Chapter 6: Beneath the Surface

Darkness swallowed Evelyn whole.

Not the kind of darkness that came with night. This was thicker, deeper like sinking into something alive.

She wasn't sure if she was falling or floating. There was no up, no down. Just cold, suffocating blackness pressing in on all sides.

And then

A voice.

Soft. Familiar.

"Evelyn…"

Her breath caught.

"Lillian?"

The darkness trembled.

For a split second, Evelyn saw her. A pale figure drifting in the void, her long hair floating like she was underwater. Her eyes once so full of life were hollow. Empty. Her lips parted, but instead of words, a thick, black mist poured out.

The whispering returned.

A chorus of voices, layered on top of each other, speaking in a language Evelyn didn't understand.

Then, all at once she was drowning.

Cold water crashed around her, filling her lungs, dragging her down.

She thrashed, her hands clawing at nothing, but something held her there.

No not something.

Hands.

Dozens of them.

Gripping her arms. Twisting around her ankles. Fingers pressing against her throat.

They were trying to pull her under.

She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came. The water filled her lungs, burning, suffocating

And then

A blinding flash of white-hot pain.

She slammed back into her body with a gasp, air flooding her lungs.

She wasn't in the water anymore.

She was on the floor of Miriam's house.

Nathaniel was kneeling over her, his face pale, his hands gripping her shoulders.

"Evelyn!" His voice was sharp, urgent. "Breathe!"

She choked, her body shaking violently.

The whispers were still there. Faint now, but lingering. A weight pressing against her skull, like something had tried to dig into her mind and leave something behind.

She squeezed her eyes shut. Her head was pounding, and her limbs felt like they didn't belong to her anymore.

Miriam hovered nearby, her expression grim. "It touched you, didn't it?"

Evelyn swallowed hard. "It was" Her voice broke. She tried again. "It was Lillian. I saw her."

Miriam and Nathaniel exchanged a look.

"What?" Evelyn snapped. "What aren't you telling me?"

Miriam hesitated. "If you saw her… that means she's not completely gone."

Evelyn's chest tightened. "You mean she's still alive?"

Miriam exhaled. "Not alive. Not dead, either." She rubbed a hand over her face. "The Hollow One doesn't just erase people. Sometimes it keeps them."

A cold chill ran down Evelyn's spine.

Nathaniel frowned. "Why?"

Miriam's voice dropped to a whisper. "Because some people fight back. And when they do… it doesn't let them go."

The Town's Secret

Evelyn gripped Lillian's journal, her hands shaking.

She flipped through the pages, desperate for answers. Her best friend had fought back. That's why she was still lingering.

Then, she found it.

A passage written in frantic, uneven handwriting:

They aren't all dead. Some of them are trapped. Beneath us.

Evelyn's breath caught.

She turned to Miriam. "What's under this town?"

Miriam's face darkened.

Nathaniel's jaw clenched. "The mines."

Evelyn blinked. "What?"

"The old mining tunnels," Nathaniel said. "They run beneath most of the town. They've been sealed for decades."

Miriam nodded. "That's where they took the first ones. The ones who resisted."

Evelyn's grip tightened on the journal.

If Lillian was trapped

She had to find her.

The Descent

They reached the mine entrance just past midnight.

It was deep in the woods, hidden behind overgrown brush and a rusted-out fence. The sign nailed to the entrance was weathered, barely legible:

DANGER – KEEP OUT

Nathaniel tested the gate. It gave way easily, the lock broken long ago.

The air smelled of damp earth and rust.

Miriam hesitated. "We shouldn't go down there."

Evelyn swallowed hard. "You don't have to come."

Miriam sighed. "That's not what I mean." She looked at the mine entrance with wary eyes. "If you go in, it'll know."

Evelyn didn't care.

She had to do this.

She flicked on her flashlight and stepped inside.

The tunnel sloped downward, the air growing colder with each step. The deeper they went, the more wrong everything felt.

The walls… pulsed. Like something was breathing.

Then

A sound.

Soft. Ragged.

A voice.

"Evelyn…"

Evelyn's heart lurched.

It was Lillian.

She broke into a run, ignoring Nathaniel's shouted warning behind her. The tunnel twisted and turned, leading deeper into the abyss. The voice grew louder, more desperate.

Then

She saw her.

Lillian stood at the end of the tunnel, her figure half-hidden in the shadows. Her skin was too pale, her hair tangled. Her lips moved, but the words were distorted, like they were being dragged through static.

Evelyn's breath caught. "Lillian?"

Her friend slowly lifted her head.

And Evelyn's stomach turned to ice.

Her eyes were completely black.

And behind her

The shadows moved.

They weren't just shadows.

They were bodies.

Hundreds of them. Twisting, shifting, barely visible. Some had faces. Some didn't. They were trapped, shifting in and out of existence like flickering candlelight.

A single, hollow whisper echoed through the tunnel.

"You shouldn't have come."

The darkness rushed forward.

Evelyn barely had time to scream.