He just left.
“Okay,” I murmur. “That probably means he’s alone right now.”
“Alone?” she echoes.
“Yeah.” I swallow hard. “All we need is one good action. Us three against him.” I tip my chin toward Lila.
Hailey stares at me for a long moment, then shakes her head. “No, you don’t understand,” she breathes. “You don’t know what he’s like.”
“It doesn’t matter what he’s like,” I say. “What matters is that we’ve got a chance.”
Before she can reply, the car jerks and halts. I don’t hear tires screech, but I feel the stop in the vibration of the floor. The whole metal plate beneath us shudders.
My body moves on instinct. I throw my forearms across Hailey and Lila, bracing them the only way I can, because they’re zip-tied and they can’t even catch themselves. Hailey grunts when her shoulder bumps mine. Lila’s head lolls forward again.
“Fuck,” I breathe.
The engine drops to idle. Something shifts outside, some movement we can’t see, and all we can do is freeze and wait.
Then something happens right in front of us.
My head jerks up. Pain bites behind my eyes, but I force myself to keep looking.
A rectangle appears in the front panel, right where there was nothing a second ago. A flap of padding lifts, like skin peeled back. A thin, dirty slice of light spills onto the floor.
Something small clatters through the opening, then another. Two pale pills skip across the metal with a dry click-click, like pebbles tossed into a cage.
A man’s voice follows.
“New girl,” he says. “Take these.”
Hailey makes a strangled sound beside me.
“If you don’t,” he adds, “the other two don’t eat for two days.”
The words hit like a boot to the chest.
Hailey’s whole body tightens. She turns toward me, eyes huge even in the dim. “Please,” she whispers, frantic. “Please. Please take them.”
I shake my head once, sharp. No.
Her eyes fill with tears almost instantly. “It’s not… it’s not that bad,” she pleads. “It’s just… just so we can…”
My heart breaks for her, but she doesn’t understand. I can’t take unknown pills. I need to stay conscious. I need to stay capable. That is the only way we get out of here.
“No.” My voice comes out rough as I lean closer, so close my forehead almost touches hers. “You tell him I did. You lie. Okay?”
Her breathing stutters.
I squeeze her forearms.
Hailey blinks fast, then nods.
I move toward the slit in the wall where the pills wait. On my way there, I catch the murderer’s face in the thin strip of light. He is going to such lengths to keep his victims alive for an extended period of time, just to kill them eventually.
“Pick them up,” he says.
I reach in and pinch the pills between my fingers. I lift them toward my mouth and, right where I’m supposed to slip them in, I hide them in my hand instead.
