Page 75 of An Inheritance of Monsters

With that, she winked at me, patted my shoulder, and left me alone to stare at the door, my suspicions aroused.

I marked it in my mind and returned to my room. Thunder was already rumbling in the distance as the storm rolled in.

When I got upstairs, intending to change for a long underground trek, I saw Sierra pop out of her door, waving to me. She had her phone pressed to ear.

I followed her into her room, where I was immediately assaulted with the powerful scent of patchouli.

She’d set up Crispy’s monitors and laptop, and one screen had video footage paused from earlier that day: Sierra looking glowy and oddly filtered, posed against the staircase, her mouth open as if she were speaking.

She’d settled into the role of host very quickly. I found I was strangely relieved by that.

Sierra flopped back onto her bed and poked a button, putting it on speakerphone. Crispy’s voice crackled out, filling the room.

“Lots of painkillers.Dios mío, I can barely think, but at least I’m back home with myprincesafor it. You’re getting all the footage, right? I need you to make sure it's perfect. And double-check your script, the intro was a little too fact-y and not… exciting.”

I frowned at the phone. Did Crispy know I was here? I’d written the scripts.

“That’s what Sierra said,” I said dryly. “She’s going to spice it up, don’t worry.”

There was a pause, punctuated by more crackles.

“Who is that, Sierra?” he asked, and my heart froze in my chest at the confusion in his voice.

“Um, Juno. Duh. Who else would it be?” Sierra laughed. “My god, youarehigh.”

Another long pause filled the air, and Sierra raised her eyebrows as my frozen heart began to sink.

“Oh.” Crispy let out an uncomfortable laugh. “Wow, yeah, it must be the pills. Hey, Juno.”

“Hi,” I said softly.

I was beginning to put another uncomfortable puzzle piece together.

“I’m glad to hear from you,Jefe. Make sure to keep Sierra on track, she’s going to screw up all my footage with these silly makeup filters.”

I forced a smile. “Yeah, I’ll watch her.” Then I began to sidle from the room.

It was like a switch flipped. As soon as I was across the room it was like Crispy completely forgot me again.

He began issuing instructions to Sierra about the boom mic, then said bye to her, and hung up.

“That was seriously weird.” Sierra tossed her phone on the bed. “Fuck, I hope he didn’t hit his head too hard. What are we going to do if he has amnesia? That’d be insane.”

I just shook my head. He wasn’t forgetting me because he had amnesia.

Fortunately, Sierra was happy to edit her filtered footage and leave me alone. I went back to my room, my feet feeling oddly heavy, like I was dragging my body along.

Voraal had told me that the closer I grew to the monsters, the closer I grew to the Void.

And I was just now understanding what that really meant.

My picture had been erased when the Void had marked me… and now my existence was being erased from the mind of someone who had known me better than almost anyone else.

I’d put good money down that the minute Sierra left Duskwood Island, she’d forget me too—if she wasn’t starting to already.

She’d somehow assumed the role ofSpirit Squadhost since I began seeing the monsters more, producing everything without asking me for anything.

When I left her room, it was like I became a ghost to her, seen but not really comprehended.

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