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.”