Erase Me – Josh Silver

Only, it’s not what I thought it would be. Welcome to your worst nightmare. It’s not my handwriting. The tattoo. A blotchy, hastily done stick-and-poke, just like Roadkill Man said. It’s hard to tell from this angle in the bathroom of Polly’s Diner, but I know I can’t have done it. The two words are located along the skin above the protruding bone at the base of my skull behind my ear.

It would’ve been near impossible for me to do it. Which means someone else must have, which also seems impossible. But then, most of the past few hours seems impossible. My vision goes hazy as I stare at the two words in the circular makeup mirror I’m holding up in front of my face, reflecting them from the mirror above the sink behind me.

I asked one of the waitresses for it—said I needed to find an ingrown hair. This request definitely grossed her out. That was exactly what I wanted because she handed it over without asking questions. I can see two words now. A reflection of a reflection of a memory I don’t have. I’d take a picture of it, but I don’t have my phone.

Or my bag. They’re both still with the stern woman back at the club. Not having my phone made finding Polly’s Diner difficult. Due to my brain being mangled like a piece of mashed-up Blu Tack, I didn’t make much sense when I asked people for directions. They either ignored me or moved away, thinking I was blind drunk. One woman actually asked if I was homeless and needed support with drug addiction. She said she could call social services, or my parents, if I wanted.

I just cried. It felt so strange, because this is what I’d wanted, but it was awful. No, don’t call my parents, I told her. I said I was twenty-one and I was fine. She just shrugged and said something like people are so lost these days.

An imprint of Random House Children’s Books A division of Penguin Random House LLC 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019 penguinrandomhouse.com getunderlined.com Text copyright © 2025 by Josh Silver Cover art copyright © 2026 by Karolis Strautniekas HappyHead excerpt text copyright © 2023 by Josh Silver. Cover art copyright © 2024 by Sasha Vinogradova.

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You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader. Please note that no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems. Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC. Editor: Kelsey Horton Cover Designer: Liz Dresner Interior Designer: Megan Shortt, adapted for ebook Production Editor: Colleen Fellingham Managing Editor: Tamar Schwartz Production Manager: Shameiza Ally Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

Hardcover ISBN 9798217029631 Ebook ISBN 9798217029662 Originally published in hardcover by Rock the Boat, an imprint of Oneworld Publications LTD, London, 2025. The authorized representative in the EU for product safety and compliance is Penguin Random House Ireland, Morrison Chambers, 32 Nassau Street, Dublin D02 YH68, Ireland, https://eu- contact.penguin.ie. Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read. ep_prh_7.3a_155322432_c0_r0 OceanofPDF.com CONTENTS Dedication Chapter 1: My Overwhelming Emptiness Chapter 2: Ghost Vampire Chapter 3: Ding-Dong Chapter 4: Feel Alive Chapter 5: Thunderclap Chapter 6: (66) Chapter 7: Bird in Flight Chapter 8: The Incident Chapter 9: Part Of Chapter 10: Guess Who?

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: a3b3ffbac0ac3237
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 6,274,872 bytes (5.984 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9798217029631, 9798217029662
• Pages: 349
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 459.64 minutes
• Total Words: 91,928
• Total Characters: 494,507
• Average Words per Page: 263.4
• Average Characters per Page: 1416.93

Most Frequent Words

i’m (496), like (468), it’s (446), says (407), don’t (394), back (388), know (352), see (328), jack (314), say (304), feel (287), now (262), one (259), something (257), look (237), head (232), dad (225), eyes (217), that’s (211), think (210), want (203), need (202), door (188), he’s (187), get (186), good (186), hand (176), eli (174), right (171), people (162), nisha (162), looks (160), melinda (158), face (156), mum (152), yes (151), yeah (143), can’t (141), i’ve (140), time (140), you’re (139), really (138), going (130), way (129), hear (129), voice (129), around (127), room (125), well (125), little (123), phone (118), behind (118), stop (117), elias (116), make (115), there’s (111), take (110), lucas (106), still (106), please (105), said (105), she’s (104), turn (103), open (101), bit (99), toward (98), tell (96), help (96), come (96), turns (95), try (93), man (93), inside (92), front (92), sorry (91), never (89), doesn’t (88), parents (88), maybe (87), myself (87), find (86), next (84), keep (83), two (83), hands (83), didn’t (82), remember (82), i’ll (79), nothing (77), wait (77), floor (76), away (76), move (75), pull (74), watch (73), much (73), someone (71), things (71), happened (70), they’re (69).

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