“I don’t much like myself at the best of times; I don’t really expect any greater courtesy from you.”

Life hasn’t been kind to Michael, and his development into an adult suffered accordingly. Haunted by the brutality of his childhood and immense guilt of his sins, his mind has created dangerous coping mechanisms: The Control and The Hate. Control manifests as a young woman who works to steer Michael from his more dangerous habits, but Hate is much as he sounds. Every repressed urge for violence, every ounce of fury in the face of his own helplessness and worthlessness made manifest by an ugly, feral, selfish illusion. He keeps them at bay with a flood of illicit medicines and alcohol but even these are cheap bandages at best. And when he stumbles across an ugly situation involving a missing young woman and the monster that took her, even Michael’s strongest defenses are stretched far past their limits. He’ll have to decide, and soon, if he’s willing to put the evils in his head to use, or drown forever in a sea of self-pity.