A lot of people have asked this question, and few of them have had good answers.

     Because, you see, here’s the thing. Real monsters, the ones that lurk in the darkness, the ones that smile and hold open doors for you- 

     They can’t be described with characteristics such as horns, tails, or fire-breathing second heads. Even the monsters that look meaner, the ones with gaping mouths full of teeth, with too many limbs that skitter across your floor too fast; the ones with empty red eyes and towering bodies; the ones with claws that could sink into your flesh and drag you into the closet or under your bed-

     those aren’t really monsters. And I'll tell you why. Because you know who they are. You know what they look like, you know where they hide, and you know that all it takes is a bedroom light and a call for mom and dad to scare them away. 

     But the real monsters- the real monsters are the ones that look just. like. us. 

     They aren't defined by the realm of fiction, and the daytime doesn’t scare them into hiding. No. They walk about in the sunshine, dressed in suits and flowing dresses. They could be the postman, the receptionist at the hotel you’re staying at, the dad of the family that lives next to you. 

     That's what makes them so scary. 

     You can never tell who they are until it’s too late. 

     You can’t tell until you’re being shoved against the wall of an alleyway because they saw you kiss another guy, you can’t tell until your drink has already been drugged and your world is going hazy. Not until you’re bent over the bathroom counter with your hands held behind your back, and they hear you screaming, they just don’t care. 

You can only tell once there's a mugshot on the news, when forty children are found dead in a basement. When the police are warning college girls not to walk alone at night because six of them have already been raped. When a man runs around his town, killing every Asian person in sight. 

     You can only tell when you see the host of a party carrying your passed-out friend into a back room. You can only tell when it’s you in the back room, and you can’t feel your body, and you know you’re saying “Stop,” but there’s a girl sitting on top of you telling you should like it and she’s not leaving. 

     You can only tell when you walk into your friend’s house and see their mom swinging a frying pan at their head. You can only tell once another fourteen year old has killed herself because her family insisted on calling her a “he”. 

     Sometimes you can only tell once it’s too late. 

     And it’s a goddamn tragedy, it really is, because things like this are happening every second of every day and people stopped caring a long time ago. From the moment they learn to walk, young girls are warned not to upset a man, because it may cost them their life. Boys are taught that emotions mean weakness, and if you’re weak then you’re worthless. Children are hardened into criminals, taught to steal and lie and cheat and fight because that’s the only way they can survive. You get told that you shouldn’t hold your girlfriend’s hand downtown because she’s black and you’re white and that’s a crime some people just won’t forgive. Juries won’t listen to what you have to say so long as you’re making a case against a police officer. Kids get teargassed when they stand up for what’s right, and teenagers have to make sure to rub off all of their rainbow facepaint on the subway ride home, because if dad found out there’d be no telling what he’d do. 

     And we yell and we fight and we beg and we plead for justice, for a weapon to end monters, to finish them off once and for all. But we’ll never get it. 

     Because here’s the really terrifying thing. Sometimes, the monsters are saved. That’s right. Sometimes people come up to defend them, citing drugs and religion as an excuse, as if cocaine can conjure up racism, as if God wanted that trans prostitute dead. Rapists get eight months in jail and then they’re back on the streets, adding more victims to their list. Sure, the BIG crimes get condemned. Cannibalism, mass murder. Terrorism, so long as it’s committed by anyone who isn’t white. 

     Monsters can be ignored, and that’s why they’ve gotten bolder. They feed out in the open now, at a leisurely pace. There’s no need for them to be afraid, they know we can’t fight back. After all, at this point, there are more monsters than there are people anyway.