The Hollow Light

When Elias first moved into the old farmhouse on the outskirts of Blackwood Hollow, he thought the creaks and groans were just the house settling. But then, a voice—a child’s voice, bright and curious—would drift from the bathroom. ‘Hello?’ it would say, or ‘What’s that?’ Elias would search, but find nothing. The voice grew bolder, and one evening, as he was brushing his teeth, it said, ‘Welcome.’ It sounded so friendly, so innocent, that Elias’s skin crawled. He never heard it again.

Months passed, and the house seemed to accept them. But then, in the hallway, a strange phenomenon occurred. With the bathroom light on, a face emerged from the textured wallpaper—a young woman with hollow eyes and a mouth twisted in sorrow. The light fixture cast a separate shadow that danced with the sway of the bulb, yet the face remained static, unmoved by the shifting darkness. Elias felt a cold dread every time he passed, but he couldn’t bring himself to paint over it.

The face seemed to breathe, and one night, Elias placed his hand on the slight bulge beneath it. The wall was warm, like skin, and he felt a faint pulse. He pulled away, horrified. His son, Leo, began to talk to ‘the lady in the wall.’ ‘She’s sad,’ he said. ‘She wants her baby back.’ Elias tried to dismiss it as a child’s imagination, but then the bulges began to multiply.

Soon, there were hollows all over the house—in the kitchen floor, the bedroom walls, even the ceiling. They pulsed with a rhythmic beat, and occasionally, a muffled cry would emanate from within. Elias’s wife, Gabrielle, grew paranoid, believing the house was feeding on them. She scratched at one of the bulges, and it burst open, releasing a foul, wet smell. Inside, a mass of roots and soil writhed, revealing a tiny, skeletal hand.

Elias finally decided to tear down the hallway wall. Beneath the plaster, he found a hidden niche containing a small, moldy crib, and a child’s shoe. The face on the wall began to move, its mouth opening wider, as if to scream. But no sound came—only the deep, resonant thrum of the house, now louder than ever. That night, as the family gathered in the living room, the bulges split wide open, and from every hollow, a host of pale, eyeless figures crawled out, reaching for them. The last thing Elias saw was the face in the wall, smiling now, as she finally got her family back.