The Hollowing

The Hollowing

Autumn settled heavily over Elmsbury. Crimson leaves fluttered like feathers from the trees, blanketing the earth in rust and gold. While the outside world prepared for winter’s rest, the old house by the forest stirred with new purpose. Daniel and Mariah now fully believed in the village their children had discovered—its magic, its people, and the quiet warning whispered through the trees.

Ava and Leo visited the grove daily, helping the fairies rebuild their homes and replant fading gardens. The once-dim village glowed stronger each night. But while the grove healed, the forest beyond it grew colder… darker.

One night, the children heard a voice in the distance—soft and sorrowful. “Help me…” it whispered through the wind. Ava froze. “Did you hear that?” she asked her brother. Leo nodded, eyes wide. “It didn’t sound like the fairies.”

Thistle, the eldest fairy, grew weaker by the day. Her wings dimmed, and her voice trembled. “The Hollowing is returning,” she said gravely. “A darkness that feeds on forgotten things. It lives in the shadows cast by neglect. It once devoured villages like ours, long before your time. We survived… barely. But now, it stirs again.”

That night, Mariah found a book in the attic of their old house—a diary belonging to a woman named Elira, dated over a century ago. The woman wrote of a similar magical village, of children who vanished, and of something she called *The Hollow One*—a creature born of sorrow and silence. Its body was made of bark and bone, its eyes hollow pits that stole light, its voice sweet like lullabies, luring wanderers deeper into the woods.

Elira had sealed the creature behind a gate of living wood, binding it with the laughter of children and the light of fairy fire.

But that was generations ago.

Now, the laughter was fading.

The fairy fire dimming.

One cold evening, Ava and Leo found a part of the grove had withered overnight. Flowers turned to ash. Tiny homes lay crushed. And in the center of it all: a hole in the ground, dark and pulsing, like a heartbeat.

Something had broken free.

Back at home, strange things began happening. The baby mobile in Leo’s room spun on its own. The trees around the house leaned closer each day. And one night, Daniel looked out the window and saw eyes—dozens of them—watching from the forest.

“They know the seal is broken,” Thistle warned. “And now they come for the heart of our grove.”

The children gathered allies—talking frogs, beetle knights, a tiny firefly army, and a wise old horse named Elderhoof. Together, with Ava and Leo leading them, they prepared to defend their magical home.

But the Hollowing was patient.

It didn’t attack all at once.

It whispered.

It tempted.

And one night, it spoke directly to Leo in a voice that sounded like their mother’s: “Come deeper, child. Come find what they hide from you…”

Leo stepped toward the trees.

And Ava wasn’t there to stop him.