I grit my teeth, pulse racing with irritation at the situation. She’s my best friend, and she’s usually so tough. No one breaks Hazel. Or they didn’t used to.

“Piper,” Theo whispers as I get to the door.

I turn my head. “Yeah?”

“I’m getting up, too.” He slips out of bed and follows.

I close the door behind us and head to the kettle. I need coffee. A really big hit of caffeine to cheer me up. When someone is moping around and scowling, I find it super-hard to be near them. Even when my sister died and my world fell apart, I still strived to get out of bed and live my life.

This place is too small to step on eggshells because someone is in a bad mood.

I stop in my tracks on the way to the little kitchen area.

The door to the hallway to hell is open.

Open.

We didn’t leave it open last night, and as far as I know, no one was up in the night. Has it been unlocked since the lights went out yesterday?

No, it couldn’t have been. Even if the door was unlocked, it can’t open by itself.

I step closer, my heart rate quickening. Did Caleb, Owen, and Matt come in here? Do they do that? The thought of them watching all the time is bad enough, but knowing they could have been here, so physically close, makes my stomach churn.

“Theo,” I call.

“What’s up?” he asks. I hear him step closer.

“Did you leave the door open when you came back in? Did you hear it lock?”

“What the…? No, it was definitely closed and locked.” He shuffles closer to me, his arm touching mine as he looks around the room.

They must have come in during the night.

“Why would they come in here? Everything we need, food, toiletries, and all that stuff gets left in the hallway to hell,” he mutters.

Okay, I really hope they can’t hear because he just mentioned our nickname for that hallway loudly.

“And why leave the door open? They wanted us to know they were here. Why?” I ask the questions, but I don’t expect him to have the answers. We can speculate, but the only people who truly know are the crazy trio.

Theo shakes his head. “The mind games are evolving.”

“The rooms aren’t enough for them anymore,” I whisper. They’re not content to just watch and send us to be tortured; they want more interaction. They want even more control and to have us constantly on edge.

He draws in a deep breath through his nose and puts his hand on the small of my back. “It’s okay. We can still do this, Piper.”