So, a plan. I need to think of a plan. A decent one. There are three of them and six of us, but they’re bigger and stronger, which makes attacking them stupid because they have the upper hand.
Think again, Piper. And better.
The doors are strong and locked, therefore breaking them down would be pretty much impossible. Plus, there are tons of them.
One of us could pretend to be deathly ill, but that doesn’t seem like something they would care about.
Okay, I’ll keep thinking about it.
Theo briefly shows me the drawer of basic toiletries and sanitary products in the bathroom, since I’ve seen this room when I changed clothes. It has a shower, dresser, toilet, and sink. All pretty compact together since the room is small, but it’s clean and stacked with towels.
“Who does the laundry?” I ask.
Theo chuckles. “You ask some odd questions given the circumstances. There’s a washing machine in the kitchen.”
Oh. So, we do the laundry. I wonder what kind of explosives you can make from different cleaning chemicals? I totally know that’s a thing, I’ve seen it on TV, but I wouldn’t know where to start. Hazel is way better at chemistry than I am. If we—she—can make something that will create a strong enough explosion to bust a door open, we could all get out.
Or all die from chemical inhalation.
Theo and I leave the bathroom and return to the main living quarters. Hazel is still sitting in the same position, staring off into space. Probably not the best time to question her on creating chemical explosions and the likelihood of dying. Lucie is pacing back and forth.
I sit on a seat of my own. Lucie’s eyes follow me. She stops and sits beside me. Her eyes hold a thousand questions.
“You can ask,” I tell her. If the situation were reversed, I would want to know. After all, it was only a couple of hours ago that I was talking to her friends.
“Who was it you saw?”
“I don’t know who, but three girls and then a guy.”
She presses her lips together. “Leo.”
“The guy is Leo?”
“Yes. We were friends. I like him more than a friend, though, and I never had the opportunity to tell him.”
I want to tell her that the feeling appeared mutual when I met him, but that seems cruel since she’s stuck in here.
“You can do that as soon as we get out.”
She tilts her head and deadpans, “You think we’re getting out? They’ve been doing this for over a year, and you think we’re the ones who will escape? People have tried before.”
“They couldn’t have tried everything, or they would be out,” I say.
Lucie rolls her eyes. “You’re a fool.”
“No, I’m just not giving up.”
“How do you do that?”
“Not give up, you mean?”
She nods.
“I’m still breathing, Lucie, and I have people I love at home. You do, too.”
“People come in here, get tortured, then fight to the death. Where are you finding the hope in that?” She sighs sharply. “Wait until you’ve been in one of those rooms. If you come out and retain that positive attitude, I’ll join you.”
She stands and walks into the bedroom.
Theo, Kevin, and Priya watch my reaction. They were listening to the whole thing. I don’t blame Lucie. We all react differently, and maybe I won’t be the same if something bad happens to me, but I’ve always been of the opinion that although I can’t always control what happens in my life, I can control how I react to it.
Perhaps I’ll change my mind, but for now, I’m sticking with that.
“She doesn’t mean to be rude, but she was in her first room yesterday,” Kevin says.
“God,” I whisper. “Which one?”
He shrugs. “She won’t talk about it. She didn’t come out with wet hair, so not room five, and she was only in there for the day, so that rules out room four, too.”
“Right,” I reply. So, she was either tortured with sound, light, or temperature.
“Does anyone talk about it?” I ask. “I understand why you might not want to, but when someone else experiences the same thing, it can be helpful to discuss it.”
When my sister died years ago, it helped me to talk to a boy in my class who had gone through the same thing. Before her death, I had never spoken a word to him.
“We do, yeah,” Priya replies. “It helps to get through what’s happened to you.”
“Good.” I give her a smile, and she surprises me by returning it with her own. I didn’t expect that; she’s been quiet and reserved so far.
Priya’s eyes flick to Hazel then back to me, silently asking if she’s okay.
I shrug. Right now, she’s not, but sometimes it takes Hazel a little while to process things. I know how strong she is, so I’m sure she’ll get there.
“Are you hungry?” Kevin asks. “I can make something.”
My stomach rumbles at the thought of food. Thankfully it wasn’t too obvious. “That sounds good. I mean, I’m hungry but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to stomach anything.”
Kevin nods. “I get that. It took me a day to start eating here, but then I was so hungry I felt dizzy. Try to eat… Hazel, too.”
“Thank you.”
“Sandwiches?”
Priya stands. “I’ll help Kevin. We can all have ham and cheese.”
“Sounds good. Thanks,” I reply.
Kevin, Lucie, and Priya go into the kitchen, and it’s basically just me and Theo because Hazel is still staring. I’d love to know what’s going through her head, but it’s almost certainly the worst-case scenario.
“How can you eat?” Hazel whispers. She’s not even really talking to me.
“Do you think people will look for you?” Theo asks.
I look up at him and say, “No,” but I hope he can see the yes in my eyes. Caleb and his friends can’t know. Obviously, they will soon enough, if my parents start a full-scale search, but for now I want them to think they’ve won. Then I want people to notice their reaction when they find my face—and Hazel’s—plastered all over town.
Theo lingers and nods. I think he got my real answer.
Finally, he smiles. “We’ll all be all right. We have each other.”
“You’re right. Can I ask how many times you’ve been in those rooms?”
How often am I looking at here? One room once a week? More than that?
He dips his chin. “I-I’m not sure. I’ve been in all of them. Rooms one to five multiple times. You can survive them, Piper. You have to stay strong—mentally strong.”
“I can do that.”
“I believe you.” He smiles. “You’re going to be okay.”
His repeated sentiment is for me only. He’s still not sure about Hazel, but that’s only because he doesn’t know who she really is.
“What do you do to get through it?”
“Talk to Kevin and Priya. Lucie doesn’t want to discuss any of it.”
“No, I mean, while you’re in there.”
“Oh.” He wrings his hands, and I know his head is back there, remembering some awful things that’ve happened to him.
“I put my mind somewhere else. Imagine I’m out of here. I think about what I would be doing, what college would be like.”
“You were going to college?”
“That was the plan, but I never even got to apply.”
“How old are you, Theo?”
Sighing, he replies, “Seventeen. You?”
“Sixteen.”
“You seem older.”
“I get that a lot. My sister died three years ago, it…aged me, I guess.”
Before Penny’s death, I couldn’t really do much for myself and I relied heavily on my parents and Hazel. Not anymore. I’m confident I can do whatever I need to survive. I just never thought I would have to put that to the test. Not in this way.
“I’m sorry,” he says.
“Thanks. So, where are these rooms?”
“You passed them on the way here. The long corridor off their playroom.” His words are overflowing with venom.
“They’re all the way back there?” We came through, like, four other rooms to get here since that corridor. That makes sense. There were six doors out there. None of them were numbered, though. How would you know which one is which?
“You don’t go back that way.”
“Right.” I take a breath. “Which way do we go then?”
“There is another door behind you.”
I twist my body and crane my neck to see it. How did I miss that? On the wall beside a small bookcase is yet another door. This one is a natural wood color like the bookcase, so that’s probably why it didn’t jump out at me.
“How does that lead back?”
“There’s a tiny room, and you come out in the room where you get the clothes, the one before the corridor of rooms.”
I slowly turn around and exhale. “This place is like a maze.”
He nods. “Yeah, and they seem to be able to get around pretty freely, so there are possibly more hallways than we’ve seen so far.”
“Did you know any of them before this?”
“I’d vaguely seen Matt around, but that’s only because my older cousin Tony went to high school with him. They weren’t friends, though. I came with Matt because he said Tony was here, playing in their game room.” Laughing without humor, he adds, “I thought those games would be of the arcade variety.”
“Well, they do have some of those.”
“Yeah,” he replies. “But they also have a whole lot more.”
“Is that door locked?” I ask, pointing to it over my shoulder with my thumb.
“No, but the one it leads to is. We get notified when someone is back in that corridor, so we usually meet them. And I know what you’re thinking, but we’re not told until they’re back on the other side and it’s locked again.”
“What if you were to wait by that door to the clothes room?”
He shakes his head. “Don’t do that.”
“Why? What’s the punishment for it?”
“Room zero. Straight there, no questions asked, and no mercy shown.”
My body deflates, and I sink back against the sofa.
“They’re evil.”
What if I do end up dying in here? What if Hazel and I are sent to room zero together?