I changed my mind. He was indeed trying to kill me.

Theo stopped laughing and gave me a sheepish grin. “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. It’s hooch. I make it myself down here.” He took the mason jar back from me and took a deep swig. I was both horrified and impressed he was able to drink it like it was water.

“Fucking hooch,” I muttered. “I really am in prison.”

He laughed, and I found myself wanting to laugh along with the easy sound, so full of life even in a dark basement. “Come on now. It’s not bad.”

I snorted. “Not bad if it’s the only thing you’ve drank in fifty years.” I paused, staring at Theo out of the corner of my eyes. He was still sipping at the hooch as if it were tea. “Please tell me it isn’t the only thing you’ve drank in fifty years.”

Theo ran a hand through his shaggy blond hair. “I haven’t been here as long as Felix. Or Luther, for that matter.”

“So how long exactly have you been stuck here?” I crossed my fingers, hoping he’d say only a few months and give me some hope of escape. He looked and acted pretty young. There was no way he could be over 100. Could he?

“1992. So, thirty years. Give or take a few months. Most of 1992 was a blur to be honest with you.”

I was stunned for a minute. Theo had been stuck in here for longer than I had been alive, and yet he still looked like a university student. Give him a hacky sack and a guitar and he could’ve been one of the art students who congregated on the front lawn. “But you look so young.”

“That’s the magic of the house for you. The curse. Whatever you want to call it.” He shrugged, smirking. “Probably better for Felix to explain it. I’m not sure I get it, even after thirty years.”

I sat back down on the bottom step, trying to process everything. Maybe this was all a bad dream, and I would wake up. “I just have so many questions.” Like how, and why, he had entered the house to begin with.

“May I?” Theo gestured with his mason jar to the space next to me, and I nodded. He sat, the wood giving way with a soft groan. “I just realized I never even asked you your name.”

“Savannah,” I murmured. His thigh pressed against mine, and the warmth was relaxing, soothing to my soul.

“Well, Savannah, I’ve had a lot of time to think about our…predicament here. And I’ve come to one conclusion.”