"Oh, good, you're still alive. Maybe I'll get lucky and you'll succumb before I have to leave."

The woman said nothing.

Greg returned his attention to Olivia. "Want to hear something that's going to really upset you? I almost had to let you go. Seriously. You kept watching your drink. If that lady hadn't stumbled over to the table and distracted you, I wouldn't have taken the chance. You may have thought that she was my accomplice, but nope, it was just terrible luck on your part. One drunken fan praising your set and now you're up there. Life is pretty strange."

Olivia had no reaction to that revelation. At this point, she didn't care about irony.

Greg opened the brown bag and took out a bottle of water and a straw. "I know that accepting a drink from me didn't work out for you last time," he said, "but I promise you, this is just water." He set the bottle on the chair then walked out of sight.

More screeching across the floor. He was strong enough to just pick up a stepladder, so Olivia assumed he was making the ghastly noise on purpose. He set the ladder next to the other woman's cage, then picked up the bottle and climbed up to her cage. "I'm watering her first because she's closer to death," he explained.

He held the bottle out to the woman. She leaned her head forward and began to suck through the straw.

"Slow down," Greg told her. "You don't want to make yourself sick."

The woman didn't slow down. Then she coughed and threw up the water, which splashed all over the floor.

"Slower this time," he said.

She waved him away. Greg climbed down the ladder and moved it next to Olivia's cage. He took a second bottle of water out of the bag, unscrewed the cap, and put in the same straw he'd used in the other woman's bottle. He placed his foot on the bottom rung of the ladder, then looked up at Olivia.

"I can't stop you from trying something stupid," he said. "Just know that it means you won't get any water."

"I won't try anything," said Olivia.

"Good." Greg climbed up the ladder and extended the bottle to Olivia. She forced herself to drink slowly. Greg waited patiently as she finished off the entire bottle of cold water. "Want the rest of Regina's?" he asked.

Olivia shook her head. The odds of successfully kicking him off the ladder, causing him to shatter his skull against the floor, were extremely low. She still would've tried—she just couldn't get her legs to move.

Greg climbed back down. He dragged the ladder out of the way, then sat down in his chair. He took out a cell phone, quickly glanced at the display, then shoved it back into his pocket.