Red vs. Black

Chapter 20

Up until that night, Liam had never known for white noise to exist in the form of a sensation. It's what he imagines prisoners in isolation must feel like sitting in a white room for weeks on end. At least in their case, they have control of their limbs. Not being able to move his extremities freely was one of the most unsettling feelings of Liam's life; the simultaneous static that silently buzzed through his brain when it happened was just an added bonus. A truly helpless experience of being trapped in your own body, that's what mind control feels like. The recovery, well, that's something Liam's still getting used to.

He's found that shaking his head helps some. No tiny little mind control bug's going to fall out as a result, he knows this, but along with heavy blinking, it seems to lift the leftover fog a little bit.

Around him are steel walls that are rounded into a dome ceiling, a recessed light at its center point. The room's sizable; it could fit up to ten others in addition to Liam and Zayn.

At least, Liam thinks the man standing in front of the convoluted panelboard is Zayn.

He's facing away from Liam, still wearing his mask, but it's irrefutable. And yet, he doesn't deserve to be called by his name. This person isn't Liam's Zayn, isn't who he fell in love with. Yes, Zayn was rough around the edges. And yes, Zayn had a temper worth more than a thousand men. But he wasn't a killer. He wasn't a cold blooded murderer who went out and planned things like what Liam had just witnessed. That's not his Zayn. Then, it occurs to him.

"Where are you taking me?"

The darkened figure doesn't speak. Nor does it move. At their side are the signatory headphones that got them here, which means Liam's been heard. Zayn's keeping quiet voluntarily.

Liam storms across the open floor, "I said, where are you-"

"Here."

Outside the expansive front window Liam can see that they've landed in a meadow. It's not anywhere he's been. It's also not at all close to the city they were flying over less than a minute ago.

Zayn walks out of a side panel that's opened, leaving Liam no choice but to follow. He could try and navigate the ship back home, leave the man wherever they are like he deserves, but one look at the control panel's various buttons and Liam knows he'd only embarrass himself.

The grass brushes up against his ankles, overgrown in a natural way, like this patch of land hasn't been explored by anyone else. The air's fresh, but cold, no trees to shield the gusts of wind from flowing freely at top speed. Above head, the stars shine brighter than Liam thought was possible this far away on Earth. If it weren't for the ring of lights wrapped around the UFO, his eyes wouldn't have a problem identifying his immediate surroundings because of them.

A few yards ahead, Zayn pulls off his mask and ruffles up his hair. Taking that as a signal that it's safe, Liam does the same.

Right away, he feels exposed. Nowhere in the distance can he see any sign of life; he can't hear any sound other than his own elevated breathing. Even so, he still can't help his instinct to want to conceal his identity once more.

Zayn's got his arms crossed over his chest, face set firm. "Are you going to say something or are you just going to stand there and stare?"

He's being given the upperhand, able to say or ask anything he wants, but Liam's whirling brain suddenly becomes idle. There aren't any burning questions he can grab onto anymore, so he sticks with the most simplest of statements.

"I don't understand."

"What's not to understand?" Zayn's scoff wakes up Liam's sleeping anger. "You're him," he points to the mask dangling in Liam's right hand, "and I'm..."