A Monster Calls

by Patrick Ness

There is not always a good guy. Nor is there always a bad one. Most people are somewhere inbetween.

The answer is that it does not matter what you think, the monster said, because your mind will contradict itself a hundred times each day. You wanted her to go at the same time you were desperate for me to save her. Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.

What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.

Conor looked down at his hands, finally unclenching them. “Because what I thought was so wrong.” It was not wrong, the monster said, It was only a thought, one of a million. It was not an action.

Of course you are afraid, the monster said, pushing him slowly forward. And yet you will still do it.