Page 55 of Splintered Memories
Emersyn’s gaze shifted from me, to Lark, and back again. Every move she made seemed like it took effort.
Eventually, her eyes landed on me. “I can stay here.”
And that was all she said before she stood and walked toward the bedrooms, like she knew exactly where she was going.
I glanced at Reid and Graham. “We’ll talk again later,” I said in dismissal.
I followed after Emersyn to help her get settled in.
She was quiet as I showed her the tiny guest room with nothing but a twin bed and flimsy desk. There was only one full bathroom, but she didn’t seem put off by it. She didn’t seem much of anything.
She was detached. Hollow.
That, more than anything, sent the fear seeping down into my very bones.
22
Emersyn
Mybrotherwasmissing.
No one had seen or heard from him in almost a week.
The week since my house burned.
Fox, August’s brother, was working hard to figure out what had happened to him. I didn’t know Fox well, but he was head of cyber security at Hearthstone and was sort of a hacker, too. I didn’t question how he got his information, but August assured me that Fox was legit. Jake’s phone indicated that his last location was at his apartment the night of Emberlight. After that, his phone went dark and hadn’t connected to any cell network or towers since.
August was nervous that it had been Jake who’d started the fire at my home, but I knew that wasn’t true. It couldn’t be.
But something had happened to him, and there was nothing I could do about it. Not even the police took his disappearance seriously. It didn’t matter that he was finally getting his life together. It didn’t matter that he was sober. Because this wasn’t the first time Jake haddisappeared, I couldn’t prove he hadn’t simply relapsed and gone off on his own. There was no sign of a struggle or of anything bad happening to him.
I had nothing left of him but a deep, dark pit of confusion and worry.
In order to deal with the total lack of control, I did the only thing that would secure my last thread of sanity before it snapped: I worked.
I’d bought a new phone and laptop—the necessities to keep my business running. I’d set up on the tiny desk in the spare room of August’s home and focused all my energy on my podcast and platform. I made Shadow Stalker content, continuing my much too-long series of his victims and telling their stories. I made content on Xander Cohen and the murder of my sister. I made content on Alex Cohen, his father, and the role he played in covering his son’s crimes for so long.
I’d already covered all these topics before, but I wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing. I would keep speaking. I would shout these crimes over and over again until justice was served.
Three soft knocks sounded on my door.
My head snapped up from my computer screen. My eyes ached. I missed my old equipment. Editing episodes on the laptop wasn’t ideal, but it had to work for now.
“Come in,” I said, knowing August was on the other side of the door.
It opened slowly. August stood there, looking at me with wary caution, like he had since I’d come to stay with him. I’d wanted to be left alone, and he’d obliged for the most part.
He tilted his head to the side. “Have you eaten anything today?”
I glanced down at my empty coffee mug.
“Coffee doesn’t count,” he clarified.
I narrowed my eyes on him. Now that I paid attention, my stomach cramped from hunger.
August let out a long sigh when I didn’t answer. “Come on.” He jerked his chin toward the hallway outside.
“I’m not hungry,” I said quickly. I was lying, but I didn’t have time to waste. I would grab something quick from the kitchen in a little bit.
