I really wanted a mirror of the situation from Zayn's and Liam's pov for comparison. Things will really start to build in a couple of chapters. Until then, enjoy the angst. Xo

***

The city felt tiny. It used to be a large, glorious wonderland, a playground for he and Zayn. They had a small window of bliss; they could go where they please, do what they pleased. His world had gotten so much bigger when he met Zayn, when the Master showed him everything they could have.

Now the city seemed to be pressing in on him. The large buildings and wide streets were now narrow and oppressive. They all seemed to be leading him to one place, and it wasn't where he intended.

Liam pulled up to the house he and Zayn had built a life in. He remembered the first time he'd pulled up to this house- beaten and bloody in the back seat of one of Zayn's towncars. The gravel had that familiar crunch under the tires. Each pebble coerced his feet towards the large front door.

He pushed it open with a grunt, he'd forgotten how heavy it was. The real estate agent had changed the rug just inside the door. Liam felt a distant pange of sadness for the old one before walking across the new one towards the massive set of stairs.

His mind flashed back; Zayn rushing up the stairs to avoid Liam. Liam shouting at him to stop, to just talk to him. The desperation he'd felt in that moment. He knew that there was a chance he would lose Zayn forever if he didn't do something.

Liam could laugh about it now, the look on Zayn's face, the look on everyone's face. He smiled to himself and he ascended that staircase, hand hovering along the railing. He got to the exact step Zayn had frozen on, and closed his eyes. He inhaled the moment and swore he could smell Zayn's cologne.

When he opened his eyes he half expect to see the man he loved, but he was alone. Liam's shoulders sank and he continued on. He walked down the hallway towards their room and his old room. It was amusing that Zayn kept them so close together. Liam hadn't realized how unusual it was back then.

He couldn't quite bring himself to go to their room yet, so he went down the hall to his old room. The room he'd found his uniform in. The room he'd bled all over the sheets in. The room he'd spent many a nights touching himself to the memory of Zayn in a suit.

It looked exactly as he'd left it. The bed was beautifully kept; he liked to think that was his doing, but the agent had probably fixed it up. His bathroom still had that gargantuan painting he'd picked up and brought home. He'd been so proud.

The weight of their bedroom door taunted him. It was now or never. He walked back to the familiar wooden threshold with its shiny golden knob. What if he went in and everything was how they'd left it. Zayn's book half read on the nightstand. Liam's pair of dirty shorts in the corner.

Liam closed his eyes and opened the door. When he lifted his head nothing was the same. Every trace of them, their lives, was gone. Their sheets were different, their dresser, their artwork. Somehow that was more painful.

He had to get out of there. Liam ran out of the room and back down the stairs. The heavy front door slammed behind him as he dashed around the front of the car and slid inside. In the silence, he let his forehead fall against the steering wheel and cried. What was he doing there? He had no right to go back to that place and pretend like it was still theirs.

He was just wasting time anyway. He knew where he needed to go.

If the rest of the city felt small, this one building seemed to implode with the weight of it. Liam looked up and then up some more to the top floor where he knew, if Marcus was here, he would find him there. Yet somehow the glass doors were impervious; they kept Liam from moving a single step towards his goal.

The moment he stepped through those doors, he could be marked, arrested, or even killed on sight. If he wasn't, he'd still have to somehow get to the top floor. If he accomplished all of that, he still had to face Marcus- that tyrant, that tormentor. Why was he doing this?

Zayn. His Master. Their family. What could be their family if only he could fix this. He felt sick to his stomach that he'd forgotten, even for a moment, the reason he was here. If he forgot what- who- he was doing this for at any point during the next twenty-four hours, he would surely lose himself, and Zayn.

He steadied his mind with a deep breath and walked through the doors into the lobby that he used to walk through with care and fondness. Liam went straight to the desk where Jeanine was typing furiously while blankly staring at the screen.

Liam cleared his throat, but the receptionist didn't flinch a bit. "Jeanie?"

Jeanine slowly raised her eyes, weary and confused, but they widened when she saw who it was. She fawned, "Oh, my god, you look so good, but tired; darling, when did you last get a good night's sleep?" Then the situation seemed to hit her and she leaned forward and lowered her voice. "What are you doing here? If they find you, Marcus will kill you."

Liam only smiled, accepting. "I need to see him."

"No," Jeanine said with a disbelieving huff. "No way."

"I need to, Jeanie. Please, it's important."

Jeanine was shaking her head before he even finished. "What you need is to walk back out those doors. Go home to your Master. You know, the one that risked his life to save you?" That hit Liam in the gut like a steel hammer. It must have showed all over his face because Jeanine did flinch then. "I only mean, you're finally free. You shouldn't be here and putting all that at risk."

"I'm here to save all that. If I don't talk to Marcus, I'll lose Zayn."

"Why?"

Liam shook his head. "I can't. I just need you to do this one thing for me. Please. Please."

Jeanine chewed her bottom lip between her teeth while she leveled Liam with an assessing gaze. Finally, she sighed and handed him a card. "Ten minutes." Liam took the card quickly. "Be careful," she reminded.

"I think that went out the window 250 miles ago or so." Liam leaned across the desk. "When Zayn comes looking for me, probably with company, don't tell him I was here. I just need time."

"Liam, I don't know..."

"I need you to trust me. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think I had any other way." Jeanine nodded at that and, satisfied, Liam walked away with his head lowered and eyes off the extra guards that had seemed to accumulate in the lobby since they'd been gone. He entered the lift with a heavy heart and heavy shoulders. 

***

Everyone say it with me, "Aww, poor Zayn." I know you're thinking it. 

This is will the last chapter until next Friday, which will be the regular update day. Let's get this party started, friends. 

Mwah! Xoxo, Jess