Pet

The first step to seeing is seeing that there are things you do not see.

The truth does not change whether it is seen or unseen, it whispered in her mind. A thing which is happening happens whether you look at it or not. And yes, maybe it is easier not to look. Maybe it is easier to say because you do not see it, it is not happening. Maybe you can pull the stone out of the pool and put the moon back together.

What does a monster look like? Jam asked. Her mother focused on her, cupping her cheek in a chalky hand. "Monsters don't look like anything, doux-doux. That's the whole point. That's the whole problem.

Truth does not care if it feels true or not. It is true nonetheless" -Pet

Also, the problem is, when you think you’ve been without monsters for so long, sometimes you forget what they look like, what they sound like, no matter how much remembering your education urges you to do. It’s not the same when the monsters are gone. You’re only remembering shadows of them, stories that seem to be limited to the pages or screens you read them from. Flat and dull things. So, yes, people forget. But forgetting is dangerous. Forgetting is how the monsters come back.

Good and innocent, they not the same thing; they don't wear the same face.

Monsters don't look like anything, That's the whole point. That's the whole problem.

The truth does not change whether it is seen or unseen.

You want many things, you are full of want, carved out of it, made from it, yes. But the truth does not care about what you want, the truth is what it is. It is not moved by want, it is not a blade of grass to be bent by the wind of your hopes and desires" -PET

Bitter knew her name was heavy but she hadn't minded because it was honest. That was something she'd taught Jam - that a lot of things were manageable as long as they were honest. You could see things clearly if they were honest; you could decide what to do next, because you knew exactly what you were dealing with.

Adults were like that so much of the time, inflexible when they thought they had something to protect.

It was hard to keep secrets; you had to keep track of them, regulate how they moved through your body, make sure they didn't swerve and jump out of your mouth.

How fast is your alive? How smooth is your alive? How hard, how resilient? We’re alive because we can be hurt; we’re alive because we can heal. I think it’s beautiful. It’s why I fight.

So, yes, people forget. But forgetting is dangerous. Forgetting is how the monsters come back.

Everyone, everything deserved some time to be. To figure out what they were. Even a painting.

There is no right thing, Pet replied. There is only the thing that needs to be done.

Some of the things you know are not true, it said. You have to learn that things might not be real, even if they look familiar.

The revolution had been slow and ponderous, but it had weight, and that weight built up a momentum, and when that momentum finally broke forth, it was with a great and accumulated force. This force washed out the monsters who worked in public spaces, allegedly for the public, but it carried farther, into the homes and schools. It touched everyone; it made change. People started by believing the victims, and once this was apparent that it was safe to report monsters now, more and more people did so. The monsters always tried to apologize when they were caught, using the same slippery words that had worked for them before. They thought it would be enough, that some time would pass and they would be welcomed back as if nothing had happened. They were wrong.

At least he's not freaking out, Jam said. I might have preferred that, Pet replied, a trace of a sulk in its voice. What, you like being feared better? It has its advantages when you are a thing that does not fit.

Yes, child. Angels aren’t pretty pictures in old holy books, just like monsters aren’t ugly pictures. It’s all just people, doing hard things or doing bad things. But is all just people, our people.

We are each other’s harvest,’ ” Jam whispered, her voice falling against the skin of his brow, the words like a small rain. Pet made a clicking sound in its chest and leaned in slightly. “ ‘We are each other’s business.’ ” As she spoke, Redemption’s breathing began to slow. “ ‘We are each other’s magnitude and bond,’ ” Jam finished. They stayed unmoving for a few minutes, the room silent with sunlight.

What if you didn't think about what you wanted, what you hoped? What if you thought about what was happening instead? How does that change your wants?

She didn't say anything, not wanting to interrupt his silence. Instead, she climbed into the silence with him, staying there, feeling its soft curves.

Hannah Arendt, the political philosopher, coined the phrase “the banality of evil”—that evil is very often “terrifyingly normal.” She knew, as many who have suffered do, that the worst things can happen in the blandest of places—between the lines in a textbook omitting large swaths of history or in the hushing of a child who has something important to say. All these things are done in the name of keeping our worlds safe, consistent, banal.

Am I a terrible person? she asked Pet. There is no such thing, it replied. There's only what you do.

You don’t want to give us a chance to prevent the monsters; you want to wait until the monsters are full-grown and rampaging, so you and the rest of your kind can swoop in and hunt them and save the day. Except that people, kids, are going to get hurt your way. But you don’t care, right? As long as you have something to hunt. You don’t care if people get hurt. I think that makes you more of the monster.

Knowledge can do that to a person, Pet replied. I've seen it with you humans. The unseen can tear your eyes open when it comes into sight, and sometimes the mind behind that tears as well." -Pet

This keeping of a secret, it is not a good thing to keep, you are keeping too many and they do not fit inside your heart, they will keep spaces between you and your humans" -PET