The road to Elders Hollow was older than memory. It wound through dead forests and past streams that no longer ran. Travelers said the trees watched you there — their roots twisted like hands, their bark scarred with names no one could remember carving.
When Amina Reeve's car broke down near the rusted town sign, dusk had already begun to fall. She had been driving for hours, trying to escape a past she could never quite define — a place, a person, or maybe just a feeling.
She didn't notice the house at first.No one ever did.
It stood on the hill above the town — three stories of rotting wood and blackened windows, leaning just slightly, as if the earth beneath it was giving up.But what caught Amina's eye wasn't the house itself — it was the light.A single flicker in the top window.
Someone was home.
She followed the old path up the hill. Every step felt heavier, though the air grew colder with each breath. Somewhere deep inside the trees, something moved — slow, deliberate, like it was listening.
At the door, she paused.Her reflection in the cracked glass didn't match her movement.When she reached for the handle, her reflection smiled first.
The door opened by itself.
And for the first time that night, Amina realized she hadn't been alone since she entered Elders Hollow.