached to the shaking boys back and I noticed how nobody seemed to care. In fact they seemed downright set on looking at the boy in disgust.

The guy from the authority grabbed the shaking boy on the leg and dragged him towards the place where he came from. I looked around to see who he knew and Niall motioned for me to stand up.

I got up stiffly and so did he as we watched the boy get dragged away, unable to even scream. "Second floor above us." He told me. I looked up to see that he already noticed that there was mirrors above the bleachers on the second floor. I was guessing that they were two way mirrors.

"We weren't sidelined because we sucked. We were sidelined as bait because they thought guys would come up to us." I whispered to him.

"So they were using us to find a person to kill." Niall said shuddering. He looked at me, his blue eyes were shining from the tears that he were forcing to stay in, afraid to betray his fear. "Louis, I'm scared." He whispered. "Don't let them get me."

I let his words process as I realized he just came out to me. We only knew each other for two days yet he trusted me enough to not out him, or maybe it was because he knew about me as well. I took a leap of faith and told him, "Don't worry I won't let them get either of us." We stared into each other's eye's momentarily before forcing our feet towards the showers.

**A/N: So I couldn't figure out what to name the Academy, so it was just The Academy. But since I've started watching Doctor Who again I just went with Torchwood, because you know it sounds really cool. I hope you all like where this is going. It's crazy right?**