I’m unbelievably bored with watching the same movies, but there is very little else to do, so I sit with Theo, Priya, Lucie, and Hazel. It has been three days since Theo and I came up with our dangerous plan, and we’ve not yet heard anything from Caleb, Owen, and Matt.
But we still get food, so they haven’t abandoned us. I’m not sure if that’s good or not.
Murdering each other or starving to death? It’s a toss-up really.
Kevin’s absence still weighs heavily in the room. The spot where he usually sat is vacant and has been since he was last here.
I don’t want to spend all my time stressing or overthinking about what happened to him, but I can’t shake the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
But there is no one else in room zero with him right now, we’re all still in here, so he must be somewhere in this dungeon alive unless they’ve killed him themselves.
Theo said it’s not the first time someone has been taken into solitary confinement for a longer stretch of time. But the fact that it’s happened before does nothing to ease the worry. I just want Kevin back, so we can carry on as normally as possible in here, waiting and secretly plotting.
No one voices their ideas for fear of being heard, but they must think about escape on a daily basis, too.
“Where is your mind?” Theo asks, scooting to the empty cushion beside me.
“On Kevin and the escape,” I admit softly. “I know you said to not worry, but I can’t help it. Something isn’t right about Kevin’s disappearance, Theo. I can feel it.”
“I agree that it’s concerning, but this has happened before. Two guys have gone missing in here, I’ve heard Caleb and Matt talking about it when I was in room five. It’s just another way for them to control us, another game to play. And as for the escape, it’ll be okay. Don’t allow them to win, remember, Piper?”
I nod, though I’m not quite able to shut my mind off the way he seems to be able to. Maybe that’s because he has had more practice. “I remember.”
The door in the waiting hallway clicks. I leap to my feet, steadying myself by grabbing the top of Theo’s arm as he gets to his feet, too.
Priya gasps. “Kevin?”
No one moves closer to the door by the bookcase, but we all stare at it.
It has to be him, but what condition will he be in? It’s been six days, I think. Was he moved from torture room to torture room? The only way I deal with being in those rooms is knowing that I’ll be back out with the others soon.
The door opens, and I grip Theo’s arm tighter.
The guy, tall and a little on the skinny side, drops to his knees. His dark, tortured eyes regard us one by one.
“Who are you?” Lucie asks.
He looks traumatized, his chest caving with each ragged breath.
I take a step forward, but I’m stopped by Theo. His fingers curl around my wrist, and he shakes his head. I know we don’t know this guy, but he’s clearly been harmed.
“Don’t, Piper. Look at him. Something’s wrong.”
I tug my wrist out of his grip. “Of course, there is! Can’t you see he needs help!”
What has happened to him? He looks like he’s been to battle.
“We have no idea where he’s come from, Piper.”
I gasp. “Yes, I do,” I whisper, looking into this guy’s wild eyes. He has dark circles and is wincing like the light hurts. His hair is damp, clothes fresh and new. He’s been here.
Turning to Theo, I tell him, “You said yourself, people have gone missing in here. I don’t think they’ve been missing. I think he’s been held somewhere here, or they’ve been moved from room to room, constantly tortured.” I turn back to the guy on the floor.
The guy grips his messy brown hair in his fists and squeezes his eyes closed like he’s fighting something in his mind. Memories, no doubt. I know how that feels.
No one stops me as I take a few steps closer and crouch down. “What’s your name?” I ask.
He stills, muscles bunching under his sweats. Letting go of his hair, he stares up at me like I’m an alien. How long has it been since he’s spoken to another person? “Evan,” he replies, his voice rough like he’s been screaming.
I don’t remember ever seeing his face on a missing poster, but then not everyone is reported as missing or having run away.
“Hi, Evan. I’m Piper. How long have you been here for?”
Shrugging, he sits back. “I don’t know. I was taken in February.”
I suck in a breath. “It’s now August.”
He’s been here for six months.
“August,” he repeats.
“Have you ever been in here?”
He looks around and nods. “Not for a long time, though. I tried to escape with another guy, and they…”
They took them out of here and kept them in the torture rooms.
“I’m so sorry, Evan.”
“I’ll get him a drink,” Priya says from behind me.
Evan must have received food and water, but his eyes are sunken, and his clothes a little baggy. He should have picked up a size smaller than usual.
“Are you hungry?” I ask him.
He nods. “They only gave me bread, soup, water, and the occasional piece of fruit.”
Almost six months of only bread, soup, fruit, and water. They are so cruel. My eyes prickle with unshed tears.
“Come and sit, Evan. We’ll make you something to eat.”
He slams his palm on the wall and rises to his feet. “Who are all of you?” he asks the others.
Theo’s jaw tightens.
“That’s Priya, Lucie, Hazel, and Theo,” I say, pointing to each one so he can put a name to a face. “Theo has been here the longest… Well, besides you. Hazel and I have only been here for about eleven days.”
“You were taken together?”
“Yes,” I reply. “I don’t know if that was their intention since Caleb was talking to me alone earlier in the night, but when he drove past later, Hazel was with me.”
“Was it just him? There were two of them when I was jumped.”
“Owen was there, too. You were jumped?”
“I was at a party they were throwing. When I left, two of them jumped me and threw me in their car. I think my drink might have been spiked, because I don’t remember much about it.”
Evan stumbles a little as he walks to the sofa.
“Are you okay?”
He looks over his shoulder. “Hungry. My body feels so weak.”
Slumping down, he lays his head back against the cushion.
“Sandwich okay?” Priya asks. “I could make you microwave pasta if you’d prefer, but it’ll take a little longer.”
“Sandwich sounds great, thanks,” he replies.
I can’t imagine he wants more bread, but Priya is right, he needs to eat now. We can cook something more substantial in a little while.
“Do you drink tea or coffee?” she asks.
He chuckles. “Coffee sounds like a dream right now.”
She smiles. “Coming up.”
Hazel folds her arms. “Are we just ignoring the fact that he came in here looking like he’s been attacked and Kevin is still missing?”
Evan frowns. “Who is Kevin? I haven’t seen anyone else recently.”
“He’s our friend and he’s been…somewhere here for the last five or six days. Where is your friend?”
Shaking his head, Evan clenches his hands into fists.
“What happened to him, Evan?”
His eyes lock with mine. “Room zero.”
I gasp. “He’s in there? Kevin could be, too!”
“No, he’s not there with Kevin.”
“How do you know that? They need two to fight to the…” I take a breath. “They now have two.”
“I’m telling you, Kevin isn’t in room zero.”
“You can’t know that!”
“Yes, I can. I’ve just come from room zero.”
My heart hits the floor. “Oh.”
“Your friend…”
Evan’s chin dips to his chest. “I had to. Three days they kept us in there, no food or water. They kept saying things to him, telling him how I was going to attack soon so he should do it first. I tried telling him I wouldn’t, but in the end it was too much for him.” He takes a breath. “He ran at me, and we got into a fight. I don’t want to talk about the rest.”
Evan is a murderer. He didn’t want to, and he’s clearly torn up about it, but that doesn’t change the facts. He’s taken a life, just like Theo and Priya.
I want to ask questions. There might come a time when I’m forced into that room, and I don’t know how I will cope or what I will do. Both parties refusing to hurt the other isn’t an option, not for long anyway.
Asking everything I want would be selfish. Evan isn’t going to want to talk about it, not yet anyway.
All that matters right now is taking care of him physically.
Priya hands him a plate with two sandwiches on it. He thanks her and inhales the food. Lucie takes three trips to bring hot drinks to all of us and an extra bottled water for Evan.
I try not to look at him while he eats, so I focus on the others instead. Hazel and Theo sit on one sofa with their arms folded, totally closed off to Evan. It would be super-dumb of me to blame them or call them out when they’re only trying to make sense of this whole thing, too. We don’t know Evan. We had no idea that he was in the same building, and we don’t know why Caleb has let him come back in here now.
There are so many questions.
Priya and Lucie are much more open to Evan. Priya is one of the sweetest and most caring people I have ever met, so I don’t think it would ever occur to her not to be kind, until she becomes someone else in one of those rooms. She has such a genuine love for people; it will be a double tragedy if she doesn’t get out of here.
Lucie kind of looks done. She’s neither caring nor uncaring. She’s in survival mode, doing what she needs to do.
Evan puts the plate on the coffee table. “Thanks, that was good.”
Priya gives him a smile in return and sips her tea.
“Are you feeling any better?” I ask Evan.
“Less hungry. I see James every time I blink my eyes.”
“James? That’s your friend?”
“Yeah.”
“What happened when you were fighting?” Theo questions. His voice is tight. He doesn’t care that it’s probably superhard for Evan to talk about his friend. I understand that Theo’s concerned for Kevin, and I think Evan might know what’s happened to him, but he’s not being fair.
“I…” He inhales and then reaches for his coffee. “There were two knives. He was holding one, and the other was on a table. James’s eyes were vacant. I have never seen him like that. We’ve been tortured for months, taken to the brink of death, only to be brought back and tortured all over. He always stayed positive, even in the depths of hell. But that moment, he was gone.”
Evan pauses to take a long sip of coffee. “I didn’t want to hurt him, but he was going to kill me. It was instinct. I saw the whole thing unfold in front of me, almost as if I were somewhere else. I grabbed the knife and…”
“And?” Theo prompts.
Evan glares, his knuckles turning white as he grips the mug hard. “You can guess. I’m not going into details of how I stole the life from a guy who’s kept me sane in this asylum.”
Is that what Evan has done to Kevin, too? No, there is no reason for him to lie. We all do things in here that we don’t want to.
I shake my head at Theo, signaling him to cool it. His loyalty is appreciated. I love that he’s trying to protect us, but Evan isn’t the enemy here.
We have to be united against these rich psychos.
Theo’s jaw hardens again. It might take him a little while to trust Evan, but he’ll have to.
We’re in this together.