I’ve explained how Mallory hides, hunts, attacks, feeds, and buries her corpses. Your next question is likely to be: “how can I tell if someone is a psychopath?” Once you realize psychopaths walk among us, things change. You start to wonder how many shape-shifting predators you know, or knew. You start to look at the people you meet, and ask, “you too?” The question may become an obsession. Yet it is the wrong question.
Or rather, it is only half the question. It is almost impossible to tell if someone is a psychopath or not. You need more than good observational skills. You need more than the awareness I described in “The Feeding”. You must actually get entangled, then analyse them as they attack you. If they attack you. And if you even realize that is what is happening. This is not an experiment I would recommend.
So a better question is, “how can I tell if a psychopath is active in my circles?” This is a valid question, and a necessary one. It is a question with solid answers. Psychopathy is like a disease that causes long-term mental damage in the entangled. This damage is Mallory’s impact crater. You can see that impact crater if you search for it. Look at yourself, other individuals, families, businesses, and other organizations.
It takes time and study. You look for pain, damage, trauma, and burnout. You look for depression and anxiety. You look for problems at school and work. For alcohol and drug abuse. Self-harm, and suicide attempts. If you see these, without other causes, chances are you’re seeing Mallory’s work.
Once you see an impact crater, then you can ask the question “who is Mallory?” Now you can pull out your checklists and narrow down the list of suspects. Start with the crime, then follow the trail.
Someone is making a profit from that pain. When you have eliminated all other suspects, the last person left is Mallory.
So this chapter is about hunting Mallory. Yes, we are going on a safari. We will track, and maybe trap, the most dangerous animal of them all.
