Introduction to the Adaptation

“Devil. They called me devil, monster, soul-biter, enemy of Allah. I stand at the edge of the world, bile rising in my throat, yet freezing solid as it makes its course, so that I’ve lost all capability of speech, and all I can recall of myself are names. Disgusting, all of it.

“The beginning led to failure. It always leads to failure, whether it makes a path through beauty or through hellfire, though the two could be the same, from what little of the worlds I remember. I saw that failure, though, like a beast roaring out of the ugly black – and I was forced into it, into the destruction, of myself, and of the wretched creatures I found on that journey.

“Oh, Lord…where did I go? Where is the woman I used to be? Was she beautiful? Did she have the scars I carry? Was she in love? I think I faintly remember love, but perhaps it was after the fact, after I had lost who I was, lost who I should have been. Or maybe I should be this. Maybe I need to be devil. But, as I turn my head back now, and the only thing that I’m seeing is blank, smothering death, I make a silent wish, one that the woman, the girl, whoever, the one that I can’t recall – I hope to God that she’s fully dead. That she’s at peace, if I’ll never be.”

-- These words have been donated by a third party that wishes to remain anonymous. The thoughts and feelings of the woman speaking and the people surrounding her have been compiled into a chronologically ordered set of experiences for the edification of anything that should happen to need it. At the very least, the donating party has instructed us, this is to be thought of as a tribute – to so many memories.