I can't imagine you not saying a word," said Marcus."I think you'd go crazy first.

Humanity will destroy itself, body and soul, before it will learn a simple lesson.

I'd rather know how you feel than hope and wonder and delude myself for weeks on end.

I need a sample of your blood,' said Kira. Marcus raised an eyebrow. 'I didn't know we'd reached that stage of our relationship.

I didn't know how to explain what I meant; sociopathy wasn't just being emotionally deaf, it was being emotionally mute, too. I felt like the characters on our muted TV, waving their hands and screaming and never saying a word out loud.

The monster behind the wall stirred. I'd come to think of it as a monster, but it was just me. Or the darker part of me, at least. You probably think it would be creepy to have a real monster hiding inside of you, but trust me - it's far, far worse when the monster is really just your own mind. Calling it a monster seemed to distance it a little, which made me feel better about it. Not much better, but I take what I can get.

It's a pretty big shock to realise that the only people you can identify with are psychopathic killers.