"The truth is out there."

Appreciating him, she smiled and stayed close behind him as he ducked an archway, turned left and stopped, with Abra b.u.mping into him.

"Sorry."

"Hmm." Eli shone the light on the chipped red paint of the mammoth machine.

"It looks like something from another world."

"Another time, anyway. Why haven't we updated this? Why haven't we hardwired a new generator into the house?"

"Hester didn't mind power outages. She said they helped remind her to be self-sufficient. And she liked the quiet. She's well-stocked with batteries, candles, wood, canned goods and so on."

"She's going to be self-sufficient with a new, reliable generator after this. Maybe this b.i.t.c.h is just out of gas." He gave it a light kick. He took a glug of wine, set the gla.s.s down on another utility shelf and, crouching down, opened a five-gallon gas can. "Okay, we've got gas here. Let's check the creature from another world."

Abra watched him circle behind it. "Do you know how it works?"

"Yeah. We've gone up against each other a few times. It's been a while, but you don't forget." He looked back at her. His eyes widened as he aimed the light on her left shoulder. "Ah ..."

She jumped, spun around in circles, gla.s.s in one hand, bottle in the other. "Is it on me? Is it on me? Get it off!"

She stopped when he laughed-full, deep, helpless laughter that struck a wonderful and warm chord inside her even as it infuriated.

"d.a.m.n it, Eli! What is it with men? You're all such children."

"You took out an intruder, in the dark, alone. Then you squeal like a girl over an imaginary spider."

"I am a girl, so I naturally squeal like one." She topped off her gla.s.s, drank. "That was mean."

"But funny." He gripped the gas cap on the generator, twisted. Got nothing. He rolled his shoulders, tried again. "Suck it."

"Want me to loosen it for you, big boy?" She fluttered her lashes.

"Go ahead, yoga girl."

She flexed her biceps, came around with him so they stood hip to hip. After two mighty attempts, she stepped back. "Apologies. It's obviously welded on."

"No, it's rusted and old and whoever put it on last time was showing off. I need a wrench."

"Where are you going?"

He stopped, turned back. "Tool department's back here, or it used to be."

"I don't want to go back there."

"I can get the wrench all by myself."

She didn't much want to stay where she was alone, either, but couldn't bring herself to admit it. "Well, keep talking. And don't make any stupid gagging or choking or screaming sounds. I won't be impressed."

"If the bas.e.m.e.nt monster attacks, I'll fight him off in silence."

"Just keep talking," she insisted as he walked deeper into the dark. "When did you lose your virginity?"

"What?"

"It's the first thing that came to my mind. I don't know why. I'll go first. The night of my senior prom. It's a cliche for a reason. I thought it was forever, Trevor Bennington and I. It was two and a half months, six if you count pre-s.e.x... . Eli?"

"Right here. Who dumped whom?"

"We just drifted apart, which is unsatisfying. We should've had some drama, some deception and fury."

"Not all it's cracked up to be." His voice echoed eerily, making Abra turn to ujjayi breathing as she skimmed her flashlight around the area.

She heard a kind of thump, a curse. "Eli?"

"d.a.m.n it, what's that doing here?"

"Don't be funny."

"I just rapped my d.a.m.n shin on a d.a.m.n wheelbarrow because it's sitting in the middle of the d.a.m.n floor. And ..."

"Are you hurt? Eli ..."

"Come back here, Abra."

"I don't wanna."

"There's no spiders. I need you to see this."

"Oh G.o.d." She inched her way along. "Is it alive?"

"No, nothing like that."

"If this is a stupid boy trick, I'm going to be very unamused." She breathed easier when her light hit him. "What is it?"

"It's that." He pointed with his light.

The floor, a combination of packed earth and stone, gaped open. The trench ran nearly wall to wall, as wide as six feet, as deep as three.

"What ... was something buried there?"

"Somebody obviously thinks so."

"Like ... a body?"

"I'd say a body's more likely to be buried than disinterred in a bas.e.m.e.nt."

"Why would anyone dig down here? Hester never said anything about excavation." She ran her light over a pickax, shovels, buckets, a sledgehammer. "It would take forever to dig in this ground with hand tools."