• Alystir didn't sleep. But Liam did. Alystir sat at the side of Liam's bed, watching the blonde boy sleep. Canting his head, he studied those cherubic living features, the slight part of his lips as he took in his breath, the honey-colored hair that framed his perfect peach face just so. A face that Alystir knew if he only reached out and touched would be soft and warm.

    Alystir let out a quiet sigh.. He was falling for him. Falling for a living. He was sure it was never a good idea for a zombie. He didn't even have a pulse to be able to-- Not that that was the top of his worries. If the device in his brain ever malfunctioned, he wouldn't be able to control his instincts, and poor Liam-- Alystir shook his head. Best not to think of those things. Reaching out, he was about to touch Liam's hair when the shadows coiled around him from behind, covering his mouth and dragging him from Liam's room.

    Alystir kicked and writhed and once in the light of the hall he noticed the hands holding him captive were as grey and dead and cold as his own. His eyes went wide, but he knew dead flesh was disgusting, so he certainly wasn't going to be eaten. He fell still.

    "That's a good boy." A voice thick with a Cockney accent whispered into his ear. The hands let him go and Alystir spun around to look at the one who'd grabbed him.

    Sitting there was another zombie who looked well into his twenties, with flaming red hair that reached his waist dressed in black leather pants and a Sex Pistols shirt with the sleeves torn off. He looked like he'd seen some damage, and his arms were stitched and patched, and he had a darker patch of skin stitched over his right red eye in an oblong square shape. He was still nonetheless quite handsome, for a zombie.

    Alystir's brows furrowed. "You're a zombie.. And you can think right.. like me. What are you doing here?"

    "Did you think you were the only deaddie they experimented on, mate?" The taller zombie pushed himself to his feet, dusting himself off. "Or that you were the only one of us who had half a brain to contemplate matters with?" Reaching down, he grabbed Alystir under the arms to lift him up as easily as a rag doll, setting him on his feet. "Plenty of us here, pet. Just most of us didn't work out so well as you and me, they're locked up downstairs."

    "How horrible.. we're not animals." Alystir dusted himself off, glancing back at Liam's room. "Liam must not know.. He would never condone it."

    "He's one fine piece of a**, but--"

    "It's queer power, I knew it."

    "What?"

    "Nothing, go on."

    The redhead eyed him. "But he's one of them. He knows about everything, he's in on it. That's why you shouldn't be getting all moon-eyed over him. Just forget about the living, pet. They're in a whole different class than us."

    Alystir bit down on his lower lip and looked back at Liam's room. Could he really think of him as just an animal? Just a lab rat to be experimented on and caged if it goes wrong? He was starting to feel like crying again, but a hand settled against his shoulder. "Let's go watch some television." The redhead motioned for him to follow as he started down the dimly lit hall toward the lounge. Alystir hesitated, but followed after a moment. "What's your name, anyway?"

    The redhead looked over his shoulder at Alystir with a grin. "Nathan. Your new best friend."