The Lost

by Natasha Preston

  “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.

  28

  It’s been two days, and Theo still hasn’t warmed to Evan much. Hazel is better; she’ll actually talk to him now.

  We’ve not heard a peep from Caleb, Owen, and Matt, like the time Lucie tried to escape. I don’t know where they are or what they do between sending us into those rooms. Can they get any joy from watching us just sit around?

  They’re planning something.

  Whatever. I’m not complaining or overthinking. When we’re left alone, I can almost pretend we’re all here because we want to be. Like one big sleepover. It’s nice to have those moments, even if they’re not real.

  Theo, Priya, Lucie, and Hazel are asleep still. I envy them for being able to sleep past five in the morning. But at least now I’m not alone drinking coffee; Evan can’t sleep, either. Theo, for the first time ever, isn’t up yet.

  Evan and I are on the sofa, both holding a mug of strong coffee in silence. For being here as long as he has, Evan seems to be doing okay. He’s certainly not falling apart the way you would expect. He doesn’t seem broken. Or maybe he’s pretending, too.

  He stares into the distance, the dark expression in his eyes aging him. He might act okay, he might even be okay, but his eyes are haunted. He’s been through a lot, seen a lot.

  “Evan? What do you think will happen?”

  He swings his head toward me. “What do you mean?”

  “Here. Will they do this forever? Will they get bored? What happens if they decide they’ve had enough tomorrow? They can’t let us go, so will they kill us all?”

  “Piper, it’s sunrise. Can I wake up properly before you ask the heavy questions?”

  I don’t even know where to begin with helpin
g him deal with the last six months. He doesn’t want to talk about James anymore, so all we know are the facts.

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I don’t know what will happen, but at the end, whatever that looks like, we’ll fight.”

  “There are more of us than them.”

  He smiles. “See? We can take them. We have more to lose, and in situations like that, you have twice the strength.”

  “Is that what it was like for you?”

  “I don’t know. Probably. I just reacted, I didn’t think, and the whole thing was over so quickly. That’s a small mercy. James didn’t suffer.”

  “What is that room like?”

  He lowers his mug. “It’s dark, painted a midnight blue, but the lighting is bright. The room is bare besides a table where the two knives sit.”

  “Have they only sent you in there once?”

  His eyes wince with painful memories. “No.”

  “How many times, Evan?”

  Averting his eyes, his Adam’s apple bobs as he gulps. “Four.”

  “Four?”

  “Three times before I was kept in the other rooms. Once after.”

  “You weren’t in here long before you were taken out, though.”

  “No.” He smirks. “I didn’t play by the rules, and I tried to break down doors and organize escapes. They thought sending me in there would make me give up, but I couldn’t, Piper. I have to find a way out of this hell. This is bigger than any of us. I want to bring them down.”

  “Shh!” I hush, my eyes flying to the camera on the wall.

  “What?” He follows my line of gaze. “No, I don’t think they can hear us.”

  “How do you know that?”

  He shrugs. “Tested it. I told them I was going to flood the bathroom. They only intervened when water started pouring over the tub. But when I shouted that I was going to smash it, they had no reaction.”

  “They can’t hear us,” I mutter. The revelation fills my lungs. I didn’t think we had any privacy. My body is on show to them, and I can’t do anything about that, so it’s comforting to know that my voice is still my own.

  “Nope, you can say whatever you want in here.”

  “Good. I have a lot to say about them.”

  He taps his finger on the side of the mug. “Narcissistic psychopaths.”

  “Sounds like a pretty accurate description. There has to be something wrong with them to want to do this, right? I mean, there was a lot of planning, a lot of remodeling the building to do all of this. They must have had meetings about it, discussing what they were going to do and how to do it. Which one of them thought of the different rooms?”

  “How do you even go through that process? Planning the torture and murder of other people?” He shakes his head. “I bet it was Caleb who started it. He’s always had the air of authority about him. I’ve only seen him with Matt and Owen once, but he was definitely the boss.”

  “Yeah,” I reply. “He was the one who picked me and Hazel up. Owen was with him, but he was more a bystander.”

  It makes total sense that Caleb is the ringleader. He is the one we hear on the intercoms most. He is the one who found me; he was driving the car; he convinced me going with him was a good idea. He’s charming, beautiful, persuasive, and deadly.

  “He’s the one we need to take down,” Evan says.

  “Take down? You want to take them down? How would we even do that? We’re locked in here.”

  He dips his head. “Okay, I haven’t gotten that far yet. But when the times comes, we go for Caleb.”

  “Do you think we will get a chance? They don’t come in here, and if they did, it certainly wouldn’t be all three of them. They couldn’t risk that. They always need someone out there in full control. It’s how they make us do what they want.”

  “We’ll have to make them. There’s always a final showdown, right?”

  “We’re not in a movie, Evan.”

  “How do you know? They’re watching us. They might be recording it, streaming it on the deep web.”

  My mouth falls open. Now that he suggested that, I can’t unthink it. “Why would you say that?”

  “Because it could be true…and because I’ve seen one too many movies. Look, it doesn’t really matter what’s happening, all that’s important is what goes on inside these walls.”

  I shake my head. “Stop.”

  He sighs. “I’m sorry. I’ve been here too long. I know I’m very matter-of-fact about these things, but in my experience so far, it’s necessary.”

  “I’m not there yet.”

  “I get that,” he says, softening his voice and leaning closer. “I really am sorry, Piper.”

  “Forget it.”

  Evan gives me a bright smile, and his shoulders relax.

  “So, when do you think I’ll be accepted here?” he asks.

  “They’re just scared, Evan. It’s not you. Can you see it from their view? We had no idea you were here.”

  “I get it, but from my view, I had no idea any of you were here, either. I had to come into a room of strangers, who have been less than welcoming and look at me like I’m the enemy. I’m in the same position as you all.”

  “Hey, you’re preaching to the converted here.”

  His eyes soften. “Well, I’m glad I have you.”

  I bite my lip and look away. Evan is sincere and unfazed, on the outside anyway, by everything. He’s mastered what I want to be in here, and he makes my heart sprint.

  “You okay, Piper?” he asks.

  I clear my throat. “Yeah, I’m fine. Are you hungry? I need to eat breakfast,” I say, getting up and heading to the kitchen area before he can reply.

  “Evan, how old are you?” I ask, glancing over my shoulder.

  His arms are folded, and he’s watching me like I’m some difficult math problem he can’t figure out.

  “I’m nineteen.”

  Okay, not too much older. Not that it matters.

  I nod and go back to fixing some food.

  “What about you?”

  “Seventeen,” I reply, popping four slices of bread in the toaster. I don’t even know if he wants toast, but he’s getting some.

  I don’t look around because I’m trying to be cool, which is super-hard to do when I’m so uncool, but I hear his footsteps. “Want some help?”

  My breath catches as I feel the warmth from his body far too close to mine.

  “I’m fine,” I say, my traitorous voice breaking.

  Way to stay cool.

  “Will you go and sit, please?”

  I turn, taking a small step back as I do. “But I’m making breakfast.”

  He chuckles, shaking his head. “You’re not making this easy. Will you sit so I can make you breakfast? I mean, I’d like to thank you for welcoming me back with open arms. You were one of the first to reach out to me after I got out of those rooms and not assume I was a monster.”

  “I don’t need any thanks.” Honestly, I would accept anyone. We’re all in the same position. We need each other.

  “Piper,” he says on a sigh.

  I hold my hands up. “All right. Sorry. I’ll go and sit.”

  Stepping around him, I walk back to the sofa. But I can’t relax because that would be impossible here.

  “Piper!” Hazel shouts, darting into the room. Her eyes fall on Evan first, and she only relaxes her posture when she sees me. “There you are,” she says.

  “Where did you think I was?”

  She shrugs. “I was just talking to Theo last night.”

  Great.

  “I’m not here to hurt anyone, Hazel. Why can’t you understand that?” Evan says. “I’ve been stuck between rooms, kept in some for days at a time sometimes, before being allowed back in here.”

&nb
sp; She bites the inside of her cheek and nods. “Was it constant?”

  Hazel doesn’t elaborate but it’s clear she’s asking about the torture.

  “No. I got days of reprieve, but it was solitary all the time.” I can’t imagine what that was like.

  He shakes his head, his chest expanding with a deep breath. “All I’m asking is for a chance, like everyone else in here.” He swallows and blinks heavily like he’s trying to blink away the memories. “Just a chance.”

  Hazel nods, thawing further.

  “It’s going to be okay now, Evan,” I say.

  His eyes quickly find mine, and he gives me a warm smile that I return.

  “Will you tell me about yourself?” I request. “I don’t really know anything.”

  “Sorry,” he replies with a shake of his head. “I’m not used to talking; it’s been a while.”

  “No, it’s okay. But I would like to get to know you better.”

  “I used to be an open book, but I’ve not had the opportunity in such a long time. Ask me anything, Piper.”

  “Where do you live?”

  “My mom lives on the edge of town, close to the decent side but not that close. Our house is small, but Mom has a lot of pride in it. She spent ten years renovating it all by herself. My dad moved away when I was ten, and I haven’t heard from him since.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “It’s no loss.”

  “Do you have siblings?”

  He looks away, something passing through his eyes that steals my breath.

  “Evan, what is it?” I ask softly.

  I think he has siblings. Or had.

  “My brother is two years older than me, he lives in the city but checks in regularly. Well, I assume he still does anyway. But my sister died when she was five.”

  “Oh God, I’m so sorry.”

  He laughs bitterly. “My dad left before her funeral. He told us it was too much, and he left. Me and my brother, Luke, weren’t enough for him to stay. I was ten and Luke twelve. I’ve never felt so low and worthless as I did that day. Elliana was the only kid he wanted.”

  “That’s awful.”

  He clicks his tongue. “It’s done now.”