Jacob had been lost for hours—or was it days? Time seemed to lose its meaning the moment he had stepped into Bck Hollow. He didn’t even remember how he had gotten here. One moment, he was driving down a quiet road on his way to visit a friend in a nearby town, and the next, he was caught in the strangling fog of Bck Hollow.

  The fog had crept up so suddenly, like it was a living thing, suffocating everything in its path. The visibility was so poor, he could barely see a few feet ahead, and the road seemed to stretch on endlessly. Then, just as he thought he saw the faint outline of a building, his car sputtered and died, just like Amanda’s had before.

  Jacob had never felt fear like this. It was as though the entire town—this forgotten pce—was alive, watching him, waiting for him to make the wrong move. But there was nowhere else to go. He had tried walking, hoping to find someone, anyone, but the fog seemed to close in behind him with every step, erasing any trace of where he had been.

  And then, just as despair threatened to swallow him whole, he had come upon a hospital.

  It looked like a typical building at first gnce—old, weathered, and covered in ivy—but the door had been unlocked. He stepped inside, desperate for shelter, but as soon as he crossed the threshold, something had changed. The building didn’t feel like a hospital at all. The atmosphere was thick with an unnatural stillness, and the air felt too heavy to breathe. The rooms stretched endlessly, twisting and warping like the walls had no limits.

  The more Jacob walked through the hospital’s maze of hallways, the more he felt the creeping sensation that he was being followed. His breath came in shallow gasps as he turned down one corridor after another, the hallways becoming increasingly custrophobic. The lights overhead flickered and buzzed, casting shadows that seemed to move on their own.

  Suddenly, there was a low, grinding noise that made Jacob freeze. It sounded like something huge was shifting just behind him, something massive and alive. He spun around, his heart hammering in his chest, but the hallway was empty.

  He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, but the feeling of being watched only intensified. Every hallway seemed to lead to another, the same sterile white walls stretching endlessly into the darkness. No matter how far he walked, he couldn’t escape. There was no way out.

  A distant voice echoed from somewhere deep in the hospital, barely audible, like a whisper carried by the wind.

  “You shouldn’t be here.”

  Jacob’s blood ran cold. The voice was familiar—too familiar—but he couldn’t pce it. He wanted to turn around and run, but something in the back of his mind told him that wasn’t the answer. Running would only make it worse.

  He continued walking, his legs heavy with dread, his eyes scanning the rooms he passed. Each one was more unsettling than the st. Some were empty, others filled with cracked equipment, strange symbols scratched into the walls, and faded photographs of people he didn’t recognize.

  But then, in the distance, he saw something that made his stomach drop.

  A door.

  It was open, a faint light spilling from within. Jacob hesitated for a moment, his fingers trembling as he gripped the fshlight, but something inside him urged him to go toward it. He stepped forward, every instinct screaming at him to turn back, but his feet moved of their own accord.

  When he reached the doorway, he couldn’t help but feel a strange pull from within. The light inside flickered erratically, casting long, distorted shadows across the floor.

  “Come in,” the voice whispered again, now clearer, more insistent. “You know you want to.”

  Without thinking, Jacob stepped inside.

  The room was cold, its walls lined with old, rusted hospital beds, each one empty but covered with dark stains. There were no windows. The ceiling was high, almost too high, and the air smelled of something stale and musty, like something that had been left untouched for years.

  In the center of the room, a single bed stood under a harsh spotlight, a dark figure sitting upon it. Jacob’s pulse quickened as he approached, the figure’s outline barely visible in the dim light.

  It was a man. At least, it looked like a man—his form hunched and twisted, his face obscured by shadows. The moment Jacob stepped closer, the figure turned its head toward him, and for the first time, Jacob saw its eyes—empty sockets, bck as the void, staring right through him.

  A cold, bitter ugh echoed from the figure’s mouth, low and mocking.

  “You came,” the man said, his voice distorted, like it was coming from deep within a cavern.

  Jacob tried to speak, but his voice caught in his throat. There was something about this pce, this man, that made everything feel wrong. He wanted to leave, but his body wouldn’t obey. He felt as though the room had closed in on him, the walls pressing inward, and the air growing suffocatingly dense.

  The figure leaned forward slowly, its body creaking like old wood.

  “You shouldn’t have entered this pce,” the man whispered. “You are already lost.”

  Jacob’s eyes widened in terror as he tried to step back, but it was no use. The door smmed shut behind him with a deafening thud, trapping him inside.

  The man’s ughter filled the room again, echoing through the walls as the shadows in the corners seemed to twist and stretch toward Jacob. His skin crawled with the sensation of being surrounded, of being consumed.

  “You thought you could escape,” the man continued, his voice now a low growl, vibrating the very air. “But you’re not leaving. Not now, not ever.”

  The room began to twist. The walls shimmered and buckled, the floor beneath him unduting like the surface of water. Jacob stumbled, his legs failing him, and as he fell to his knees, the darkness crept closer. The shadows began to solidify, forming grotesque shapes, their eyes hollow and filled with hunger.

  “Escape is a lie,” the man hissed, stepping forward. “The moment you entered Bck Hollow, you were already mine.”

  Jacob’s heart raced as he tried to crawl toward the door, but the shadows reached out, wrapping around his legs like cold, steel chains. He could feel them pulling him back, dragging him toward the twisted figure.

  “No,” Jacob gasped, his throat tightening. “I—I just want to leave. Please…”

  But the man’s face twisted into a grotesque smile, and the shadows around Jacob tightened, pulling him closer to the bed where the figure waited.

  “There is no leaving Bck Hollow,” the man whispered, his voice a promise of eternal darkness. “You are already part of it.”

  The shadows enveloped him completely, the light from the bed fading as the room turned into a swirling abyss of bckness.

  And as Jacob was consumed by the void, he realized too te that Bck Hollow was no mere town.

  It was a prison.

  A prison that would never let him go.

  to be continued...