****
Madison's belly was trembling before she even climbed out of her car the next day. She sat in the driveway for what to her seemed like an eternity, staring up at the house and the single light she saw glowing in the window of the dining room. The crew was in there setting up sound equipment and linking cameras to their computers, and also in the house, somewhere in those secret-keeping walls as Noah. She could still taste his hot mouth against hers and feel his strong hands grazing her body. Getting through the night filming with him was going to be a challenge.
Finally she collected herself and went into the house. It still felt strangely still and suspended, even with the sound of the crew's voices filling the halls. It was as if the walls absorbed them, adding them to the thoughts, memories, and secrets that they already held. Madison placed her keys in the same wicker basket by the back door that she always did, wondering how many more times she would actually do that, and cautiously entered the dining room.
It took several seconds before one of the crew members noticed her and straightened from where he leaned over the array of computers they had set up on the dining room table. The juxtaposition between the gleaming technology and the delicate lace tablecloth made her smile, thinking that in the years that her grandmother was still lucid, she probably would have been fascinated by the entire experience.
"Hey, Madison," he said.
She waved and Jesse looked up at her from the other side of the room where he seemed to be trying to fix one of the cameras.
"We're just about set up here. I just finished setting up the cameras in the upper floors and the hidden passageway. All that's left is getting all of the audio linked up and then we can get started."
His eyes sparkled and she smiled at him.
Suddenly she felt a touch on the back of her pants and the spicy smell of Noah filled her lungs. Gently tugging her closer to him with the finger tucked into her belt loop, he looked over her head at the rest of the crew, who didn't seem to notice his hold on her.
"Are we about ready to go?" he asked.
The firm and deliberate pressure of his hand at the back of her pants brought the tremble back to Madison's belly and she fought to keep her breath controlled. She didn't want the other members of the crew to notice the way he touched her, or the way that simple touch made her feel.
"Yep," Jesse said, "We can get started."
"Perfect. Let's go dark."
Someone flipped the switch on the generator-run floodlight set up near one wall and the room went dark except for the blue glow from the computer screens. Madison felt Noah's face came close to her ear.
"You're coming with me," he whispered before lifting his voice louder to talk to Jesse, "I'm going to start in the basement. Why don't you head upstairs and we'll work our way back here."
Before Jesse could acknowledge the idea, Noah gave a firmer tug on her belt loop and started leading her backwards out of the room. When she had stumbled a few steps backwards, he released her and let her turn around, then resumed his grip on her with his finger through one of the loops on the front of her pants. With the beam of his flashlight illuminating the floor in front of his feet, Noah led her down the hallway, through the kitchen, and down the stairs into the basement.
A chill rose up through her as soon as they descended the stairs. She liked that space just as little as she had the day before, and the fact that it was creeping close to midnight didn't help the eerie feeling that slowly crept up her spine and sent a shiver at the base of her neck. They had only made it halfway into the room when Noah extinguished his flashlight.
Madison gasped and instinctively reached out for him, grasping at his shirt and trying to pull herself into his arms. He took her by her upper arms and held her still.
"I want to do a little experiment," he said calmly.
"What kind of experiment?"
Her voice sounded timid in the darkness, but hearing him responding to her helped to calm the nerves that were giving her the compulsion to run. She still wasn't convinced that there were disembodied spirits lurking throughout the house, but there was definitely something in the darkness, a feeling that kept her just on the edge.
"Sometimes," Noah said, starting to guide her backward slowly, "we like to use what we call trigger objects. We believe that it can help the spirits connect with us when they see items or people or situations that they find familiar, or maybe that upset them. This gives them the motivation to communicate with us. I want to use you as my trigger object."
Madison felt her back touch the wall. The stone was cold and uneven against her, but Noah's hand on her belly kept her in place.
"How?" she asked.
"Can you imagine what it must have been like for the people who were kept in this basement?" he asked.
She gasped as she felt him lift one of her hands above her shoulder and the cold clamp of metal close around her wrist. A second later, he lifted the other hand and she realized he was locking her into the chains that hung on the wall. She made a sound of protest and pulled against the chains, trying to release herself. In the darkness, she was starting to panic.
"Shhhhh," he hushed her quietly.
She felt his body come closer to hers and his fingertip touch her lips to quiet her. The warmth of him close to her quickly eased the anxiety building within her.
"They were in constant darkness," he whispered and she felt him step back, "But it must have made the rest of their senses much more intense."