Chapter Two: The Hollow’s Call
Evelyn’s breath came in ragged bursts, her hand still gripping the doorframe as she stared at the mirror. The air around her felt thick, like it was pressing in, suffocating her, and she found herself struggling to tear her eyes away from the reflection. The figure in the mirror remained motionless, save for the subtle shifting of her head, as if waiting for Evelyn to make the next move.
A chill ran through her, and the weight of the room seemed to intensify. The voice, still echoing in her mind, repeated its chilling command.
“Get out.”
It wasn’t just a whisper. It was a command. A command that seemed to seep into her very bones, rattling her with a sense of something ancient—something powerful—hidden beneath the surface of the house.
She backed away slowly, her legs trembling, unable to take her eyes off the mirror. But the figure did not move—did not follow. The reflection of the woman’s hollow eyes stayed fixed, watching Evelyn as she retreated.
Finally, as her body screamed for her to turn and run, she forced herself to tear her gaze away, stumbling backward toward the door. The heavy silence settled once more, the only sound now being the pounding of her heart in her ears.
Without thinking, she slammed the door shut, as though it could somehow seal whatever dark force resided within that room. Her mind raced with questions—why had the mirror shown her that woman? Why had it called her?
The question that kept repeating in her mind, though, was the one she dared not ask: What had she just seen?
The house was still now, as still as it had been when she first arrived. Yet Evelyn couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t empty. Something lingered in the corners, just out of sight. Something that watched her from the shadows. She walked down the hallway in a daze, her hands shaking as she gripped the banister and descended the stairs.
When she reached the sitting room, she found herself standing in front of the fire, the flickering flames casting unsettling shadows across the walls. The warmth from the fire barely touched the chill that had settled in her bones. She pulled a chair close to the hearth and sank into it, her fingers trembling as she ran them through her hair.
She had come here for peace, for clarity. But all she had found so far was an overwhelming sense of dread, something deeper than any fear she’d known. Her mind kept racing, desperately trying to rationalize what had happened. Was it the house playing tricks on her? Or had she truly seen something otherworldly?
As she sat there, lost in thought, the air around her seemed to shift once again. The room, once familiar, felt increasingly foreign. The shadows by the fireplace flickered, stretching and twisting in strange patterns.
And then came the sound.
At first, it was faint—a soft scraping noise, barely audible over the crackling fire. But it grew louder with every passing moment, like something dragging across the wooden floor, slow and deliberate.
Evelyn’s heart froze in her chest. She rose to her feet, her legs shaky beneath her as she glanced toward the doorway. The house was silent, save for that scraping sound. She moved cautiously, stepping over to the hallway with its heavy, creaking floors, her eyes scanning the darkness ahead.
The noise stopped abruptly.
And then, as if on cue, she heard it again—closer now, unmistakably coming from the direction of the staircase.
“Evelyn…”
The voice was soft, low, and broken—nothing like the commanding whispers she had heard before. This voice, though, was filled with a sorrow so deep it seemed to suffocate the very air around her.
She froze, her feet rooted to the floor, not knowing whether to move toward the sound or flee. Her name hung in the air, thick with longing, with an unspoken desperation that caused her pulse to quicken. The voice wasn’t just calling her—it was beckoning her.
“Evelyn… Come closer.”
Against every instinct screaming for her to run, she found herself moving forward, step by step, as though drawn by invisible threads. The house seemed to pulse with an energy that made the air itself thick, heavy, charged. She reached the base of the stairs again, her gaze lifting slowly toward the darkened upper floor.
The noise had stopped, and the air had grown unnaturally still. But the voice had left an imprint on her, like a mark burned into her very soul. Something was waiting for her. Something in that house, hidden in the corners, waiting for her to make a decision.
Would she walk away? Or would she seek the truth?
Without even realizing it, she began to ascend the staircase once more, this time with a single thought in mind: she had to know. She had to understand what was happening here, what was lurking beneath the surface of Ravenshade.
The stairs creaked under her weight, the silence in the house growing heavier with every step. As she reached the top, the wind outside began to howl once again, rattling the windows. The shadows in the hallway stretched and twisted in unnatural angles, as though they were alive.
The door to the room she had left earlier—the one with the mirror—stood ajar, a faint glow spilling into the hallway. Evelyn hesitated for a moment before crossing the threshold, her hand trembling as she pushed the door open further.
What she saw inside took her breath away.
The mirror was no longer just a reflection. It had become something else—a portal. The dark glass rippled like water, its surface undulating with a slow, rhythmic motion, as if it were alive. In the center, a figure was beginning to form.
At first, it was nothing more than a shadow—a silhouette of a woman, draped in rags, her hair flowing like the wind, her eyes hollow. But the more Evelyn stared, the clearer it became.
The woman in the mirror was reaching for her.
Her outstretched hand beckoned, fingers curled, urging Evelyn to come closer. But it wasn’t the woman’s hand that drew Evelyn’s attention. It was the space around her—dark, suffocating, a place that stretched out beyond the frame of the mirror, deeper and deeper into an unknown abyss.
And then the voice came again—so clear, so real, it felt as though it was in the room with her.
“You have found me… Now come… and I will show you everything.” Evelyn’s heart raced, her breath quickening as she realized with a sinking certainty that she was not alone. Whatever had been calling her—it was here. And it was waiting for her to take the final step into the hollow.
