The First Hollow
Hazel's body trembled as the blue flame wove through her fingertips.
It wasn't fire as humans knew it. It burned memories, not flesh. It tested the truth inside her. And as it moved through her blood, Hazel saw everything.
Not just Black Hollow.
But what came before.
---
There had been a forest.
Vast. Endless. Alive.
It wasn't cursed. It was the curse—a living, breathing will that fed on stories, sacrifice, and silence. Long before towns. Before maps. Before men. It had no name.
Until the first woman gave it one.
She had walked into the woods to die.
And instead, she bargained.
---
Hazel's vision blurred.
In the flame, she saw the first pact—the roots entering flesh, the blood feeding the trees, and a single child born of both woman and wild.
That child was the first beast.
Not cursed. Not evil.
Just... bound.
To keep the Hollow dreaming.
Until it was forgotten.
And when people stopped remembering, it began to rot.
---
Hazel gasped, snapping back to the present. The flame curled around her wrist like a bracelet, then sank into her chest.
Her skin glowed faintly. Veins now shimmered like ink beneath the surface. Not human. Not plant. Not Hollow.
Something new.
The stranger watched her with cautious awe.
"You did what none before you dared," he said. "You took root… without being consumed."
Hazel looked him dead in the eye. "You knew this would happen."
He nodded once. "That's why I came. To witness it."
Silas growled low. "Who are you?"
The stranger set down his bone lantern, now empty.
"I was the first beast's shadow," he said. "What she gave up to stay alive."
Evelyn's breath caught.
"You're… what? A memory?"
He smiled faintly.
"No. I'm the echo of the first burn."
---
Suddenly, the wind stopped.
The forest groaned.
And from beneath the twisted tree at the Hollow's heart, a crack split the ground.
Roots clawed their way up. Black, serpentine, and covered in eyes that blinked.
Hazel stepped forward. She didn't flinch.
"It's waking up," she whispered.
"No," said the stranger. "It's coming back."
---