Chapter 17: The Hollow’s Grin

Evelyn's own face stared back at her, the imposter's smile stretching just a little too wide like its skin barely fit.

"You're persistent," it murmured, voice identical to hers. Wrong.

Evelyn's pulse hammered.

She had faced nightmares. She had walked through the dark.

She wouldn't let this thing take her place.

Not without a fight.

The imposter tilted its head, amusement flickering in its too-sharp eyes.

"You don't belong anymore, Evelyn."

Its voice shifted, warping into something deeper. Echoing.

"You've already been forgotten."

Evelyn felt it then a pull.

A force dragging at her, trying to erase her existence.

Her hands trembled.

Memories blurred.

Her father's voice. The scent of fresh ink on her notebook. The way Lillian used to laugh when they stayed up late, whispering about ghosts under a blanket.

No.

She dug in her heels.

"I am real," Evelyn growled. "And I'm taking my life back."

She lunged.

Nathaniel's Breaking Point

Nathaniel had been through enough.

He had waited, watched, and calculated.

Now, it was time to act.

He grabbed the crowbar from his car, gripping the cold metal so tight his knuckles went white.

He wasn't sure if this thing could bleed.

But he was damn sure he was going to find out.

The apartment was too quiet when he entered.

The air was thick wrong. Shadows clung to the corners like living things.

Nathaniel's stomach twisted.

And then

The whisper.

"You're too late."

His grip tightened. "Screw that."

He pushed forward, heart pounding, racing toward the bedroom.

And when he saw what was waiting for him

The thing standing over Evelyn, its fingers melting into her skin, draining her

Nathaniel didn't hesitate.

He swung.

The Hollow Screams

The crowbar connected.

The imposter jerked back, screeching. Its voice fractured, twisting through a hundred stolen voices.

The glass in the room shattered.

Evelyn gasped, stumbling forward free.

But the imposter wasn't done.

It turned its dead eyes on Nathaniel, and its smile returned, cracked and broken.

"You think you can save her?"

Nathaniel didn't answer.

He just swung again.

The thing collapsed, its form glitching, flickering like reality itself rejected it.

Evelyn staggered beside him, grabbing his arm. "We have to finish this."

Nathaniel met her gaze. "Tell me how."

Evelyn's jaw tightened.

She looked at the shattered mirror.

The answer had been there all along.

The Hollow could only exist if it had a reflection to hold onto.

She turned to Nathaniel, voice firm.

"We break the last mirror."

The Final Reflection

Evelyn's breath was ragged, her pulse hammering in her ears.

The Hollow writhed on the floor, its body glitching between her form and something monstrous a thing made of shadows and stolen faces.

Nathaniel gritted his teeth. The crowbar in his hand trembled, slick with sweat.

The mirror.

The last one.

It loomed in the corner, its frame warped like melted silver. The glass reflected the room but something inside it moved.

Not just their reflections.

Something watching. Waiting.

Evelyn met Nathaniel's gaze. "Once we break it, there's no going back."

Nathaniel clenched his jaw. "Then let's finish this."

The Hollow's Last Defense

The mirror screamed.

Not in sound in feeling.

The walls rippled, shadows stretched like claws reaching for them.

And then the lights went out.

Cold swallowed the room.

Nathaniel froze.

He couldn't see.

Couldn't hear.

Couldn't even feel his own body.

Only a whisper cut through the void.

"You don't belong."

Nathaniel gasped.

The world snapped back.

And in the mirror

He saw himself.

But it wasn't him.

The reflection smiled.

And stepped out.

Evelyn's Breaking Point

Evelyn's mind fractured.

The Hollow wasn't just stealing faces anymore.

It was stealing them.

The fake Nathaniel lunged.

Evelyn moved without thinking.

She grabbed the shard of broken glass from the floor and drove it straight into the reflection's chest.

The thing howled, glitching violently

And Nathaniel collapsed, gasping.

The Hollow twisted, thrashing, screaming.

The mirror's surface rippled.

It was weakening.

Now.

This was the only chance.

Nathaniel staggered up, raising the crowbar. "Evelyn move!"

Evelyn dove aside.

And Nathaniel swung with everything he had.

CRACK.

The mirror shattered.

The Hollow's End… Or Beginning?

The room imploded.

The walls buckled.

Shadows shrieked, twisting into the broken shards, pulled screaming back into the void.

The Hollow clawed at the floor, its body splitting apart.

And then

Silence.

The darkness evaporated.

Evelyn's ears rang.

Nathaniel was panting, his hands still clenched around the crowbar.

The room was still.

The mirror was gone.

The Hollow was gone.

They had won.

Or so they thought.

Because in the farthest corner of the room

A single shard of mirror remained.

And in its surface

Something watched.

And smiled.

The Last Shard

Evelyn's breath was shallow, her body aching from exhaustion.

The Hollow was gone.

At least, that's what she wanted to believe.

Nathaniel leaned against the wall, his knuckles still white from gripping the crowbar. He glanced at her, eyes scanning the room. Everything was still.

Too still.

Then—

A flicker.

Evelyn's gaze snapped to the corner of the room.

The last shard.

Barely the size of her palm, but still intact.

And in its fractured surface

Something moved.

The Reflection's Whisper

Evelyn approached it slowly, heart hammering against her ribs.

Her own face stared back.

But no.

That wasn't her.

The eyes were too hollow, the smile too still.

And then the reflection's lips parted.

"You thought this was over?"

The voice was hers.

But wrong.

A shudder crawled down her spine.

Nathaniel stepped forward, but Evelyn held up a hand. "Wait."

The reflection tilted its head.

"You can't destroy me."

Evelyn clenched her fists. "We already did."

The reflection laughed a soft, mocking sound.

"Did you? Or did you just let me in?"

A chill raced down Evelyn's spine.

Nathaniel shifted beside her. "Evelyn… step back."

The reflection's grin widened.

"Tell him, Evelyn. Tell him what you saw in the void."

Her stomach twisted.

Because she remembered.

For a moment just a moment when she was falling through the Hollow's world, she had seen something else.

Something watching.

Something worse.

And now

It was here.

The Choice

Nathaniel lifted the crowbar again.

"Evelyn, we have to finish this."

She swallowed hard, eyes locked on the smirking reflection.

Breaking the mirror had destroyed the Hollow. But this?

This wasn't the Hollow.

This was something else.

And if she was right…

Destroying the shard might not end it.

It might release it.

Her throat felt tight. "Nathaniel… wait."

He frowned. "What?"

Evelyn's hands trembled.

What if… what if this was exactly what it wanted?

The reflection's smile grew.

"That's right," it whispered.

Nathaniel hesitated.

Evelyn exhaled slowly, thinking.

There had to be another way.

The shard wasn't just a mirror anymore.

It was a prison.

And maybe… maybe it needed to stay that way.

Evelyn's jaw tightened.

"Nathaniel," she whispered. "We can't break it."

He looked at her like she had lost her mind. "Are you serious?"

She nodded.

"If we destroy it… we let it out."

Silence.

Nathaniel clenched his jaw. He didn't like it.

But he trusted her.

"…Then what do we do?"

Evelyn stared at the shard.

Then she grabbed a cloth from the floor and wrapped it carefully hiding its surface.

She didn't have all the answers.

But one thing was clear.

This wasn't over.

Not yet.