Chapter 1 - The Murders

June 28

The door creaked open as I entered my parents bedroom for what would be the last time. My breath caught in my throat as I saw the impossible amount of blood staining the carpet of their room. I didn’t recognize the red-stained lumps at first. My brain was simply trying to comprehend what I was seeing.

It had been one of those perfect early summer days. Not too hot and not too cold. It was bright and warm with fluffy clouds hanging lazily in the bright blue of the sky. I had been excited about the results of my latest test. Never had a b-minus looked so good to me. I’d studied hard for this re-take, and with my hard work high school had finally been open to me.

I stood slack-jawed, my breath caught in my throat. I turned my head when the door to their bathroom opened across the room, and a man stepped out wearing only long brown pants. His face was smeared with blood, his hands, ending in sharp claws, were red as though he had tried and failed to wash blood off of them.

The bus had dropped me at the corner near my house. I waved at the driver as he wished me a good summer, before he closed the door. I disembarked and the freedom that only summer could offer opened up before me. My parents had promised me a surprise if I managed to pass, and I honestly had no idea what it might be.

The man standing across the room from me had skin that was a sickening shade of light green, and his eyes, which stared into mine with a piercing gaze of unchecked malice, were all black. He grinned at me with sharp blood stained teeth. Almost proud of what he had done.

“I’m home!” I had announced, dropping my keys into a metal bowl in the entryway with a satisfying clatter.

I had found it odd. The lights were usually on if someone is home, and no one had responded to my call. I had checked the driveway and the family car was definitely there. I checked the living room, kitchen, and dining room in turn, but no one was there.

I had given up on finding a snack in the fridge, when I had heard a light thump from above. I had run up the steps towards my parents room, throwing my backpack haphazardly onto my bed from the hallway as I passed it. There had been a feeling of foreboding as I got closer to their half open door. A feeling I should have listened to.

Far longer than I should have, I looked between the man, and my murdered parents. In what seemed to me like slow motion, he took a step forward. I took a step back. He took another step.

I ran.

What else could I do but run?

No. No, no, no. Nonononononono!

This can’t be real. This can’t be happening.

My first instinct was my room. A place that felt safe, had always been safe. I would barricade myself in with my dresser. Surely, then I’d be safe. He couldn’t get me in there. I would hide under my bed. Once I felt safe enough to come out, my parents would laugh at how silly I had been. They’d hug me and everything would be fine.

The only problem with that, was that I had already run past my bedroom. I was halfway down the stairs before the thought had fully formed. I turned for a split second and there he was at the top of the stairs. He stood between me and safety, the monster covered in my parent’s blood.

I tripped over my own feet, and fell the last few steps. My ankle screamed, but my need to get away screamed louder. The only sound I made was a gasp. The hollow simply walked slowly down the stairs with the sort of pleasant smile you might give the cashier at the grocery store, but radiating an aura of death as a matter of course. I wanted to scream but I couldn’t bring myself to do so, the sound trapped in my throat.

I considered the front door. With my ankle hurting I didn’t think I could run very far. He would catch up to me too quickly. The sound of the stairs creaking and the heavy breathing of the hollow made me panic. Every second I spent deciding, I was coming closer and closer to death.

Creeeak.

I need somewhere safe.

Creeeak.

I need somewhere to hide.

Creeeak.

Could I even hide?

Creeeak.

Wouldn’t he just find me?

I scrambled on all fours around the corner. Managing to regain my footing in time to open the basement door. I slammed it closed, and locked it behind me. I looked for something to use to barricade it, but the door was at the top of a flight of stairs. Dim light streamed through the windows, enough for me to barely see by and nothing more. I limped my way down the stairs, making heavy use of the bannister to support me.

BANG!

I practically jumped out of my skin as the noise reverberated off the concrete walls. I hurried down the last few steps, and tried to find a place to hide among the boxes.

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“Please, I need help,” I whispered as much to myself as to whatever might be listening.

BANG crack!

I heard the door beginning to splinter as a strange warmth filled my chest. I ignored it and continued my desperate search for somewhere to hide. The sound of my heart beating filled my ears, and I felt faint as the warmth became an unbearable heat.

I struggled to wedge myself behind an old jukebox that dad claimed he was going to repair one day. Mom and I always rolled our eyes and giggled, which led to him stalking off to the basement and getting distracted by some project or other. I smiled faintly at the memory, it hurt more than I could say.

BANG! Crash!

I shrank as small as I could possibly manage. Time seemed to stop in its tracks. The only thing that moved or made a sound was my heart and the slapping of bare feet on concrete. With a nasty scraping sound, the jukebox was pulled away from me.

I shut my eyes, ready to be torn apart the same as my parents.

“Open your eyes, child,” someone said. The voice was feminine but also crisp and cold like a strong January breeze.

I shut my eyes harder.

I could feel the air around me getting colder, and I shivered in spite of myself. Hugging my knees tight to my chest. A burning cold hand touched my cheek.

“What is it that you wish for? You must tell me. Hurry, I can only keep time frozen like this for a moment, and he is coming.”

“Please save me,” I cried. My tears freezing on my face, and every breath stinging my throat.

“As you wish. We will discuss the terms of our arrangement shortly. Until then, stay put.”

All at once everything began moving. I opened my eyes, and a woman was standing between me and the blood-soaked hollow.

“Give me the human child,” the man said in a voice that was gravelly and surprisingly soft, “I wish to consume her flesh along with the others.”

Lifting one of her hands, and in a freezing voice simply said, “Die, wretch.”

In the time it took her to say those two words, the hollow that had killed my parents was covered in a thick layer of ice.

When he was completely encased, he simply shattered. The shards of his body turned to wisps of snow caught in a vortex, and disappeared. The woman turned and looked at me.

I realized with horror what I was looking at. Until this moment I hadn’t realized that the woman who had saved me was also a hollow, and, judging by how quickly she had destroyed the other one, she was powerful.

Everyone knew that hollows were dangerous. Only highly trained mages had the skill to deal with their kind on equal footing. I had heard every imaginable horror story about children who had made foolish deals with a stranger only to end up whisked away to the Hollow Lands.

My parents had both been accomplished mages, so I had heard more about them than most my age. A hollow was just something that came from the Hollow Lands, and they were as genetically diverse as our own world, if not more so. As such, there was no telling who or what I was dealing with.

Her red eyes watched me appraisingly.

“You have done a foolish thing to summon me unbound,” she said with a cold smile, “had I ill intent, like any number of my sisters might, you would no doubt be in even greater trouble now than you were.”

“I’m s-sorry,” I shivered, “I d-didn’t mean to summon you.”

“Ah, I see,” she said slightly more warmly, “you haven’t actually been trained. You summoned me on instinct. Your potential is quite intriguing.”

She crouched down in front of me. Her face was so close to mine, that I could feel her cold breath on my face. If I could have, I would have backed up, but I was cornered.

“Name me, child, and for a portion of your daily magic power, I will be yours for so long as you shall live. I will protect you, so long as I am able.”

“My magic power?”

Did I even have magic power? Enough for a hollow such as her? Wait, if I didn’t have magic power then I wouldn’t have been able to summon her.

“Oh, no need to worry. You will hardly notice its lack,” she said in what was supposed to be a reassuring tone. I was not reassured.

“If I name you, you won’t hurt me?”

“Of course not,” she said, touching my cheek, “It would hardly be to my benefit to do so. I am strangely… drawn to you.”

It was well known that hollows could not lie. They were experts in the half-truth, lying by omission, and false implications, but if they said yes or no to something then it was true.

“In exchange for five percent of my magic each morning, and protecting and obeying me, I will provide you with a name,” I said, my voice quivering.

I could hardly believe I was being so bold. She could end me so easily with a thought. I realized with horror that I was the kid in every after school special right now. I was the one that would appear on missing posters. I would be on the news as yet another victim of the strange ways of the hollows.

She considered for a moment, “I could hardly stay in this world for that amount. It would hardly serve my needs. I will agree to your terms but the amount I require each morning is fifteen percent, to be calculated on your waking for the day.”

“Deal!”

Was I really doing this? What madness had this hollow inflicted on me? Was I even now under some weird spell? Had I lost my mind?

“Then provide me with a name, child.”

How do I do that? Will she decide I’m not worth the trouble if I admit I don’t know how? Will she help me? She seems oddly invested in this? Is it a bad deal? Is there some weird loophole she can exploit?

“I’m not sure how to do that,” I admitted nervously.

“It is simple, you merely need to speak my name aloud.”

I blurted out the first name that I thought of, “Filomena.”

Immediately I felt tired, my eyelids growing heavy. Before I knew it I had passed out. The last thing I saw was her toothy smile as she leaned over me.