Jake thumped the glass with his balled hand. The creature inside didn’t move.

“Is it dead?” Jake said.

“Don’t you believe it,” Jake’s father said. “That’s what it wants you to think.”

The man in the cage was naked, skin pale. He stood stock still, a statue carved from white marble.

“Why doesn’t he do something?” Jake said, pounding on the glass again. Sandy could hear the whine creeping into her brother’s voice.

“Just wait,” their father said. A knowing smile teased his lips.

A steel door at the rear of the cage opened and a nude, heavyset woman with wild red hair stumbled through. The door shut behind her with a heavy clack. She looked around, wide-eyed, weeping, trembling.

“I don’t like this,” Sandy said.