Tom felt something within him break irrevocably. Later, he was never able to put it into words that others could understand. It was something like plunging over the summit on a roller coaster ride, at the point where your guts turn inside out. The fury in him seemed almost to invert itself and in that instant he realized what the killing of Mathilde, and the threat to the girl, were for. He’s feeding on hate, Tom realized. That’s what he wants, to get our emotional energies as cranked up as he can, so he can take it all into himself when he kills us.