Tiny Raven

There are events that define generations. Once or twice a decade an event will change the course of history so much that everyone knows about it.

Pearl Harbor. Hiroshima. The United States landing on the moon and winning the space race. JFK’s assassination. The murder of John Lennon. The fall of the Berlin Wall. Columbine. 9/11.

The day myth and reality collided, and our understanding of the world flew into chaos.

The day I turned on the television and saw two monsters and a human child standing before reporters. They spoke of how they had been imprisoned within Mount Ebott. How the child had traveled through the Underground and broken the barrier. The child had saved them, with mercy and kindness, and was now their ambassador.

The reaction of the humans who lived near the mountain was swift. The military got involved immediately. A quarantine was in effect, the monsters forbidden from nearing Ebott City.

A refugee tent city grew outside the mountain entrance as the Underground empties. As monsters left their homes and ventured to the surface.

After months of debate and study a handful of monsters were deemed “safe” and allowed to integrate into human society. In a sign of goodwill, the mayor of Ebott City gave them homes, jobs, and legal protection. Interviews with the king and former queen were frequent features on daytime TV. Film crews and paparazzi followed the serious human child.

Slowly monsters were allowed to leave the camp and permitted to buy property, rent homes, live in the city. It became normal to see them walking down the street or in a shop.

Everything looked good for monster integration.

Then, somehow, everything went sideways.

Everyone had different theories on how it happened, but all that mattered was it did. The whiplash shift in public opinion was sudden and violent. One day monsters were becoming a normal part of life in Ebott City. The next they were the enemy, feared and hated.

The protests started.

There were riots and violence.

In an attempt to quell fears, some researchers suggested a device. A “Human Protection Device.” Using a combination of magic and technology it would signal untruths told by the wearer. A sort of lie detector.

The monster who helped develop it wore one herself to show that it was safe.

It didn’t take long for legislation to pass that required monsters to wear the collars on official business.

Then an upgrade was released and the device could control speech.

Of course, it wasn’t too difficult a stretch to go from controlling speech to controlling action.

Political pundits shouted about the collars being necessary to protect humans from the growing “Monster Menace.”

Shop windows began putting up signs declaring “NO MONSTER ALLOWED WITHOUT HPD.”

Landlords stopped allowing monsters to rent from them. Monster families were evicted with little to no warning.

Banks wouldn’t give monsters loans, existing loans were revoked.

Businesses fired monster employees.

Those that remained friendly to monsters became targets. Suspicion of “monster sympathies” could destroy a career.

It was an easy thing to strip away the rest of monster rights.

They couldn’t vote. They had no way to make themselves heard. Their pleas for help fell on deaf ears, shouted over by humans who saw them as an enemy.

There were more riots, protests, vandalism, violence.

There was dust on the wind, but no monster raised a hand against a human except in self defense.

Then the final piece fell into place. The last, horrible law.

“It’s to protect them as much as us!” The pundits shouted. “It’s better than any other alternative!”

All monsters were now slaves. No longer free to pursue their own lives, they became property. Owned by some human, bought and sold like livestock.

The collars made it all so easy.

Few remembered where they were when that final bill was signed into law. Fewer remembered where they were the day the new law was enacted.

Monsters disappeared from their homes. Families were torn apart. Collared and sold by the government that was supposed to protect them.

The humans who had been against monster slavery were defeated. Crushed by their failure to protect those who needed it most.

Those who were for monster slavery were bolstered. Empowered by what they had achieved.

The world had changed.

It seemed no one cared.