Prologue
Black Hollow looked dead after midnight.The streets were empty, the stores closed, and the pale glow of the streetlights reflected against the rain-soaked pavement. In the distance, the muffled music from the party by the pier mixed with the sound of waves crashing against the rocks near the lake.Inside the car, it smelled like alcohol, cigarette smoke, and freedom.
“Swear to God, if I hear this song one more time, I’m jumping out of the car,” Clara said, laughing from the back seat.
Noah turned the volume up even louder.
“Oh please, you love it.”
Elena sat pressed against the window, her damp blonde hair sticking to her cheeks from the earlier rain, her knees pulled tightly to her chest. She watched the others silently. Mason drove with one hand on the wheel, way too fast for the narrow road cutting through the forest.
Ethan lit another cigarette.
“I just don’t like this road at night.”
“You don’t like anything.”
Clara laughed again, but Elena noticed something strange in Ethan’s expression.He didn’t look scared.He looked… uneasy.Like he could feel something was about to happen.
The forest grew darker around them. Tree branches scraped softly against the car as the wind picked up, while the headlights illuminated only fragments of the road before they disappeared back into darkness.
Noah turned toward Elena.
“You okay?”
She nodded absentmindedly. But she wasn’t.Ever since the party, she’d had that awful feeling in her chest. Like someone had been watching her the entire night. Like the town itself was trying to warn her before it was too late.
Mason pressed harder on the gas.
“Look at me,” he laughed. “King of Black Hollow.”
“Mason, slow down,” Elena said immediately.
Too late. It all happened in a second. A figure suddenly appeared in the middle of the road.
* Brakes screaming. Clara’s shriek. Elena’s head slamming against the window. *
And then…silence.Only their frightened breathing remained. The engine was still running. Nobody said a word.
Noah was the first to whisper.
“Oh my God…”
Mason stayed frozen, his hands clenched tightly around the steering wheel.
“No… no… no…”
Ethan immediately threw the door open and stepped out into the rain.
“Ethan!” Clara shouted. “Don’t!”
But he was already running toward the road.A few seconds later, Elena climbed out too, her stomach twisting violently. Cold rain hit her skin.The headlights illuminated the body lying on the asphalt. A boy.About their age. Motionless. Blood. So much blood.Noah threw up near the side of the road while Clara started crying uncontrollably.
“We have to call the police,” Ethan said immediately. “Right now.”
But Mason didn’t move. He stared at the boy with an expression Elena would never forget. Fear. Real fear.
Then… the boy groaned. Everyone froze. He was alive.Elena instinctively took a step forward.
“Oh God…”
The boy weakly tried to lift his trembling hand.And then Mason spoke quietly.
“If anyone finds out… our lives are over.”
Elena stared at him in shock.
“What?”
“Think about it!” he shouted. “We were drunk! Noah brought the alcohol! I was driving! We were all in the car!”
“Mason…” Ethan started.
“No! Listen to me!”
His voice had become almost hysterical.
“College. Our families. Everything is over!”
Clara was crying so hard she could barely breathe.
Noah kept repeating under his breath:
“Fuck… fuck…”
Ethan stepped closer to the boy.
“He’s still breathing. We can…”
Mason grabbed his arm violently.
“Don’t you get it? If he talks, we’re finished.”
The car lights flickered for a second. Then they went out completely. Darkness.The forest suddenly became silent. Too silent. No one made a sound.Elena held her breath, overwhelmed by the strange feeling that someone had been watching them the entire time.
