I nod numbly. It’s one thing to be sent to those rooms, I know what’s going to happen there, but to never be sure what could happen while I’m asleep? How will I get any rest at all?

At the moment, I’m barely getting four hours of sleep at night. My parents would be shocked to know that I rise with the sun. Not that I see the sun much through the one tiny frosted-glass window above us that is half covered in leaves and moss.

“Hey,” he says, stepping in front of me and holding my upper arms in his strong hands. “Don’t do this to me or yourself. No second-guessing yourself. We had a pact, remember?”

“Yeah.” My spine straightens with determination. “I’m here. Should we go in there?”

He looks over his shoulder at the open door. “I don’t know…”

“What do you think is going on?”

“Maybe it’s just a food drop-off,” he says, but we both know it’s not.

“We have to go, Theo. I’m not going to be scared of an open door!”

I pull back out of Theo’s grip and walk toward the doorway. He follows like I knew he would; he’d never let me go alone.

We stop by the threshold, and I look around the corner. Gasping, I step into the hallway. “Theo, it’s open!” The door on the other side is wide open, too.

What’s going on?

“Is this some sort of test?” he muses.

“Probably, but we’ll never know if we don’t see how far we can get.”

He grabs my hand, stopping me from getting farther than two steps. “You sound like you’ve lost it, Piper.”

“Yeah, well, that seems to be the theme around here. Maybe to survive this prison you need to be a little off-kilter.”

His eyebrows pull together. “I think you should have some coffee before you do anything. Clearly you need the caffeine to get your brain going.”

I tilt my head to the side and fold my arms. “Are you coming or not?”

Groaning, he looks to the ceiling and closes his eyes. That’s a yes.

“Fine, but if this goes wrong, it’s your fault.”

I shrug. It’s not like it can get much worse.

Theo walks ahead and extends his arm to his side, making sure I stay behind him. I appreciate the gesture, but I don’t need protecting.

Still, I’m not about to make a big deal about it right now. We have more pressing issues.

We enter the clothes room and my nerves ignite. The next door is open, too.

“Something isn’t right,” he mumbles. “You know this is a trap, right?” he adds as we take small steps closer to the next door.

“Yep,” I reply.

“Do you want to go back? I’ll do this alone,” he offers, slipping his hand in mine.