The hollow ones

Ellie felt the world collapse around her.

One second, she was standing in Blackwood's study. The next—everything shattered.

Cold rushed in, seizing her limbs, dragging her downward. She tried to scream, but her voice vanished in the silence. Her body twisted, weightless, as she was pulled through the splintered mirror.

The last thing she saw was Sam's horrified face—Malcolm lunging forward—

Then, darkness swallowed her whole.

The World Between

Ellie hit the ground—hard.

Pain shot through her knees as she landed on something rough, something wrong. She gasped, hands splaying against the ground—

Not wood. Not stone.

Something… alive.

Her breath hitched. The surface beneath her shifted, pulsing like a heartbeat. It was black, stretching out endlessly in all directions, rippling like liquid but solid beneath her weight.

Ellie pushed herself up, heart pounding.

Where the hell was she?

The sky above was endless void. No stars. No moon. Just emptiness. A sickly mist curled across the air, carrying a distant whisper.

And then—she felt it.

She wasn't alone.

Slowly, she turned.

They were waiting.

Dozens of them. Hundreds. The Hollow Ones.

Tall, faceless shadows, their bodies warped and shifting, as if they were made of smoke barely holding shape. And yet, their eyes—hollow silver voids—were locked onto her.

And at the center of them all stood the silver-eyed figure.

Not shifting. Not smoke.

More real than the others.

Ellie's breath caught.

It smiled.

"Welcome home, Ellie."

Her pulse roared in her ears.

"No," she whispered. "I'm not—"

"You are."

The figure stepped forward, its form flickering with each movement. The other Hollow Ones did not move. They stood like silent sentinels, watching, waiting.

"You were marked the moment you stepped into our world. The moment you saw us."

The mark on Ellie's hand burned. She grabbed her wrist, her knees threatening to buckle.

The figure tilted its head.

"You have always belonged to us."

Ellie clenched her jaw. "I don't belong to anyone."

The figure laughed—a sound like wind through dead leaves.

"You still don't understand, do you?"

The mist thickened. The shadows shifted.

And then, they moved.

Not toward her.

They stepped back.

Revealing something behind them.

Ellie's breath hitched.

At first, it looked like a structure—a massive, monolithic doorway, jagged and broken, made of the same black, shifting material as the ground beneath her. Symbols—Blackwood's symbols—glowed faintly along its surface.

But beyond it—

A void.

A space so endless, so wrong, that Ellie's stomach twisted just looking at it.

It wasn't just emptiness. It was pulling at her. Calling her.

The silver-eyed figure gestured toward it.

"Come. Step through. And become what you were always meant to be."

Ellie's pulse thundered.

The Other Side

Ellie stepped back, her hands clenching into fists. "No."

The figure's smile didn't fade.

"You will."

The Hollow Ones moved.

Dark shapes surged forward, their shadowed hands reaching for her—

Ellie bolted.

She didn't think. She ran.

The moment her feet hit the ground, it shifted, rippling like a disturbed lake. The mist curled around her, thick and suffocating. She couldn't see—could barely breathe—

But she kept moving.

She didn't know where she was going. Didn't know if she could even escape this place.

But she wasn't going to let them take her without a fight.

The whispers grew louder.

The ground shook.

And ahead—just barely visible through the mist—she saw it.

A flicker of light.

A door.

A way out.

Ellie lunged toward it, heart pounding—

And then everything collapsed.

The ground gave way beneath her feet.

She fell.

Straight into the darkness.

---

Beneath the Hollow

Ellie plunged into the void.

Her scream vanished into the silence. No air. No sound. Just endless falling through an abyss that had no beginning or end.

Then—

She hit the ground.

Hard.

The impact knocked the breath from her lungs, but she was alive. Her hands pressed against something solid—smooth, cold stone. Unlike the shifting, pulsing ground from before, this surface felt ancient, as if it had existed long before she arrived.

Ellie coughed, pushing herself up. The air was thick, laced with something wrong.

She wasn't alone.

The Whispering Ruins

She looked up. Around her stretched a vast ruin, crumbling towers swallowed by thick black mist. The architecture was strange—twisting, almost organic, as if the stone itself had grown into unnatural shapes. Faint, glowing symbols lined the broken walls, the same sigils Blackwood had carved into his study.

This place… it wasn't new to her.

She had seen it before.

In her dreams.

Ellie's pulse hammered in her throat.

"Where am I?"

The mist curled at the edges of her vision. The whispers returned, distant at first, then closer. Everywhere.

And then—

A voice.

"You are in the Deep Hollow."

Ellie whipped around.

The silver-eyed figure stood at the edge of the ruins, watching her. But this time, it wasn't alone. Others stepped from the mist—twisted shadows, their forms not quite human, but almost. They moved strangely, flickering, as if their very existence was unstable.

Ellie's heart pounded.

The figure tilted its head.

"You have come farther than most."

Ellie clenched her fists. "I didn't come here. You dragged me in."

The figure smiled.

"No, Ellie. You walked willingly."

She shuddered. No. That wasn't true.

Was it?

She shook her head. It didn't matter. She needed to get out.

Ellie took a step back. The air thickened. The figures surrounding her didn't move, but she could feel them watching. Waiting.

"There is no escaping the Hollow," the silver-eyed figure murmured. "Not once it has claimed you."

Ellie's mark burned.

Her breath hitched.

"No," she whispered. "I don't belong here."

The whispers surged, turning into a roar.

The figure stepped closer.

"You have already begun to change, Ellie."

Ellie's pulse stopped.

And then she saw it—

Her hands.

Her fingers were… wrong.

Her skin flickered, shifting in and out of focus. Like the Hollow Ones.

A cold dread seized her chest.

No.

No, no, no—

She staggered back, her breathing ragged. The mist swirled, pressing in around her. Her body felt heavy, her thoughts slipping. The world itself seemed to be pulling her deeper.

She was losing herself.

And then—

A sound.

A distant shout.

Ellie's head snapped up.

It was Malcolm.

His voice—echoing through the Hollow, cutting through the whispers.

A way out.

Ellie clenched her fists. Her body screamed against her, the weight of the Hollow trying to pull her under—

But she fought it.

She turned—and ran.

The Hollow Ones lunged.

The mist raged.

And the silver-eyed figure's voice followed her—

"You cannot run forever, Ellie."

"You are already one of us."

She didn't stop.

Didn't listen.

She ran—toward Malcolm's voice—toward freedom—

And then—

Everything exploded in light.