We didn't speak for a long time after the floor sealed.
After Jules vanished.
After the room returned to silence like nothing had happened at all.
Lena was still unconscious on the bed.
Tyrell sat in the corner, hugging his knees like a child.
Harper was burning sage and whispering names I didn't know—names I don't think were human.
And Zane…
Zane hadn't picked up his camera.
Not even when the fire roared back to life.
---
Because the fire didn't return empty.
It came with a message.
Letters burned themselves into the soot-stained stone above the hearth, written backward, then curling into legibility:
> "SHE SPEAKS NOW."
"THE NAME HAS BEEN GIVEN BACK."
---
Then: more fire.
More cracking.
And a name.
Jules' name.
But not as we knew it.
> "JULIANA ASH."
Not Nichols.
Not her family name.
This was a name from the woods.
A name that bled.
A name carved.
---
> "That's not hers," Tyrell croaked.
> "She's gone."
Harper shook her head slowly, eyes wide with something between awe and horror.
> "She's not gone."
> "She's converted."
---
I stared at the fire, my body shaking.
My forearm burned.
I pulled up my sleeve.
The spiral had spread across my shoulder now, crawling toward my neck.
The skin was smooth, but underneath, I could feel it—like something was threading itself through my veins, twisting behind the bone.
> "She's still in there," I whispered.
> "Somewhere."
Zane stood abruptly, finally breaking his silence.
> "That's it."
> "I'm done."
> "I'm not waiting to be dragged through the goddamn floor."
He turned to Harper.
> "You said this started with Riley, right?"
> "So if we find Riley… maybe we can end it."
---
Harper looked exhausted.
> "You don't find him."
> "He finds you."
---
Zane ignored her.
He grabbed his flashlight, his jacket, and stormed toward the front door.
> "Suit yourselves."
> "I'm going to the Hollow."
---
The moment he touched the doorknob, the lights flickered.
The wind picked up outside—sudden and violent, shaking the windows like fists.
The spiral carved in the floor glowed faintly.
A groan came from within the walls.
Like the house was breathing.
Then:
> "Don't leave."
The voice was mine.
But I hadn't spoken.
---
Zane froze. Turned.
> "What did you just say?"
I looked around.
Everyone else had gone still.
Harper's mouth parted, her eyes wide with realization.
> "You're speaking in your sleep again."
> "Even while you're awake."
---
> "No," I whispered.
> "That's not me."
> "That's her."
---
Then, the spiral on my shoulder twitched.
Moved.
I felt it.
A slow coil, like a worm twisting behind my collarbone.
I dropped to my knees, gasping.
Behind my eyes, the world flickered.
And I saw…
---
A forest made of mouths.
Each tree trunk a vertical grin, lined with teeth carved from ash.
The roots beneath pulsed with blood.
Names echoed between the leaves.
And in the center, the girl from the Hollow.
But she was taller now. Stronger.
A crown of branches on her head.
And Jules knelt at her feet.
Smiling.
---
She opened her new mouth.
And in three voices at once, she spoke:
> "A name is a door."
"A lie is the key."
"And memory is the lock."
---
I snapped back.
Gasping.
Everyone was staring at me.
I realized I'd been speaking aloud.
But not in English.
Not even in words.
Just spirals.
Sounds that folded in on themselves, echoing inside my skull like a curse scratched onto bone.
---
Zane stepped back.
> "What the hell is happening to you?"
Harper didn't look surprised.
She helped me to my feet.
> "You're becoming her."
> "You're remembering who you were."
---
> "I'm Ava Brooks," I said, desperate.
> "I'm me."
Harper looked sad.
> "Not anymore."
> "You've been here before."
---
She pulled a worn, torn page from her jacket pocket.
It looked ancient.
Like it had been copied over and over, then stained with smoke.
She handed it to me.
At the top was a name:
> AVARIA ELAH.
> "That's what she used to call you."
> "Before the Hollow took her voice."
---
I stared.
Something in the back of my mind cracked open.
Like an old cellar door swinging wide after centuries of dust.
Images flooded me—
Me, younger. Different clothes. A different century.
Running through a forest.
Carving a spiral into a tree.
Burying a name inside it.
Then forgetting.
On purpose.
---
> "I was the first," I said aloud.
It wasn't a question.
It was a truth the forest had been trying to return to me.
> "I was her first Mouth."
Harper nodded.
> "And you tried to close the Hollow once."
> "But someone betrayed you."
> "Elarah."
---
The name rattled through me.
Like a bell tolling far below the skin.
Suddenly the fire flared, wild and angry.
The name above the hearth was gone.
Replaced by something new:
> "THE MOUTH HAS REMEMBERED."
> "NOW NAME THE ONE WHO BETRAYED."