the first time he visits her after locking her away is on her birthday, when he makes his way down the cramped stairwell with a cake -- deep, violent red with neat white trim and twenty flickering candles to top it off -- held high in his hands.
he sees her eyes following it, and grins. "looks good, huh? it's pomegranate. your favorite."
the candles flicker as he sets the cake down on an overturned cardboard box in the corner of the basement, and he makes a wish for her and blows out the candles for her and eats half the cake for her, and then approaches her with two great strides and tightens her restraints until they dig into the skin of her wrists. "bon appetit," he says, and then he leaves the cake for her.
the other half of the cake is rotten and crawling with bugs by the time he comes down to see her again.
