The devil fooled us.
His greatest trick was making it seem like he was a demon, a monster. But demons are everyday people. The most terrifying monsters are the ones you know. The ones who smile. The ones who say please and thank you. The ones who hold the door open for elders. The ones who always look clean, who dress nice, who smell like money. Sometimes they even help you when others are calling you names. Then you trust them. Then you owe them one.
They’re invisible in a way, too. They blend in. Like ghosts. I think that’s what my English teachers would call irony.
Now, from where I am, I see who they are, the ones who wear faces like Halloween masks. I see their calculated kindness. I hear their hollow laughs when their victims turn in shock to see who they really are, unmasked. It’s an extra cruelty before the end. The cruelty is the point.