Chapter 8 : The Hollowed
870 Words
The shopping centre should have been empty.
That was the first thing Aaron noticed.
The second was the smell.
Dust.
Damp concrete.
And something else.
Something organic.
A faint scent lingering beneath everything.
Like stagnant water left standing too long.
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Riverside Plaza had closed eight months earlier.
Most of the shops sat abandoned.
The food court had been stripped bare.
Escalators stood motionless beneath skylights coated in grime.
The entire building felt frozen in time.
Waiting for demolition crews to arrive.
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Instead, people kept showing up.
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Aaron parked near the main entrance.
Rain drummed against the windscreen.
The grey sky pressed low overhead.
Everything about the place felt miserable.
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Perfect conditions for a ghost story.
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He hated that thought.
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Beside him, Eleanor studied a tablet screen.
Dozens of reports filled the display.
Witness statements.
Emergency calls.
Security complaints.
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"Thirty-seven separate sightings."
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Aaron sighed.
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"Of what?"
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Eleanor looked up.
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"Depends who's reporting it."
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Not the answer he wanted.
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"Try me."
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"Groups standing motionless."
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"Okay."
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"People talking to themselves."
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"Still okay."
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"People claiming dead relatives are wandering through the building."
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Aaron rubbed his forehead.
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There it was.
The part he hated.
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The impossible part.
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Maya sat quietly in the rear seat.
Watching the shopping centre.
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She hadn't spoken much during the drive.
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The building unsettled her.
Not because it looked dangerous.
Because it looked familiar.
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Not visually.
Emotionally.
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The same feeling she experienced near Blackwater.
The same pressure.
The same invisible weight.
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Like standing too close to the edge of something vast.
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"He's here."
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Aaron looked over his shoulder.
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"What?"
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Maya stared at the building.
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"The Dreamer."
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Silence filled the car.
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Aaron exchanged a glance with Eleanor.
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Neither challenged her.
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Not anymore.
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Too many impossible things had already happened.
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The main doors stood partially open.
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Nobody remembered leaving them that way.
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According to security reports, they should have been chained shut.
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Instead they slowly swung back and forth.
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Creak.
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Creak.
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Creak.
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The sound echoed through the empty plaza.
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Maya hated it instantly.
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The air felt colder inside.
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Not dramatically.
Just enough.
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Enough to notice.
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Enough to remember.
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The shopping centre wasn't silent.
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It whispered.
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At first Aaron thought it was wind.
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Then he realised it wasn't.
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People were speaking.
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Softly.
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Too softly to understand.
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The voices drifted through empty corridors.
Appearing and disappearing.
Like distant conversations occurring just out of sight.
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Maya froze.
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She recognised the pattern immediately.
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The whispers weren't random.
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They were repeating.
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The same phrases.
Again.
And again.
And again.
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Like a recording trapped on a loop.
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"The water remembers."
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A pause.
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"The water remembers."
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Another pause.
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"The water remembers."
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Aaron heard it too.
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His face darkened.
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"What the hell is this place?"
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Nobody answered.
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They found the first person near the old cinema.
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A middle-aged woman.
Standing perfectly still.
Facing a blank wall.
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She didn't react when they approached.
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Didn't blink.
Didn't move.
Didn't speak.
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Just stared.
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Aaron stepped forward carefully.
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"Ma'am?"
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Nothing.
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"Can you hear me?"
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Slowly.
Very slowly.
The woman smiled.
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Maya's stomach dropped.
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It was the same smile.
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The bus stop smile.
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The Hollowed smile.
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The woman finally turned her head.
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Her eyes focused on Aaron.
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Then she asked:
> "Do you hear it too?"
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Aaron glanced at Maya.
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Then back at the woman.
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"Hear what?"
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The woman's smile widened.
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"The dreaming."
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A chill swept through the corridor.
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Before anyone could respond, another voice spoke.
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Then another.
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Then another.
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The group turned.
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People stood throughout the shopping centre.
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Watching.
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A man beside a closed café.
A teenager near an escalator.
An elderly couple by a fountain.
A security guard.
A cleaner.
A child.
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All smiling.
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All watching.
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All standing perfectly still.
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And all speaking together.
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"The dreaming."
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"The dreaming."
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"The dreaming."
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The words echoed throughout the building.
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Maya backed away.
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Her pulse hammered.
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There were too many.
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Far too many.
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And every one of them wore the same expression.
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The same terrible smile.
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Then something changed.
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The Hollowed stopped speaking.
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Stopped moving.
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Stopped smiling.
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Every head turned simultaneously.
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Toward the far end of the shopping centre.
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Toward the darkness inside an abandoned department store.
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Nobody spoke.
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Nobody breathed.
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Nobody moved.
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They simply stared.
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Waiting.
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For something.
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Maya felt the blood drain from her face.
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Because she could feel it too.
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Something was inside that darkness.
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Something watching them.
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Something ancient.
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Something hungry.
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And for one horrifying moment...
Something inside Maya wanted to walk toward it.
- Writer
