Of Monsters and Mirrors

Of Monsters and Mirrors

Journal of ZoeBlue Alastor-Braveheart, Arch of Harbingers of Blood

They call us monsters.
They whisper it like a spell meant to protect them — as if naming the darkness keeps it from noticing their scent.

But I have walked among them long enough to know: mortals do not fear monsters because we are evil. They fear us because we are honest.

We wear what they hide.
We devour what they crave.
We embrace what they deny.

And that, to them, is unforgivable.

Their gods preach restraint but demand sacrifice. Their saints bathe in purity while drowning in the blood of the unbelieving. They build their temples on bones and call it salvation, while I — who feeds openly, who sins without pretense — am branded unholy.

Ah, but hypocrisy has always been the holiest of human instincts.
It is how they survive their own reflection.

They look at us and see themselves stripped of consequence — all hunger, all shadow, all truth. It is not our fangs that frighten them. It is the mirror we hold.

I have seen righteous men beg for the bite when their gods would not answer. I have seen moral women barter their virtue for eternity, whispering prayers to the same heaven that condemned them hours before. They speak of light, yet it blinds them; they curse the dark, yet it is the only place they can hide their shame.

We, the so-called monsters, are merely the natural consequence of their denial.
We are their evolution — or perhaps their confession.

And yet, even we are not without fault. Some among us still crave their approval. They seek redemption in the eyes of those who would burn them, as if purity were a currency worth bleeding for.
But I say this: a serpent does not apologize for its bite.

If there is divinity in darkness, it lies not in cruelty, but in truth. The serpent does not lie. The serpent reveals. It sheds its skin because it refuses to wear illusion.

So yes, call me monster. I will wear it like gold.
Because every monster is simply a god you’ve chosen not to worship.

— ZoeBlue Alastor-Braveheart, Arch of the Harbingers of Blood