Romans & histoires Hollowed Minds

"Then we’ll wake it. And kill it." The Hollowborn did not follow but parted, forming a corridor deeper into the Hollow's gut. As they moved forward, the architecture grew stranger—pillars like twisted spines, floors that felt alternately like stone and flesh. Time itself wavered, moments stretching, then snapping back into focus. Link could feel the Hollow pressing against his mind, stoking emotion, dredging old wounds. Every step was heavier, as if memory itself had weight. Lilly's flame pulsed beside him. "It's trying to distract us."

"It noticed." "What is it?" I ask. "Specifically." She is quiet for a moment — not the quiet of not knowing, but the quiet of choosing how to carry something into language. "In the old texts," she says, "it is called a Hollowing. Something that moves into a space that was designed for something else and lives there long enough to reshape itself to fit." She looks at the maps on the shelves around us. "A city without a Warden develops — a vacuum. Most things fill vacuums. This one filled the Warden-shaped space and has been performing a version of the balance. Poorly. But performing it."

Instead, it folds itself into a corner near the fire, curling up like an animal seeking warmth, as if it is as weary as any of us. The hours crawl. Some try to sleep, but most sit up, tense, clutching talismans or one another’s hands. Mara prowls the edges of the hall, her gaze fixed on the revenant. I sit with Ffion, our shoulders touching, our magics twining and trembling. We ask our questions—careful, cautious, afraid of what the answers might cost. “What is the Hollowing?” Bram asks, voice barely above a whisper. The revenant’s eyes burn in the dark. “It is what comes when too many bargains go unpaid. When pain and hunger are ignored, when stories are broken, when communities shatter. I

He yelled, "What the hell is this? Who drugged me? Where's my phone? I need to go to the hospital!" When he finally managed to find his phone in his pocket, he realized his fingers hurt as if knives had been struck right into them. He could not hold the phone at all. In the crowd, the young women were the first to realize something. "It can't be some kind of disease, right? All of us girls are fine. The men are the ones who are rotting." "That's not right. Aurora is one of the worst ones, and she's a girl too." Everyone looked at one another. A moment later, all the girls gathered together and started talking over one another as they discussed the matter.

Veira's room was empty by midnight. Not packed emptied. The distinction mattered. Packing implied a person making decisions about their belongings. Emptying implied someone else making decisions about everything. The room had been cleared with the specific efficiency of a process that had been done before and would, apparently, be done again. Nora stood at the open door of room 219 at twelve-fifteen with Seren beside her and looked at the bare mattress and the cleared shelves and felt something settle cold and specific in her chest.

The “Infection Pods” hit the reinforced pavement of Aethelgard with the wet, sickening sound of glass breaking over a grave. From the pools of black, viscous liquid, the “Hollowed” emerged. They weren’t the Ghost Pack we had fought before, and they weren’t the noble Lithic-Wolves of the desert. They were something far more efficient and far more terrifying. They were humans who had been instantaneously rewritten by the pathogen—their bones elongated until they snapped, their skin turned to a translucent, sickly grey, and their eyes replaced by the single, horizontal red slit of the Architects.

"I was wrong, Gail. I see my heart clearly now. Please, give me one more chance." My voice rose, sharp and unyielding. "In our last life, when you locked me in that suffocating dark room, did you consider giving me a chance? You scarred my face with a branch, leaving me to endure the mockery of my peers. You destroyed my beloved doll, sealing it in plaster. I excused it all, believing your illness justified your cruelty. How many chances did I grant you?" I paused and added, "Your so-called emotional detachment? When it came to wounding someone who loved you, your heart was as cold and precise as a blade. I should have seen through your deception from the start."

Inside, the room remained eerily silent. Finally, it hit him—something was wrong. No matter how furious I had been before, I had never shut him out like this. That was, unless his worst fear had come to life. With trembling hands, he pushed the door open. The room was empty. Everything looked in order, except for the suitcase tucked away in the corner. As Carter opened it, his face drained of color. A heavy, sinking feeling settled in his chest. Deep down, he couldn't bring himself to accept the brutal truth. He had always been convinced that I would never walk away. But before him, the suitcase lay wide open, containing only my everyday clothes.

I want to be a good mother, to provide stability and love, but how can I do that when everything around me feels like it’s crumbling. “That's not what I meant, Ely, and you know it,” he says, but I'm beyond listening. “No, I don't know. I don't know anything anymore," I say, the fight suddenly draining out of me, leaving me feeling hollow and exhausted. “I don't know who to trust, what's real and what's not. I don't even know if what we have is real, or if it's just another effect of the hypnosis.” Cade recoils as if I've slapped him, hurt evident on his face. “How can you say that? After everything we've been through?”

"Is this enough? I can get more. I'd rather the money come to me than go to the mistress." I counted the zeros. More than 150 million. Well, that was screw-you money, certainly. "More than enough. Alright, here's the plan. We can…" … We came up with the perfect plan and decided to fake our deaths. The date? My sister-in-law's birthday. The one to push the blame to? My husband's mistress, Lorelei. Oh, some people might call me cruel, but you should've seen the message she sent me. I'd love to make sure she gets a life sentence.