My little sister looks at the water and takes a dry gulp.

“I can see you want it. The thirst is probably cracking your throat right now.” His own voice sounds dry and cracked. “Soon, you’ll get a headache and start feeling dizzy. Later, your tongue will swell and every instinct you have will be whispering at you to bite it so you can drink your own blood. Ever been thirsty enough to want to kill a man for his cup of water? No? You’ll know that feeling soon.”

He touches the bloody bandage as if wanting to share the pain. “Come over here, Little Worm. Show me how the broken and abandoned ‘walk’ in a different way, and I’ll give you something to drink.”

“I’m not abandoned.”

Beliel scoffs. “Name one person who didn’t abandon you.”

She looks at him with her wide eyes and pixie face. “My sister.”

“Really? Then where is she?”

“On her way here. She’ll come and get me.”

“That’s not what she said.”

“You talked to her?” The hope in her face breaks my heart.

“Sure, I talked to her. Who do you think gave you to me?”

I clench my fist so hard my knuckles feel ready to split.

“You lie.”

“It’s the truth. She said she feels bad about it, but she can’t handle the responsibility of taking care of you any more.”

“You’re lying.” Her voice wavers. “She didn’t say that.”

“She’s exhausted. So tired of waking up every morning, knowing she has to find food for you, carry you, wash you, do everything for you. She tried, but you’re such a burden.”

All the strength drains out of me and I have to stagger back and lean on the wall to stay up.

“They’re all like that.” Beliel’s voice is not unfriendly. “In the end, they always abandon us. No matter how much we love them or how much we do for them. We’re never good enough. We’re the rejects, you and I. The abandoned.”

“You’re a liar.” Her face crumples and her words blur. She hiccups as she cries, lying there on the stone floor, utterly helpless. Her tone almost begs for this monster to comfort her.

My chest feels like there’s a heavy weight on it, and I have trouble breathing.

“You’ll see. Nothing will ever be given to us freely the way it is for other people. Not love, not respect, not even friendship. The only way we’ll get any of that is to put them all in their rightful place beneath us. The last thing we can afford is to be helpless and weak. You have to be strong and beat them into submission. And if they beg and behave, then maybe we’ll let them be our lap dogs. That’s the closest outsiders like us will ever come to feeling wanted.”