The Hollowing

Aiden Mercer spent fifteen years running from Graywater, Indiana. He thought he could escape the memories of the accident that killed his friends and the suffocating weight of his own survival. But when his father dies alone in the farmhouse Aiden abandoned, he is forced to return to the place where his life shattered. He expects ghosts and regrets. What he finds is a town rotting from the inside out. A strange, orange fungus is spreading through the cornfields and crawlspaces, pulsing with a bioluminescent rhythm that mimics a heartbeat. Pets are vanishing, only to return wrong--mechanical, hollow, and hungry. And in the deep woods, voices are calling Aiden's name, whispering secrets that only the dead should know. Teaming up with Mara, a childhood friend who remembers the town before the decay set in, Aiden must confront the source of the infection: an ancient entity known as "The Hollow" that feeds on grief and grows fat on denial. As the townspeople succumb to a hive-mind stupor and the woods close in, Aiden realizes that the only way to kill the rot is to burn it out. But the Hollow knows his darkest secrets, and it knows exactly how to make him stay. Perfect for fans of Silent Hill, The Last of Us, and the small-town horror of Stephen King.