There will be a few more chapters than I anticipated. This one was very hard to write, and I apologize for it. Honestly, I have no idea what to do next. But I will work on it.

Hopefully, I will get this story done on time, before the release of Library of Souls. See you next chapter!

Evan woke to Tamara leaning over him.

"Are you okay?" he mumbled, recalling when she had fainted.

"The question is, are you okay?" she said, helping him to his feet. "Do you remember what happened?"

Evan looked around; they were in a dark room. Puddles were everywhere.

"Yeah, I think," he said. "But we… we were about to get eaten. What happened?" And why did you faint?

Tamara didn't answer immediately. She avoided his eyes.

"Well?" he prompted, beginning to have a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"I fainted because the Hollow came," she said at last. "I don't know why. But before I continue, do you promise to believe me?"

Evan frowned. "Sure." Inside, though, he wasn't so certain. Tamara wasn't usually too reliable.

"Stop it!" she shouted. She covered her mouth.

Evan blinked. "H-huh?" Did she just –

"I…" she said, "I sort of can read minds now."

"That's crazy, Tamara," Evan said, unable to wrap his mind around it. "P-peculiars only get one power. We talked about this."

"But it's true!" she protested. "And – and it started with the Hollow."

She told him the whole story. About waking up to find herself inside a different being. About communicating telepathically and speaking to the Hollowgast. About getting electrocuted and being shocked right back into her own body, plus the mind powers.

At the very end, she concluded with, "Can you help? You're smart; I need to know how all this happened."

Evan took a moment to digest everything he'd just heard. A good Hollow? Unlikely. But he pushed these doubts aside and answered, "I don't know. This is crazy."

"I know," Tamara said with a hint of exasperation in her voice.

"But," Evan went on, "now that you've told me all this, we can figure it out." He thought for a few seconds. "I'd say that the Hollow making you become telepathic has something to do with the Hollow. It probably has some sort of relation to you as well."

"Evan?" Tamara said. "You're logic is confusing me."

"Good to know." He continued speaking. "So maybe you're related to it somehow. If what you say about it once being some innocent person is true, then it could be, like, you're great-great uncle or something."

"Now it's scaring me."

Evan rolled his eyes. "Relax, I don't know anything for sure."

"But how do we know?" Tamara said.

Evan shrugged.

A thought struck him. "Where is your totally-not-evil Hollow, anyway?"

His POV

I was in the room with them.

The girl told me to stay. I wasn't sure I could resist my appetite, but somehow, I did.

They did a lot of yakking. It was terribly boring.

But everything they said, the girl repeated in my mind more interestingly. It was strange. They were talking about theories, but they had no real proof for anything they said. There wasn't really a way to get proof, in any case.

I jumped up when I heard the girl's voice in my head: Come on!

Uh-oh. The penny had dropped.

I came forward, knowing the girl was about to make the boy very angry. According to her, it was one of her many talents.

Hopefully, they'd get answers soon. And evidence. The girl said she'd die from the real-life cliffhanger if they didn't.

What I didn't know was that answers would come sooner than I thought.

My partner, Love, has never heard of the idiom I used in this chapter. And she called it a metaphor. Weirdo.