Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Good night, Liam." Nothing was wrong, it was already 6:30, he nearly couldn't believe it himself, but work was done tonight.

“Wait, we're done already?” Ah, Liam was a good friend. Sure, sometimes he could be a bit optimistic when the scenario... wasn't, but Owen really did like the green backpack. He really did.

“Yeah, six thirty.” Liam looked relieved that his shift was over, and Owen was too.

“Oh dang...” Owen went out and drove back to his apartment. Everything was completely fine... It was fine... Nothing could possibly go wrong...

...but why, oh, why did he feel like something bad was about to happen?

The next day at work, Liam isn't there. Owen doesn't know why, Liam isn't the kind of person to miss his work. He didn't even call anyone saying he would be late or not be there.

The situation strikes him as bad. Owen decides to call him himself, but to no avail. He tries texting him, but Liam never answers. Owen decides that if tomorrow, Liam doesn't answer anything at all, he'd report him to be missing. Liam doesn't answer anything the next day, so Owen went to report it. Liam Plecak, male green backpack, last seen evening February 10th.

Sometime in March, an investigator from Toledo, Ava, came to interrogate him. Owen gave the same testimony he gave the local police, though it does strike him as strange how six individuals across the country just vanished, and only half of them reappeared. Even weirder, one of them, Taylor Nolan, claims to have been taken to some kind of gameshow on a weird basic planet, along with a baby tomato, a soda bottle, a scented candle, a piece of moldy bread, and... a green backpack. Owen didn't believe that the competition called ONE existed, but he also knew that Taylor couldn't have known without... some... reason. Liam was...somewhere. At this point he thinks they were all contacting each other (well, maybe except the baby) and making up this strange story of The Plane and Airy and inanimate objects coming alive. The more he thinks about it, the more Owen is convinced that that was the case.

But why would Liam do this to him?

...........................................................

Months have passed, and things are only getting more confusing. He could have sworn Liam was dead the other day, but now? He had just seen Liam yesterday in a convenience store, and he claimed that he had gone to... Australia? That didn't seem right. Owen could swear that the investigation had checked Liam's flights to see if he had just moved but nothing came up. He didn't know for sure, but he was pretty sure his friend never went to Australia. That was a lie. There was also reports that Liam and the soda bottle he saw in the store, Bryce Hanson, had been found dead on a smokestack in Bridgeport. The report was also a few days before he saw Liam, so what happened? He couldn't die and then talk to his coworker all the way across the country.

Something wasn't adding up.

Owen was now wondering if Taylor's weird story about a competition was actually true. He didn't know how it could explain anything about the death, but now that he's been presented with something impossible, who knows what else is real?

Eventually he decides that yes, ONE did in fact happen, and somehow was postponed several times. Taylor had described a baby dying and being respawned, so maybe the same could've happened with Liam? But Taylor also said that it was only for The Plane. Whatever. He knows in his heart that Liam is alive somehow, he just needs time. Just wait it out, Owen repeats to himself. Just. Wait. It out.

............................................................

It was now five months after Owen saw his friend at the store. His hope was starting to wane, but he had a belief that Liam would come back for him. A few days ago, the missing Bryce, Amelia, and Charlotte reappeared at almost the exact same time. Owen tried to contact them, but they didn't want any interviews or anything.

Right at the point he almost gave up, he got an unexpected phone call late at night. He didn't recognize the number, but he decided to pick it up in the hopes that it's Liam and not some idiot. He's almost certain it's not his friend and is ready to hang up, but then he hears it.

“Owen? I'm back.” Those words sent shockwaves through Owen's mind. He has so many questions, but he can only think of one thing to say.

“Are you really back or are you going to vanish yet again?” It might've been a stupid question, but he needed to ask.

“Yeah, I'm not disappearing anytime soon, Air—the kidnapper is gone.” There it was. The near confirmation that ONE was more than a fantasy created by a magazine. He needed to ask about that, but how could he go about that? He couldn't just say 'Is ONE real?' now could he? Well, he could try it out now, right? Couldn't hurt, right?

“What happened with ONE-?"

“You know about that? How?” Owen explained how there was a magazine named Taylor who reported about the strange supernatural competition and how he'd figured there might be more truth to it than most others. Liam laughed.

“Good, if you believe it, then I can tell you everything that happened in my heck of an adventure."