“Polite little girl!” the leader declares, holding up the metal rod. He points it at her as though the action might summon her to speak. “Name, doll?”

The pack creeps toward her and she shuffles back until she is up against a wall, realizing the alleyway is a dead end. Her mind flashes to photographs of snakes and dresses, empty streets and wilting flowers, clock faces and broken bridges, trying to recall any information about the creatures other than the pieced-together nightmare of giant fists and growling mouths. But there is nothing to remember because there were no photographs. Not of the creatures. No lessons other than fear.

“I asked, what’s your name?” the leader repeats.

“Vanilla,” she says, fiddling with her thumbs as she tries to disappear into the wall.

“Vanilla?!” the leader shouts in humorous surprise. “What are you? Some kinda stripper? Where your heels at? Leave ‘em at—”

“Please!” she cries. “My daddy will be here any minute, and he’ll make sure you can’t steal me away! He’ll hurt you! So you better just leave me alone now, or else he’ll come! Or else—”

The leader lurches toward her. His teeth are bared an inch away from her nose and he snarls. “I don’t care about no sugar-daddy pimp, little girl. What, you stupid?”

A ring of bodies envelops her. A creature shoves her from the side into a puddle, dark water erupting like a fountain around her. Her elbows crash against the ground, the impact shooting up her arms and snapping her jaw shut, her tongue barely escaping the guillotine.

“Stupid bitch!” a twisted mouth yells down at her. “What stupid bitches get!”

She tastes dirt. Her teeth feel grit when she grinds them together. She tries to call out for them to stop but is silenced by the whack of the metal rod against her skull, the contact dull and fleeting. It should have knocked her out cold, but she remains conscious, lying on her side against the sharp ground as they continue to beat her. To pound down on her with their giant fists and sticks. Blows to her gut and chest light her up with fear.

Painless fear.

They grab at her arms and pin her down. One creature holds her head in place so that she can see the black void above her as it weeps into her eyes. The creature’s fingers dig into her jaw and pop open her mouth. Before she can scream, the metal rod is shoved down her throat, blocking her voice. Her tongue cramps around it and her teeth threaten to shatter as the creature smacks the rod so that it vibrates against her enamel.

“Did ya sugar daddy teach you how to take it?!”