He had given the game a name to make it sound exciting.

He had told her that her job was to stay downstairs, alone, in the dark, and to be silent, and not to come upstairs no matter what — and that if she stayed quiet and obeyed, she would win a prize, a puppy she had wanted.

And to make sure she could not break the rules, he had locked her bedroom door so she could not go back to her own bed.

He had turned a five-year-old’s longing for a puppy, and her trust in her own father, into a leash.