Leaving the prison that night, I stood in the parking lot as the darkness fell around me. I was suddenly confronted with a vision of what faced me. Like a serpent, it wound its coils through generations, crushing innocence, suffocating love. Like a virus, it replicated itself, broadcasting itself through acts of violence and betrayal. Like a plague, it drew power from darkness and secrecy and from those who would turn their heads, unwilling to gaze directly upon its virulence.