Page 124 of An Invocation of Monsters

They were nowhere to be seen.

“But time passes differently when you can never truly die. I threw myself into the Void, taking all the knowledge I could absorb, hunting for monsters and finding nothing. But one day, when I emerged…” Mary laughed. “I found that Sophie’s children were adults, and they now had children of their own. I waited patiently, hunting, biding my time, and then one day I found a new name on a list of Miskatonic attendees.”

“You psycho stalker,” I said, but it lacked bite.

I was in too much pain, and the fuzziness in my head was worse now.

It felt like the air itself was pressing in on me.

“Indeed,” Mary said cheerfully. “It’s amazing how much a singular obsession can accomplish. I signed up for the exact same courses as Gillian Marsh and maneuvered myself right into her path. My God… it was like looking at an image from the past. She was Sophie incarnate.

“And she was hungry for the power, too, in a way Sophie never was. Did you know that your mother directly caused the death of at least one faculty member?” Mary asked, examining the edge of her knife. “Oh, yes. I would hate for you to die believing she was an angel. She would lie through her teeth, fuck anything that moved, if it meant she could access things she had no business getting her hands on.”

“I’m aware she was a pretty shitty person,” I said evenly.

“Yes, I suppose you would be. I did have Willow deliver Joseph’s journal to you, so you could see a first-hand account of what an utterly remorseless bitch she could be. You were never more than a means to an end for her, Elle. At least I tried to love Desirée as best I could, although the girl was never worth much.”

“So you never found a monster to breed with?” I taunted her. “Some heir.”

Mary frowned at me speculatively. “She was my second experiment. I brought a man here, conceived her here, birthed her in the Void. I had hoped that proximity alone might grant her some of Sophie’s abilities, but… sadly, it did not. She did serve a purpose, though: though entirely lacking in any magical ability, she posed as my mother when it came time for me to enroll myself in the Miskatonic. It was easy to convince my new ‘Society’ friends that I was the third generation of a long line of witches. They were so gullible.”

She sounded almost fond when she spoke of how she’d lured them all here.

“It was, in fact, Gillian who made me realize I would never have a complete grasp on this door without a monster. She found one almost immediately, and she was so hungry for more of the Void that she agreed to bear his child without a second thought. And how furious she was when he cast her out, citing her greed as a curse.” Mary shook her head sadly. “But you were perfect. You were what I should have had.”

I curled my lip. The idea of this creature for a mother was even more abhorrent than the fact of what Gillian had been.

“Gillian was so angry that she cut herself off from this world entirely. She married that poor, besotted Benjamin and vowed never to open a door again. But of course she couldn’t stay away. She returned every summer, trying to tear her way through the door again and failing every time.

“But you were to be raised with no knowledge whatsoever of your history. I decided to allow it. I could have killed you while you slept, crushed your precious little infant skull like that—” She squeezed hand into a tight fist. “But I chose to let you grow up and see what you would become.”

“So what did you do with Tasha?” I tried not to sound desperate, but fear was creeping through me in tendrils that dug in deep.

Where were my monsters?

I had to keep her talking.

“She was yet another failed experiment.” Mary shook her head. “Obviously, Gillian had a genetic talent for reaching another world. But poor Tasha was only ever a girl in over her head. I brought her here. I tied her down in a cave, and cared for her. In a way, I suppose I had hoped that her presence might lure a monster to Deepwater. But she just ended up as that thing, mad and twisted.”

“I can’t believe you have no remorse for any of this.” I didn’t have to fake the disgust I felt for her.

Before she spoke, Mary swatted absent-mindedly at her ear. I wanted to do the same.

They felt like they were about to pop, the air closing in.

“There is no remorse in the pursuit of knowledge,” she told me. “What could they have possibly become? Nothing. I alone held all the keys, all the knowledge… I just needed one last thing. You.”

“Me?”

“A Void-touched woman,” Mary said. “I used a spell from the Cultes de Goules to speed up the process. Really, Gillian should have recognized that one. After all, she was the one who killed a man for it.”

I stared at her, wide-eyed.

“I could see how upset you were when you arrived,” Mary said with a sly smile. “You truly believed you’d failed to heal your mother. But you should not blame yourself, Elle. It wasn’t cancer that killed her. You didn’t stand a chance against that black magic, untrained as you are.”

I wanted to kill her. If I could just break these ropes, I’d snap her neck right now.

She swiped at her ear again, frowning.

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