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Short filmTranscript
00:00to try on the bridesmaid dress she put on my wedding gown instead on the morning of my wedding
00:04lily and my fiance walked out of the same hotel room together clothes disheveled the staff stared
00:10my parents wailed lily stood in my ruined wedding gown the torn lace the marks on her skin her mouth
00:16said sorry her eyes said i won my father kicked ethan in the thigh the staff held him back ethan
00:21got up off the floor hugged me gently emma i'm sorry but what's done is done please let us have
00:28your blessing shameless i could see it clearly he was satisfied everyone expected me to slap him
00:33instead i nodded the venue's already booked use it get married today right here emma i knew you were
00:39a generous person my parents nearly collapsed emma you're just letting them go i pulled my parents
00:45around the corner opened my hand two broken pieces of the bracelet lay in my palm just now it broke
00:51just now dad's fingers were trembling that can't be right i nodded my parents faces changed instantly
00:57terror dad grabbed my hand and pulled we're moving now right now we passed the cardboard standees by
01:05the hotel entrance the ones with ethan and me printed life-size and wedding clothes dad kicked
01:10ethan's mom grabbed mine and tucked it under her arm she was already on the phone with the wedding
01:14coordinator before we reached the parking lot telling him to strip every photo every banner
01:19every sign with my name on it from the venue i deleted ethan's number every photo every message
01:25thread we left the hotel in a dead street by that night we had packed up our lives and left
01:30the city
01:31entirely it all came down to what grandma had left behind grandma was the most gifted seer in the
01:36whole town big things small things it didn't matter lost cats coming disasters she'd called every
01:42single one some people said she wasn't fully human that she was something else wearing a human face
01:48because in 99 years of living she was never once wrong she died on the clear winter afternoon she
01:54was sitting in the rocking chair in the yard one hand resting on our old dog then she called my
01:59name
02:00little emma i was eight i walked over she lifted the bracelet and tied it around mine keep this on
02:06don't ever take it off if it breaks someday it means it stops something from reaching you something
02:12enormous you leave immediately you hear me get as far as you can from whoever was closest
02:17to you when it broke i didn't understand what kind of enormous thing grandma she looked at me for a
02:23long moment then without teeth she said two words slowly hollow creek just that then she leaned back
02:29in the chair and closed her eyes and was gone the whole region turned out for her funeral seven
02:34towns worth of people who mattered i told mom and dad everything she'd said i asked them what hollow creek
02:39was they went still then they closed the subject packed our things and moved us to the city
02:45that was the memory i'd buried for years until now
02:51the story about me ethan and lily spread everywhere at first people took my side lily was the villain
02:58a best friend who slept with her best friend's groom on the wedding night was as low as it got
03:03then people found out i hadn't fought back i'd handed over the groom and the wedding without so much as
03:08a
03:08raised voice the narrative flipped now i was the coward the doormat the girl who let her best friend
03:13steal her man and just stood there i didn't care let them talk lily became mrs ethan mercer in the
03:19ceremony that was supposed to be mine she was thrilled with herself her instagram hadn't stopped
03:24moving since that day close-ups of the engagement ring the hundred thousand dollar check from ethan's
03:29parents ethan down on one knee fitting her with a crystal-heeled shoe closet after closet of designer
03:35clothes and accessories grateful for everything grateful i was brave enough to go after what i wanted
03:40i'm glad i did you but i breathed in this life you only get one shot take it ethan played
03:48along
03:48flooding his own feed with couple photos mutual friends liked everything a few left comments on
03:53lily's posts guess some people just aren't meant for this life huh lily replied with a grinning emoji
03:58i saw it all and laughed out loud she had no idea what was coming
04:02i shook my head and put the phone down the world keeps score eventually
04:08we didn't just move across town we moved halfway across the state the new place was out of the way
04:14small population mom said any nearby city would have been fine but dad wouldn't hear it he had
04:20something in his head that made him insist on going hundreds of miles mom gave up arguing we went i
04:26trusted grandma's warning but my parents reaction still made me curious that night at dinner i asked
04:32what exactly is the catastrophe grandma was talking about the table went quiet mom put a piece of pot
04:38roast on dad's plate she's grown up now we can tell her dad hesitated then he nodded go ahead my
04:45mind was
04:45already running a catastrophe was it a natural disaster a flood some kind of earthquake hollow creek mom
04:53said her voice was flat and serious you remember what grandma said yes hollow creek was a small
04:59community maybe 300 people 12 miles from where we grew up she stopped one night every single person
05:06in that community was found hanged the whole settlement gone the warmth of the dinner table just
05:12evaporated hanged every one of them i'd imagined floods fires not this why i asked mom and dad exchanged a
05:21look something got in they said at the same time i finished dinner in a fog i kept turning it
05:26over
05:26no wonder grandma had pressed that bracelet into my hands before she died it was meant for exactly
05:32this and she'd seen it coming decades before it happened then a thought hit me if the bracelet
05:37protected me from whatever was attached to ethan why didn't it break earlier why only now after he
05:44and lily spent the night together had grandma calculated that too had she seen even that variable
05:49coming i was still in my head about it when my phone rang unknown number i picked up emma are
05:55you
05:56okay ethan i hung up and blocked the number before the call screen even faded i wasn't touching anything
06:01connected to him not anymore after that i stopped answering unknown numbers entirely i was too scared
06:07not to meanwhile lily kept performing for the internet designer halls luxury hotel stays jewelry unboxings
06:14that went on for minutes the rich wife content never stopped then she got bored of showing off and
06:19decided to come back for me late one night lily went live full glam draped in an expensive fur coat
06:24sinking into an equally expensive couch the comments poured in all compliments she smiled and nodded at
06:31the camera just wanted to hang out with you guys tonight no agenda she walked through a few handbags
06:36answered some questions and then someone in the chat brought up my name she leaned into it immediately
06:41her i mean some people just aren't built for this life i guess the meal was basically on the table
06:49and she still couldn't figure out how to eat it as for us being best friends i don't know did
06:55she ever
06:56actually treat me like one she met ethan and didn't say a word to me for weeks only told me
07:01once they
07:02were already together like she was afraid i'd compete can't help it if love finds a way where is she
07:08now
07:09honestly her family was probably terrified once i became a mercer they ran out the same night as the
07:15wedding probably thought i'd come after them once i had money i stared at the screen at this stranger
07:21wearing my best friend's face i'd been that blind for that long she was still making things up about me
07:26but the live chat was quick someone spotted something lily your wardrobe behind you i think it just moved
07:32wait i saw that too something's in there is that a dog go check lily missed the comments at first
07:37then the chat flooded with it everyone was telling her to watch her back i saw it too the wardrobe
07:43door
07:44was cracked open an inch something was there in the gap the angle was wrong in a specific way that
07:49made my stomach turn because if those were eyes looking through the crack they were positioned at the
07:53very bottom of the door almost at floor level lily rolled her eyes at the chat she pulled the fur
07:59coat
07:59tighter around her shoulders you guys are always trying to scare me nobody else is home tonight
08:05okay stop it then she stood up heels clicking against the floor and walked straight to the wardrobe
08:11that the phone pointed at it see nothing she yanked the door open a man in a black jacket tumbled
08:17out
08:18and hit the floor hard he was wearing a black face mask expensive jewelry scattered around him when he
08:23landed a burglar clearly but he didn't run he pressed himself into the corner of the room and curled up
08:29eyes unfocused face the color of old paper don't kill me please i didn't mean it please don't let
08:36it look at me again he was staring at the air just above lily's shoulder he threw himself forward and
08:44started slamming his forehead against the floor in front of her feet i'm begging you please i'll do
08:49anything don't kill me don't kill me he kept going until his forehead was slick with blood faster and
08:54faster lily stumbled back hand pressed over her chest then she ran screaming help there's someone
09:02in my house help the phone got knocked off whatever surface it was resting on feed went sideways then
09:08dark i sat there staring at my screen that man had seen something something that had broken him open
09:13in seconds whatever it was it wasn't in the frame i thought about what mom had told me about hollow
09:18creek
09:19the feeling in my gut wasn't good something was already inside the mercer house and whatever it
09:23was it had started showing itself lily's break-in went viral ethan rushed home that night the moment
09:31he appeared on her live stream i closed the app i wasn't watching anything that had his face in it
09:36not with what was coming my phone buzzed sophie my college roommate she'd lived in the same dorm as lily
09:42and me emma i heard about what lily did i'm so sorry you're doing okay i typed back thanks then
09:49another message she's disgusting for what she did to you listen i've been thinking do you want to do
09:55something about it i have an idea i paused sophie and lily had always been close too we all lived
10:00on
10:01the same floor i didn't want to go near lily not now she was sleeping next to ethan every night
10:06and
10:06whatever was coming for him i wasn't putting myself anywhere in that radius i turned sophie down
10:11she kept pushing kept asking if i wanted payback kept dangling this idea she had i put her on mute
10:18mom and dad had shifted into a different mode entirely they'd been making supply runs every day
10:23the apartment was filling up food cooking oil canned goods bottled water snacks they knew i liked
10:30even a few boxes of the meat-free stuff i sometimes ate are we preparing for the apocalypse i asked
10:36watching dad stack water bottles along the wall he wiped his hands on his jeans and slid a case of
10:42my favorite drinks into the fridge you read too many of those end-of-the-world novels but yeah
10:47something like that mom added we don't leave this apartment for the next month you call into work
10:53and if they won't give you the time off you quit being alive is the only thing that matters right
10:58now
10:59cut every thread that could connect us to what's happening over there dad turned around and looked
11:04at me and i know you've been watching that woman's streams that stops now i nodded and blocked lily's
11:11account right there in front of them dad took a folding chair out to the balcony and sat there smoking
11:16he watched the sky turn red and orange at the edge of the horizon he exhaled slowly someone's going to
11:23pay
11:23for this one we shut the door and stayed inside mom and dad had never given me the full story
11:29on
11:29hollow creek just the broad outline but a whole community hanged in a single night and no one
11:34could explain it and no weapon was ever found whatever had done it wasn't human meanwhile lily
11:39and ethan kept living like they'd won something lunch at expensive restaurants nights on the water
11:45with friends all of it posted all of it bright until the middle of that month when the haunting
11:50started even with lily blocked the story found me influencers were covering it accounts i still
11:56followed were sharing clips the mercer estate was haunted it was everywhere the mercers all lived
12:01together in the same mansion a sprawling place with more rooms than any family needed one night
12:06lily woke up to the sound of crying she was half asleep didn't register it at first but the crying
12:12got
12:12louder higher it cut through the air like something sharp she finally noticed it was coming from her own
12:18balcony she hadn't drawn the curtains before bed she looked toward the glass a woman in a white
12:23sundress was sitting on the balcony railing back turned knees pulled up sobbing long hair down to
12:29her waist the balcony was on the fourth floor lily screamed by the time the housekeeper and the house
12:35manager got there the balcony door was locked from the inside nothing there no one the mercers told her
12:41she'd imagined it then the second thing happened ethan's younger brother had always walked in his sleep
12:46that night he dreamed of a girl in a white dress crouching beside the mansion's outdoor pool
12:53he was curious he walked over in his sleep and put a hand on her shoulder she turned around
12:59high pitched it kept building folding back on itself bouncing off the walls of the whole estate like a loop
13:05that wouldn't close when ethan's brother came back to himself the girl was gone he looked for her
13:11something grabbed him from behind and dragged him toward the pool underwater he couldn't make
13:16out her face but two fingers hooked into his eye sockets and pressed like they were trying to pull
13:20them out the security guard heard him and pulled him out one incident could be a coincidence three in a
13:26row was something else lily had talked about all of this on a live stream before ethan shut it down
13:31and told her family business stayed inside the family but the damage was already done the story was out
13:37i listened to a content creator break the whole thing down and felt the cold settle into my back
13:42and this was just the beginning i didn't want to think about what could be worse than an entire
13:46settlement of 300 people hanged in one night but i was starting to understand that we were going to
13:52find out i opened my nightstand drawer and took out the two halves of the broken bracelet i held them
13:58in the light grandma had worn this for 99 years she passed it to me and it lasted less than
14:0410 it stopped
14:06one thing on the way to me and now it was done what stopped the next one my phone rang
14:11sophie i picked
14:12up yeah emma you've been following the stuff with lily's family right yeah what do you make of it
14:18don't you think someone did this to them because how else does a family like theirs just start having
14:23all these incidents back to back i frowned you think i did something no no not at all i just
14:30mean
14:30you know karma she paused actually emma i wanted to ask you something i know your grandma was this
14:37incredibly gifted woman people said she could predict basically anything i know she passed away
14:43but is there anyone in your family who has that same ability or do you know a minister or a
14:49priest or
14:50anyone like that who might be able to help no i hung up i sat with that for a moment
14:57the only person
14:58i'd ever told about grandma's gift was lily connecting the dots didn't take long sophie
15:04was lily's informant the earlier texts the let me help you get revenge messages those were probably
15:10meant to pull something out of me so lily could use it online when that didn't work she'd tried a
15:16different angle now there was a crisis and lily wanted me to solve it not a chance that night at
15:22dinner i told my parents what had happened they sat with it faces tight not speaking finally dad said
15:29your grandma saw this coming too i nearly choked on my food i grabbed my water and took a long
15:36drink
15:37she said the disaster couldn't be stopped the pendant could only cover one person everyone else would have
15:45to find their own way through as for your friend tell her to find the old chapel on the south
15:52hill
15:52outside their city there's someone there who might be able to help whether it works or not is up to
15:59them dad was a more generous man than i was i hadn't been planning to do anything for lily but
16:05the words
16:06were already out so i passed them along i sent the message through sophie and told her to get it
16:11to the
16:11mercer family they moved fast a team was sent to the chapel that same day we stayed inside and kept
16:18our heads down when we did go out we wore masks and kept to ourselves none of our new neighbors
16:23had
16:24any idea who we were nobody connected us to the family being laughed at online for running away from
16:29a wedding disaster all of it was grandma's instruction according to my parents we thought passing along that
16:36tip might change something for them we were wrong a man died at the mercer estate ethan's father it hit
16:42the news fast everyone online was trying to figure out if it was murder or something else it happened
16:47the night of his 70th birthday the family had thrown an elaborate dinner the guest of honor cut the cake
16:52said his good night and went upstairs to rest he was found dead in his bathroom drowned in the toilet
16:57the police noted that the evidence around him suggested a sustained struggle his face had scratch marks on
17:03it every piece of physical evidence pointed to one conclusion one that none of the investigators would
17:08say out loud either mr mercer had done it to himself or there had been a hand reaching up from
17:13inside the
17:14toilet bowl ripping his face until he went under a birthday dinner turned into a funeral dad stared at
17:19the news article on his phone something's wrong according to your grandma even if the chapel priest
17:24couldn't stop the disaster entirely he should have been able to buy them time but this happened almost
17:29immediately that doesn't track we looked at each other around the table mom let out a long breath
17:34maybe that's just how it was meant to go dad shook his head slowly or maybe they never found him
17:39emma call sophie don't tell her where we are i nodded and dialed sophie picked up on the second ring
17:44she sounded worn down hey emma i need to ask you something i said the chapel priest i told you
17:50about
17:50did you pass that along to them oh that she went quiet for a beat dad crossed his arms and
17:55narrowed his
17:56eyes he already suspected she'd either not told them or gotten it wrong sophie's voice came out
18:02unsteady emma can i ask where are you right now the whole room went alert mom and dad both leaned
18:08in
18:08listening i kept my voice flat that's not what i asked answer my question first sophie took a breath
18:14i did tell them i passed it along but lily told me afterward that the priest he was frightened to
18:20death
18:20he what mom and dad looked at each other i had never seen that expression on either of their faces
18:25before pure unfiltered fear tell me exactly what happened i said according to sophie lily had told
18:32ethan immediately and the next morning ethan sent someone up to the south hill chapel to find the
18:37priest they brought him to the estate that same evening he was thin black ceremonial robe long hair
18:42held up loosely with a wooden stick he didn't look surprised to see them at all he told his assistant
18:47to feed the cat grabbed a bag and walked down the mountain he surveyed the estate first and told
18:53the family this was a sign of something catastrophic approaching the mercers panicked they cleared out
18:58that same night and left him there alone to work he covered the mansion in wards mixed strange liquids
19:05and drew patterns on the floors by the time he was done the estate looked less like a home and
19:10more
19:10like a giant prop from a horror movie his whole night passed without a single sound heard by the
19:15security team stationed outside they assumed it meant success the next morning the whole family pushed
19:20inside everything looked exactly as it had been left except the priest was gone they split up to
19:26search the place ethan found him in the kitchen specifically inside the large food storage bin
19:30rocking back and forth already gone somewhere in his mind the food inside the bin had turned
19:35completely black his face was the color of a bruise his pupils were spinning independently of each
19:41other he kept whispering my fault my fault don't come back please don't don't i'm sorry my fault ethan
19:47reached for him to ask what had happened the priest and drove his own thumbs into his eyes
19:54i didn't say anything for a long time after sophie finished emma sophie said carefully is there anything
20:01else any other way to fix this dad made a sharp gesture cut it off no i said and hung
20:08up dad slapped
20:10both hands on his knees and stood up we're done here we need to leave this state we didn't even
20:15take the supplies we abandoned everything in the apartment bought plane tickets on the way to the
20:20airport and got out by the time lily tracked down our address she showed up to an empty unit after
20:26we
20:26landed i heard through a mutual friend that she'd actually gone there she and ethan had tried hundreds
20:32of different phone numbers trying to reach me my phone filtered unknown callers straight to voicemail
20:37more bad news came from the mercers ethan's brother died he was found hanged in his apartment
20:43a deep ligature mark around his neck police searched every inch of the space no rope no cord
20:49nothing to explain how it had been done lily stopped performing for the camera all the bravado was gone
20:56the mercer family scattered some moved to new addresses others flew overseas a few filed for police
21:03protection everyone was running as far from the estate as they could get lily and ethan cycled
21:08through a string of priests and ministers keeping them in the house around the clock dad watched one
21:13clip of it and said flatly that none of it would work back in hollow creek hundreds of people had
21:19died
21:19in the same space on the same night strength in numbers hadn't mattered at all the hollow creek story
21:25was the kind of thing that didn't have a clean explanation grandma had sensed the disaster coming
21:30and gone to the community to ask whether any of them had done something wrong something that might
21:35have earned them this they denied everything they called her a liar that same night a boy from hollow
21:42creek went missing the whole community organized a search they found him deep inside a thicket of
21:48thorned brush at the edge of the woods the kind that grows in dense tangled clusters roots and trunks
21:54locked together every branch lined with long thick spines getting anything out of the center of a
22:00growth like that meant cutting it all down the boy's voice was coming from the very middle they
22:04chopped their way through to reach him when they pulled him out he was gone in the head he couldn't
22:09answer questions he just kept repeating one phrase i'm sorry i'm sorry please don't miss please a few
22:16days later the hollow creek community came back to grandma 300 people heads low they asked for her help
22:22she shook her head too late within days it happened every person in hollow creek was found hanged in
22:29their own home no weapons found same as ethan's brother one night everyone gone grandma investigated
22:37afterward and eventually found the truth a woman had passed through hollow creek while traveling she was
22:41mentally ill unstable in her condition sometimes lucid and sometimes not the community leader's eldest son had
22:48seen her and decided he wanted to marry her during one of her clear-headed periods she refused him
22:53plainly and firmly she tried to run but the whole community helped keep her in place they cornered her
22:58trapped her they locked her in an old storage shed at the edge of the property the son's plan was
23:03to
23:03break her down in two days and make her comply a week passed before he showed up with a bowl
23:07of plain
23:07noodles to negotiate he found a rotting body hanging from the shed ceiling beam her neck had stretched long
23:13from the drop she must have lost her grip on reality at some point that first night sometime before
23:18morning she had hanged herself i turned it over in my mind hollow creek everyone hanged ethan's brother
23:23hanged no weapons recovered either time same pattern two disasters decades apart was it the same presence
23:29behind both mom and dad shut that line of thinking down immediately the less you speculate the better
23:36dad said very serious about it if your grandma's bracelet hadn't taken that hit for you you'd be in this
23:44with them right now that landed if grandma hadn't left me that bracelet if grandma hadn't left those
23:52specific final words if lily hadn't done what she did on that wedding morning in some twisted way lily had
24:00stepped in front of something meant for me that thought left me cold more news came through of all
24:06the mercer family members who had fled overseas the one who'd gone the farthest was the first to die
24:12ethan's uncle found in his overseas apartment hanged no explanation i noticed the pattern
24:20the farther the distance from the estate the faster the death as if something was making a point
24:26don't run lily and ethan stopped seeing the white dressed figure but they were barely functioning
24:32they launched a 24-hour live stream just the two of them on camera constantly asking the internet to
24:39keep them company keep them awake keep them present during one stream a comment caught lily's eye do you
24:46think this is karma for stealing your best friend's relationship she startled visibly you think so is it
24:51too late to apologize she's blocked my number what do i do ethan had deteriorated he was thin now hollowed
25:00out the easy confidence was completely gone he put his face close to the camera emma i know you're out
25:06there what happened was my fault all of it i ruined things with you and now my family is falling
25:12apart
25:13please if you can hear this help us i heard about this through other people's screenshots and comment
25:19threads i shook my head whatever was happening to the mercer family had nothing to do with the affair
25:24they had done something the same kind of something the people of hollow creek had done
25:28this had been building long before i ever met ethan then ethan had a dream in the dream
25:34a girl took him by the hand and told him she knew somewhere good somewhere he'd want to go
25:38she was pretty soft-spoken she held his hand gently ethan followed without hesitation i want
25:45to show you something she said there's a heavy stone on top of you lift it ethan looked down there
25:50was a stone he lifted it now raise your hand and walk through this waterfall with me he did they
25:56passed through together let's climb the hill he nodded they climbed hand in hand easy and unhurried
26:03there's a stream at the top cross it with me the girl let go of his hand she stepped over
26:08the water
26:08first and stood on the other bank smiling back at him waving him forward ethan nodded wait for me
26:14he was about to step across when lily's screaming pulled him awake don't go don't cross it ethan's
26:21eyes cleared slowly his mind felt thick but on the opposite side the girl's face had changed her smile
26:28had stretched too wide her voice dropped your eyes are opening lily dragged him back from the rooftop ledge
26:35she was crying hard i woke up and you were gone the front door was wide open and i found
26:43you up here
26:44how did you get to the roof ethan turned around the ground was 12 stories down the height hit him
26:50like
26:51cold water the whole sleepwalk had been recorded by the live stream camera which was still running in
26:56their room he worked it backward lifting the stone pulling off the blanket raising his hand through the
27:02waterfall pressing his thumb to the front door scanner climbing the hill walking up the staircase crossing
27:08the stream jumping i heard this second hand from people sharing clips in group chats my hands were
27:14cold reading about it there was no getting out of this not for them lily had told ethan everything
27:19about grandma including that she had been a gifted seer whose predictions had never failed
27:24now the two of them were searching for us obsessively the deaths overseas kept arriving and exactly as i had
27:33suspected the ones who had fled the farthest died first nearest last lily had been the first to
27:39encounter the presence she'd been inside that house from the beginning she was still alive i told my
27:44parents the pattern i'd identified they nodded slowly it might be a warning stay close
27:50try to escape so being near the house is actually safer they didn't answer they kept eating i thought
27:57about it for a day then i sent the observation through sophie and told her to pass it to lily
28:02i didn't expect
28:03what happened next that same night lily and ethan moved back into the estate i genuinely hadn't expected
28:09them to actually do it months past the rest of the mercer family died or disappeared but lily and ethan
28:15inside that house they had every reason to flee they're still breathing people on the outside started
28:20saying they'd survived that whatever curse had attached to the family had lifted lily and ethan seemed
28:25to believe it too word reached us eventually the two of them had broken down completely neither could
28:32control themselves anymore basic functions gone the estate had become uninhabitable from the inside
28:38trash everywhere insects the kind of collapse that doesn't happen overnight i thought it was over
28:43then dad told me something he'd been sitting on ethan was the boy from hollow creek the one who had
28:49been found inside the thorn brush rocking repeating i'm sorry to someone who wasn't there he'd been sent
28:55out of state to a hospital and treated he recovered and in recovering he buried all of it chose not
29:01to
29:01remember his early childhood a kind family had taken him in that family was the mercers how do you know
29:07that
29:07i asked your grandma calculated it she always believed there had been one survivor from hollow creek
29:14that night someone who slipped through looking at ether's age and what we know about the boy it
29:20lines up i sat with that everything connected to me had been connected to this from the beginning
29:25i thought it was ending then reports started appearing online people from all over the country were
29:35having the same dream a woman in white i looked at the comments all of these people had one thing
29:40in
29:40common they had all watched lily's live streams and that was when i finally understood what grandma
29:46had meant by catastrophic when the woman had been alive she had been sick in her mind yes but she
29:51had been
29:51precise hollow creek had been responsible and hollow creek had suffered nobody else was touched but now
29:58she was loose in a way she hadn't been before the live stream hundreds of thousands of eyes on the
30:03same
30:03screen the signal carrying something further than any of us had understood this wasn't contained anymore
30:09i stared at the trending topic on my screen for a long time haunted dreams same woman in white spotted
30:15nationwide 300 million views and climbing reports from multiple cities i scrolled through the comments
30:21last week i saw a woman in a white dress standing on my apartment balcony she had her back to
30:26me and
30:26she was crying i tried to scream and nothing came out i'm in atlanta i thought it was just me
30:31she was
30:32crouching by a lake kept asking why she'd been locked up my boyfriend had it last night he said she
30:37turned
30:37toward him and she had no face just hair he woke up i put the phone face down on the
30:43table outside the
30:44window of the farmhouse inn we were staying at there was a crooked old apple tree in the yard autumn
30:49wind the ripe fruit dropped and knocked against the concrete mom was cooking in the kitchen dad was
30:55on the front step mending a fishing net everything around me looked quiet almost aggressively quiet but
31:00i knew the net wasn't over the mercer estate anymore it wasn't closing in on lily and ethan it was
31:06closing
31:06in on hundreds of thousands of people who had opened an app one night to watch a pretty woman show
31:12off jewelry now i understood what grandma had called catastrophic after dinner i helped mom wash
31:20up she saw my face inside still thinking about it i didn't pretend otherwise mom if she's really
31:25reaching everyone who watched those streams how many people are we talking mom didn't answer she set
31:31the bowls in the sink and turned the tap on the water ran loud when she spoke her voice was
31:35low like
31:36it was coming from somewhere far back your grandma told me something once that woman the one who died
31:41in that shed she hated one thing above everything else being falsely accused hollow creek told everyone
31:47she had seduced the leader's son herself that she had gone after him they turned the whole story
31:51around on her and she had nobody left to defend her i went still she wasn't unstable before they took
31:57her mom shook her head she wasn't she was passing through she asked for water that was all her illness
32:02came later she lost her mind inside that shed by the third day she was gone by the fifth day
32:07she was
32:08dead what was she wearing when she came to ask for water mom reached over and turned off the tap
32:12a white
32:13dress old and washed out i didn't ask anything else after that that night i lay awake staring at the
32:19ceiling the low murmur of my parents voices came through the wall of the next room i couldn't make out
32:25words it sounded like two dry leaves brushing together in wind i turned over and picked up the broken
32:31bracelet from the nightstand in the moonlight the stones still looked smooth at the edges warm
32:36almost grandma had worn this for 99 years i'd had it for less than 10. it spent itself on one
32:42thing
32:42one person but what was next it wouldn't repair itself she wasn't here to give me another one i found
32:48myself wishing i had asked her back when i was eight years old standing in the yard in the winter
32:53sun
32:53grandma what was her name i dreamed that night not the white dress not the woman grandma she was sitting
32:59in the yard in the old rocking chair the dog was at her feet tail sweeping back and forth through
33:04the
33:04dead leaf i walked over knelt in front of her she looked down at me her mouth moved slowly the
33:10way
33:10it always had when she was thinking emma she said grandma what happened to her the woman from that
33:15community grandma didn't answer she reached out pressed her hand on top of my head light as a bird landing
33:22you just live well she said that's enough i woke up with a wet pillow in the morning dad said
33:28he needed to
33:28go into town for groceries i asked to come the inn was 20 miles from the nearest town the road
33:34out was
33:34unpaved and the van shook the whole way dad drove i rode passenger out the window trees lined the field
33:41bright orange fruit hanging heavy on every branch near the edge of town dad said your mom and i talked
33:46last night about what about taking you home not now once things quiet down a little more he kept his
33:52eyes on the road your grandma's grave needs tending he paused also before she passed she left a lock box
34:00it was under the floorboards beneath her bed we never touched it all these years what's in it don't know
34:07your mom thinks it was meant for you i didn't push dad pulled up along the market street and got
34:13out to
34:13look at produce i stayed in the van my phone buzzed sophie we hadn't spoken in a long time her
34:19message
34:19was short emma ethan and lily did you hear i stared at it my finger hovered over the screen after
34:26a long
34:26moment i typed back yeah she was typing for a while then the message came through in pieces like she
34:32was
34:32stopping and starting ethan had tried to cross the street last tuesday night during a shift change for
34:37the care staff he'd gotten up to the third floor balcony of the estate while muttering just one more
34:42step and i'm home the caregiver tried to hold him back couldn't he went over the railing he survived
34:47both legs broken in the icu lily was fully gone by then she didn't recognize anyone every day she sat
34:55in the corner of a room clutching one of ethan's old jackets and repeating the same sentence wasn't me
35:00i didn't lock you in don't come for me it wasn't me i didn't reply sophie sent one more message
35:06do you
35:07think if you hadn't stepped back that morning if you hadn't given them the wedding it would be you
35:11in that hospital right now i pressed the lock button outside the window dad was crouching at a produce
35:16stand picking through fruit one piece at a time he'd gotten older two years of running had turned half
35:22his hair white mom too the lines on her face were deeper than i remembered from before all of this
35:27started they hadn't done anything wrong they had just listened to an old woman in a rocking chair
35:32and they had believed her and they had spent every year since using everything they had to keep me
35:36safe from the town where we grew up to the city to another state to this farmhouse at the end
35:44of a
35:45dirt road they ran every time she told another state i got out of the van dad get a couple
35:51extra pounds mom
35:52likes the sour ones ethan died the first week of december snow on the ground sophie forwarded a screenshot of
35:59conversation with another old classmate ethan hadn't made it through surgery infection set in
36:04his organs gave out one by one lily was taken in by her parents from what people heard she was
36:10still
36:10the same no medication kept her calm for long her mother watched her around the clock the mercer estate
36:16sat empty it had been listed for sale for six months no takers people who drove past at night said
36:22they
36:22could hear crying from inside i deleted the screenshot the apple tree outside the farmhouse had gone bare
36:28just gray branches against a gray sky mom was smoking meats inside dad was at the outdoor market picking
36:35up supplies for the new year the small town was quiet nobody here knew that three people living in a
36:41rented room down the road had walked out of something enormous and nobody knew that what they had walked out
36:47of was still moving still spreading outward and outward the trending topic about the shared dream
36:53had been quietly removed from search results not because the situation had resolved because it had
36:59gotten too strange to leave visible but i knew in private in the dark in bedrooms across the country
37:05the dreams were still happening five years later the disaster in most people's minds had become
37:12something between a footnote and a rumor the people who had screamed into their screens during those
37:17live streams had moved on their fear dissolved
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