House Hunt

Paige

I shoved my sweaty hair back off my forehead and set the weights back down in the weight rack. Over the summer, I’d gotten in the habit of working out in the basement gym at least once a week, just to keep myself ready. Finally, my muscles were returning to the state I remembered from before my kidnapping, taut and powerful. I padded up the stairs to shower off and wait for Tom to come home.

Something thudded on the other side of the wall. Then again. My heart skipped a beat. I knew, now, that the gym and storage areas weren’t the only rooms in the basement. Gamal, the prisoner still living in our house, was down here, too.

After a moment, the noises stopped. Tom said he had some of his best guys down there. Gamal probably tried something stupid and got knocked around for it. Served him right.

I hummed as I entered the first floor and locked the basement behind me, a habit I’d gotten into since we got our first house guest. Sun streamed in the windows, and I breathed in the feel