Lukas couldn't shake the feeling that something had shifted.
The town was wrong—more than before. The buildings still stood, the cobblestone streets still stretched into the mist, but the air felt different.
Like something was waiting.
Felix walked beside him, silent, his gaze sharp as he led them away from the church, away from the places that were too well-known, too mapped out.
"We're going somewhere even the town doesn't remember," Felix had said.
And now, with every step they took into the deeper parts of the city, Lukas understood what he meant.
The streets were losing their details.
The houses had no doors, no windows, just hollow shapes of buildings that should have had meaning but didn't.
The deeper they went, the more reality unraveled.
Lukas clenched his fists, feeling the weight of the coin in his pocket, the only thing tethering him.
"Are you sure about this?" Lukas muttered.
Felix smirked. "Would it matter if I wasn't?"
Lukas let out a slow breath. "That's not an answer."
Felix glanced at him. "It wasn't a question."
Lukas sighed. "Fuck you."
Felix chuckled. "Now you're catching on."
---
They stopped in front of a crumbling building, its structure barely standing. The walls were half-formed, like the town itself had started to forget they existed before realizing too late.
Felix exhaled. "Here."
Lukas frowned. "You sure?"
Felix nodded. "This place is off the map."
Lukas hesitated before stepping forward.
The moment his foot touched the threshold—
A sharp cold sank into his bones.
His breath hitched. The air thickened, pressing against his skin, and for a moment, it felt like the world itself had paused.
Then—
Something shifted.
Lukas staggered, grabbing the doorway to steady himself.
Felix glanced at him. "You feel it, don't you?"
Lukas swallowed hard. "What the hell was that?"
Felix tilted his head. "That's what happens when you step into a place that even reality doesn't know what to do with."
Lukas exhaled slowly, shaking off the lingering pressure. He took another step inside.
The interior was… unfinished.
The walls were only half there, parts of the floor were missing, revealing nothing beneath them but a yawning, empty void.
It was like standing inside a thought that had never been completed.
Felix moved further in, his footsteps barely making a sound. "Good. It's still here."
Lukas hesitated. "Still?"
Felix shrugged. "Last time I checked, anyway."
Lukas narrowed his eyes. "You've been here before?"
Felix smirked. "Once. Didn't stay long."
Lukas exhaled sharply. "And now we're supposed to just… stay?"
Felix's expression darkened slightly. "We don't have a choice."
---
The silence inside the forgotten space was too thick.
Lukas paced the room, his mind still processing the sheer wrongness of this place.
Felix leaned against a half-formed wall, arms crossed. "You're thinking too hard."
Lukas shot him a look. "That's a bad thing?"
Felix smirked. "When you're standing in a place reality already doesn't acknowledge? Yeah. Thinking too much tends to break things."
Lukas inhaled deeply, pressing his fingers against the coin in his pocket to ground himself.
Felix pushed away from the wall. "Let's see if it worked."
Lukas frowned. "See if what worked?"
Felix gestured toward the doorway. "Step out."
Lukas hesitated. "And?"
Felix's smirk widened. "And see if the town still remembers you."
A chill ran down Lukas's spine.
He clenched his jaw before stepping through the threshold.
The air hit him like a wall.
His breath staggered, and for a moment, it was like the world blurred around him.
Then—
Everything settled.
Lukas inhaled sharply, looking around. The street was still there.
The town was still there.
But something was… off.
Felix stepped out behind him, nodding approvingly. "Good. It worked."
Lukas swallowed hard. "What worked?"
Felix turned to him, his eyes gleaming.
"The Hollow lost you."
Lukas's stomach dropped. "What?"
Felix grinned. "You were on the edge of disappearing, right? Being remembered by something you didn't want to be remembered by?"
Lukas nodded slowly.
Felix gestured back to the forgotten space behind them.
"Well, now the town doesn't know where to put you either."
Lukas's pulse hammered in his ears. "You're saying I just—slipped out of its reach?"
Felix smirked. "More or less."
Lukas exhaled shakily. He was free.
At least, for now.
But then—
A whisper crawled through the air.
Lukas's breath hitched.
Felix's smirk faded.
Lukas's pulse spiked as the air around them shifted—not from the Hollow, but from something else.
A sound echoed through the empty streets, distant but growing closer.
A slow, deliberate knocking.
Lukas's blood turned to ice.
Felix exhaled. "Shit."
Lukas swallowed hard. "That's not the Hollow."
Felix's jaw tightened. "No."
The knocking came again.
Closer this time.
Lukas clenched his fists. "What the hell did we just do?"
Felix glanced at him, expression unreadable.
"Something noticed."
The knocking stopped.
And the silence that followed was worse.