I PLAYED WITH the display of mechanical pencils on the counter as Vee, the cashier at Gary's Hardware, rung up the purchase.

"Will you stop that?" She glared at me. "You're messing them up."

"Sorry." I returned the pencils to the basket and tried to rearrange them in the order she'd had them. Vee went back to scanning.

"Bolt cutters?" She raised a thinly sculpted eyebrow at me, holding them up like she'd never seen the item before in her life.

I shrugged.

She snapped them open and closed once before finally setting them in the white plastic bag along with the flashlight. "What are the two of you doing with bolt cutters?" She shifted her brown eyes between Jeremey and I, folding a strand of scarlet dyed hair behind her ear.

"Yard work," Jeremey replied immediately, not even looking away from the assortment of energy drinks he was examining in the mini-fridge by the register. It was a good thing he was quick, because in all likelihood the answer that would have fallen out of my mouth would have been "cutting bolts."

"What sort of yard work are you doing with bolt cutters and a flashlight?" Vee asked, crossing her arms and wrinkling her nose.

"All sorts." Jeremey pulled himself away from the fridge and stood next to me, setting four neon-green cans of energy drink on the counter.

Vee rolled her eyes and scanned the drinks. She placed them in the bag along with the tools. "You know if you buy two more of these, you get a pair of ski masks for free." She paused for a second, deadpan while neither of us laughed at the joke. "It's $32.54," she finally continued, not missing a beat.

I nodded, searching through my wallet.

"Seriously, what are you two up to?"

"Seriously, none of your business, Vee," Jeremey replied, picking up the bag as I continued to search for cash. I'd found a twenty and a few ones, but that was it. "Ready to go, Harper?"

"I've only got like, twenty-five bucks," I said.

"How old are you? Twenty-two? You need to get a fucking credit card." Jeremey shoved the bag at me to hold while he pulled out his wallet.

"I know," I groaned and took the bag. I folded my wallet with my other hand and put it into my back pocket. I got paid in cash, so I'd never bothered to get a credit card or anything like that. I didn't even have a bank account.

Vee chuckled lowly. She stared me down as Jeremey took out a blue plastic card and handed it to her. I looked down at my hands, avoiding eye contact with her but still watching in my peripheral vision. She relaxed slightly as she ran the card through the machine.

"So Vee," I leaned up against the counter, fidgeting with the pencils again. She glared at me, so I shoved my hands into my pockets instead. "Did you hear someone bought the farm house on Clay Road?"

Jeremey kicked me in the side of the shin.

"Ow."

Vee snorted a single laugh. "Yeah. A couple weeks ago, right? His name's Jordan or something I think."

"Joshua," I corrected her. She raised her eyebrows at me. "I've seen him a couple times at the gas station."

"Okay. Joshua, whatever." She handed Jeremey the receipt to sign.

"Have you seen him in here at all?" I asked. Jeremey nudged me with his elbow, but I ignored him.

"Yeah, a couple of times I guess."

"He's a pretty weird dude, right?" I continued.

"He seemed nice enough to me," Vee said. "Just quiet."

"Did he buy anything weird while he was here?" I continued.

She sighed heavily. "I don't know, Harper. Not really. Just typical stuff you'd use if you were fixing up an old shit-hole of a house. Two-by-fours, screws, bolts. Crap like that. A bunch of eight-foot metal rods."

"He told me he was doing beekeeping," I offered. "What do you think of that?"

"Not much," Vee replied. "Guess someone's gotta do it. Sounds like a shitty job, although I guess it's more interesting than working at a hardware store or a gas station."

I laughed. "Guess so."

"All right, well we gotta get going, Vee, see you around." Jeremey dragged me towards the exit.

"Good luck with your... yard work," Vee called after us. We stepped outside, and the wind slammed the door to the shop behind us.

"What the hell was that all about, Harper?" Jeremey hissed. The wind roared past my ears, practically taking his words away before they reached me.

"I remembered Joshua asking about where he could find a hardware store the first time I saw him at the gas station," I said. "I thought it might be useful to know what he was buying."

"Yeah, maybe," Jeremey replied. He hit the unlock button for the car and it beeped once. "But you do realize you are the least subtle person ever, don't you?"

"Whatever." I got into the passenger side of the car. Jeremey got in to the driver's side, slamming the door behind himself. "It's just Vee," I continued, once safe and sealed from the raging wind. "She doesn't care."

"Yeah, I guess," Jeremey sighed. He started the car. "But still..."

"So what do you think he's doing with the metal rods?" I asked as Jeremey backed out of the parking lot.

"No idea," Jeremey said.

I sat quietly as we pulled out to the edge of the lot. "I have one," I finally said lowly.

Jeremey stopped the car and looked at me.

"I think he's making something," I began. "Some sort of metal cage." I paused, letting Jeremey think about it for a second. "Only question is, for what?"

Jeremey was quiet for a second. "For the girl," he finally whispered.

"It could be," I offered. "But for some reason, I get the feeling it's for something else. A locked basement can hold a girl. A cage... that's something different."

Jeremey started the car again, avoiding acknowledging what I had said.

"We need to have a plan for this," I told him as we stopped at a red light.

"Yeah," Jeremey sighed, glancing at the clock on the dashboard. The light turned green and he stepped on the gas. "It's almost six now," he finally began. "Sun doesn't go down for another hour and a half. How about this, we grab something to eat, then once it gets dark, we park the car on Breeker Road, about a mile and a half from the farm house. We can walk down to the woods by the house, hide out there and stake it out. See what he's up to."

The light at the next intersection turned red, and we stopped.

"If he leaves," Jeremey continued, "We head over to the house and see if we can cut that lock on the cellar door with the bolt cutters."

"And if he doesn't, we wait 'til he goes to sleep?" I asked.

"Yeah," Jeremey said, pulling into the parking lot of the Burger King and parking in the nearest spot. "No, wait."

"What?" I asked.

"Shit, I forgot about the dogs. If they're outside..."

I winced. We'd wake them up for sure. And with Joshua knowing about us sneaking around before, there was no way they wouldn't be outside. "We'll have to be really quiet," I said. My hands shook just thinking about the dogs. "Maybe we could bring a bat or something, just in case."

"Fuck, if they start barking though..."

"We'll have to take our chances," I said. "He has someone locked up down there. We can't do nothing."

"Okay," Jeremey said. "You're right. I think I have an old baseball bat at my place. We can use it as a threat, and if it comes to it..." he paused. "I don't like the idea, but I don't have any better ones."

I nodded, and then we both got out of the car. The screaming wind was the only noise in the air as we headed into the restaurant, but thoughts raged through my mind like a storm. All I could think about was Joshua, and the girl, and the dogs, and now the cage.

I didn't even want to consider what sort of horror he'd constructed it to contain.