what awoke beneath

The stone altar shattered.

The sound that followed was not just noise—it was pressure, a physical force that crushed the air in the chamber and sent Ikenna and Samuel sprawling across the blackened floor.

Beneath the cracked altar, something rose.

Not all at once. Piece by piece.

A massive, limb-like root emerged first—wet and pulsing, covered in tiny, twitching mouths. Then came the torso, stitched together with bones that didn't belong together. And finally—a head. It wasn't human. It wasn't animal. It was shaped like a mask—blank, with too many eyes and no mouth.

> "The Hollow God…" Samuel gasped. "It's real."

The creature opened its eyes.

Dozens of them.

Each one burned into Ikenna's mind, showing him things: children with stitched mouths, screaming mothers buried alive, a fire that never ended, and deep, endless tunnels filled with the missing—their souls eaten, their bodies hollowed out.

He screamed.

Maya screamed louder.

The chains around her wrists glowed white-hot as the beast's presence filled the room.

Samuel stumbled to his feet. "We have to break the link. She's still connected to it. If it takes her—if it feeds on her fully—this town will never die."

The beast let out a sound.

Not a roar. Not a growl.

A moan.

Deep. Grieving. Eternal.

And the chamber around them began to warp.

The walls twisted like intestines. Faces pushed out from the stone, screaming silently. The ground trembled as the tunnel behind them collapsed, sealing off their only exit.

"We're trapped," Ikenna gasped.

The beast stepped forward—slowly—each step leaving behind pools of black ichor that hissed and steamed. Its shadow touched Ikenna's leg, and he felt cold memories flood his mind: his first nightmare, the sound of Maya crying alone in her room, and something worse—a vision of him walking away and letting it all burn.

"No," he whispered. "No more fear."

He turned to Maya. Her lips moved, faintly.

"Ikenna… please…"

She was awake now—but barely.

Samuel ran to the side of the altar, where ancient markings glowed. He pulled out a rusted dagger they'd found earlier in the school—its blade engraved with the symbol of a closed eye.

"This was made to sever the chain," he said, pressing the blade to one of the glowing marks on her wrist. "Hold her. If she thrashes, we both die."

Ikenna nodded and gripped Maya's shoulders.

The moment the blade cut the chain's rune, she screamed.

The beast responded immediately—its dozens of eyes bleeding black, its limbs extending toward them in a frenzy.

It knew.

The moment it lost Maya, it would begin to starve.

"Faster!" Ikenna yelled.

Samuel sliced the second chain.

The beast shrieked—a psychic wail that cracked stone and ruptured Ikenna's nose in a spray of blood.

Maya's eyes rolled back, her body arching as energy surged out of her in a spiral of blue-white light.

"You're breaking it!" she choked. "It's breaking—"

The third chain snapped.

The beast screamed again and lashed forward, its limb crashing into the side of the altar, sending both boys tumbling away.

Samuel slammed into the wall, gasping. Blood poured from a gash in his head.

Ikenna scrambled to his feet and ran back to Maya—only one chain left. He grabbed the dagger, his hand slick with blood and ichor.

The beast loomed over him now. Its eyes locked on his. Its body trembled with rage and hunger.

It reached for him.

Ikenna raised the blade.

Maya whispered: "Do it."

And he cut the final chain.

A silence followed—so deep it swallowed the world.

Then—

Explosion.

Not of flame, but of light.

The beast howled. Its form split. Its limbs tore apart, unraveling into smoke and ash. The mask-like face shattered into fragments, each eye bursting into sparks.

The chamber screamed with it.

Everything shook.

The stone floor cracked, caved in.

And Ember Hollow screamed from below.

Samuel grabbed Maya. Ikenna grabbed Samuel.

They ran.

Behind them, the beast collapsed into itself, becoming a spiral of smoke, bone, and memory—imploding in a storm of cries and whispers.

As they leapt from the collapsing altar platform, the entire chamber began to cave in. Roots snapped like bones. Faces in the walls disintegrated.

They ran through fire, shadow, and falling stone—until, finally—

Light.

A hole in the tunnel wall, created by the collapse, led out into what remained of Ember Hollow's woods.

They burst through it—gasping, bleeding, alive.

The town behind them groaned.

And began to sink.

Buildings folded inward. Trees withered. Roads crumbled. The fountain imploded. The school vanished into a sinkhole.

And then, with a final deep thump—

Ember Hollow died.

---

They collapsed in the forest beyond the edge.

For the first time in hours—maybe days—the fog lifted.

Stars filled the sky.

Ikenna looked down at Maya. She was breathing—weak but steady.

Samuel coughed and laughed. "We made it."

Ikenna looked back at the crater where the town once stood.

"I don't think we did," he said. "Not all the way."

Samuel turned to him, confused.

"What do you mean?"

Ikenna held up his hand.

His shadow… was missing.