Richard wriggled in and opened the doorway.
Cormack gave a low whistle. “You’ve got some serious explaining to do, Richie boy.”
Richard ignored him, herding us all in and closing the door again.
Immediately, I felt entombed.
In my mind, part of me was still running for the gate, in the open air. Along with Louelle, Yolanda and Thomas. But I hadn’t taken that option.
Richard led us, pulling out the flashlight he’d found in the cellar. We tore through the passages, me pulling Poppy along and Cormack pulling Kara.
We reached a point where the passage branched off into two directions.
“I heard something.” Kara’s voice echoed dully through the air. “To the left. We’d better go right.”
Our party of five stopped still, listening.
“What did you hear?” I whispered.
“I don’t know. Voices maybe,” Kara told me.
“But that path goes the wrong way. We need to go left.” Richard took out a knife from his pocket, the blade gleaming silver in the glow of the flashlight. He snapped the light off. “Better not show ourselves until we have to. I’ll take anyone on. I’ve been in knife fights before—I’ve told you I was living in the drains. And I always win.”
“Let’s do it.” Poppy’s voice shook in the pitch darkness.
“But what if there’s too many of them to take on?” Cormack said under his breath. “I think we need to head to the right.”
“You’d go anywhere she leads you, wouldn’t you, lover boy?” came Richard’s voice.
“We’re going,” said Cormack firmly.
I heard he and Kara move off.
“Please come,” Kara urged the rest of us in a low breath.
“Sorry,” replied Richard, his tone brittle and tense. “I came in here to get out the quickest way I can. Poppy, Evie—you with me?”
I wanted out. Desperately. “I’m with you.”
“No,” I heard Kara whisper, but waves of claustrophobia and fear spiralled through me. If the killers hadn’t already discovered that their victims had been freed, they soon would. There was no time left.
What had we done? Were Louelle and the others at the front gate now, escaping? Maybe we shouldn’t have come in here at all, but we were here now, and we just had to keep going, no matter what.
Drawing out two knives and clenching them in both fists, I stepped away with Richard and Poppy into the maw of black. Kara and Cormack pleaded with us again. They were two headstrong kids in love, and nothing could convince them they were wrong.
I anxiously checked our location at the first peephole I could find. We were no longer walking alongside the wall. I looked through into a supply room. Shelves of folded clothing like the outfits we were wearing. And metronomes—all still.
Poppy’s fingers pressed gingerly into my shoulders. “Evie? Why are you stopping?”
“I found a peephole,” I told her, trying not to sound guilty at telling a lie. I already knew about the peepholes. “There’s nothing to see.”
The three of us kept winding our way through the passages, my heart thrashing against my ribcage as I anticipated someone jumping out at us at any moment. Richard kept the flashlight off.
“Are we going the right way?” said Poppy softly.
“I’m good at finding my way through dark tunnels,” came Richard’s reply. “But this place confounds me.”
“We’re lost, aren’t we?” My hands had grown numb on the handles of the knives I held, my grip still tight. “Wait, did you hear that?”
Somewhere down the passage and around a corner, there was a scuffle of feet. Then silence.
Richard blew out a hard breath. “It’s on.”
Switching on his flashlight, he charged forward, a knife held high in his right hand.
I ran behind him.
The beam of the flashlight bounced around an empty passage.
Whirling around, he sprinted down another passage.
I turned to check behind.
Poppy was gone.
No.
“Richard!” I called, but he’d already run too far.
Had someone grabbed Poppy? Did they have a hand clamped over her mouth right now, and were they about to hurt her?
I ran back, retracing my steps.
The passage curved around. I understood now. The passages were winding around the hexagonal rooms. That was how we’d become lost.
I heard Poppy’s cry. I stopped dead still for a moment, frozen. I wanted to turn and head away. Save myself. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t leave her like this.