Chapter 12: The Hollow Place

Chapter 12: The Hollow Place

1

The air *shook*.

A deep, guttural vibration pulsed through the space, pressing against my ribs like a second heartbeat. The Watcher stood before me, its form shifting, impossible to define.

Amy hung in the air, suspended by something I couldn't see. Her head lolled to the side, her hair falling over her face.

"Amy!" I tried to step forward, but the ground wasn't *solid*. It pulsed, like the inside of a living thing. My boots sank into it, tendrils of darkness curling around my ankles.

The Watcher's voice slithered through my skull.

*"She is lost."*

"No," I growled. "I'm taking her back."

The Watcher *laughed*.

A sickening, hollow sound that made my vision blur.

*"You cannot steal what is already mine."*

Amy's lips parted, but her voice was faint, almost *not hers*. "Jack…"

She was still in there.

I had to get to her.

2

I forced my foot forward, fighting against the pull of the ground. Every step felt like moving through tar.

The Watcher didn't move, but I felt its *attention* shift.

It was *watching*. *Waiting*.

For what?

Amy twitched, her fingers jerking. Then—

Her head snapped upward.

Her eyes were *wrong*.

Black pits, too deep, too empty.

She *smiled*.

But something in me knew it wasn't *her*.

I stopped.

"Amy?"

Her lips curled into something jagged.

"Stay."

The air *snapped*.

3

A wave of pressure **slammed** into me, knocking me backward.

I hit the ground hard, the breath torn from my lungs. The world *lurched*, twisting like a broken reflection.

The Watcher loomed above me now, a shifting, crawling mass of darkness.

*"You cannot win."*

Amy's voice—empty and *wrong*—echoed through the space.

"You belong to him now."

A sharp, electric pain shot through my skull. My body *locked up*, my limbs no longer mine to control.

I was losing.

And then—

A voice.

Soft. Familiar.

*"Jack… don't let go."*

Amy.

The **real** Amy.

I clenched my fists.

I wasn't leaving without her.

4

I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to *move*. The ground fought against me, the air pressing down like a thousand invisible hands.

I pushed forward anyway.

"Amy, fight it." My voice was hoarse. "I know you're in there."

She flinched.

For just a second, her expression *cracked*—the grin faltering, her lips parting in something close to a *plea*.

The Watcher hissed.

The world *shook*.

The shadows *recoiled*.

I surged forward, reaching for her—

And my fingers *touched* hers.

The moment our hands met, something **ripped** through the space, a violent, unseen force *tearing* at the Watcher's hold.

Amy gasped, her body *jerking*.

The Watcher *screamed*.

A sound like metal scraping against bone.

I grabbed her wrist. "Come back to me."

Her fingers curled around mine.

And for the first time in what felt like forever—

She *looked at me*.

Amy.

The real her.

And she *remembered me*.

5

The world **collapsed**.

Everything *ripped apart*—the shadows, the ground, the air itself.

The Watcher's form twisted in on itself, shrieking as its grip *shattered*.

Amy **fell**.

I caught her.

Her body was ice-cold, trembling violently.

She blinked up at me, her breath shaky. "Jack?"

I held her tighter. "I've got you."

A final, agonized *roar* filled the air—then—

Silence.

And when I opened my eyes—

The cornfield was *gone*.

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