The trees loomed like twisted skeletons in the fading light, their gnarled fingers reaching for the sky. The Hollow Wood had always been a place of whispers-a cursed stretch of forest where the ground never quite felt solid, where the wind always seemed to carry the sound of unseen voices.
Elena Whitmore shivered as she stepped past the last of the village lanterns, their warm glow unable to pierce the darkness ahead. She had promised herself she would never set foot in the Hollow Wood. But promises meant little when her younger brother, Tobias, had vanished inside it three nights ago.
The villagers had warned her.
"He's gone, Elena. If the Hollow Wood takes you, it doesn't give you back."
But she couldn't accept that. Tobias was only ten-too small, too scared. He wouldn't have run away on his own. Something had lured him in.
Clutching a lantern in her trembling hands, Elena stepped forward. The cold air wrapped around her throat like unseen fingers. Every step felt heavier, as if the ground was swallowing her whole.
Then, she heard it.
A whisper. Soft. Almost gentle.
"Elena..."
She spun around, but the path behind her was empty. The lantern's flickering light barely held back the suffocating dark.
"Tobias?" Her voice cracked.
The whisper came again. Closer.
"Elena, come see..."
Her breath hitched. That wasn't Tobias. The voice was too smooth, too knowing. It slithered through the trees like smoke, curling around her ears.
Her pulse pounded as she moved forward, lantern shaking in her grip. Then, she saw them-strange symbols carved into the trees, oozing a thick black sap. They pulsed as if alive, as if breathing.
And then, from the shadows, a figure stepped forward.
Tall. Cloaked. A face hidden beneath the folds of a deep hood.
A whispering voice curled into her mind, bypassing her ears entirely.
"You shouldn't have come here, child."
The lantern's light flickered violently. The darkness pressed in, swallowing the trees, the path, everything.
And then, the world went black.
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