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Loïc went to his bookcase, where he fiddled with a book. There was a click, and part of the bookcase swung open, making me gasp. Loïc moved into the darkness beyond, and all of us got to our feet to see what was going on.
A staircase disappeared down into darkness.
“What the fuck?” Valor whispered.
Jack shrugged. “How bad can it be?” Without hesitation, they followed Loïc into the darkness.
“I’ll go check it out,” Valor said. “You stay here. I don’t want to risk the two of you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. What could be down there? Quicksand? Piranhas?”
Valor blinked at me several times, like he couldn’t compute my anxious attempt at humor. I was overtired and sick, but the tension was too much for me to bear. If I didn’t make stupid jokes, I’d start crying again.
“You always say he’s a different man with you than he is with me, but nothing about this stairway into the abyss makes me think it’s a safe place for a pregnant person.”
“So, what am I supposed to do? Stand up here and wait to see if something happens to the two of you? Am I supposed to raise this baby alone if that’s a chute to an alligator tank?”
He sighed. “Just wait here for a few minutes so I can take a look around. I won’t leave you up here indefinitely if it’s safe.”
I crossed my arms and blew a lock of hair out of my eyes. “Go make sure he’s safe. I’ll be here. You have two minutes then I’m following you down there, whether you give me the okay or not.”
Watching him disappear after Jack into the darkness made my stomach sink, and I hovered around the door. Although I turned on my cell phone flashlight so I could peer into the gloom, all I could see was concrete stairs down to where they turned a corner. I could hear Valor’s shoes and hushed voices, but nothing else.
I started to pace, wondering if we were going to wear a hole into the floor, between the three of us.
Valor came back a few minutes later.
“You can come down, but I don’t know how you’re going to feel about this. It’s weird.”
“It’s Loïc. If it wasn’t weird, I’d be worried. Unless there’s a meat locker full of human body parts down there, I don’t think I’m going to be disturbed by it.”
Valor sighed, and I brushed a lock of his golden hair back from his bruised forehead.
“It isn’t a meat locker.” He kissed me. “It’s not necessarily disturbing, depending on what it’s for.”
Confused, I let him lead me down the stairs. He went first, explaining that it was safer that way so that he could break my fall if I slipped.
“I’m hardly even showing. I can still see my feet.”
“It’s steep, and these concrete stairs would be unforgiving.”
The bottom of the stairs found us in blackness that felt low and close. Somewhere nearby, Jack was speaking in a comforting murmur.
Why did it smell like a petting zoo?
Valor’s light was no match for the gloom of the basement and cast strange linear shadows.
“Maybe there’s a light switch? Or an overhead light with a pull cord?” I asked hopefully.
We began to search.
“I think I found one,” Valor said. “Watch your eyes.”
An overhead light plinked on—a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling.
I narrowed my eyes to slits, trying to adjust to the sudden, relative glare.
I blinked. We were standing in a large basement room with a low ceiling and concrete floor.
