Is She Dead?

The night after Ethan's whispered warning, Anna couldn't sleep.

The farmhouse, once a fragile sanctuary amid the chaos, now felt like a trap—a stage set for something unseen and inevitable. The air was wrong. It carried a weight she couldn't name, like the pressure that comes just before a storm.

Outside the window, the woods stood unnaturally still. Not a single leaf stirred. Even the nocturnal sounds of crickets and owls had gone silent.

Ethan sat across the room, slumped in the armchair. His eyes were closed, his face drawn with exhaustion. But his breathing wasn't the steady rhythm of normal sleep. It was shallow, irregular.

Anna's gaze drifted to the black notebook on the table between them. The child's face stared back at her from the sketch—those same eyes that had consumed Victoria with terrifying ease.

The Hollow King.

Her fingers hesitated on the worn cover before she opened it again. The pages crackled softly in the stillness.

The symbols were familiar now—old sigils Elias had taught her, though she still only understood fragments. Protective wards. Binding spells. Incantations etched in languages that predated modern civilizations.

She stopped at a diagram of a circle, drawn with exacting precision.

At the center: The Hollow King.

Around the circumference, words in faded ink:

"Regnum Inanis. Corpus Mulieris. Mente Perpetua."

Her heart stuttered.

The Empty Kingdom. The Body of the Woman. The Eternal Mind.

Her mouth went dry.

Before she could process the meaning, Ethan shifted in the chair.

His eyes snapped open.

Anna's breath caught. The pupils were blown wide, the irises faintly silvered.

"Ethan?" she said softly.

He didn't respond. His gaze fixed on the notebook in her hands.

Anna felt the air shift—cold, metallic.

Ethan's lips moved.

"She's watching."

Anna's spine turned to ice. "Who's watching?"

Ethan's pupils contracted to pinpricks. His expression softened into something that looked like recognition... then dread. His breath quickened.

"She's still here." His voice cracked. "She never left."

Anna slammed the notebook shut. The air instantly warmed. Ethan gasped and slumped forward, clutching his head.

Anna rushed to his side. "Ethan! Talk to me!"

His hands trembled as they lowered from his temples. His eyes, now brown again, met hers. Panic glimmered beneath the surface.

"She's in the book," he whispered. "Victoria... she's in the damn book."

Two days later, Anna sat on the floor of Elias's study, the notebook open before her. She'd dissected every page, every mark, searching for the trapdoor Victoria had used to anchor herself to this world.

It was there—had to be—woven into the layers of arcane symbols surrounding the Hollow King.

Ethan paced behind her. His anxiety crackled through the room like static. His face was pale, his hair damp from another nightmare.

"She can't come back," he muttered for the third time in as many minutes. "We ended her. The kid ended her."

Anna didn't look up. "She's not entirely gone. The ritual never completed. The child took her... but something stayed behind."

Ethan stopped pacing. "Her mind."

Anna nodded grimly. "The inscription says it. Mente Perpetua. Eternal mind. The Hollow King was the body. But Victoria's consciousness... it tethered to the book."

Ethan sat heavily on the floor beside her. His jaw clenched as he stared at the inked sigils.

"She's been there the whole time."

Anna's stomach twisted. "Watching. Learning."

Ethan's hands curled into fists. "Can we destroy it?"

Anna hesitated. "If she anchored herself properly, burning the book might sever the tether... or it might release her completely."

They exchanged a glance, the weight of uncertainty hanging between them.

Anna closed the notebook. "We need answers. And I think I know who can give them to us."

The Library of Umbra wasn't listed on any map, digital or otherwise.

Elias had told Anna about it once, when they were both two drinks past careful. A repository of forbidden knowledge, guarded by those who'd long since stopped trying to warn humanity about what lay beyond the veil.

The entrance lay beneath an old clocktower downtown. The building appeared abandoned, its brick facade worn smooth by decades of acid rain. Anna found the rusted maintenance door hidden beneath ivy, and after some effort—and more profanity—she managed to pry it open.

The stairwell beyond descended into utter darkness.

Ethan hesitated at the threshold, hand pressed to his abdomen. "I feel it," he said. "Like static on my skin."

Anna nodded. "That means we're close."

They descended. The steps spiraled downward for what felt like hours, the air growing colder with every turn.

At the bottom, a single wooden door waited.

Anna knocked.

The door swung open soundlessly.

Inside, the library stretched into infinity. Shelves of books spiraled upward, disappearing into mist. The air crackled with the scent of parchment, ink, and something metallic.

A figure stepped from the shadows.

The man from the farmhouse porch.

He removed his hat this time, revealing pale hair and eyes that gleamed like polished steel. His smile was thin.

"I wondered when you'd come."

Anna gripped the notebook tighter. "You knew?"

The man inclined his head. "The Hollow King was never the true threat. The mother... her ambition outstripped even death."

He extended a hand. "May I?"

Anna hesitated, then handed over the notebook.

The man's fingers traced the sigils. His smile vanished.

"She's clever." He turned the book toward them, tapping a specific glyph—a spiral etched near the child's forehead. "See this?"

Anna squinted. "A binding rune."

The man nodded. "Yes. But reversed. She wasn't bound by the ritual. She used the child's power to bind herself to the Hollow King's consciousness."

Ethan's voice was hoarse. "What does that mean?"

The man's expression darkened. "It means Victoria isn't just watching. She's growing stronger. Feeding on the Hollow King's expanding influence."

Anna's grip tightened on the knife at her belt. "How do we stop it?"

The man's gaze flicked to Ethan. "We can't sever her from the Hollow King. The connection is too deep."

Ethan's breath hitched. "Then what?"

The man's eyes softened with regret. "We sever the Hollow King from its anchor."

Ethan paled. "That anchor is me."

The man inclined his head. "Yes."

Anna's heart plummeted. "That would kill him."

The man didn't respond. The silence spoke for him.