“To behold the Screaming Zahir, to perceive it is to immediately be drawn to it. The Screaming Zahir is a sinking ship and it lures all things around it towards the wake of its swallowing waters. Do you know that the stars carry tremendous gravity? When the die, they blink out of existence and leave ever swallowing maws in their place which inhale the universe around them. The Screaming Zahir is the same.”

“I felt the Screaming Zahir’s touch and accepted it within me. It burrowed into my brain and nested there and each dream and thought and whim that passes by it is immediately tainted. I dream of nothing other than it. I think of nothing else. No moment blesses my mind where I am not fixated upon it. Slowly my body warped and took this shape it does today, bloating and morphing beyond recognition. Is this some brutal costume I must wear now? A punishment?”

“Whilst I think of it constantly, this metamorphosis brings some relief. The pain of my body is a distraction. The pins and flames that taunt my flesh redirect my thoughts if only momentarily, and in those moments I am the best I can ever be.”

“Some would die. Some would simply die or take their own lives, but I am afraid. I am afraid that with no body, all that exists is my nebulous mind and with no way to move or talk or blink, no exhausted instances of sleep, no pangs of hunger, no instinctive reflexes, all I would be is my longing to perceive it again.”

“Even now, though, I can tell I am speaking to one damned. You have no intention of turning your back on The Screaming Zahir. Your eyes may show sympathy, they may show loathing, but most of all they show weariness, for you will travel towards your goal with a hunger that devours your.”