"Now tell me," Joseph said, turning to the homeless man and the baker girl and ignoring Corrine for the moment. "Have decided which of you lives and which of you dies? Remember, I need both of you to have agreed on who dies or I kill both of you."

He already knew which one they would have chosen. Rarely did the choice he gave the participants in the ceremony change when it was two people so different. The homeless, for all their filth and often madness, were a surprisingly altruistic group for the most part.