The Hollows(46)

Follow me, Abigail whispered.

And there it was. The cabin.

He had, of course, shown Goat and Fox right away. Up to that point he wasn’t sure they believed that he could see Abigail, that she was still with them, but when he led them to the cabin and told them Abigail had brought him here, he finally saw it on their faces. Belief.

‘I can feel her here,’ Goat said.

‘She decided to show herself to you, now you’ve finally shaved that dumb peach fuzz off,’ Crow laughed.

‘What about you?’ Crow asked Fox, and she nodded, dumbstruck. She was as awed by this place as he was. It was so close to Penance, but nobody knew it was here.

They began to spend all their time there. It became their true home. Crow created a kind of altar to Abigail, with a photo they had stolen from her house, along with candles and rocks from the lake shore, a pine cone, and a perfectly preserved skeleton of a mouse that Goat had found in the woods. They hung wind chimes on the porch.

They got together every day after school, shooting the shit, listening to metal on Fox’s old boom box, getting high. Abigail had shared joints with them sometimes, telling them it would make them feel closer to the earth, and she had been right. Whenever Crow smoked and went out into the woods, he felt like he had that day they’d gone to the ancient forest. The power of nature thrumming inside him. It made him feel like an animal, flooded by smells and sounds, reading shadows like they were words in a book.

Only one cloud hung over his life: his feelings for Fox. He still didn’t know who she hung out with when she wasn’t with him and Goat. He hadn’t seen her talking to any other boys at school, but he couldn’t help but worry. What if she found a boyfriend? That would be the worst thing that could ever happen. She was supposed to be his.

Be brave, Abigail said. Tell her.

But he couldn’t. Not yet.



A month after Abigail first brought him to the cabin, Crow had a surprise for them.

‘Abigail’s not happy,’ he said.

Both Fox and Goat looked alarmed.

‘It’s the campground. All those asshole kids tramping around, treating the woods like they don’t give a shit. I saw this boy carving his initials into a tree yesterday, and this boat spilling gas into the lake, and this dumb group of girls were starting a fire near the flat stone, and . . .’

He ranted on for a while, listing all the ways the idiots at the campground were spoiling the Hollows. Polluting Abigail’s woods. Their woods. He was aware that his voice got kind of high and that his face turned pink, and that Fox wouldn’t find that hot, not one bit, but he couldn’t help it. They were being besieged by outsiders. Invaders.

As leader, it was up to him to do something about it.

‘Abigail and I have come up with a plan,’ he said, getting up.

He had been sitting on one of the rickety, half-rotten chairs that had been in the cabin when he’d found it, along with a bed that stank of mould, and some rusty old tools that he’d been attempting to clean up.

He picked up the plastic bag he’d brought with him and reached inside, taking out the first rubber mask. He handed it to Goat. ‘That’s yours.’

Goat turned it over in his hands. ‘Whoa,’ he said.

‘Cool, huh? This dude my mom is dating works in a factory that makes Halloween costumes. I asked him to get these for us.’

He tried to swallow the lump in his throat as he turned and extended the ginger fox mask.

‘And for you, Fox,’ he said.

Goat had already put his on and was feeling his new face. ‘How do I look?’

‘Like you ought to be hanging out with Satan,’ Crow replied.

Goat chuckled while Fox examined her mask and said, ‘This is awesome. Did you get yourself one?’

‘Of course.’

He pulled the crow mask from the bag and, using both hands, pulled it over his head. It stank of rubber and made his face hot and uncomfortable. But when he wore it, he felt himself change. He was no longer merely called Crow. He became Crow.

‘So what are they for?’ Goat asked.

Crow grinned, even though he knew they couldn’t see his mouth beneath the rubber. ‘We’re gonna scare those campground kids out of our woods.’





Chapter 24


Frankie leaned back, adjusted her sunglasses and let out a sigh. We were in a rowing boat, somewhere close to the centre of the lake. The water was placid, just the gentlest breeze keeping us cool. ‘Maybe we should stay here forever,’ Frankie said.

I stopped rowing, letting the boat drift to a slow halt. ‘At Hollow Falls?’

‘I mean right here in the middle of the lake, away from all the weirdos in masks and the rabbit-murdering twins.’

I laughed. It was great to see her sense of humour surface, even if she did flinch when she mentioned the rabbit.

On the way out of the cabin, we had bumped into David and Connie.

Connie had immediately said, ‘Oh, Frankie, are you okay? Ryan’s so worried about you.’

‘He could have come over to tell us that,’ I said. ‘Maybe—’

Frankie shot me a look telling me to stop.

‘He wasn’t raised that way, I can assure you,’ David said. ‘I’m really sorry, man. I’ll make sure he comes over to apologise to you and Frankie. He’s gone for a walk but I’ll talk to him as soon as he gets back. He really was worried, Frankie.’