...silently i'm sinking; one man crew on this ship of fools,
No sky, no stars to guide it on it's course.

This vessel called Vicarious, impaled and slowly tilting
in an under current that shows no remorse...

Will i ever know?

[His] actions might always puzzle her. Were they a missive from the dark underbelly of human existence, indicating a fatal narcissism and a stunning lack of empathy? Had he done it for the sport, the kill? Or could he not help himself, caught up in a rivalry that had begun before he’d even realized it? [He] was selfish, certainly, and perhaps hardwired to be competitive in spite of his own best interests. But did that make him evil? Or merely a flawed and all-too-real human being?

~excerpt from Body Surfing by Anita Shreve~