Hungry is the Hollow (Tales from the Hollow #2)

Chapter 1

THE SEED

Ithought the story was over. We vanquished a fallen angel. We bested a wicked immortal. We broke a centuries-old curse, and in so doing, the strange world that exists on the other side of ours kicked us out and slammed the doors shut.

Except, here’s a door now.

Flickering in the woods.

Very much open.

Two seconds ago, I watched a furry creature with lavender fur and eyes like full moons hop through it.

My phone buzzes in my hand.

A constant stream of buzzing.

Buzz.

Buzz.

Buzz.

Because apparently, the strange creature and the flickering doorway aren’t the only oddities cropping up in Foggy Hollow today. I stare at my phone screen, alight with a slew of text messages. All of them slightly different iterations of the same thing.

Lainey Sikes has been found.

Lainey Sikes is alive.

“Impossible,” I mutter, my breath escaping in a tiny, frozen cloud.

Lainey Sikes can’t be alive.

I saw her erupt into flame. I watched her combust. As soon as that tentacled creature from the deep yanked her through the rift, into that frightening world, Lainey’s body detonated.

There was nothing left but ember and ash.

Over the past week, the memory of her face twisting in horror, the wings of her costume glistening in the glow of Dante’s comet right before she disintegrated has become a twisted vignette in my mind.

A macabre visual that insists upon playing whenever I close my eyes and try to sleep at night.

And yet, my phone keeps buzzing.

Buzz.

Buzz.

Buzz.

Lainey has been found.

Lainey is alive.

And another rift is open, undulating before me now, a hypnotic throb of light beckoning me closer, as though it’s been waiting just for me, right here, in this shallow gully deep in the woods of the Vandenberg estate.

My breath fogs the air as I draw nearer and reach out my hand.

The X-Files theme song rings through the silence.

The jarring melody brings me to an abrupt halt.

With a strangled breath, I answer Twig’s call.

“Selah?” he says in my ear. “Did you get my texts? Have you seen the news?”

I nod, which isn’t something Twig can hear. So he just keeps talking, one overexcited word tripping over the next as I back away from the flickering doorway. “She showed up at Griffin’s house this morning. Police took her to the hospital. Kate and I are headed there now.”

Kate is Twig’s older sister and one of Lainey’s good friends.

She has no idea anything unnatural occurred on Halloween night.

Like the rest of town, she believes the story the police have presented to the public—a high school prank gone wrong, one that resulted in a serious injury and two missing teens.

The only people who know the truth?

Me, Twig, and Jude Vandenberg.

“Selah, are you there? Can you meet us at the hospital?”

Again, I nod.

“Selah?” Twig says, louder this time, more impatient.

“Y-yes,” I reply. “I’ll head there right now.”

That’s all I can manage.

I don’t tell him what I’m staring at, what I’m backing away from.

I say nothing about the odd creature that led me here, so deep into the woods.

I simply end the call. Then I make an abrupt about-face and return to the spot where the creature first appeared—the Vandenberg well, where I’d dropped the skeleton key my mother used to wear like a necklace.

The skeleton key that unlocked an ancient crypt beneath the ruins of St. Fortuna’s.

One that contains a treasure trove of supernatural and historical paraphernalia.

Dropping that key into the well was my attempt at closure. A way to put the whole ordeal to bed.

That’s when I heard the scuffling behind me.

The creature coughed something up.

A luminous sort of seed.

I hurry to the bushes. I push aside brambles and paw through the overgrowth until I spot it on the ground.

“Great Scott,” I whisper, sitting back on my haunches.

I stare in wide-eyed wonder at the seed—the size and shape of an almond, glowing against the damp earth.

Never having come upon a glowing seed before, I pick up a nearby stick and give it a tentative nudge. When nothing happens, I ditch the stick, and in a move Twig would absolutely not approve of—because for all we know this thing could be radioactive—I pluck it off the ground.

The world drops out from under me.

I’m falling.

Moving.

Rushing.

Running?

Over the forest floor, through the fog, tearing through vines and branches in hot, hungry pursuit as howls echo through the trees. My insides are feral. My heart desperate. I must get to her, the girl running away, fleeing as fast as she can, her long auburn hair whipping in the wind.

She trips and crashes to the ground.

I loom over her, my impossibly long shadow casting the girl in darkness as she turns around and looks up, her eyes filled with terror.

It’s my mother.

With a loud, long gasp, I drop the seed and tumble backwards, my heart racing, blood pounding like I really was just racing through the woods.

I clasp the tip of my finger and blink at the seed on the ground, coughed up by a creature that doesn’t exist. At least, not on any taxonomy charts I’ve ever seen.

What in the world just happened?

What did I just experience?

I stare hard at the seed, like the intensity of my gaze might peel back its glowing exterior and force it to reveal its true nature. When nothing happens, I take a steadying breath and touch the seed again.

But the world doesn’t change.

I stay right where I am.

I give the seed a nudge.

Still nothing.

My phone vibrates.

Twig and Kate have arrived at the hospital. He wants to know if I’m on my way.

I pocket the seed and dial Jude.

He was with me on Halloween night, right by my side. We witnessed everything together. He knows Lainey Sikes can’t be alive. The very idea is impossible.

Funny thing, though—that word.

If the past few weeks have taught me anything, it’s how very possible impossible things are in Foggy Hollow.