Readings from the Book of Pain

A man trapped in perpetual darkness, walking a nightmarish landscape as an unseen beast hunts him, drawing ever closer; a heroin-addicted arsonist, questioning the fabric of his own reality, and bent on discovering the true nature of fire; a man of faith, giving his own flesh and blood in his blind determination to prove the existence of God; a living force of darkness and pain, wandering the city streets in its hunger for human suffering.... These are the fears and desires that haunt our dreams, the evil thoughts and deeds that may hide behind every grinning face. These are the worst intentions of man and beast, the depraved psychological wanderings that poison our society and fuel our nightmares. We read about them in the headlines, and turn away in fear. We see them on the news and tell ourselves such things could never happen to us. But they're out there, waiting for us, watching us. Praying to their masters of fear and terror, practicing their darkest arts in the coldest hours of the night, and whispering the blackest litanies from their unholy Book of Pain.