My Hollow System

Chapter Six – The Abyss Stares Back

I don’t recommend hallucinating shadow demons while your body’s rewriting your DNA.

Trust me, it’s not as fun as it sounds.

The moment the Blind Stalker hit the ground, twitching like a broken marionette, I felt something inside me snap. And I don’t mean emotionally though, let’s be honest, that was already a trainwreck. No, this was literal. Like bones shifting without permission. Like my blood decided to throw a rave and forgot to invite my sanity.

My head was on fire. Not metaphorically. Like, lava-in-your-skull, microwave-on-your-brain fire.

> [Evolution Threshold Reached]

[Processing Genetic Recalibration…]

Great. The System decided it was the perfect time to update my firmware.

I stumbled, nearly face-planting into the cracked concrete. Adrian caught me before I did a full nosedive.

“Elias! Yo! You good? You’re turning kinda... zombie-colored, and I mean that in the worst way.”

I couldn’t answer him. My mouth didn’t work. My eyes didn’t work. My everything didn’t work.

Because then, the world changed.

One blink, I was in a ruined city.

Next blink void.

No ground, no sky, just black. Endless, oppressive, “Oops-you’re-not-supposed-to-be-here” kind of black. I floated or maybe fell? Hard to say when gravity gives up on you entirely.

Then they appeared.

Figures. Tall, shadowy, shaped like people but absolutely not. Their edges flickered like static, their movements were smoke, and their eyes gods help me their eyes glowed a sickly golden, not fiery or warm. More like radioactive sorrow.

They stood in a circle, staring at me like I was the uninvited guest at a very cult-y wedding.

One stepped forward. Its voice wasn’t a voice. It was every whisper you’ve ever heard in a nightmare mashed into one sound. It slipped into my skull like a splinter.

“You are not ready.”

Nice to meet you too.

I tried to move, speak, scream something but I was frozen. My limbs refused to budge. It was like being trapped in molasses and fear.

“You are incomplete.”

That stung. Especially because it was true. I could feel it this gaping absence inside me, like a puzzle piece yanked from my soul.

The figure raised a hand. Or… tendril? Smoke-arm? Whatever. It didn’t touch me, not really. It just reached and suddenly pain.

Pure, blistering, white-hot pain tore through my chest like a sword made of lightning. My vision exploded.

Then.......

Darkness.

And pavement.

And Adrian yelling.

“Dude! You’re freaking me out!”

I blinked, gasped like I’d surfaced from underwater, and rolled onto my side. My body was trembling, skin clammy, heartbeat way too calm for what I’d just experienced.

“I… I saw something,” I rasped.

“No kidding. You were just standing there twitching like someone yanked your plug.”

I wanted to explain, but how do you tell your best friend you just took a field trip to a cosmic void and got roasted by Creepypasta Watchers?

The System didn’t say anything. No updates. No smug comments. Just static silence.

But I didn’t need it to tell me I was different again.

I could feel it in the way my muscles moved, too fluid, too perfect. The way I could hear birds scuttling hundreds of feet away, or count every individual breath Adrian took like they were thunderclaps.

It was terrifying.

And addicting.

“Let’s keep moving,” I said, mostly to distract myself.

Adrian hesitated. “You sure you’re not gonna short-circuit again?”

I gave him the best I-could-die-any-second shrug I could manage. “No promises.”

We headed deeper into the city, through streets that looked like they’d lost a war to a tornado made of despair. Cars were overturned, windows shattered, the buildings leaning like they were drunk on hopelessness.

Adrian pointed to a battered office building draped in ivy and sadness. “Safehouse. Or it used to be. It’s got reinforced walls and maybe working plumbing.”

We slipped inside, navigating broken furniture and graffiti-covered walls. The air was stale but still breathable definitely an upgrade from collapsing tunnels.

But then something went wrong.

Again.

Slow clapping echoed through the shadows.

Now, unless you’re at a Broadway show, slow clapping is always a red flag.

We both froze.

And there it was.

The Apex Hollowed.

The same one from the tunnel. But different. Evolved.

It stood in the doorway like a nightmare on pause. Taller than before. Its skin had darkened, plates of armor rippling across its chest. Its eyes no longer red burned gold.

And worst?

It smiled.

Not a feral snarl. A human smile.

Like it remembered how.

Adrian raised his gun. “Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me”

The Apex’s voice rolled across the room, calm and smooth, like silk dipped in arsenic. “You’ve changed.”

Okay. That was new.

It spoke.

Full sentences. Proper grammar. A Hollowed that passed English class? No thank you.

Elias locked eyes with it. “What do you want?”

The Apex tilted its head. “You’re still incomplete.”

Boom. There it was again. The same exact words from the void.

My stomach twisted. It knew. Somehow, it knew what I saw.

Adrian didn’t wait for a monologue. He fired.

Big mistake.

The Apex blurred. That’s the only way to describe it. It didn’t move. It evaporated from one spot and reappeared inches behind me.

I spun, instincts screaming, barely dodging a strike that would’ve opened me from neck to hip.

It didn’t finish the attack.

Instead, it leaned in close.

“You’re almost ready,” it whispered. “But not yet.”

Then it vanished.

Just gone.

Like it was never there.

The silence that followed was heavier than a mountain.

Adrian lowered his gun, panting. “Okay. I’m officially out. Let’s go find an island, build a treehouse, and never speak again.”

I couldn’t even joke.

Because the truth hit me like a truck full of Hollowed.

The Apex was evolving, like me.

It was stronger, faster and worse?

It remembered.

Hours passed.

The sun dipped below the broken skyline, casting the city in shades of shadow. Adrian was asleep in the corner, snoring like someone who’d hit his daily trauma quota.

I sat against the wall, staring at nothing.

The whispers hadn’t left. They were still there, coiled in the back of my skull, humming with anticipation. Like they were waiting.

I wasn’t dumb.

Something was inside me. Something ancient. Something alien.

And I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep it buried.

Then......the System finally returned.

> [Genetic Sync: 89% Complete]

[Next Phase: Integration]

Awesome. Love that for me.

Integration sounded suspiciously like “turn into something else.”

I looked at my hands. They looked normal. Felt normal.

But they weren’t.

And neither was I.

Adrian stirred. “We need a plan, man.”

“I know.”

“That Apex freak he’s not like the others. He’s… like you.”

Yeah. I knew that too.

And here’s the thing.

We would meet again.

And when we did?

Only one of us was walking away.