Shadows Beneath The Hollow

Fifteen years after the Hollow took everything he couldn't name out loud, Aiden Mercer comes home thinking he can finally live like a normal man--quiet work, quiet nights, and a left eye he refuses to explain. Then the old mill burns, and something impossible blooms in the ashes: a sickly, pulsing glow that feels less like an accident...and more like a signal. When Mara Donovan staggers out of the smoke--burned, shaken, and certain the thing in the fire knows their names--Aiden is forced back into the town's oldest rules: don't ask what you heard, don't drink what you can't trust, and never follow the whispers into the trees. Sheriff Riley wants answers. The locals want it contained. And the Hollow wants what it has always wanted: a way out. As the infection spreads through water lines, floorboards, and blood, Aiden realizes the glow isn't just changing bodies--it's learning people. Feeding on secrets. Using guilt like a key. To stop it, he'll have to return to the place that made him run...before the Hollow finishes what it started and swallows Graywater whole.