Hatred is a Leech

Hatred is a leech:

The thing that sticks to a person's skin; that feeds off them and drains the sap out of one's spirit. It changes a person, and does not leave until it has sucked the last drop of peace from them. It clings to one's skin, the way a leech does, burrowing deeper and deeper into the epidermis, so that to pull the parasite off is to tear out that part of the flesh, and to kill it is self-flagellating.

Obioma, Chigozie. The Fishermen. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2015, 207.