In order to survive the hostile darkness, these animals have genetic mutations: evolution has conditioned them to adjust to their current predicament. Tonight, we’ll paint our lips and lace up our waists and put gel pads in our shoes and fold soft pumps into our handbags. We will sing and we will dance in the footprints of those who came before us, orderly like wolves following a trail, placing a paw into exactly the mark left in the snow by the one in front. Our heels will skitter along prescribed routes. Hen-do as pastiche, a show reel: chick-flick, comedy, romance, damsel in distress, sexploitation, girl-on-girl, cuckold, female-friendly. Soft-bodied in the soft light, we are the girls and we are giving away our girl Alanna. It happens at night because it is secret and there is a right way to go about it that only we, the night creatures, know.

Her father will be in charge of the ritual. This is how it works: the priest will lift her hand in his and out of her father’s and place it firmly into her husband’s. Three men have outlined the conditions under which, swiftly, she will transition from a world in which a man bore responsibility for her wellbeing to a world in which she bears responsibility for a man. This exchange happens in broad daylight. The contract will be signed shortly after. Our girl Alanna. There is much more to her than meets the eye. It would take you years to know her properly. What makes daddy’s little girl choose to find out about abjection? To choose to put her body on the line, to live in proximity of human decay? At heart, the girl’s a born nurse: born to care for others. From rosy-cheeked childhood to changing old men’s nappies: the end point of a parable of ballet competitions and bubblegum photo shoots and kiddy amphetamine addictions. The doctors prescribed the medication and then decided her excessive use of it was a sickness in itself and resolved to cure it. She struggled to see it that way in the beginning. Her body just felt very light.

Men love helping girls out of their trouble. Restoring their youthful glow is usually an endeavour easy to fund. Young girls have a propensity to gratitude. When a girl becomes attached, she will change her whole lifestyle for you. This is one way in which girls are unlike boys: they’re willing to adjust their personality.