The janitor gives the floor one last sweep before disappearing down the pathway. Once he's out of sight, we head to the side of the enclosure entrance to hide from the cameras.

Slowly, Reece undoes the belt from his jeans and holds it between his fingers. I exhale slightly as we wait for the guard, my legs so wobbly it feels like I might keel over.

After a few minutes, I begin to think that something is wrong, that maybe the guard has been changed and this one isn't a smoker, when footsteps echo from inside of the enclosure.

"Don't let him go for his gun or his radio," Reece whispers.

As soon as the guard steps foot out of the entrance, Reece wraps the belt around his throat. Kenny splutters as Reece pulls them back into the shadows, his thick muscles protruding under the strain. Ben darts towards them without hesitation, attempting to wrestle the gun from Kenny's holster while I unhook the radio from his waistband.

After a quick elbow to Kenny's nose, Ben wriggles the gun from out of the holster and points it between Kenny's eyes. Kenny instantly freezes, and Reece lifts the belt away.

"I take it you're the escapee mermaid," Kenny says in a low, hoarse voice, then his brown eyes flicker to Reece. "Nice to see you again, Woods. Figured they'd have killed you by now."

Reece narrows his eyes and steps forward. "Inside," he says, his voice dangerous. "Now."

Reluctantly, Kenny trails into the tunnel with Ben following behind him. I grab Hayley's hand when she lingers at the entrance, pulling her into the tunnel.

Reece swipes the key card off Kenny's belt and strides towards the employee door. "We need to get inside of the night room," he says, pressing the key to the security pad. "There aren't any cameras in there."

The pad flashes green and we pile inside the employee tunnels, following Reece down the hallway. When we pass my own night enclosure, I suddenly feel sick. In all the madness, I'd allowed myself to forget about what I'd done to Muriel Two, but faced with the very door the murder took place, it hits me all over again.

We take a sharp left, finding a gray door similar to my own. I take a deep breath as Reece holds the key card to it, watching as the green light flashes.

I'm pushing open the door before Reece gets the chance, stepping inside to darkness. I'm about to feel around for the lamp when a figure latches onto me, scratching and biting as I bat them away.

Reece slips beside me, trying to pull my attacker away, but their grip is like iron. Breathless, I continue to struggle, catching glimpses of fiery red hair through the dark.

Something sharp digs into my arm and I let out a growl. "It's me," I say, as Reece wrestles with Jewel. "Stop! It's me, Aura!"

Slowly, Jewel stops and lowers whatever's in her hand. "Aura?"

I nod through the dark, able to see flashes of her haunted expression through the slither of moonlight pouring in.

"You left us," she whispers. Her voice is soft, so broken compared to the strong, fiery Jewel I'd once known. "I know," I say, "but I came back."

Jewel's eyes narrow. "How noble of you."

Before I can respond, Reece kneels beside me, taking my arm before inspecting the damage. "You're bleeding."

"And you want to free these animals," Kenny says, earning himself a glare from Reece.

Without a word, Reece grabs the bottom of Jewel's nightgown and rips away a part of the material before tying it around my arm.

"Wait," I say, scanning the room. "Where's Asia?"

Jewel's eyes darken, an expression that sends a flurry of dread to the center of my stomach. "We'd planned to try and escape today," she says, "but they took her for an experiment earlier. They never brought her back."

The lights flicker on, casting the night enclosure in a soft, orange haze. I glance to where Hayley now stands, her fingers still pressed to the switch on the lamp. She smiles sheepishly. "Sorry. I thought it would be better if we could all see."

I ignore her, scanning the room again as though I might have somehow missed Asia. But the light only shows me what I already know; Asia is gone and this time, she might not be coming back.

"We need to find her," I say, turning to Reece.

"No," he says. "We wait until they put her back."

"And if they don't?" I ask. "There have been times when they've kept us in for tests all night. And what if they're lying? What if they've gotten rid of her, too?"

Reece's jaw clenches before he turns to Ben. "We don't have much time. I need to find the surveillance room and put the cameras on a loop. Nobody leaves this night enclosure until I do."

Before I can protest, Reece is taking Kenny's key card and taser before heading back through the tunnels, leaving the rest of us to await his return.

I pace the room, needing to keep moving in a bid to calm my racing heart. Though it was always a possibility, I hadn't prepared myself for what would happen if one of the girls weren't here. If Asia really is trapped somewhere in another experiment, how long can we wait for her before the rest of us are found?

Reece's previous words come back to haunt me. I can either save two of you, or neither of you. As much as I'd hated to hear them at the time, I know now he was right. Waiting too long for Asia to be put back puts the rest of us at risk, and if it comes down to saving one of us or saving five, I know what I'll need to do.

I'll need to let Asia go.