Elliot didn’t go back into that bedroom.He stayed in the kitchen until sunrise, lights on, back to the wall, a knife in his hand he knew wouldn’t help.
The house felt wrong now.
Not empty.
Occupied.
Every now and then, he’d hear something upstairs.
A footstep.
A shift.
A slow drag across the floor.
But when the sun finally came up—
It stopped.
Elliot didn’t feel relief.
Because deep down, he understood something now:
They didn’t leave.
They just waited.
He splashed cold water on his face and looked at himself in the mirror.
For a second—
Just a second—
His reflection lagged behind.
Elliot froze.
“Yeah,” he whispered. “That’s new.”
The reflection caught up.
Smiled.
Elliot didn’t.
He grabbed his coat and left.
The town was quieter than usual.
Not peaceful.
Muted.
Like everything had been turned down just enough to hide something underneath.
People still watched him.
But now—
There was something else in their expressions.
Recognition.
“They know,” Elliot muttered.
Not about him.
About what was happening to him.
He went back to Dyer’s house.
This time, he didn’t knock.
Dyer was in the same chair.
Same position.
Like he hadn’t moved.
“You answered, didn’t you?” Dyer said.
Elliot didn’t bother denying it.
Dyer closed his eyes. “Then it’s started.”
“Started what?”
Dyer gestured vaguely toward Elliot.
“The hollowing.”
Elliot’s jaw tightened. “You’re going to need to be a lot clearer than that.”
Dyer sighed.
“They don’t just take people,” he said. “Not always.”
Elliot felt a chill crawl up his spine.
“Sometimes,” Dyer continued, “they change them first.”
Silence.
“They make you… empty,” Dyer said. “Bit by bit. Thought by thought. Memory by memory.”
Elliot crossed his arms. “And then what?”
Dyer looked at him.
“They fill the space.”
Elliot didn’t like that answer.
Didn’t like it at all.
“How long?” he asked.
Dyer hesitated.
“Depends,” he said. “On how much of you there is to erase.”
Elliot let out a dry laugh. “Good news, then. I’ve got plenty.”
Dyer didn’t smile.
“They’ll start with the parts that don’t belong here,” he said quietly.
Elliot went still.
“…What does that mean?”
Dyer held his gaze.
“You already know.”
Elliot looked away.
Of course he did.
Source: Some or all of the content was generated using an AI language model
