Impulse

Chapter Forty- Three

*NARRATOR'S POV* 

Louis' head felt so heavy that he couldn't keep it up with just his strength, of which the levels aredwindling. He moans from the stinging pulses at the base of his nape, keeping his eyelids sealed asthe skin against his eyeball turned from black to fuzzy grey to orange.Where was he again?He jolted awake when he remembered, his eyes flying open and his body jerking to the side whereit nearly tipped over from the reflex. T

hankfully his gravity was restored after the chair's legsmerely lifted off the ground on the other side, settling back down with a squeak.The right side of his face hurt tremendously and his cheek on that side was singing with pain eachtime the wind blew. Moisture and crustiness contributed to the conclusion that he was bleedingthere.His mind is able to register as it shrinks back into its shell of inner security that he's in the sameroom as before, except now he's certain of two things. First, the racing of his pulse alerts himblatantly that he's been lied to by Dexter. Second, the two chairs on his right have people in them.Familiar people. 

"Oh God- Liam?!" He whispers in urgency across the three feet between the next chair andhim. 

Although his vision is slightly impaired as are all his senses, that side profile is undeniably who hesuspects it is. His arms are taped down and his stomach can't expand sufficiently to breathe but thehope presented by another known face is remarkable.The biggest relief came when the man actually responded. He turned his head and blinked slowly,Liam's physical condition no better than Louis'. The former sat up as much as he could in his seatafter seeing Louis there with them after they've been holed up in here. 

"Louis?" Liam squinted through the poor visible standards. "Is that- What the fuck are you doinghere?"

 Louis spoke in a croak, coughing through the words that got too dry. "I-I don't know. I just- Dexter!Where is he?"

 "Calm down, Lou." Liam tried to settle the boy down when he started to squirm dangerously. 

There was another sound that made Louis' hairs stand on edge and his fingers scrape the wood ofthe chair, but Liam in his creased and stained attire didn't panic. Zayn woke up after his unconsciousbout, having lost count of how many of those there have been. 

"Are we- Where the Hell are we?" Zayn couldn't be seen by Louis but he sounded busted.

 "Same place, Z." Liam replies, sighing as his head hung low. "Fuck!"

 "Whe-Where is that?" Louis asks shakily.Louis needs to know where this is and how they got here. 

Why are Liam and Zayn here? Of all thepeople Dexter might know, why them? Where are Edward and Harry? Do they know that Louis'missing? 

The boy begins to feel thick misery creeping down his spiral of self-hatred.Zayn has been under these restrictions with chafing skin and malnutrition for seven days now. Theshock has worn off and now he's fucking pissed at the man who put him here, cursing the groundthat psychopath walked on. 

"Middleston, baby." He answered Louis' question without looking his way, all their chairs directedat the black cloud that was kept at bay because of a single lightbulb.

 Louis didn't even care for the name that was tacked on at the end. They had bigger problems likewhy on Earth were they back here and how could they get out? It had to be for a purpose, for areason of the mad man who had them locked up here. 

"Why are we here?" Louis asks, a little frightened by all the unidentifiable sounds around him.Behind him were the worst. 

"We don't know." Liam sounds drained and his body felt like its core ingredient is sandpaper. "Westopped trying to ask.

""What happened then?" Louis tried to not let them give up hope the way they were. "How longwere you in here?"

 "Couple of days." Zayn answers ahead of Liam, hollowing his cheeks for a weak inhale

.The duct tape around them was so punishingly strapped that it didn't allow for proper breathing,which inevitably led to headaches for all three of them from lack of oxygen.

 "Has he done anything?" Louis asks, lowering his voice so it didn't echo. Just like before theircaptor could be hiding in those shadows waiting to pounce.

 "No." Liam hardly has the energy to convincingly shake his head. "You're the last person weexpected to be here, Lou." 

Louis bowed his head, staring at his lap and the suspicious crimson hardened droplets on them. "Hesaid he didn't come for me."

 "He's a fuckin' liar!" Zayn erupted, not afraid to have his exclamation echoing through thisstructure. 

In a flash of recollection backwards on a time-line, Louis feels a sharp jab to the inside of his skull.He gets a fleeting memory of how he actually got those awful bruises on the side of his face. Therewas a brutal collision that made his ears ring, his vibrating eardrums getting closer to letting bloodflow free. Dexter had punched him. 

"Zayn, shut up. Save your energy." Liam said calmly, in a moderate tone. It keeps Louis' anxietylevels from skyrocketing through the roof. 

"Save it for what, Liam?" Zayn snarls, something unpleasant making its home in his eyes.

 "To get out." Louis takes the responsibility on of replying. His anxiety is becoming tougher andtougher to battle, the racing pulse and throttling headache. 

"No offence, sweetheart-" Zayn's sickening tone makes Louis' stomach churn. "-but you and yourboyfriends are to blame for this whole fucking thing."

 "That's not true." Louis shakes his head, eyes closing again. "You went digging around somewhereyou shouldn't have."Zayn is no closer to getting his temper under control. "Wasn't it you who asked us to do that?!" 

"Where's Niall?"Louis' sudden reminder takes him back to his absent blond friend. 

He knows where everyone is inthis intricate web except Niall. Is he still okay? Louis hopes so. His friend has been put throughdrama that wasn't his fault all because of him.

 "Don't know." Liam doesn't allow Zayn the chance to answer him with a snide comment. "We didn'tsee him for a day before we woke up in this place." 

Louis swallows the dry lump in his throat and they fall into a dead silence for a minute more,listening for any amount of sound that could aid them in identifying where they are. The creepyabsence of sound is unrelenting instead.The ground scrapes against tiny paws, like small claws scratching the stone as a multitudeof things sniff the air.

 "What's that?" Louis' mind leaps at the sound, his heart in his throat. 

Liam listens for it just as Zayn does. They've been here for days before but never heard this before.In the dark, empty cloud that surrounded them lay dozens of rodents that were too afraid to comeinto the light. Some moved in and out of it too quickly to be seen.None of the trio could lift their legs off the ground because of the tape all around them, nailing theirsore limbs to the wooden posts of the chair and controlling their intakes of air. Louis couldn't see athing in the hovering black mass as it seemed to try stepping closer each time he blinked.

 "Rats." Zayn identified with a heavy exhale, struggling with his chair all over again.

 "Rats?" Louis frowns and the small valley of skin above his eye allows three droplets of blood todrip onto his eyelid, nearly blinding him.

 "I don't think these rats are fed, Louis." Liam tells him, also fighting with the tape that won't budge. 

"They've been hungry for too long. Get your feet off the ground anyway you can." Zayn ordersthem. "Do it now!" 

"They're scared of the light!" Liam shouts at his partner, craning his neck.

 Just then, the single lightbulb goes out and the black cloud falls onto them like a crowned victor.Everyone screams as the scurrying foot-work of the vermin race forward towards them.