diff --git a/roomserver/internal/input/input.go b/roomserver/internal/input/input.go
index 0e2d71c4..6215e6ba 100644
--- a/roomserver/internal/input/input.go
+++ b/roomserver/internal/input/input.go
@@ -291,14 +291,17 @@ func (w *worker) _next() {
 		// down the subscriber to free up resources. It'll get started
 		// again if new activity happens.
 		w.Lock()
-		defer w.Unlock()
 		// inside the lock, let's check if the ephemeral consumer saw something new!
 		// If so, we do have new messages after all, they just came at a bad time.
 		if w.ephemeralSeq > w.durableSeq {
 			w.Act(nil, w._next)
+			w.Unlock()
 			return
 		}
+		w.Unlock()
 	case nats.ErrConsumerDeleted, nats.ErrConsumerNotFound:
+		w.Lock()
+		defer w.Unlock()
 		// The consumer is gone, therefore it's reached the inactivity
 		// threshold. Clean up and stop processing at this point, if a
 		// new event comes in for this room then the ordered consumer
@@ -308,7 +311,6 @@ func (w *worker) _next() {
 		}
 		w.subscription = nil
 		return
-
 	default:
 		// Something went wrong while trying to fetch the next event
 		// from the queue. In which case, we'll shut down the subscriber