Page 47 of Hollow

“I don’t think he’s one of the hunters…” Jack stood close by, uneasy and unsure if he should intervene.

“You are a scout, a poor one at that.”

“No, no, I’m just lost,” the man pleaded, beginning to hyperventilate.

“The fog does turn folks around easily,” Jack said, trying to broker some type of conflict resolution.

“The fog also leads people out of the forest, not in circles.” Dimitri pressed his foot down harder onto the man’s chest. “Who are you?”

“Ow, ow, ow, my name is Ted,” he whined. “Theodore Ackley. I swear, I didn’t mean any harm.”

Dimitri growled.

“I have my wallet wi-with-with my ID,” Ted cried. “And cash. Not much, but I-I got a little on me. Please.”

“Why were you following us specifically?” Dimitri leaned in close, mere inches from Ted’s face.

“I saw the pumpkin head guy walking nearby. Bright orange head is kind of hard to miss in a blanket of snow. Plus, he’s got flyers all over town,” Ted insisted. “I figured he’d probably be heading back to the city, so I thought I’d ask, but you both kind of looked creepy in your costumes, and I got worried. Like, what if you dress up and perform Satanic rituals in the forest? Or attack people for no reason? Which seemed ridiculous, but I just figured I’d follow your path until I found something familiar close to town.”

“This one bores me,” Astaroth grumbled. “Far too easy to break. I prefer a challenge.”

Astaroth trotted off deeper into the woods, no longer amused by Dimitri’s feral state of panic.

“I think he’s telling the truth,” Jack pleaded.

“Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me, please don’t… Oh, God, no!” Ted winced and cried and looked away as his pants were soon covered in a big wet spot.

“Fuck, he pissed himself.” Jack cringed.

Dimitri warily released his foot and stepped back. He kept his eyes locked on Ted the entire time the man sobbed to himself.

Jack awkwardly laughed. “Oh, damn. Okay, maybe we should kill him just to put the poor dude out of his misery.”

“Please, don’t kill me,” Ted cried.

“That was a joke,” Jack insisted. “A bad one, but yeah.”

“Perhaps I am mistaken.” Dimitri frowned. “You may leave.”

Ted sat up cautiously, looking around the barren forest with no clue where to run.

“That way.” Jack pointed.

Ted didn’t hesitate. He crawled to his feet and sprinted as quickly as his legs would carry him.

“I feel foolish.”

“No, could happen to any of us.”

“I am obsessed with the fear of the Hearsts returning for me.” Dimitri leaned against a tree. “I need to bury the thought, remove them from my mind, and stop dwelling on what may never come.”

“Do you really think they’ll hunt you down again?”

“I did.” Dimitri paused, staring up at the cloudy sky. “But now I wonder if I am merely a minor profit loss for them. My decades bound to their service were perhaps meaningless to them. My absence fills me with dread every waking moment, but for them it may be a simple inconvenience.”

“Is there anything I can do or not do to help you?” Jack approached Dimitri, reaching out his hand and pressing the back against Dimitri’s. Their knuckles brushed against each other. “I know I can’t erase what happened or remove the fear, but I am here, and I will do everything in my power to protect you.”

Jack rarely exerted the full extent of his strength. Even the dozens of hunters who showed up with Dimitri didn’t require much effort on his part. Still, Jack worried despite all his abilities that he wouldn’t be able to quell the horror haunting Dimitri’s mind.