II
The Blue Room
Max Evans started to stir from his sleep, but he wouldn't open his eyes. Just not yet. He couldn't remember when had been the last time that he had slept so well, so deeply, and he was just holding to the last gasp of this wonderful feeling of being… rested. If he had been able to, he would have returned to it and slept a little bit more, just a little bit more… but wakefulness was starting to win over. There was no turning back.
He couldn't remember any of his dreams, which was odd. He always remembered at least a little bit of them when he was still in that space between sleeping and waking. He had read ages ago –around the time Isabel had started to dreamwalk- that one could only remember thirty seconds of the entirety of the dreams one had –and that had relaxed him a little bit, because it meant Isabel's incursions might not be remembered at all. But the point was that he always remembered something.
He moved his head a little to dig a bit more into his pillow, noticing that he hadn't thought the bed was so comfortable the night before. Of course, the night before he had been too exhausted to complain about anything at all –much less if the bed was comfortable or not- and he had just wanted to sleep with Liz at his side.
Max didn't need to reach out with his arm to know that Liz wasn't in the room with him. It had happened before that she would wake up earlier than he did and just went to the other rooms, especially when she and Maria had time to chat a little bit. Except that now that he was really waking up he couldn't sense her nearby either. In fact, he realized in an instant, he couldn't sense her at all. He opened his eyes immediately.
And that almost made his heart stop immediately as well.
Since he was face up over the bed, the first thing he saw was the ceiling, and his eyes wouldn't move themselves from it. It took him a second to register that the walls weren't white, but that they were blue, which was enough for him to know that he was not in the motel room, definitely not over the motel room bed either, and that Liz was nowhere to be sensed at all. He froze.
If this was a dream, he needed to wake up from it, fast. But he knew that this was no dream. He just couldn't bring himself to face what this really was. His neurons just wouldn't process the fact that they had been, finally, caught. They had barely escaped from the Special Unit three days ago, but now they were here. Not 'us', Max thought, maybe just me.
He had the wild impulse to shout out to whoever was out there –because he was sure someone was outside these walls- that they had made a mistake, that they were wrong about him, that this wasn't fair, that— But his throat wouldn't move, and deep down he knew that it wouldn't work anyway. It hadn't worked the first time, he bitterly thought, and it wouldn't work this time either.
He kept staring at the ceiling, feeling how his breath increased at a very fast rhythm, just like his heart had been doing since he had come to terms with reality two seconds before, so he closed his eyes and made his hands into fists to get a grip. He was not going to freak out. That hadn't led him to anywhere the first time around either. He just needed to convince his body and a good part of his mind about it, though. He tried to let his mind blank before he hyperventilated. It seemed to work, and though his muscles weren't relaxing at all, he felt a little bit of control returning to him. A quick subtle test to feel a spark of energy in his hands failed, and that told him that he was powerless. No surprise there. At least that explained why he couldn't sense Liz, but that knowledge didn't do anything good to ease his fears.
Max absently moved his right hand to scratch a little itch in his left arm, and in the middle of the movement he realized he wasn't strapped to the bed. He opened his eyes and then he noticed that he was fully dressed as well, with the clothes he had been wearing that same day. Except that he had changed to go to sleep –he did remember that- so how come he now was wearing the same clothes?
He slowly started to sit up in the bed. He also had his watch with him, and according to it, it was six thirty-eight in the evening… and that it was, he realized a second later, three days later than when he had gone to sleep. So now he knew when, he just didn't know where he was. He stared at his watch for a whole minute as if the thing was going to give him the answers. He was trying very hard to not lose it in here, and he was starting to feel panic rising in his throat, almost paralyzing him again like two minutes before. Finally snapping out of it, he slowly lowered his arm and took a good look at his room.
It was a very small rectangular room, around six feet by nine feet, with his bed put on one side –the bed occupied the whole space of the six feet, so there wasn't any room for anyone walking- and, as he expected, there were no doors, windows or any way of seeing anything outside the four walls. Although there was no one in the room with him, he could feel eyes watching him all the same.
The light in the room was white, but it was sort of dim, clear enough for him to see, but not bright enough to hurt his eyes. They were common white light bulbs, he guessed, though he could just see the plain roof, which was about eight feet from the floor. The walls had some sort of soft material on them, as if the whole room was covered with a blue carpet. And they were bare.
In the left corner in front of him was a full size mirror, from floor to roof, in which he could see himself sitting in the middle of the bed. He didn't need to go and try to break it to know it wouldn't. Sure enough it was one of those mirrors that were in police stations. Maybe the feeling of being watched was being caused by someone standing right behind it. And the impulse to shout out something came rushing back to him again. But he tightened his jaw. Sooner or later someone was going to start talking to him, and then he would get to shout out knowing someone was listening. He just needed to wait.
However, his attention was diverted from there when his gaze went to the right corner in front of him. There were some sort of book shelves, built into the middle of the wall. But what caught his attention was that there were books inside it, and when he started to read the titles, Max lost the little control he had gained over his breathing and stopped it altogether. Those weren't just any books, they were his books. The books he had read more than twice, that he had read over summers, taken on road trips with his family when he was younger. They were neatly placed in two rows, ordered by author, just as he would have put them. He started to breathe, fast, and his heart started beating fast as well. Right beside the books in the lower shelf were some CD's, neatly arranged in a tower. Max knew without being able to read the titles that they were also going to be his CD's. Below the book shelf there was a closed drawer. He guessed he was being encouraged to explore. How thoughtful of them.
With his heart still beating crazily inside his chest, Max stood up, cautiously putting his weight on his legs. He wasn't fooling himself; he knew his whole body was in full alert mode, and that doing fast movements wasn't going to help him at all. When he was about to take his first step, he saw that his sneakers were beside his bed, with the laces untied. Liz always teased him about how he always undone them at night, and the time and precision he took on tying them in the morning. "God is in the details" someone had said, and now Max was thinking that someone was playing God with him.
Max took a deep breath and steadied himself. His eyes went to the mirror in the left corner. Whoever was watching was waiting for a reaction from him, but the fact was that he no longer had a clue as to how to react. He no longer wanted to shout or go and see what was in the drawer. All he wanted right then was to at least feel Liz, to know that she was all right. If he was the only one caught, then Isabel wouldn't take too long to try to contact him, but that was wishful thinking, and he knew it. He felt the adrenaline leaving his body. He was losing the will to fight even before the fight had started. You can do this, he coached himself, you can stay in control, find out what happened to her and the others and find a way to get out of here. You just have to keep a clear mind. He was about to argue with himself about how can one keep a clear mind when your world was falling apart, when he heard something. Something that lightened and heightened his spirit almost as much as hearing Liz's voice would have. He heard Maria's voice. Or more precisely, he heard Maria's shouting voice.
"I swear if you put one hand over him, you'll wish you had never brought me here to begin with! You are just a bunch of cowards and idiots! You just come in here and—
"Maria!" Max went to the right wall, and started shouting himself. He didn't care how relieved or how scared his voice sounded, he was just plain happy to hear someone he knew. "Maria! Can you hear me?"
"Max? Oh my God, Max is that you?" Max heard how Maria moved to the wall, and he could almost sense her own relief to know that he was right in the next room.
"Yes, Maria, it's me. Are you all right? Is Liz with you?"
"No, Liz isn't here, I'm all alone. But yes, I think I'm all right. I just woke up in this creepy blue room, with personal stuff all around me, and it hit me that you guys would be in trouble. Is Michael with you?"
"No," Max said in a lower tone. He had hoped so bad that Liz had been there with Maria.
"Max, are you all right? And don't give me some crap if you are not, you hear me? I really want to know. So if you are feeling dizzy, weak, dry-eyed or whatever, just tell me."
Max looked straight at the wall, almost as if he could see through it and see that fire in Maria's eyes, those eyes that wouldn't let you lie to her even if you were telling her the worst of news. And Max knew exactly what Maria was thinking: If he wasn't all right, then Michael probably wasn't either.
"Yes, Maria. I'm all right. I feel fine. My powers are gone, though."
"Yeah, that much I figured, or you would have busted a hole in the wall to see if Liz was in here. You can't sense her, can you?"
Through the months that they had been on the run, Max and Liz's bond had strengthened, right to the point that when they split, they would know that things were alright with the other by just sensing. They couldn't really communicate thoughts or ideas, just plain feelings, but who knew what they would do with time. Except that right now, just plain feelings would be enough for Max.
"No…", he answered with a whisper.
"Max, you there?" Obviously Maria hadn't heard him.
"No", he said in a more clear voice. "I can't sense her."
"Max, you know she's fine, right? I mean, no amount of drugs or whatever would stop you from sensing her if she needed you. You know that."
Max rested his forehead on the wall. Did he know that? Was Liz just in some blue room sensing his emotions? Was she really just fine just like they were? In that instant Max was tempted to glare at Maria, partly because she couldn't see him, and partly because he didn't want hope right now. He wanted answers, and he had to focus on that. If he let other thoughts –other horrible images- get into his mind, he would lose it. And he had learned a long, long time ago that losing it was a luxury he couldn't afford.
"Maria, when you said 'personal stuff' before, what did you mean?"
"Well, there are two little cypress oil bottles on a shelf in the other corner of the room –as if sniffing them is gonna help- and some books that I had at home. There's one that I even ordered before we graduated, and I never got to see it, till now I mean."
"Yeah, there are books in here too."
"But the thing that really makes me angry is that there is a replica of Alex's guitar as well. I swear, when someone gets in here, I'm going to take it and hit them right in the middle of their stupid heads."
Max smiled. He had not only spent a whole summer with Maria three years ago, but they had spent a lot of time together these past few months as well to picture exactly her face as she was saying it. She was way beyond pissed off at this moment, but he just couldn't feel pity for the guy that was going to enter that door. Max also knew that she was scared. Scared for Michael and Isabel and himself. He wondered if she had realized that she was in danger too.
"Max, I know it's a stupid question but, what do they want?"
Max stared at the wall. It did sound like a stupid question, but he knew what she meant. Why go to all the trouble to bring in all this stuff they used to have?
"I don't know. Maybe it's a test."
"A test to see what? If we recognized our past lives?"
"Could be worse," Max answered while he turned his attention to the shelves. He hadn't noticed before that in the upper shelf was something else. A house. A toy house. He swiftly moved to stand in front of it, and as he was reaching to take it, Maria spoke again.
"Do you think they are okay?"
Max didn't answer right away. Instead, he took the toy house and stared at it. It wasn't his toy house, but an exact replica. His had had a little scratch below one of the windows. This one had it too, but it wasn't the same. He had stared way too many times at his own toy house, wondering how he was going to get back home, to not know it.
"Max?"
"I don't know Maria, but if you and I are fine, there's a good chance they are." He put it back in its place. "How did you know the guitar was a replica?"
"I passed one hand over its strings before starting to shout, and it didn't sound the same. I spent too much time tuning it during the last months of senior year to not know it. The books are from the library though. Exactly the same ones I checked out. God, there are even elementary books in here."
Max's eyes wandered down, to the drawer, and he steadied himself before opening it. He put his right hand on the handle and slowly slid it open. There were a number of things inside of it. A few Scientific America magazines; an astronomy map he had used when he was nine; the pocket knife Liz had given him four Christmases before; a worn out piece of paper with the Spanish lyrics he had sung to her, and a lot of other things he had kept, little personal treasures that told a story of who he was and what he had done. But all this he registered in a blur, because in the middle of the drawer, in a black square paper, with silver ink was drawn the royal seal of Antar. For the second time since he had woken up, he stopped breathing. This wasn't a test, this was a demonstration. A demonstration that was saying 'I know you', loud and clear.
"Max, how did this happen? How couldn't… we foresee it? I went to sleep last night and I woke up in here."
Maria's words entered the fog in his head as a distant sound, and it took him a couple of seconds to understand them. He didn't take his eyes off the drawer.
"We went to sleep three days ago. At least, that's what my watch says."
"What? Three days? How the hell did we lose three days? No wait, don't answer that… You know what the other creepy thing is? These clothes. I went to sleep with my pajamas, and now I'm dressed like yesterday—I mean, like three days ago."
The thick fog that was surrounding his thoughts wasn't getting thinner fast enough. It took Max a few seconds into thinking straight what Maria was saying, almost as if he were hypnotized by what he saw in front of him. Facts. He needed facts, he reminded himself.
"You too? What else?" While he was still looking at the five dots making a V, his brain started to make questions. How could they know that? And not only about the seal, about everything that was in there.
"What else? Isn't that creepy enough for you? Max? Max, are you there?"
Max closed the drawer slowly, still trying to piece this puzzle together. But a part of his mind told him that if he didn't answer Maria –even if it were just on a yes/no basis- the girl would kill him. Right now, silence was the one thing that would scare them the most.
"I don't know. I'm just trying to figure this thing out." He was about to tell her about what was in his drawer, when Maria's urgent voice came through the wall.
"Max! Max! Michael has just woken up."
"What?"
"Michael. I've just felt it."
True, for the past three or four months, Michael had started to feel Maria's emotions in a way that resembled the way he and Liz felt each other. It wasn't the same though, because Michael and Maria were just way too explosive sometimes. They got too intense too fast, enough to knock themselves out if they actually went through that level of connection in any other way than the slow one. But it hadn't been often, and it had been only Michael who could feel Maria. They had guessed –Michael and he- that it might have to do in part because Maria hadn't been… changed by Max, and in part because even after everything they had been through, Michael didn't want Maria feeling everything he did.
"It'll just be too much, you know? She's already in danger because of us, and she shouldn't be. Besides I don't want to freak her out feeling what I feel. It's bad enough that I'm scared for her and that she's scared for me. And to overall both feeling each other's fears like that too? No Max, I don't want that."
Max had tried to tell him that it wasn't like that, because he could sense Liz's fear just as he knew she was sensing his, but they both took comfort from each other, tried to be strong for each other. But part of the truth also was that they did tune their connection down a little from time to time. Just to have some space from each other. Even they needed that. And Michael was right; it could be really hard to feel the other panicking when you were panicking… Still, even if they tuned it down sometimes, they were never really without each other's presence. That was, of course, until now. And right now discovering that Maria could sense Michael was a relief. He wasn't going to question why it was happening now or how much she could feel him, because like his father liked to say, 'you just don't question luck'. He forgot everything about the black sheet and the royal seal, and turned to the wall again in a rush.
"Is he okay? Can you tell?"
Maria didn't answer for a few seconds, and it took all his will to not start punching the wall just to get rid of his nervous energy. Instead, he put his hands against the wall and put his whole weight against them, as if he were going to push it down. It was better than just standing there watching the blue space. He hadn't even noticed the nervous energy building up inside him until now when he was waiting for her answer. No wonder Michael was always punching things. Max, Maria is a total drama queen, he could almost hear Liz saying with a laugh. Except that he knew that Maria wasn't doing this on purpose, and that Liz wasn't saying that either. Please Liz, be all right.
"Well, if you call pissed off and scared to death okay, then he's fine."
Max put his forehead against the wall and sighed. 'Pissed off and scared to death' did sound like Michael. He knew it sounded like him too. Was Liz getting his feelings as well?
"Max, what are we supposed to do? Sit down and wait? Because if that's it, I can't. I need to see Michael right now. He needs to see me right now. God, I feel as if Michael is about to—to—explode or implode or tear something apart—I don't know. Max we have to do something!"
Max stared at the wall feeling more helpless now than in his entire existence. And boy, he did know about feeling helpless. But having Maria behind that wall, almost seeing her beautiful green eyes welling up with tears of anger and frustration and fear was breaking his spirit. What was he suppose to say? 'Everything's going to be alright?' Right now he couldn't even sense Liz to know if she was 'pissed off and scared to death'. At least Maria had that.
"I know Maria. I know we have to do something. But right now I don't—"
A muffled sound came from the other wall in the room, right at his back. Max barely turned his head to the right to see if he could hear it again. He didn't know what it was, but it had been something. Now, was it something good or something he definitely didn't want to know about?
"Max? Max!" Maria was getting frustrated on the other side of the wall.
"Wait, Maria, I think I heard something."
"Something like what?"
"Give me a minute to see if I can hear it again."
Max straightened himself up and turned the 180 degrees to face the other wall. It took him three steps to be in front of it, and as he tentatively started to raise his hand to touch it –almost as if he were expecting to find something movable there- he heard the sound again. But this time, it made complete sense.
"Someone in there!" Kyle's voice came through the wall still sounding muffled, but Max couldn't mistake it. It didn't even take him a second to answer him.
"Kyle! It's me, Max"
"Max? I can't believe it! Wait till I tell Isabel!"
"Isabel? Is she with you?" Max's heart started to beat anxiously, eagerly, his voice carrying a hint of relief. Apparently, when luck wasn't questioned, it stayed with you.
"She's in a room next to mine on the other wall. It was her idea that I should see if someone was on this side of the room. I'm telling her now".
"Kyle!"
But Kyle didn't answer back, obviously having gone to the other wall of his room.
"Max? Don't leave me waiting here, for Pete's sake!"
Max turned immediately again, and doubting for a split second if he should stay there waiting for Kyle or go to Maria, he went to the other wall.
"It's Kyle, he's in a room next to mine, and he says Isabel is in another room next to his", he wasn't surprised to hear the joy in his voice. He wasn't surprised at all to feel the little smile on his lips.
"Are they okay? Do they know anything else?"
"I'm going to ask him now. But you should check the other wall in your room and see if someone's there."
Max went back to the left wall, and he got there in time to hear Kyle calling his name. It didn't pass unnoticed by him that it was a lot easier to hear Maria than Kyle. He had to almost shout out to the wall for Kyle to hear him, and he was pretty sure Kyle was having the same trouble. It was as if the wall between them was thicker than the one between his and Maria's rooms.
"I'm here. Maria's in the room on my right wall. Are you okay? Is Liz with you or with my sister?"
"No, it's just the two of us. But we are okay. Well, Isabel said she was, but are you okay Max?"
"Yes, both Maria and I are okay. Although my powers are gone."
Kyle paused for a few seconds, and in the distance he could hear Maria yelling in her own room. He hoped against hope that Liz would be next to her. Finally, Kyle answered, but he did it very slowly, accentuating every word.
"Yeah. Her. Own. Powers. Are. Gone".
Max stared at the wall frowning. Why would he say it in such a peculiar way? Was he afraid Max would miss the words? Sure he sounded muffled, but it wasn't all that bad. And then it hit him. Kyle was afraid Max would miss the message implied in his words.
Three months before, it had finally happened. Kyle had started his "buzzing and crackling like tinfoil in a microwave" process, as he had so eloquently said months ago, and it had been a really scary moment for them all. Especially since they had no idea what powers Kyle would have. Would he be able to see the future just as Liz could? Or a power they already had? Or would it be something completely different? Kyle had been freaked out and said he didn't want anything to do with green weird electricity or anything green for that matter, or getting flashes, or exploding things. Although he did make a comment about the benefits of dreamwalking for which Isabel had playfully slapped him. But they still weren't sure what powers Kyle had at this point. The only thing they did know was that at least he wasn't "glowing in the dark" anymore.
And now Max knew by Kyle's tone that what he meant was that he had his own powers, or whatever they were in this stage. Of course, that didn't mean that Kyle could burst a hole in the wall and get them all out of there, or anything useful for the moment for that matter, but it did give him hope that Liz could have hers. Sure, the love of his life couldn't really burst a hole in the wall just because she felt like it, but under extreme pressure, Liz's outbursts of energy did come. At least she could defend herself if it came to it.
"I understand Kyle. But the main thing is that you are okay. Listen, do you know anything about how we got here?"
"What? You don't know anything either? We just went to sleep and then I woke up in here. Isabel said the same. Hey, she wants to know about your room—wait, she's saying something else."
Silence followed Kyle's last statement. Seconds went by, and when Kyle finally returned calling his name to see if he was there, Maria also started to talk to him from the other side of the room.
"Kyle, wait, Maria's now talking"
"Max, Max, Max, Max, no, this is important!"
"Just give me a second," Max didn't miss the urgency in Kyle's tone, but he needed to know if Maria had heard something. If she had found someone.
"No one's answering, and I yelled with all my might. Now, what is Kyle saying? Is Isabel all right? Is Michael with her? Because I think I've felt relief coming from him."
Max tried hard to not let Maria's news crumble his spirit just yet. It was getting difficult to tell her what Kyle knew and to ask Kyle what Maria wanted plus what he wanted plus answering what he had asked before. He was thinking about that when he answered her back.
"No, Kyle said Isabel and he are alone in their own rooms, but that they are fine as well. Are you sure Michael is feeling relief?" If Michael was fine, chances increased that Liz was fine as well. He had to remind himself that he couldn't let himself go into thinking that she wasn't, because if he let that thought in his mind, he would not think about anything else… and it would just consume him, not letting him think about how the hell he was going to get her and everyone else out of here.
"Hey, it's not as if I do this everyday, you know. But yeah, I guess he's somewhat less explosive or something."
"Max!" Kyle called, obviously yelling pretty loud for Max to hear him.
"Maria, wait a second, Kyle has something urgent to tell me." Without waiting for Maria to answer him back, he moved again to the left wall of his room.
"Kyle, I'm here."
"Liz is beside Isabel!"
Max's heart made a double beat at Kyle's words, and for one second it was as if a hundred questions wanted to get out at the same time, so they just stuck together in the middle of his throat.
"Max? Max? Did you hear? Come on, don't freeze on me now!"
Finally, his questions took a number to get out, and he was able to ask them then.
"Is she okay? Did she say something out of the ordinary? Is Michael with her? How—"
"Max! I'm no freaking secretary to write it all down! You know, between you and your sister you are going to make me go crazy!"
Max stared at the wall with his mouth half open with an unspoken question. What was wrong with Kyle? This was Liz they were talking about, for crying out loud! But some tiny little part of his brain did understand that Kyle couldn't answer him all that he wanted to know at once. This was going to be a very chaotic exchange of questions and answers if they didn't find some way of communication that actually worked. Max sighed with exasperation.
"Is she okay?" he asked again, this time giving Kyle time to answer back.
"Yes, but she's really worried about you because she knows how you're feeling, if you know what I mean." This time, Max didn't lose time in getting the message implied there. If Liz could feel him then she also had her own powers. At least whoever had them knew Liz wasn't one of them. Who the hell had thought that she was part alien to begin with had always been a question to which he had wanted an answer.
But besides that, Max tried to calm himself a little bit so Liz could sense that coming from him. When he tried to block all his fear so she wouldn't be twice freaked out, he couldn't tell if he was doing it or not. So that was what had happened to Michael. He just couldn't block Maria because he didn't know if he was doing it or not.
"Okay, tell her that I'm okay and that I love her, would you?"
"Sure, just let me get all the messages across from everybody else. Besides that, Michael is at the end of the row besides Liz's room. And yes, he's okay too. Isabel is insisting on knowing about your room, because ours are way too high on the creep thermometer, and Michael wants to know how Maria's doing since he can't sense her." Kyle paused for a few seconds, "Yeah, I think that's it. Now, go and ask Maria and then come back and tell me her and your answers so I don't have to come here and go back there again with all that. This Q and A is getting freaking biblical every time I get to one of these walls."
Max turned around, but in the middle of his room he stopped. Something in Kyle's words made a lot of sense in actually fixing their communication problem. So he went back for just a second.
"Kyle! Tell everyone to stop asking or saying anything for just a minute." Before he went to Maria's wall, he heard Kyle again.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"You hear me Kyle. Just do it. I'll explain in a second."
Without waiting for anything else, Max moved swiftly to the other side of his room.
"Maria, Michael is beside Liz who is beside Isabel. We are all fine."
"Are you sure? Are they really fine? I mean, what else did Kyle say?"
"Yes, I'm sure, but listen, we need to get an order to what we want to know and make everyone else know the answers as well, or we are just going to end up asking the same things and getting messages back and forth while losing valuable time."
"What do you mean? How do we do that?"
"I'm not quite sure, but for starters, let's get straight what you and I know, so I can pass it to Kyle and he can do the same to all the others, and then wait to hear what they have to say back."
"All we know? Maybe we should break it in sections or something."
Max thought for a second that they really didn't know all that much to begin with, but he did have to admit that it was going to be harder as the questions and answers began accumulating. So breaking them down did sound like a good idea.
"Okay. You're right. But first of all, let's see what we are going to pass first. We all know that we are okay, that's an important thing. Isabel, Michael and I are out of powers." Max paused. How could he tell Maria that Kyle and Liz had theirs? He decided that there was no way he could tell her that so that no other ears would hear. So he let that piece of information out. He just hoped Maria wouldn't ask it.
"Are they in creepy blue rooms too?"
"I think so, but I don't know for sure. Anyway, we are not asking anything now, we are just saying what we know."
"Okay. What else are you going to tell Kyle?"
"That it's been three days since we last were awake. Anything else you think might be useful?"
"The clothes. Ask him about what are they wearing. Or just tell him that we are wearing the same stuff. You know what I mean. And Max, could you tell Michael that I love him?" Maria's voice was full of apprehension, of fear when she had said that, almost as if she were afraid that it would be the last time, or the last chance she would have to say it. Max closed his eyes. He knew exactly what she was feeling, but after taking a deep breath to steady his emotions inside –and God, he would give anything to feel Liz's right now- he went and passed Maria's message first, and then explained to Kyle what he was trying to do and what they knew.
So the very slow process to get the information from one another began. It took them around an hour and forty five minutes to get straight that everyone was indeed in a blue room, wearing the same clothes they'd been wearing the day they had been caught, with personal things that they used to have or liked at one point or another in their lives. From Michael's complete collection of Metallica's CD's and the DVD of Braveheart, to Kyle's first Buddhism book, or Isabel's favorite brand of lipstick. Liz said there was a blank replica of her journal too. No one said anything about any alien symbols though, and Max decided to wait till everything was settled down to say something about it.
The only thing that appeared to be missing was Liz's engagement ring. He had his own wedding ring, just as Liz said she had her golden band, so it was just that. Isabel had hers though. It intrigued Max just as much as it intrigued everyone else.
Besides that, everyone felt fine, had woken up with a feeling of being rested and had pretty much guessed immediately that they had been caught. Liz had said that she had felt him waking up and that his feelings –she was kind enough to not say his panic- had woken her up. When she had finally shout out to see if he could hear her –after all, she did know that he was nearby- Michael had heard her. It had been pretty much the same with Kyle and Isabel. After Kyle was done walking the small room, he had started to shout out for someone to tell him what was going on. Isabel had heard him then, and after a brief exchange she had suggested that maybe someone else was behind the other walls.
It was Liz who first hinted that the walls being thicker or thinner were on purpose. She had no problem listening to Michael, but it was hard to hear Isabel, just as it was hard for him to hear Kyle. Of course, if they were like that on purpose, what did that mean? Maria did tell him from time to time that Michael was getting really impatient about the slowness of it all, so Max asked him what he thought they should do, to which Kyle had answered that Michael had said he had no idea. In fact, no one had any idea. And that had started the questions every one was eager to ask.
Who had caught them? Why bother with all their stuff? And the unspoken one that was on everyone's minds: How were they going to get out of there?
"Michael and Isabel said that it could be the FBI playing tricks with us, but Liz and I think this is way too fancy for the jerks from the government", Kyle was telling him, "though Liz said that it might just be another agency, just not the Special Unit." Maria was thinking pretty much the same thing Liz was.
Max then decided that it was time to tell them about the royal seal. After three or four minutes, Maria told him that Michael was way off the scale of pissed off, and that if he could please, please stop pissing off Michael because it wasn't a nice feeling. After another three or four minutes, Kyle returned with everyone else's answer.
"Hey, Isabel said that Liz told her that Michael is furious at you. Isabel also says that what did they give you for you to forget mentioning it before, because she's going to kill you if you have a clear mind and yet decided to not say that before. Oh, and neither of them had very nice voices, although I'm just assuming on Michael's behalf."
"I didn't want to scare any of you. We had to see the basics first and then try to figure out things. The royal seal would have just complicated everything in everyone's minds before. And—
"Max. Stop it. I've already told you I'm no freaking secretary writing it all down. You know I won't tell them all that, so why don't you tell me exactly what you think that means so I can pass it on, uh?"
Max sighed heavily. He was getting tired of going from one wall to the other, and was getting more frustrated by not having any answers at all. But he was not eager to have someone coming to his room to tell him either. He instantly blocked the images that threatened to invade his mind about the time he had had to wait when he had been first captured. He was sure Liz didn't need to feel that as well.
"Maybe whoever that has us isn't… human."
"What? You think there are aliens involved in this?"
"It might be a possibility. I don't think the Special Unit ever found out about the meaning of the symbols, or even ever saw the symbols to begin with." After telling Maria what he had told Kyle and a couple of minutes had passed, Max also began to wonder about another possibility. Maybe whoever had put that there didn't know the meaning of it either. Maybe it had been just pure luck. But then again, why that specific symbol? The spiral galaxy was a much common pattern. It even looked like it meant something more important too. Nasedo had used it at the night festival years ago. Surely the Special Unit had a record of that.
It took them another hour to get everyone's opinions on how probable it was that this was alien related or not. If it were, who? Khivar? The Skins? Someone else? If it weren't, how much did their captors know? Was it really just a coincidence? Why only in Max's room? Why not pick out other symbols for Isabel and/or Michael? And of course, by the end of the discussion –right around the time when Max didn't think he could get more tense and Maria had told him that now she understood why Michael didn't want her feeling his emotions- they didn't have any straight answers. Just plain conjectures. It was clear that whoever had them had to show himself –or herself- sooner or later, and that waiting was their only option right now. Everything that was left to say was just pure comfort for one another. Gosh, they couldn't even begin to try to figure out a way to get out, especially since they couldn't discuss Liz and Kyle's powers out loud. They could very well be their last chance, but the element of surprise was a need. Max did wonder if whoever was watching did know about those… changes, but there was no way he could know that either.
So, after yet another hour had passed for them to get to that point, Max finally sat on the bed against the right wall, with his head looking at the roof, his knees almost to his chest, clasping his hands around them, and started to talk to Maria about anything he could think of. Anything to make this wait from hell weight less heavy on her and on him. That had been the last thing they had decided. Michael and Liz and Isabel and Kyle were doing the same right now. If any of them had any other idea or comment, they would pass it along. The last message they had passed was how much they cared for each other.
"Do you think they will starve us to death?" Maria asked out of the blue.
"I don't think they would have gone through all this trouble to starve us to death, Maria. Why, are you hungry?"
"Not really, but I'm really thirsty. All this talking takes its toll, you know."
Water. Maria had had it easy being on the extreme end of the row. Just like Michael. But everyone in between had had to shout out to one another because of the thicker walls. Kyle had complained several times about the lack of a glass of water and had joked about prisoners' rights being violated. Max was thirsty too, but he was trying hard to not think about it. Just like he was trying not to think about going to the bathroom, because once one hit that particular idea, one just couldn't stop the feeling from coming. Thankfully, Maria didn't comment on that either. Probably she had reached the same conclusion.
"You know, talking about the trouble they went through, couldn't they have brought us a damn game so we wouldn't be bored to death? Seriously, Liz and I used to play lots and lots of those board games."
Max and Isabel both had a one hundred dollar bill from Monopoly in their drawers. They had played with their parents regularly when they had been kids, and less often when they had been growing up the last years. Kyle had a baseball ball, and he had guessed it was there because he had been in Little League when he had been a kid. Lucky Kyle was probably bouncing it against the walls right now. Still, he had to keep it a light conversation. He was done with being serious and was trying really hard to send some calmness to Liz.
"Well, Maria, can you imagine us playing Monopoly right now? I mean, how would you pay the bills and keep straight who has what property?"
"Easy. Liz will know who owns what properties and you will know who owes what to whom and how much. Isabel would kick our asses, Kyle will try to steal from the bank and Michael will be so bored to death by the middle of the game that he would take me out of the room—I mean, conversation- since I'll be bored to death as well. Since we are both in the extremes, you four can still play, so there won't be any trouble at all. But of course, they couldn't think we might actually find a way to play it, so they didn't put a Monopoly game in each room. Idiots."
Max smiled at Maria's comment. He could picture it so well in his mind. They had played some games during the months they had been on the run, mostly cards, but it was hard to get the six of them to sit down and play. Someone was always on the look out, or driving, or they just hadn't been together. If they could get out of this one –correction, when they got out of this one- he would make sure they sat down and played at least one game of Monopoly just in honor of this conversation. So he could hear Maria say 'I told you so' while Michael was dragging her out of the room by the middle of the game.
It didn't matter to him when a tiny little voice told him inside that it might take years before he could fulfill that promise.
AN: The part that said "There were a number of things inside of it. A few Scientific America magazines;" was used as a small homage to one of my all time favorite fanfic authors, Danilise, who was co-writer of the Future Arc and Roswell Elementary series. She specifically used the Scientific America magazines reference on her fic Breathe
The line "Kyle had complained several times about the lack of a glass of water and had joked about prisoners' rights being violated," was inspired by Roswell High Book #5, but if you haven't read it, I won't spoil it ;)