How to Be Eaten

by Maria Adelmann

Men don’t have to pretend to be good, I thought. In fact, they’re supposed to be a little brutal.

“What makes you so annoying, Bernice,” says Ruby, “is that you’re not actually as ugly or as stupid as you think.”

“I’m just tired of convincing people, over and over again, of the same thing I have to keep convincing myself of,” says Gretel, “that the worst things that happened to me might actually be true.”

“Maybe don’t even be out there, on the street, not if it’s dark, not if you’re alone, not if you’re a kid, not if you’re a woman, not without a rape whistle around your neck, not without pepper spray clutched in your hand, not, anyway, if you’re wearing that outfit.”

The twist: it isn’t even a TV show. There aren’t any cameras. No one’s watching at all.