I have come to believe that the difference between a person who heals a frightened child and a person who harms one comes down entirely to what they do with the child’s fear, and that Roland and Elliot were, in this single respect, perfect opposites.

Roland had needed our fear.

It was the point; the whole elaborate machine of locks and lies existed to produce and maintain it, because a frightened child is a controllable child, and control was what he actually wanted.

Our terror was not a side effect of his abuse.

It was its purpose.

Elliot did the exact opposite thing with the exact same fear.

He did not need it, did not want it, took no satisfaction in it, and, this is the part that healed us, did not resent it either.