Season 2: Episode 5 – “Roots of the Hollow”
1402 Words
Cold Open
The screen flickers to life, showing the eerie, unrecognizable town of Black Hollow. The camera slowly zooms in on the town square, now a wasteland of empty streets and ominous silence. The air crackles with tension, the fog thicker than ever, swirling like an ancient spirit waiting to strike.
Lily stands alone in the middle of the square, her hand tightly clutching the silver pendant. The Hollow is everywhere—its roots spreading beneath the ground, the whispers clawing at the edges of her mind.
Behind her, the crowd of empty-eyed people that had once been her friends and neighbors begins to advance. Their footsteps are slow, deliberate, and in unison—like a well-rehearsed march.
But Lily isn’t afraid. The pendant pulses with power in her hand, and as she turns to face them, her eyes glow with a strange, newfound intensity.
A voice echoes through the air—the Hollow, calling her name. It whispers the same words, urging her to embrace it.
> “Let it in, Lily… you are one with the Hollow now.”
Lily closes her eyes, taking a deep breath. She can feel it pulling at her, tugging at her very soul. The ground beneath her shifts, and she begins to sink—slowly at first, then faster, until her feet are swallowed by the earth.
The camera pulls away, and the screen goes black.
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Act I: The Root of the Problem
The episode begins with Isa and Caleb frantically searching for Lily. The town square is empty, save for a few strange shapes in the fog. They’ve lost contact with her, and the Hollow’s influence is growing stronger by the hour. The barriers between worlds have nearly collapsed, and if they don’t find Lily soon, Black Hollow will be consumed entirely.
They check every corner of town, but the Hollow-born crowd has scattered, and the distorted realities they once feared are now fully realized. Buildings appear in the wrong places, and people are starting to act as if they no longer know where they are. Time bends and warps around them.
Caleb’s frustration is palpable. He’s been researching the Thornes’ connection to the Hollow for years, but he never anticipated the full depth of the curse.
> “The Thornes weren’t just trying to control the Hollow,” he mutters. “They were trying to use it to rewrite reality—bend time, change the world… and they nearly succeeded.”
Isa looks at him, anxiety written across her face. “We need Lily. She’s the only one who can stop this.”
Caleb is quiet for a moment. “We don’t know if she can. The Hollow is feeding on her, and the deeper she goes, the less she’ll be able to hold on.”
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Act II: Into the Hollow
Lily is somewhere deep beneath Black Hollow, her body surrounded by roots and darkness. The air is thick, heavy with the weight of ancient power. She’s sinking, but it’s not into earth—no, this is something much darker. She feels as though she’s falling into an abyss, her very existence tearing apart at the seams.
Visions flash before her eyes—memories of a life she doesn’t remember, of a time before Black Hollow, of people whose faces seem so familiar, yet so foreign. The Hollow is showing her these things, pulling her deeper into its grasp.
> “You are one of us now,” the Hollow’s voice echoes in her mind. “Embrace your true nature. You are the key to everything.”
Lily struggles, trying to keep control. She clutches the pendant tighter, the silver cool against her palm. Its power courses through her, but it’s becoming more difficult to resist. She’s losing herself. She can feel the Hollow inside her, trying to erase the woman she once was.
She’s pulled toward a dark, twisted tree at the heart of the Hollow—its roots spreading outward like veins, pulsing with a life of their own. She sees herself reflected in its bark, a shadowy version of herself staring back.
> “This is your destiny,” the voice whispers again. “Join us.”
Lily steps forward, her eyes locked on her reflection in the tree. She can feel her memories slipping, but then a memory flashes: her family, their faces full of love. A sense of duty awakens in her.
She reaches into her jacket and pulls out Eleanor’s journal, the pages now almost completely illegible. But the words that remain seem to call her back.
She whispers aloud, “I’m not alone.”
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Act III: Breaking the Cycle
Meanwhile, Isa and Caleb are on the edge of Black Hollow, following the trail of disappearing people and strange visions. As they search for Lily, they notice something horrifying: entire sections of the town are gone, erased as if they never existed. The buildings, the people, all of it vanished.
Isa feels the pull of the Hollow, too, but she refuses to give in. Her mind flashes back to Marco, her partner, who disappeared without a trace. She remembers his last words to her, the cryptic warning that now seems so clear.
> “Don’t let it get to you,” Marco had said. “Once it knows your fear… it won’t stop.”
But fear is precisely what Isa is feeling now.
They finally reach the Thorne Estate, where they find a hidden tunnel leading beneath the house, into the roots of the Hollow. It’s dark and cold down there, the air thick with the stench of decay. As they venture deeper, they see a glowing light in the distance.
Lily is there, standing before the twisted tree, her hand outstretched toward the dark figure in front of her—the Hollow itself.
Isa calls out, “Lily! No!”
Lily’s eyes snap open, glowing red with the Hollow’s influence. She turns toward Isa and Caleb, but there’s something wrong—she’s not herself anymore. She’s become something else.
> “I have to do this,” Lily says, her voice distant, hollow. “This is the only way to save Black Hollow.”
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Act IV: The Final Choice
Lily’s connection to the Hollow is stronger than ever, and she can feel it calling her—filling her with dark power. The choice before her is clear: join the Hollow completely, or fight it and risk losing herself forever.
Isa steps forward, her voice shaking but firm. “Lily, this isn’t you. You can fight it. We can stop this together.”
But Lily only smiles—not her smile, but the Hollow’s smile, twisted and wrong.
> “You don’t understand,” she says, her voice echoing with a strange reverberation. “It’s too late. The Hollow is inside me now. It always was.”
The earth shakes violently as the roots of the Hollow begin to push through the ground, stretching out toward the town, seeking to claim everything.
Suddenly, Lily raises her hand, and the ground beneath her splits open. The Hollow’s power surges through her, as she unleashes a devastating shockwave of dark energy.
Isa and Caleb are thrown back by the force, but they struggle to get to their feet. Isa’s voice is desperate as she pleads, “Lily, don’t let it consume you!”
Lily looks at them, her eyes now fully filled with the Hollow’s dark power, but there’s a flicker of something more—something human. Her lips tremble as she whispers, “I’m sorry.”
And with that, the camera zooms out, revealing Black Hollow in its entirety—on the edge of total destruction.
- Writer
