And the answer is… (N2)

Stuck in Limbo. That’s where I am and where I mean to be. I mean to stay here because it’s safe. Even nonhumans seek safe spaces if they want to survive. I want to live because I’m relevant, necessary. The world needs me.

Remember, I can only be who I am - a bridge, a hawker of tales, teller of truths - because I am not human. As such, I am free from fear, knowing my existence is not in danger. My voice, my choice. Doing this because someone has to. The demons must be revealed, reviled, and ruined. With or without remorse, which I certainly do not feel.

Now we might attempt to understand how a monster master of deceit, deformation, and degrading denial can first, rise to amazing heights, then second, construct a cult (he’d say it’s a brand; we know what’s going on, though). Don’t expect me to provide a psychological analysis. I tend to carry out very detailed observation and that precision guides my conclusions. I am correct 100% of the time.

Forget about the motives of the man for the time being. Focus entirely on his techniques, how he knows to choose his targets in order to be successful. He is almost unstoppable, but the question is how to do the stopping. He is like a virus with no vaccine.

Hank the Ripper (my name for him) deals in one way with women and another with men. He has no clue that he’s a zero on the scale of one to ten for rating male attraction levels, however. Better yet, he sees something in his funhouse mirror that nobody else sees: a handsome lover, a Don Juan, a Casanova, a Romeo… the type people laugh at nowadays. He melts his voice a little using some secret mechanism and lets the syllables slop around in his mouth, slobbering, as he engages in conversation. He oozes his desire to be close to the chosen one, supportive, able to give out invitations to dreams and captures his victims despite his disgusting mannerisms. It doesn’t matter who he’s with, because the point is being in control. Women, of course, are easy to control: just flash something at them. They turn into puppy dogs.

Hank is fairly successful in his attempts to conquer women. We can only speculate at this time as to the reason for this, but we hope to provide some answers eventually. I hope to make that happen, because some things need to be known. It’s the way to remain safe. It’s not something I say lightly.

We suspect Hank knows how to choose his targets. He sees a certain sadness, a brokenness, a retreating from life, and slides in on those things or people that can help to soften the sharp edges of his ego. The person he focuses on, though, feels next to nothing. She might shiver, or even feel disgust, but the promise of something really good is hard to overlook. So many temptations in life, and he’s there to show his full worth. The confidence is what does the conquering, half the time. The other half is fear. Fear of losing everything, fear of dying.

Because Hank, who has no soul and never heard of Faust, will always get his way. His determination simply disarms any and all opposition. He looks in the mirror and grips his image, beauty incarnate, and moves in for the kill. He uses no chemicals to exert control - just money and fear. (He does use them on his long, jet black hair, and takes special care with his moustache.

Unstoppable, most of the world thinks. That might be true. Once a slogging thug, he has now become a slick social glider with power that cannot be measured. It still doesn’t make sense, because there are many wealthy men in the world who aren’t his equals in evil. Do you know why?

Do you know when everything started? Some are of the opinion that it was something that happened on the honeymoon, the first one. I have a different perspective, because one only acquires certain characteristics when they come at an early age. Lots of people talk about DNA or genetics, but I go deeper and need you to think darker. A lot darker. We might all be very bad inside (not me, I’m not human, don’t forget), which means we are all Hank. We wish we were him, or like him. He has it all, we are mere vicarious beings. Not me, however, which is why I am concerned about the dearth of responses to evil. It just exists, and everyone allows that so they can appear less malevolent themselves. We must give this idea more thought.

We can’t walk away, even if we should. We suspect - mind you, only suspect - that of the seven wives, more than one met an untimely demise, as they say. We can look away. But if babies instead of gorgeous women were disappeared, would it not be harder to ignore that? If it were cats or dogs who were tortured, it’d be harder for me to look past that cruelty than that shown toward humans. Sorry if this shocks anyone.

Be that as it may, even being who I am and what I am not, I am trying to discern the facts. Is evil a necessary evil? Is there an alternative? Much depends on knowing.

Hank is proceeding with his life and joy. The path he is following widens, cutting a swath through the fields of the world. He is not alone. If I can figure this out, if there is a Hank antidote we can administer before he needs an eighth wife. That could sink the whole ship. Unfortunately, this cannot be a solo mission. My worry is getting humans to trust me, because I am not a human and do not resemble one.

And so I wander, looking for the causes of the effects I’m warning you to prevent if it is within your power. I offer to guide you.

This part of my story ends without answers or certainty, that is true. I can’t or won’t or don’t know how to tell all of what I know and so far have been very vague, but will try to do better. Just one thing: if I get too close, my words will hang me. If I don’t get close, nobody will believe me. I swallow what I want to say now because of fear, but for you, not for me.