Fear is a hard emotion to control, especially when you don't understand that fear. Fear is at it's worst when you don't understand where you are or what's going on, and the only thing you know for sure is that you're terrified. Having fear being the only thing you can understand at that time just makes you become more and more scared because you don't know what you're so afraid of, but whatever it is, it can't be good. It's the kind of fear that grips your entire body and stops you from thinking clearly or being able to control the thoughts rushing through your mind, creating horrible worst case scenarios that never turn out well for you at all.

Greg felt himself being consumed by that fear at that very moment. He didn't know where he was or why he was there. He looked around him frantically, and the familiarity of the place added to his dread. He had never been here before, but he'd been in a place just like this before. It was sickeningly similar to the bunker that the mass suicide had taken place in two years ago with the kids in that alien cult. Greg was huddled in a corner of one of the cold, damp rooms with only a single dull light bulb lighting up the room from the water stained ceiling. Greg was shivering both from the cold and the fear, but not because he was concerned so much for himself as for the other person that was supposed to be with him.

Nick had been laying on the floor of the van next to him as it sped off from the alley, taking them away from their crime scene to the bunker they were at now. When the doors had opened, Nick had tried to fight off their capturer, and now he was in a different room than Greg was with whoever had taken them. Greg wasn't sure how long he had been in this room for, but it was long enough to make him worry that he was never going to see Nick again.

Greg was just about to get up and go looking for Nick when he cames flying through the doorway on the wall to Greg's right, face first and landing on his right side on the dusty floor before tumbling a few times and coming to a stop in the middle of the floor. Greg immediatly thought that Nick was dead because he wasn't moving and Greg couldn't tell if he was breathing or not because Nick's back was to him. Unable to move or speak, Greg sat there in his corner, waiting for something to happen.

It only took a few seconds for something to happen, but to Greg it felt like hours. Moments after he landed, Nick rolled over onto his back and groaned slightly. His eyes were squeezed shut and his jaw was clenched in obvious pain. Greg scrambled to his feet and hurried over to him, kneeling down next to him and hovering over him like an overprotective parent.

"What happened?" he asked when Nick's eyes opened to look up at him.

Nick shook his head. "I shouldn't have pissed that guy off."

Nick had cuts and bruises on his face and neck to attest to that. He sat up slowly, wincing in pain slightly. Both he and Greg stood, still in the middle of the room, and looked around for a way out. Every wall had a doorway to another room or hallway that seemed to lead nowhere productive. Unable to make up their minds as to what to do, they stood there silently, confused and scared.

As they stood there, still in the middle of the room, they heard footsteps approaching from the doorway on their right that Nick had come flying through. They both snapped their heads to the right and stared at the stairway just beyong the doorway. The footsteps got louder and all they could was just stand there because all the other doorways only led to more rooms and hallways, making one big maze that may never lead anywhere productive.

They stood there, still as statues, and waited as the footsteps grew louder and finally black dress shoes came into view on the stairs. Another few steps revealed black dress pants, dusted like the shoes from the dirt on the floor. Finally the man himself came into view, in his late forties or early fifties by the looks of his graying but neatly trimmed dark hair. To go with his dress pants and shoes, the man was wearing a white button down collared shirt. The sleeves were rolled up to just below his elboms and the top three buttins were undone to reveal the black t-shirt underneath, but he looked professional enough in his attire.

The man came to a stop a few feet inside the doorway, about six feet away from where Nick and Greg were standing. He crossed his arms across his chest and smiled pleasantly before he spoke.

"Hello Greg," he said. "How are you?" When Greg didn't responde, he added, "I've already been aqcuainted with Nick here. He's quite the smartass, more so than I thought."

Greg glared at Nick for his stupidity before looking back at the man. "Who are you?" he asked, trying not to sound rude despite the circumstances.

"Oh I'm sorry, how rude of me. I'm Kyle Lanser. You don't know me, but I know you. Both of you, very well actually."

"How's that?" Greg asked.

"I've been watching you," Lanser replied. "Some would call it stalking, but I prefer to call it studying."

Nick felt his stomach lurch. "Studying what?"

"You as individuals as well as you're relationship," Lanser said. "You see, I've been planning this...experiment, if you will, for quite some time, and you two are perfect for it."

Neither Nick nor Greg did or said anything. They were having trouble coming to grips with everything that had happened in the last few hours. They had been at their crime scene, minding their own business, when all of a sudden a van came crashing down the alley. How they ended up in the van, neither one of them were sure, but now they were here, in this bunker with what appeared to be a well mannered maniac.

"You see," Lanser continued, "I've made up this sort of game to try and show the world that true love doesn't exist. Millions of people get their heart broken every day because the ones they thought loved them, really don't. People are tricked into thinking that love exists when in reality, it's nonexistent. Love for another doesn't exist, only self-love does, and it will overcome any kind of love for another any time."

"What do we have anything to do with this?" Nick asked.

Lanser held up his hands as if in self-defense. "Please believe me when I say that this has nothing to do with the fact that you're a homosexual couple. I'm not prejudice whatsoever towards you, it just so happens that that's how it worked out. You're perfect, both as individual people and as a couple."

Greg shook his head slowly. "What exactly do you know about us?"

"Everything," Lanser replied. "I know your fears, likes, dislikes, what's happened to you on and off the job, your friends, family, where you went to college and high school. The works."

"Why are you doing this to us?" Nick asked again, not fully understanding.

"Because someone has to do it. Someone has to play my game and show the rest of the world that true love isn't real."

"What's this game you keep talking about?" Nick asked.

Lanser smiled. "It's quite ingenius, if I do say so myself. It's a series of tests, both mental and physical, that will ultimately prove that people only love themselves. If given an ultimatum, despite what they may think, they'll never hurt themsleves to save someone else. This will be especially true in the tests I've designed for you two, using your fears against you."

Nick couldn't belive what he was hearing. "This is ridiculous. Why do you want to prove that true love doesn't exist? Why do you want to supposedly help people when you say that people don't love other people?"

"Because I was one of those people," Lanser almost yelled. "I was one of those people who got their heart broken because their 'true love' was lying to me. She said she'd love me forever, no matter what, and would do anything for me. People say that kind of thing all the time, and it's complete bullshit."

"No it's not," Nick argued. "Just because it happened to you doesn't make it true."

Lanser scoffed. "You'll see soon enough."

"No I won't," Nick said. "There's nothing you can do to me that would make me hurt him," he said, obviously in reference to Greg. "I'd rather die."

Lanser shrugged. "Then you will."

"Then this is pointless because you're trying to prove something that isn't true," Nick said. "You're wasting our time."

"You won't think that when you're terrified out of your mind and the only way to make the pain and terror stop is to inflict pain on Greg here, of course not directly but it'll actually be your fault. You don't understand, no one does. That's why I have to do this. I have to make both of you and everyone else see what they've been missing," Lanser said.

Nick shook his head. "You're the one that doesn't get it. The only thing I've been missing my entire life has been him," he said, trying his best to ignore the feeling of Greg's hands shaking against his own. "I'm not going to hurt the best thing that's ever happened to me."

Lanser still wasn't buying it. "You're gonna be so surprised. Maybe you won't hurt him right away, and maybe you won't at all. But he'll hurt you. One way or another, one of you will hurt the other because true love doesn't exist."

"Why do you have to prove this?" Greg asked. "No one's going to believe you and when they find out what you did, they're only going to think you're crazy."

"I'm not crazy," Lanser retorted. "I know what I'm talking about. There is no such thing as true love. No one love's anyone else nearly close to as much as they love themselves. No one will sacrific themselves for someone else if it meant them not being happen in the end. No matter how much you think you love someone, you'll always step back when the pool of their blood inches too close."

I'm sorry it took so long to update, I had some technical problems with my computer and had some personal business to attend to that took longer than I expected. I hope you're enjoying so far and will continue to do so.