Lock her in. Count to forty-five. Dunk by sixty. Ellie knows that a second can feel like an eternity when in scared or in pain, and she has vivid memories of sitting on the floor of that mall with her arm bleeding and waiting to turn. It never came, of course, and the seconds turned to days to weeks to months and she doesn't think she can take years of that reminder on her skin, needing to be hidden away.

"I thought you hadn't done this before," Ellie jokes.