The Corruption of Hollis Brown

Flint

It was like falling down a hole.

The vertigo was there, the overwhelming and immediate awareness that he’d made a terrible mistake was there. The dark rushing up at him, warm and quick.

The echo of his own scream.

Light, limited.

And there was despair.

Deep as genetic memory: Paleolithic.

Human beings had been afraid of falling in holes for as long as there had been holes and human beings.