Neither of them was reckless.

Neither was a fool.

They were exactly what I had been — competent, generous, a little lonely, glad to be seen.

That was the whole cruelty of the method: it did not prey on weakness.

It preyed on the ordinary human wish to be cared for, and it dressed a predator up as the answer to it.

I keep their names now the way you keep a debt you intend never to forget.

Alyssa had been the first.