"Inside," Kevin said, his voice growing dry as they stepped into the empty, dusty old house. The four of them moved into what must have been the living room, stopping near the broken handrail of a stairway leading to the second floor. Candy watched Kevin's face change the moment they walked inside. It had grown taut, angry, while his eyes seemed to sink inside his head. The girl grew more and more terrified.

"Man, this place ain't been lived in for…"

"About ten years… yeah," Kevin said, running his fingers over the handrail and looking around. The bright moonlight filtered through the dirty windows, illuminating everything with a strange silver light. No one said anything for several minutes, everyone feeling strange in this situation.

"Think we got some Coleman lanterns in the cellar. I'll fish around for 'em," Kevin said, letting out a long breath of air as he wheeled around and disappeared through a doorway to the left.

"Says his old man used to tie 'im up and beat 'im," Jack whispered after his buddy was out of ear shot.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah! The old man was a real weirdo… had to be put away or somethin' finally. He was into chains and all that shit… probably worked over his old lady before she died," Jack said, shooting a glance at Candy, then resuming his conversation.

The girl was too terrified to ask them what they wanted of her. Their tentative pawing in the front seat of the van told her that. But there was something more… something she felt when Kevin stared at her just before he went to look for the lanterns. It was a look that excited her as much as terrified her.

The tall, blond gang leader had been gone for nearly twenty minutes. Jack and Ben talked of looking for him when they heard him banging around in the kitchen.

"Get the lamps?"

"Yeah… two of 'em that weren't broken. Got a lot of other stuff too," Kevin said, panting as he dragged in an armful of what Candy first thought was rope. When he dropped, the bundle with a clanging thud, she knew it was chains!