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"What if every question we ask..."

She glances toward the blank television.

"...is exactly what whoever's doing this wants?"

It's a fair question. One I've been asking myself since yesterday. But I already know my answer.

"If someone threatens you for looking too closely..."

I meet her eyes.

"...it usually means you're close to something they don't want found."

She studies me for a long moment. Then gives the smallest nod.

"I hate that you're probably right."

"I know."

Outside, thunder rolls across Sleepy Hollow. Closer this time. The countdown to Halloween has dropped into single digits. I have the unmistakable feeling that we aren't simply investigating a mystery anymore.

The mystery has started investigating us.

11

CARYS

OCTOBER 22 ~ 9 DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN

The internet has always been a place where people confess things they would never say aloud. That is the foundation of Hollow Truths.

People think the anonymity is what makes them brave. It isn't. Anonymity just removes the consequences.

A stranger sitting alone in the dark at two in the morning will type the truth they would never admit across a kitchen table. They'll confess affairs. Addictions. Resentments. Secrets they've carried for decades.

They'll tell me exactly what happened. They'll tell me what they're afraid of. They'll tell me what they already know. They just need someone else to say it first.

For years, I've done little else but recognize patterns in human behavior. I know when someone is lying. I know when someone is looking for validation instead of advice. I know when a person is leaving out the one detail that changes everything. But this…

This isn't human behavior. And that terrifies me.

I sit at my desk before sunrise with three cups of coffee, six open tabs, and a notebook filled with words that still don't feel real. Disappearances. Missing records. Deleted photographs. Corrupted files. Teenagers who vanished. Families who claimed they remembered something being wrong before it happened.

The pattern has been there. I just wasn't looking for it. Now that I am…

I can't stop seeing it.

My fingers hover over the keyboard. The hardest part isn't finding information. The hardest part is asking the right question without telling people what answer I'm searching for.

If I post:

Have you experienced a supernatural disappearance?

I'll get attention. Too much attention. People love ghosts. They love monsters. They love turning fear into entertainment.

I'll receive thousands of fake stories, Halloween jokes, and people claiming their neighbor is secretly a vampire because they don't mow their lawn. Not useful.

I need truth buried under noise.