THE DEFROSTER FOUGHT to keep the windshield clear as Jeremey drove us down Clay Road. He'd flipped the wipers on even though it wasn't raining, but the glass was fogging up from the inside, so it didn't do much good. Wind whistled and roared past the car. I drummed my fingers nervously on the edge of the passenger side window. I couldn't decide if I was hoping Joshua's truck would be there, or if I was hoping it wouldn't.

Probably a little bit of both.

I drew a smiley face in the condensation. It only took a couple of seconds for the water tension to break, and the sketch began to drool. I peered out through its crying right eye. The barren, dead fields zoomed by in my peripheral vision. Streetlights were all but nonexistent on the rural road. The car's headlights were the only thing cutting through the darkness.

After about five minutes of driving in silence, the car slowed, gravel crumbling and crunching under its tires. The farm house appeared in the distance, illuminated by our headlights and a faint bit of moonlight peeking through the hazy cloud cover. The building's white facade glowed, and its mournful, forest-green shuttered windows glared down at us as we approached. I could no longer sense the motion of the car. It was like the house was the one doing the creeping, and we were standing still.

"Do you see it?" Jeremey whispered.

He was talking about the truck. I rubbed the side of my fist against the glass, erasing the grin from Mr. Window.

I didn't see it.

"No." I wasn't sure why we were whispering.

Jeremey put on the blinker for no reason at all, and began to turn into the empty driveway.

"Wait." I put my hand out as if to stop him.

Jeremey pressed the brakes, front tires in the dirt driveway, and glanced over at me.

"Let's not park here," I said. "Just in case."

"Where do you want to park?"

"Down the road a ways. So the car is less... obvious."

Jeremey put the car in reverse, we backed out of the driveway and continued another two hundred yards down the empty road. "Far enough?" he asked quietly, pulling off onto the dirt patch on the side.

"Yeah, this will do."

Jeremey shut the car off. The headlights dimmed, and everything went dark and still.

We both sat in silence for nearly two minutes, neither one of us moving a muscle. "We can leave if you want," Jeremey finally said. "We don't have to..."

"No." I tried to stop my hand from shaking as I reached for the handle on the door. "Let's do this." I pushed it open.

Wind whipped my hair around and tugged at my clothes as I stepped out of the car.

The driver's side door creaked open, and then it slammed shut with a dull clunk. Jeremey muttered under his breath, "It's cold as fuck." He made his way around to the passenger side and faced me, crossing his arms in front of his chest for warmth and shifting back and forth on his feet. "What are we doing here again, Harper?"

"I just want to have a quick look around."

He raised his eyebrows at me. "Well then, let's go already." He spun his head back and forth, checking both directions on the road. "Before he gets back."

"All right." I pulled my phone out of the pocket of my jeans. I hit the home button, and the screen lit up. Fifty-six percent battery life. That would have to do. I opened the flashlight app and the camera flash turned on, illuminating the road at our feet.

"You didn't bring a flashlight?" Jeremey whisper-shouted.

"I don't have one," I told him. "This will work fine."

He rolled his eyes. "All right, let's go."

I led the way, holding my phone out in front of me so we could see where our feet landed. Our shoes kicked up dried dirt and bits of grit as we walked along the side of the rural road. The wind blew dust into my eyes. They stung and watered. I blinked, trying to clear them.

It took us three minutes to reach the driveway. I paused at the end of it and turned around, shining the light from my phone back in the direction of where we'd parked. The beam faded out before reaching the car, as though the vehicle had disappeared entirely.

"What's your plan now, Nancy Drew?" Jeremey asked as he caught up.

I hadn't realized how quickly I'd been walking. I was freezing and wanted to keep moving for warmth, if nothing else. "Maybe find a window or something," I suggested.

"You want to break in?"

"No, he'd notice. I just want to take a look. See if we can see anything in there."

Jeremey followed me as we stalked around the house. A large, open porch guarded the front entrance. I crept up the five steps and took a peek through the small square window on the front door. It was too dark to see inside, so I shone my phone light through it. The reflection made it a bit difficult at first, but I quickly realized the attempt was futile. A dark shade on the inside of the door covered the window completely.

I scooted along to the window on the left side, and Jeremey took the one on the right.

Another heavy curtain hung on the inside of the window, completely obscuring my view. "Dammit," I hissed. "Any luck with yours, Jeremey?"

"No luck here," Jeremey replied.

"Let's check around the side," I suggested.

Jeremey and I headed down from the porch, taking the wooden steps slowly, one by one in the dark, and then we crept around the left side of the building. The land dropped off around the house slightly, so the windows were almost above our heads.

I peeked in the near one where the ground was slightly higher, and Jeremey took the far one.

"Curtains on this one too," I said more to myself than to Jeremey.

"Harper, bring your light over here," Jeremey called. "I think you might be able to see something through this one."

I trudged over, keeping the light out in front of me. I stood on my toes to peek into the window, grasping the wooden sill with one hand and shining the light through it with the other. "The shades are open a crack," I whispered loudly. "I think I might be able to see something."

I adjusted the light a bit better and planted my feet more firmly, straining to stand as tall as I could. I considered pulling myself up onto the sill, but it was too narrow. I wouldn't be able to get a decent grip.

"Do you see anything?" Jeremey asked.

I peered through the glass. "It's empty." My eyes shifted back and forth. The entire room was empty. Not a piece of furniture, nothing. Just a large square room with dark windows lining its walls, and cobwebs and dust coating the ceiling and floor.

"What do you mean it's empty?" Jeremey asked.

"There's nothing in there. No furniture, nothing."

"Great, so the guy's just moving in." The wind gusted. "Harper, I think we should go."

"Hold on, let me look for one more second," I said. I couldn't accept that we had found nothing. Something had happened that Friday night, and I needed some sort of answer. Some sort of justification to make me believe that I wasn't losing it.

"Harper," Jeremey whined.

"Wait!" I gasped. At the corner of the room there was an open door. And when I squinted, I could make out stairs... stairs leading down. "The basement, Jeremey! We need to take a look in the basement."

I turned away from the window and began stalking around the building again.

"Where are you going?" Jeremey hissed, following behind me.

"There's got to be a window to the basement, or maybe a door or something." I turned around the corner of the house. There, up against the side, was a wedged cellar trapdoor. "See, look!" I turned around behind me and shone the light on Jeremey. He squinted and held his hand up in front of his eyes. "Sorry," I whispered.

"Are you going to go down there?" Jeremey asked, incredulous.

I wandered over to the steel door and pulled at it. It budged an inch before the metal chain lock caught and held it. I let go, and it slammed shut with a thunderous clank. I froze. Goosebumps shot up my arms. The echo seemed to go on forever, a gunshot in a silent night.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Jeremey said. "Come on, let's get out of here!"

"No, wait." I paced past the door. A couple of feet down the wall at ground level, was a tiny window—a window looking into the basement. "There!"

I lay down flat on my stomach, my face pressed up to the window and my phone light in hand. I shone it through the glass. Years of dust and water damage had yellowed and clouded it. I could hardly make out anything. I propped my phone in the dirt so the light shone through the glass, and I rubbed the side of my fist against the pane to clear as much dirt as I could. Satisfied, I cupped my hands on the sides of my head to get a better look.

The basement resembled any normal basement. Cabinets lined the walls, full of dark boxes of unidentified objects. A work table stood in the center of the room, a few tools abandoned on top of it. Boxes covered most of the rest of the floor space, but there, sitting in the far corner of the room, was the crate. It was larger than any of the other boxes... and it was open. I could see into it.

Empty.

My eyes darted around the room, trying to identify something that might have been in the crate, but nothing stood out. It was just tools and boxes. What could it have been? Where could it have gone? My eyes strained. I didn't blink, afraid I'd miss something if I shut them for a second. They burned.

Suddenly, something shot out from behind the crate. A pale, bony hand grasped the edge of it, gripping at it and turning blue in the light from my phone. My jaw dropped open, but no words came out.

"Lights!" Jeremey shouted.

I blinked my burning eyes. The hand was gone.

"Harper, headlights!"

"Shit." I scrambled to my feet.

"Run!" Jeremey hissed.