“You will,” Priya replies. “When someone is coming at you to kill you… Trust me, you’ll do whatever you have to survive.”
“Have you three ever been in room zero?” I ask Theo, Kevin, and Lucie.
Lucie and Kevin shake their heads. Theo takes a breath. “Once.”
He’s been in here two months and been in room zero once. Less time for Priya.
I want to ask Theo who else was in room zero with him. Would I recognize the name from the long list of missing kids? It’s definitely gotten worse in the last eighteen months. Is that when Caleb and his friends decided to play this game?
“Are you okay?” I ask Theo. Taking someone’s life, even if it is in self-defense, has to make an impact on who you are, your psyche. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have to do that. My only experience with death is my sister, but I had no hand in that. I know what it’s like for death to strip everything good from your life and leave you hollow and broken on the floor.
He tenses, muscles bunching along his forearms as if he’s in shock. Like no one has asked him that before. “I’m fine,” he says, but his ashen skin tells me otherwise.
I’d never be the same again if I committed murder. I know that.
“What happens in the other rooms?” Hazel asks. “I need to know what we’re up against.”
It’s the first spark I’ve seen in Hazel since we got here. Is she finally ready to fight alongside me?
Theo threads his fingers together, leaning his arms on his knees. “There are six rooms off the hallway to hell, like I said. We just explained what happens in the final one, room zero. The other five are…difficult, too.”
Get to the point, Theo. “What happens in them?”
“Room one is sound. Room two is temperature. Room three is light. Room four is sleep deprivation. Room five is water.”
I slump back in my seat, his words sucking the life from my body. Those all sound like methods of torture. I’ve watched enough crime shows to know that. Hazel and I went through a medieval torture phase. We binge-watched documentaries about people discussing all sorts of horror-filled torture devices. Some of the engineering was pure brilliance, even if it was evil to the core.
The realization makes me dizzy. “What happens in those rooms specifically?”
“Room one,” Theo says, “is loud. So loud. Then there are quiet moments so devoid of sound that every breath you take and every beat of your heart hurts your ears.”
“Room two?” I ask.
“Temperature. One minute, so blistering hot you almost pass out, and the next, so cold you feel your life ebbing away.”
Priya and Lucie curl into each other, hunching their backs and pressing their arms together. Kevin’s jaw clenches so hard I’m surprised his teeth don’t snap. And Hazel, well, her eyes are round like saucers and staring off into the distance as if she’s been possessed.
“Three?”
“Light. It starts dark, so dark that you can’t see your own hand right in front of your face. Then it’s like you’re staring at the sun.” He closes his eyes. “It gives you the worst headache.”
My hand clutches my throat. How am I going to survive that?
“Four is sleep deprivation.”
“That one doesn’t sound as bad,” I muse. Sleep isn’t something that I’ve needed much of, never has been, and it’s something my parents told me tested their patience when I was younger. I usually fall asleep around one in the morning and wake up at five.
He shakes his head. “It’s killer, Piper. They put you in for days. The lighting is dull; it’s warm and comfortable. But they use methods from the other rooms to keep you awake.”
My body temperature dips dramatically, and I shiver.
“Five?” I ask quickly, needing to move on. “You mentioned something about water?”
His head dips, and he grips his neck. “You’re strapped to a bed, and they place a cloth over your face…”
I know where this is going so I hold up my hand. “Enough.”
His eyes raise. “It’s the only room where they’re present, too. Caleb, mostly. He loves that room.”
“Piper, we can’t,” Hazel says. “This can’t be real. I can’t go into those rooms. I can’t make it through those things! They can’t do that to us!”
Except there’s no one here to stop them. They’re in control.
I clear my throat, threading my fingers together. “So, what else can we expect?”
Theo raises an eyebrow. “That isn’t enough?”
“More than enough, but I don’t want to be caught off guard. Theo, please.”
“This room is where we spend most of the time. Through the archway behind you is a kitchen. The two doors next to that lead to a bedroom and bathroom.”
I turn up my nose. “One bedroom?”
He smirks. “Everything I’ve just told you, and you most react to sharing a bedroom?”
I used to share a room with my sister. Her empty bed is still there. There’s a new cover on it, for guests apparently, but only Hazel sleeps over, and although neither of us have had a conversation about the bed, she sleeps in mine with me.
I swallow the stab of pain my sister’s memory brings. “I’m trying not to think of all the other stuff.”
“Bunk beds. Kevin snores, but if you throw something at him, he’ll stop.”
Kevin gives Theo the finger.
“I want to go home,” Hazel says. “I don’t want to share a bedroom. I don’t want to share a bathroom. I don’t want to go into those stupid rooms or cook in—”
“Haze, stop,” I say, wrapping my arm around her back. “We’ll get through this together.” I want to tell her that my parents won’t believe I’ve run away—and neither will hers. Yes, we have told them we want to move to the city someday. But we’d never just pick up and leave, cutting all ties with our parents.
They will look for us. The police will look for us, and someone will make a connection. Maybe someone saw me talking to Caleb earlier today or maybe someone saw me and Hazel getting into his car. There’s not a lot of traffic by the lake, but someone could have driven past. Someone could have left the bonfire early and seen us.
Did I see another car or a motorcycle? I don’t remember, but Hazel and I were very focused on Caleb and Owen. How stupid.
She looks up at me and her brown eyes fill with despair. “Will we?”
Hazel wants me to reassure her, to promise that we’ll be okay, and we’ll get out. But that’s not a promise I can make any longer. And I’m scared that Hazel will never forgive me for getting us into this. She is like a second sister, and I can’t lose her, too.
“We’ll stick together and figure out how to keep fighting.” Whatever it is, we’re going to be fighting it.
Hazel either doesn’t recognize my reluctance to offer any promises or she doesn’t want to admit to herself why I won’t.
“Do you want to look around?” Theo asks.
I nod. “Absolutely.”
The door Hazel and I just came through can’t be the only way out of here…can it?
I get to my feet, and Theo is the only other person to stand. The other three must know every inch of this space, even if Hazel and I don’t.
“Are you coming?” I ask my friend.
“No, thanks.”
Sighing, I turn to Theo. “Okay, let’s go. Lead the way.”
He looks back at Hazel but doesn’t say anything. No one can make her face this. She has to get there alone. The others stay where they are, too, leaving the talking and tour to Theo.
We go through the arch and into the kitchen. It’s modern and white with clean lines. But there is no oven, only a microwave, toaster, and an electric kettle.
“What do you eat?”
He smiles. “It’s basic food: toast, cereal, pasta, soup
, bread, and microwave meals. Sometimes they send in pizza.”
“How do they get food in here?”
“They leave it in the waiting room. The one just outside our door.”
“There are too many rooms.”
He nods and pain flickers in his eyes. How many times has he been in one of those rooms? He’s had to kill. I can’t even imagine all that he’s gone through.
I shake the thought away because it’s only going to make me panic if I think about what I might have to do if I’m put in that situation.
“What’s next?” I ask, trying to distract him from whatever memory he’s replaying.
“Bedroom is next to this,” he murmurs, striding away. I dash after him. I might not be falling apart like Hazel seems to be, but I don’t want to be alone.
Theo opens a door. The room is painted a dull gray, like the color of the sky right before a storm hits. It’s not a particularly big room, so the four sets of dark wooden bunk beds overwhelm the space.
There is enough room for two more people here. Oh, God…
“The two bunks along that wall are free. You and Hazel can take whichever one you want.” He gestures to the empty bunks. There are two sets of bunks against the walls opposite each other. If I sleep on my side, I’ll be able to see the others across the room. I will definitely need to know people are with me if I’m going to get any rest.
“All right,” I whisper.
He looks down at me. Theo is tall, easily a foot taller than me, maybe a bit more. “What you told Hazel was right. We’re all in this together. I understand your fear and your desire to get out of here, but while we’re stuck in this place, we need to make it bearable. We do that as a team, okay?”
I nod. “Yes, I appreciate that.”
That’s surprisingly comforting to hear. I know I have Hazel’s friendship for support, and I know that when it’s needed, she will snap back to herself, but there are only two of us. We’re a team—until we go to room zero.
He places his palm on the wall near my head. “If you ever have to go to that room, don’t hold back; it’ll get you killed.”
I press my lips together and close my eyes. Please, don’t ever let me experience that.
“How often does that happen?” I ask, blinking my eyes open and staring at him to gauge his response. I don’t want anyone to downplay the situation. All I want is facts.
“Not very often. Since I’ve been here, it’s only happened to me and Priya, and before that it had been months. They let the number of us…dwindle. Then in quick succession…”
“They kidnap more people.” They wait until their subjects are almost all dead before taking in more people. “Wow.” I shake my head. “Wait, how long were you alone here?”
He laughs, but it holds no humor. “When I got out of the shower after… Kevin was here. The guy, Max, who was with me before Kevin arrived, had been the only one here. He’d killed three people before I…before room zero. I was terrified to sleep in the same room when he told me that he’d murdered three people. He was convinced he would be the last man standing. I thought he might do something to me in my sleep, so I knew I had to be the one to walk out of room zero. He knew what Caleb, Owen, and Matt were up to.”
So, Matt is the mystery friend.
“How long do you think this has been going on?” I ask.
“We’re not sure since time gets messed up in here, but based on what Max had said, I’m guessing about a year to a year and a half.”
Eighteen months. That’s when there were suddenly a lot more runaways. It seems like too much of a coincidence to dismiss. “Do you think we can get out of here?”
Theo shrugs. “I’ve tried.”
“You willing to try again?” I ask.
“You have a plan?”
“No,” I admit. Well, I kind of do, but I’m not sure how much our captors can hear, so I’m not ready to talk about it…though I think I can trust Theo. But I’m working on one.
9
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.
The Lost Page 5