The Depths of the Hollow (Mercy Falls Mythos Book 2) Read online

  THE DEPTHS OF THE HOLLOW

  NATHANIEL REED

  A MERCY FALLS MYTHOS

  ALSO BY NATHANIEL REED

  The Pit in the Woods

  THE DEPTHS OF THE HOLLOW

  NATHANIEL REED

  A MERCY FALLS MYTHOS

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Copyright © 2014 by Nathaniel Reed

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States.

  Reed, Nathaniel

  The Depths of the Hollow- 1st edition

  Summary: An anthology of tales tying together characters and events, this is the second novel in the Mercy Falls series. One summer in 1999 kidnappings, violent attacks, and a massacre rock the town of Mercy Falls as the forces of darkness gather strength.

  Another group of heroes is called to defend the town, including an introvert, a wise-cracking detective, a rich girl, and a group of “hunters” just trying not to get killed while protecting a new life in an increasingly dangerous situation.

  Book design by Ulises Mazorra; front cover photography

  by Ulises Mazorra & Oscar Gonzalez

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Edition

  For my stepfather Roberto.

  Though your time on our plane

  was short, you made my world

  and mother’s a little brighter.

  THE DEPTHS OF THE HOLLOW

  CONTENTS

  PART ONE: INITIATION

  CHAPTER ONE Trials of the Damned 7

  CHAPTER TWO Settling 43

  CHAPTER THREE Newborn and Dying 61

  CHAPTER FOUR Charles and the Dizzy Diva 66

  CHAPTER FIVE Faraday 81

  CHAPTER SIX The Taken 87

  CHAPTER SEVEN Sarah and Stephanie 93

  CHAPTER EIGHT Moonlight Serenade 103

  CHAPTER NINE Lucas 119

  PART TWO: BLOOD RITES

  CHAPTER TEN The Coven of Hecate 129

  CHAPTER ELEVEN Prisoners 139

  CHAPTER TWELVE The Hunters and the Gypsies 147

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN The Search for the Sacrifice 166

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN The Uninvited 174

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN The New Arrivals 194

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN Home Invasion 198

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Return of the Bull 215

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN The Mayor of Mercy Falls 227

  PART THREE: SACRIFICE

  CHAPTER NINETEEN Two Reunions 239

  CHAPTER TWENTY One Small Escape 246

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Walter 250

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Convincing 255

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE A Birthplace 261

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Arianna 269

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Ben and Amelia 279

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX A Place of Death 283

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN The Hollow 291

  PART ONE

  INITIATION

  “Yeah, I remember her saying ‘I’m already dead.’ ”

  -Patricia Krenwinkel

  “What have I become?

  My sweetest friend.”

  -Nine Inch Nails

  CHAPTER ONE

  TRIALS OF THE DAMNED

  It had been three months since Sarah had inherited her fortune from her great grandfather (until now he had horded all his money, so it came as a shock to learn she was being left ten million dollars), and moved into the luxurious neighborhood of Westchester Hills. It took nearly that long to assimilate into this new lifestyle, and would take perhaps a bit longer to be fully accepted by the Westchester Social Club.

  They did not particularly care for her kind, the kind that hadn’t earned her money through sweat and toil and sound investments. She was what they disapprovingly referred to as nouveau riche. Here at their outside gathering were business owners, bankers, major conglomerates, corporations, and people with positions and titles she had never heard of, and it just about made her head spin, but she politely pretended to be impressed whenever they introduced her.

  However, despite her shortcomings she’d made at least two good friends at her new condo, Lindsay and Stephanie. They were her age, mid- twenties, and their favorite pastime was gossip. These two were the ones who pestered her into joining the club. It was mostly a meet and greet organization for town halls and city council meetings, where people could voice their opinions on new legislation. She believed the mayor was supposed to speak at this one, on this fine July evening 1999.

  The gathering was perhaps some fifty or sixty, the food superb, the round tables that seated four draped in fine white linen, the night adorned with strings of rice paper lantern lights, delicate piano music playing in the back-ground. There was no live piano player, so the speakers, likely placed strategically throughout the spacious lawn, awaited an empty stage, some distance away from where they sat, toward the back.

  Lindsay was currently pointing out an odd-looking little man in a rumpled suit who apparently had a penchant for cheating on his wife with much older women, so she said.

  Sarah nodded along, as was her custom. She didn’t really know any of these people. She only knew that her friends seemed relatively normal and unintimidating compared to the rest gathered here, and they had relatively normal names. Not high fallutin’ names such as Penelope, Gwendolyn, or Persephone, all three of which she’d come into brief contact with.

  As if to stress this point, Lindsay pointed to a middle-aged man who looked rather dapper in grey tweed and a wine colored bow tie.

  “See that, that’s Rutherford. He’s pretty mild looking, right? But if you hear his wife talk to the other ladies you’d know he’s a stallion in bed.”

  Stephanie laughed. “Not my type Lindsay, no matter how hard you try to push him on me.”

  Sarah smiled. “Rutherford, is that his first name or last?”

  Lindsay contemplated that for a moment. “First; I think his last name is Hayes.”

  “Rutherford Hayes?” Stephanie said. “Isn’t that somebody famous?”

  “Could be,” Lindsay said, “but I don’t think that’s him.”

  Both Sarah and Stephanie giggled.

  “Could be Higgs.”

  “And you could be full of shit,” Stephanie said. “Okay, okay,” Lindsay said. “I don’t remember his full name, but I really did hear his wife talking about his

  manliness.”

  Sarah was sucking on an ice cube and had to spit it back into her drink.

  The table to their left looked over disapprovingly at their boisterousness.

  “Okay, I’ve got one,” Stephanie said, “You see that lady over there, at that table?” She cocked her head, “The one in the red dress. She’s supposed to be a real ball buster. I heard she made one of her employees cry, actually forced him to get on his knees and beg to keep his job.”

  Sarah rolled her eyes. “Seriously, do you guys just make this stuff up?”

  “About 10%,” Lindsay admitted. “At least 80% of its completely true, the rest is just hyperbole.”

  “So when can we leave?” Sarah asked.

  “Leave?” Stephanie asked, “You can’t just leave one of these events. Mayor Tremont is going to speak.”

  “Yeah,” Lindsay said, “We’re going to have to teach you how things work here.” She said it with no real malice or condescension, but it still sounded that way to Sarah’s ears.

  “Oh, I know how things are,” Sarah assured her. She just wasn’t interested.

  “Okay,” Lindsay said apologetically. “Take it easy. It’s just a little soi
ree. Maybe we can sneak out if he gets too long winded. If we left now with everyone watching they’d just consider us rude.”

  Sarah looked over at the table next to them- the ones who’d glanced over at them when they had become too loud. “I think some already do.”

  Lindsay smiled. “Well, we can’t please them all now can we?”

  Someone had stepped onto the stage and was now handling the microphone.

  “Ladies and gentleman,” the man spoke, “It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for...”

  It’s about time, Sarah thought, as she scooped up another stuffed crab.

  “...Our very own Mayor of Mercy Falls, Mayor Charles Tremont.”

  Thunderous applause greeted him as he walked out onto the stage.

  “Thank you, thank you,” the mayor acknowledged the crowd and the host as he stepped up to the mic.

  Sarah Strobe didn’t hear the next words out of his mouth, because as everyone sat she noticed a group of men, three of them, and a woman walking past the tables some hundred feet or so away. There was something strange about them. They were all looking down as if they didn’t want to be noticed. They were rather pale looking, and seemed overdressed for the event. Their garb looked almost Victorian, out of place. The woman was spinning something between her hands, dangling from her neck on a thick cord- some metallic symbol, as if working a hex.

  She pointed them out to her friends. “Who are they?” Sarah whispered.

  Lindsay and Stephanie shook their heads.

  “Never seen them before,” Stephanie said. Both she and Lindsay looked back toward the mayor, intent on hearing him speak, although they had to turn back every now and again. Sarah could not keep her eyes off the strangers.

  They passed in between the tables and people looked up as their view of the mayor was temporarily obstructed. Just as quickly, they looked away, as if they were somehow being directed to ignore them. As if mesmerized.

  One of the men lifted his arms into the air as if conducting an orchestra, and that was when the chaos began. Something leapt, from underneath the stage, smashing through the wooden clapboards, sending planks and long splinters through the air in a steepled triangle as they pushed outward. The mayor was seized by two (what looked to be blue) hands and arms, by his legs, and seemed to be swallowed by the hole in the stage, dragged under.

  Two blue and gray mottled creatures leapt out of the hole soon after, landing on the unbroken part of the stage, diving in reverse. The screams, the panic, and the running followed.

  The two creatures leapt at the tables in front of the stage, grabbing the unlucky patrons who failed to get away in time. Overturned tables and flailing bodies spun through the air. One elderly lady’s arm was torn directly from its socket, and she fainted the second after.

  The other four, the three pale men and the woman joined the fray attacking the fleeing crowd at will. The little man in the rumpled suit was trampled over by the hysterical attendees. With his disheveled and befuddled body left behind, sore and battered, one of the males and the female descended upon him, ripping him apart.

  “Oh Jesus!” Sarah screamed. Lindsay and Stephanie were behind her as she fled the pandemonium. A body soared through the air over their heads as limp and lifeless as a rag doll.

  Sarah glanced back as she ran to see one of the bluish-gray creatures gliding through the black sky toward them on what appeared to be some sort of webbing that extended from its underarms to its side, something live and organic, and veined like you found between the toes of certain birds feet, or the wings of bats. It plucked Lindsay off the ground as a bird of prey would snag a worm, and she and the thing disappeared high into the night air.

  “Lindsay, no!!” Stephanie screamed, the pain in her voice clear as she watched her childhood friend be taken. They kept running.

  The two of them got away that night, because they

  were one of the furthest tables from the stage, although

  Lindsay had not been fortunate. The ones who’d run ahead

  of them also survived unscathed. Nearly everyone seated three tables or more ahead of them perished. Six were injured in falls, by being trampled, or by flying debris. The mayor simply disappeared with those things, like Lindsay.

  Of the forty-two dead, eight would rise again.

  

  As soon as they arrived at Stephanie’s suite Sarah called the police. She was unsure what to tell them except that a group of men had disrupted their event and began killing people. She didn’t give her name or tell them where she and Stephanie were, only the location of the outdoor event. Stephanie was already hysterical. The last thing she needed was cops questioning her right now. Sarah used the phone in the kitchen, hoping it would give Stephanie a little time to compose herself.

  Sarah Strobe walked slowly back to Stephanie’s room. Her friend was currently sitting on the edge of the bed, her short black hair with its wavy upward curving bangs nearly covering her downturned face. When she became aware that Sarah had returned, which wasn’t until Sarah was almost to the bed herself, she lifted her head. Her blue eyes glistened like shallow pools of water. Tears made her mascara run in black streaks down her face. Sarah took a bunch of tissues from the bed stand and sat next to her.

  “Here,” she said, wiping the streaks away.

  Stephanie looked over at her gratefully. “Thank you.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Sarah said. She was sad for Lindsay too, but they had only been friends several months. This had to be much harder on Stephanie, so she tried to be strong for her.

  Stephanie nodded. “What were those things?”

  Sarah shook her head. “Demons, vampires, banshees, I

  don’t know...”

  There had always been strange things going on in Mercy Falls. However, it had been at least, what, twelve or thirteen years, since anything this strange. Since all those kids started disappearing back in ’86. She had been just a teenager then. Things had been downright quiet compared to back then, although you still heard stories. Now, she didn’t know what to think.

  “Do you think she’s...?” Stephanie began, already knowing the answer.

  Sarah nodded solemnly.

  

  It was later in her own condominium, as she attempted to sleep that the weight of Lindsay’s death truly touched her. She sobbed quietly, “Lindsay, poor Lindsay.” Lindsay of the blonde hair and perfect teeth and perfect body and perfect boyfriend, the only one of them with a boyfriend. God, Paul, what must he be going through.

  Sarah realized she was slightly jealous of her though she hadn’t known her that long. She had been the hot one, the one all the boys wanted, and Stephanie was the cute one, and Sarah was just the plain one. And she immediately felt guilty for ever feeling that way. Hadn’t Lindsay taken her into her circle? Been her friend when everyone else, for the most part, disregarded her?

  And Sarah wasn’t all that plain. Her body may not have been as curvy, but she certainly had a nice one, and her straight brown locks weren’t as shiny and luxurious, but they were not completely limp or unattractive, and she had pleasant features. Sarah did not have much trouble attracting boys. It was just that when Lindsay was in the room all eyes were on her. God, she felt awful.

  “Poor Lindsay,” she said again, softly. “I’m so

  sorry. You were a good friend.” She cried and fell

  soundlessly to sleep.

  

  Little more than an hour later she was deep into a nightmare in which she was at an evening pool party. There were strings of light just as at the Mayor’s event, but instead of tables people were sitting around the pool on patio chairs sipping lemonade and mixed drinks. The murmur of talk was low, subdued. Stephanie and Lindsay were both in their bikinis, as she was, and Sarah was walking toward them with lemonade in her hand.

  “Hey guys,” she said.

  Lindsay and Stephanie turned.

  Sarah watched Lindsay’s mouth open but nothing was coming out. She reac
hed out to Sarah with one hand, and it looked as if she were crying for help. There was distress on her face as she mouthed the words, “Help, Sarah, help.” Stephanie was next to her simply smiling at Sarah, oblivious, when Lindsay’s face started to melt away. A large winged man soared in front of them and tore Lindsay’s pleading arm off at the elbow, flying away with it. Where the arm was neatly ripped off, as if it had been sawed there were two perfectly white circular gleams of bone amid the tissue, as her arm spurted blood at her; but she still held it up, pleading as her face continued to melt away. Sarah screamed as blood splattered her face. Stephanie’s innocent grin turned sinister and her teeth razor sharp. She grew large veined purple wings, and with them turned toward Lindsay, engulfing her in them. Lindsay virtually disappeared as Stephanie laughed. Sarah woke up still screaming.

  

  “Drink, drink.”

  He awoke to find himself tied wrists and ankles to a

  chair. The ropes were thick, and there was little slack. All

  around him were rock walls, as if he were in the belly of some cavern. Although the air seemed cool, he was sweating profusely. Some man was standing before him holding a glass filled with a red liquid. It looked somewhat like tomato juice, thick and somewhat syrupy. The man had rudely, although gently, slapped him awake.