Piece of received wisdom from the time before (the Crossed), something I couldn’t help remembering: "There is no such thing as a snuff movie."
Bullshit.
As soon as someone thought it up, and the idea became currency, someone else did it.
There was no great secret to the Crossed. I’d never seen one do anything a human being couldn’t think of doing. Hadn’t thought of doing. Hadn’t done.
They were all the awful aspects of humanity magnified a hundred-thousandfold, but they weren’t anything more.
Where did they come from?
Us.
They were every brute.
Every sadist.
Every rapist, pedophile, renderer, and torturer.
Every ethnic cleanser, serial murderer, zealot, tyrant, and holy killer.
Every terrorist and bomber.
Every smirking criminal in office.
Every shitty, cruel parent who never should have had kids.
And every bad, debasing thing that men and women have to do to deal with evil, the marks left slashed across our souls.
Bullshit.
As soon as someone thought it up, and the idea became currency, someone else did it.
There was no great secret to the Crossed. I’d never seen one do anything a human being couldn’t think of doing. Hadn’t thought of doing. Hadn’t done.
They were all the awful aspects of humanity magnified a hundred-thousandfold, but they weren’t anything more.
Where did they come from?
Us.
They were every brute.
Every sadist.
Every rapist, pedophile, renderer, and torturer.
Every ethnic cleanser, serial murderer, zealot, tyrant, and holy killer.
Every terrorist and bomber.
Every smirking criminal in office.
Every shitty, cruel parent who never should have had kids.
And every bad, debasing thing that men and women have to do to deal with evil, the marks left slashed across our souls.
