“Anyone can see what?” A sweet voice interrupted our conversation. I narrowed my eyes at Felix. Savannah didn’t need to know all of our dirty secrets on day one.

I spun around to greet her with a smile, my grin nearly dropping when I saw her hand in hand with Theo. As if she could sense my discomfort, she dropped his hand and stepped slightly away. Theo, as usual, was shirtless. If he hadn’t arrived in the dead of winter, I would’ve doubted he had ever shown up with a shirt in the first place. “Nothing of importance.”

“Mmhmm…” she mumbled, and immediately dropped her eyes to the floor. Fuck. I was a dick.

I opened my mouth to apologize, but Theo immediately cut me off. “What’s the big happy family meeting for anyways?”

“I take it these meetings aren’t common then?” Savannah asked, turning away from me and back to Theo.

Turn back, I wanted to say. Look at me again. Give me a chance. I thought we shared a glance in the basement, but her current body language was telling me otherwise. I must have been mistaken, hope clouding my judgment. God, what I wouldn’t give for one more look.

The symptoms of cabin fever were easily spotted. I learned the signs from my books long after I had recovered from them. Trouble sleeping. Change in appetite (not like this was a problem…). Lack of patience. Trouble concentrating. Those last two returned full force the moment I laid eyes on Savannah in the basement. I felt like a man possessed, ironic considering I was in a haunted house. And yet I wasn’t a ghost. I was flesh and bone, with the same earthly needs as anyone else.

“Not quite,” Theo responded. Felix covered up a laugh behind me, and I didn’t have to look at him to know he was rolling his eyes. You learned everything there was to know about a person after a few years of no outside interaction. The same with your surroundings. I could navigate this room with my eyes closed. The worn velvet couch, facing the brick fireplace where Felix stood. The hardwood stretching from wall to wall, shiny in some places, dull in others. Walls covered in a dark green wallpaper, decorated with roses of the deepest red. Sometimes they were romantic when I stared at them. Sometimes they reminded me of blood, taunting me with a reality I would never again experience. The lights in the room were dim, but they were better than before, and definitely better than nothing. Before I got here, Felix had still been living with the original copper wiring. Luckily, I had picked up a thing or two from my electrician father when I was young, and it had stuck with me.