Black hollow
1140 Words
The silence stretched, thick as fog. Amelia could hear the wind rattling the windows, the creak of the old house settling. She could even hear the steady rhythm of her own heartbeat, a dull, insistent drum against her ribs.
But she couldn’t hear an answer.
Not from Lillian.
Not from her mother.
And not from the man who was supposed to be dead.
“You have a plan?” Lillian finally said, her voice razor-sharp. “Go ahead. Enlighten us.”
Their father didn’t react to her hostility. Instead, he leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “They don’t know I’m here yet. But it’s only a matter of time before they figure it out.”
Amelia frowned. “Who are they?”
Her father hesitated. “A group I used to work with.”
Lillian scoffed. “Yeah, you said that. Details, Dad. Maybe try telling the truth for once.”
His jaw tightened, but when he spoke, his voice was even. “They call themselves Black Hollow.”
Something in the way he said it—low, cautious, as if even the name had weight—sent a chill down Amelia’s spine.
“Black Hollow?” she repeated. “What is that? A gang?”
“A private organization,” he corrected. “Black market deals. Weapons, surveillance, intelligence gathering. They operate under the radar, outside the law.”
Lillian let out a sharp breath. “And you worked for them?”
Their father’s gaze flickered to the ground. “I did. A long time ago.”
Amelia’s stomach twisted. “And you thought you could just leave?”
“No one leaves Black Hollow,” he admitted. “Not without consequences.”
Their mother finally spoke, her voice weak but steady. “And now they know you’re alive.”
Their father nodded. “Yes.”
The weight of the revelation pressed down on Amelia’s chest. “So what do they want?”
“At best?” His eyes darkened. “They want me to disappear for good. At worst? They’ll use you to get to me.”
A cold, sharp fear shot through her.
Lillian was already shaking her head. “No. Absolutely not. You don’t get to come back and drag us into your mess. We’ve lived twenty years without you. And we can live twenty more.”
Their father met her glare without flinching. “You think I want this? If I had a choice, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Then leave,” Lillian snapped. “Go disappear again, fake your death better this time, and let us live our lives.”
Her father didn’t move. “If I leave, they’ll still come looking for you.”
The words were a gut punch.
Amelia swallowed hard. “So what do we do?”
Her father sat up straighter. “We prepare.”
Lillian let out a short, bitter laugh. “Prepare? For what? An ambush? A shootout?”
“If it comes to that, yes.”
Amelia’s breath caught. “You’re serious.”
Their father’s face was unreadable. “I’ll do everything I can to make sure it doesn’t come to that. But we don’t have the luxury of hoping for the best.”
Dominic, who had been silent until now, spoke up. “Do you have a safehouse?”
Their father’s gaze flicked to him, assessing. “You have experience with this?”
Dominic’s expression was unreadable. “I know how these things work.”
Amelia turned to him, suspicion creeping in. “Dominic…?”
He met her gaze, his jaw tight. “Now’s not the time, Amelia.”
Her heart stuttered. Now’s not the time?
Her father seemed to understand something that she didn’t. “You’re ex-military.”
Dominic’s eyes didn’t waver. “Something like that.”
Lillian threw her hands up. “Oh, fantastic. Everyone in my life is apparently keeping deadly secrets.”
Amelia couldn’t even argue.
She turned back to her father. “You didn’t answer his question. Do you have a safehouse?”
Her father hesitated. “Not anymore.”
Lillian let out a sound of pure frustration. “So your ‘plan’ is to sit here and wait to get murdered? Great. Love that for us.”
“No,” their father said. “My plan is to end this.”
Amelia’s stomach dropped. “End this how?”
Her father’s gaze darkened. “By taking down Black Hollow.”
A sharp silence fell over the room.
Lillian stared at him, incredulous. “You want to take down an entire criminal organization?”
“They’re only as powerful as the people protecting them,” their father said. “I know how they operate. I know where to hit them. If we can expose them, we can destroy them.”
Amelia shook her head. “Do you hear yourself? You’ve been running from them for twenty years and now you think you can just—just end them?”
“I don’t think,” he said quietly. “I know.”
Lillian scoffed. “Yeah? And what happens to us in the meantime? Do we just hope they don’t find us before your grand plan works?”
“No.” Their father’s expression hardened. “We fight back.”
Lillian’s mouth opened, then shut.
Amelia’s pulse pounded in her ears.
This was insanity.
Absolute insanity.
And yet—
The way he said it. The certainty in his voice. It sent a shiver through her.
Because despite everything, despite the insanity of it all—
She believed him.
Dominic exhaled. “If we do this, we need to move fast. Black Hollow won’t wait.”
Their father nodded. “Agreed.”
Lillian turned to Amelia, her voice deadly calm. “You’re not seriously considering this.”
Amelia swallowed hard. “Do we have a choice?”
Lillian’s expression was pained. “We could leave. Go somewhere far away, start over.”
“And how long until they find us?” Amelia asked. “How long until we’re running for the rest of our lives?”
Lillian didn’t answer.
Their father’s voice was steady. “I know this isn’t what you wanted. But I promise you—I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Amelia looked at him, at the man she had spent her whole life grieving.
Could she trust him?
She didn’t know.
But she did know one thing—
If Black Hollow was coming for them, then running wasn’t an option.
She turned to Dominic. “What’s the first step?”
His expression was grim. “We arm ourselves.”
Amelia exhaled, her fingers curling into fists.
No more running.
No more waiting.
If the past was coming for them—
They would be ready.
- Writer
