Season 2: Episode 2 – “The Black Hollow Disappearances”
1116 Words
Cold Open
The camera glides through the foggy streets of Black Hollow at dawn. The town seems eerily quiet, but there’s a buzz in the air—a strange undercurrent that nothing seems to be able to escape.
A crow caws in the distance, its shadow stretching unnaturally long across the cracked pavement. A figure moves under the shadow of an old streetlight, their face hidden by a large coat and scarf.
We hear a distant voice calling Lily’s name in a barely audible whisper. She stirs in her bed, sweat glistening on her forehead. It’s the same nightmare—the same endless call.
Lily wakes with a start. The whisper is gone, but the feeling lingers.
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Act I: The Disappearances
Lily’s family is still adjusting to their new life in Black Hollow, but the sense of unease is growing. Each night, more people go missing. It’s no longer just the elderly couple or the teenager. Whole families are vanishing without a trace.
Lily meets Isa Cruz, a local detective, who is determined to uncover the truth behind the disappearances. At first, Isa doesn’t believe in anything supernatural, but the lack of evidence and the eerie similarities between cases force her to reconsider. Her skepticism is waning, and she’s starting to question everything she thought she knew.
Lily and Isa meet in the local police station after the most recent disappearance—Emma, a 17-year-old girl who was last seen near the old cemetery on the outskirts of town. Emma’s parents are frantic, but the police are helpless. There’s no sign of struggle, no forced entry, and no indication of where Emma might have gone.
Lily feels a pang of recognition. The cemetery... the Hollow. She remembers the whispers, the way she was drawn to the place before. Emma must have felt it too.
After the meeting, Isa confides in Lily. “You’re not the first to ask about this town’s dark past, you know. Strange things have been happening for decades. But this—this is something different.”
Lily knows she can’t stay passive anymore. The Hollow is back, and it’s feeding.
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Act II: The Curse Spreads
As the days go on, the disappearances grow more bizarre. First, it’s the small, quiet families on the outskirts of town. But soon, more prominent figures begin to vanish—teachers, local business owners, even police officers. All without warning, all without a trace.
The town starts to spiral into panic, but the authorities are no closer to solving the mystery. There’s no pattern, no clues, just empty homes and unexplained absences.
Lily feels the weight of the Hollow’s presence every time she leaves the house. Her blood burns with hunger. And it’s growing stronger, more insistent. She finds herself drawn to the cemetery once again. But this time, when she enters the graveyard, she doesn’t feel the sense of dread she once did. Instead, she feels... home.
The stones around her are starting to crack, revealing symbols carved into them. Symbols she recognizes from Eleanor’s journal. She realizes with a shiver that these aren’t just gravestones—they’re anchors. The Hollow is spreading, and it’s using these locations to root itself deeper into Black Hollow.
Lily tells Isa about her discovery, but Isa dismisses her, still unable to comprehend the full extent of the supernatural forces at play. However, Isa is smart, and she begins to see the connections between the disappearances, the Hollow, and the strange occurrences around town.
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Act III: Unearthing the Past
Lily, Caleb, and Isa team up to investigate the Thorne Estate further. Caleb believes that the Thorne family is directly connected to the Hollow's origin. Their bloodline may hold the key to stopping it, or at least understanding how it works.
They sneak into the old, decaying estate at night. The place is far more than it seems—hidden beneath the floorboards, they find a series of old diaries from the Thorne ancestors, dating back centuries. The journals reveal something terrifying: the Thornes didn’t just live in Black Hollow. They were the ones who first invoked the Hollow. They had made a pact, one that would bind their bloodline to it forever.
Caleb explains the significance of the diaries. “The Thornes didn’t just summon the Hollow for power. They thought they could control it—use it as a tool to secure immortality.”
The price was steep, and now, generations later, the Hollow is hunting for the next host. And with every disappearance, it grows stronger.
Lily is horrified. She’s been a part of the curse all along. She feels a new hunger inside her, urging her to embrace it—to allow herself to become one with the Hollow.
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Act IV: A Growing Darkness
The more they learn, the more isolated Lily feels. She starts having blackouts—moments when she loses control, when she finds herself somewhere she shouldn’t be, doing things she can’t remember. Her family is becoming increasingly worried, but Lily can’t bring herself to tell them the truth.
She’s terrified that she’ll lose herself to the Hollow, just as her father nearly did.
The final blow comes when another person goes missing—this time, Isa’s partner, Officer Marco. Marco had been investigating the strange occurrences and had discovered the connection between the Thornes and the Hollow. But now, he’s gone, leaving Isa devastated.
Lily and Caleb find a clue that links Marco’s disappearance to the cemetery. The moment they step into the graveyard, the ground trembles beneath their feet. The Hollow is waking up.
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Final Scene:
The camera lingers on Lily as she stands at the edge of the graveyard, staring at the symbols etched into the stones. Her blood hums with the Hollow’s call.
> “It’s too late,” Caleb says softly behind her. “It’s already inside you.”
Lily looks up at the blood-red sky. The whispers in her mind grow louder.
“Not yet,” she whispers, stepping forward, resolute.
The camera pulls back, revealing a shadow moving between the gravestones—eyes glowing in the dark.
The Hollow is coming for them all.
- Writer
