Page 97 of An Invocation of Monsters

And, to be fair, I felt I had done my best to use this power for good. Maybe I was still a freak, but I wouldn’t turn my back on someone dying in front of me.

I wanted the comfort of my serene cousin. I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and hunkered back down next to the bed, pulling up her messages.

I’d forgotten about texting Juno all those pictures of Sophie the other day. She’d responded, getting snippier as time went on without a reply, which made me smile.

Juno: Omg Elle, those are absolute treasures! I only have a few pictures of Sophie according to old ancestry reports. I had to call and dig through some old records, but Sophie attended the Innsmouth Preparatory School for Girls until she was 18

Juno: Ok so according to these, she was roommates with Marie Vaughn for most of her time there. They had an ancient ledger in there, and in one the Headmistress noted that Sophie was listed as having permission to spend a summer with Marie near Dunwich, so we can probably place these photos at that exact time

Juno: This is a HUGE help to my project, thank you so much

Juno: Hellooo baby cousin, are you even there?

Juno: Don’t make me assume you’re captive in a basement. I’ll come find you and you know it

I smiled to myself, quickly tapping out a response. I told her I’d been busy (which was true), that I tended to lose track of time here (also true), and that I was still searching for info on Sophie (true, true, true).

I didn’t tell her that I was spending a lot of time banging monsters or bringing people back from death’s doorstep.

Honestly, Elle, do you really think she’d call you crazy? my rational inner voice asked.

I frowned at my phone.

It was impossible to say why I felt so intensely that I needed to keep all of this to myself, even though I believed deep down that Juno would believe me.

Or, at the very least, she’d try to.

Finally I sighed and put the phone down, rubbing my eyes.

I would tell her someday. Maybe once I’d put all these little puzzle pieces together.

Right now, I’d just sound like a raving madwoman, trying to piece together a million threads with no common denominator.

What did I have? Oh, that my great-grandmother had visited this place for one summer over a hundred years ago, and had opened a door to another world.

That my mother had attended a college she’d never deigned to mention, made a bunch of friends she’d also never mentioned, and had entered the same door as our ancestor.

That one of her friends had seemed to believe she was going to die… and that it wasn’t going to be her choice.

I blinked at the ceiling, my brain feeling like molasses.

What I was looking for anymore? Didn’t I have my answers already?

My mother had been an occult weirdo, and she’d traveled to a world of monsters.

Then she’d decided to never speak of it again.

End of story.

There was nothing else to add on to it. Of course she’d kept quiet; I couldn’t even bring myself to tell my beloved cousin about it.

I couldn’t imagine my mother bringing that up at one of her book club meetings. “Oh, yes, by the way, while I was in college I crossed into another dimension full of monsters. What do you think the author meant the blue curtains to symbolize?”

That’s what my brain thought, but my gut told me something else.

I snorted to myself. Juno would call it providence.

“I wish I could see you right now,” I whispered, pretending she was sitting in front of me with a book in her lap, her sky blue-and-peach hair pinned on top of her head in a messy bun.

---