The kitchen had never been designed to have five people squeezed into it, especially one who was now once more cuffed to the radiator. Despite the snow outside, the air inside was a tepid dishcloth. Thea touched her hair that had now dried to a rough, frizzy mess. I’ve got Rosie’s hair, she thought. It was oddly reassuring.

Rory’s tale was not.

‘All hell was let loose the night you guys left. I mean, have you been experiencing the hallucinations?’

At this Ethan nodded curtly.

‘Well, they must have been milder for you guys because you were further away from the Centre, but for us? It was brutal. We weren’t prepared for it at all. The things I saw people do …’

Here Rory trailed off, staring into the middle distance. He looked as if he hadn’t slept much himself over the last two nights, slumped and floppy like a finger puppet without the finger. Kyle cleared his throat and Rory jolted back to life.

‘The lucky ones were the ones who hallucinated something nice … but there weren’t many of them.’ He paused and swallowed. ‘We tried to get them into their rooms. I saw … I saw someone sat in the corner of a corridor and I thought to myself, here’s someone I can help at least. He had his back to me and when I got closer he smiled at me and reached out for my hand. Which was great, right? I could help him.’

Rory didn’t meet their gaze as he carried on.

‘But his hands were all bloody and his smile was filled with blood because he’d got the blunt end of a knife and had smashed out every single one of his teeth. They were scattered on the floor around him.’

Thea couldn’t stop herself from imagining it. She put herself in the corridor she’d walked so many times to get to her room, so white, so glossy, now smeared with blood. The toothless man smiled up at her, blood running down his chin, holding up his hand to her and in his hand were teeth, rattling together in his palm like dice. She could feel them crunch under her feet.

‘I tried to help. I really did. But there was only a handful of sleep techs. We tried to call for backup, but no one came. We learnt later that Delores ordered the first two floors to be put on lockdown until the morning. Cut off, you understand? People got hurt that night.’

Thea, Rory and Kyle sat on the floor of the kitchen, Ethan still perched on the counter, his face turned to the window, but Thea knew he was listening. The metal barrel of the gun was cold in her hand.

‘Rosie?’ Thea whispered. In her imagination, the toothless man’s face changed to Rosie’s – it was her bloody smile, her frizzy hair with streaks of red in it.