Free Hell's Hollow by Summer Stone Page A

got dressed, ran outside, and tore down the hill.
    “Zach!” I called. “Are you here?”
    He looked tired and upset. “I didn’t think you were going to come,” he said. “I thought…”
    “It was my mom. She caught me trying to slip out during the night and she basically waited up to make sure I didn’t.”
    “Oh,” he said.
    “What are you holding?” I asked, my heart beat accelerating.
    He held out a little furry body, the chipmunk from the other night, at least I thought it was the same one. It didn’t look right. Its chest shook with each breath. Its little tug felt pathetic.
    “Don’t touch it,” I whispered.
    “It’s dying,” he said.
    I shook my head. “It’s nature’s way.”
    “You could help it,” he said.
    “It’ll make me sick, or crazy,” I replied.
    “Maybe it won’t.”
    “My health…” I stopped. I was going to say it was no less important than the chipmunk’s. But its little tug felt so sad, so weak.
    The whirl of The Hollow rose up in me, longing to pour itself into the dying chipmunk. Why couldn’t it just do the healing without me?
    “It needs you,” Zach whispered.
    And it was as though everything inside me turned to liquid. I sat by my favorite sequoia and closed my eyes, trying to clear my head and figure out what to do. And then I felt the chipmunk’s soft fur, its tiny body in my lap. Zach put it in my lap. My body tensed. I shouldn’t be touching it. I shouldn’t be considering what I’m considering.
    “Please,” Zach said. “He’s all alone. I can’t watch him die.”
    It was barely bigger than my hand. Such a little thing couldn’t hurt me, couldn’t make me crazy, couldn’t destroy my friendship with Zach. Could it? I didn’t know for sure. But I couldn’t just sit there and let Zach watch me allow the poor thing to die, not when there was a chance I could do something.
    I let down the floodgate, opened to the energy of The Hollow, which immediately raced through me. It was like nothing I’d ever felt before. It was like silvery moonlight filled my body, like I might float up into the sky, like nothing could touch me, like everything was perfect. I soared. I remembered the dying chipmunk, knew that healing it was the right thing to do. I pushed the energy of The Hollow into its body, felt its heartbeat strengthen, its breathing ease. I kept going, pouring more and more of the healing into its body. It jumped out of my hands and raced around in circles, faster and faster.
    Zach yelled, “You did it! You saved him!”
    We both laughed at the little guy tearing around the clearing. My thoughts felt clearer than ever. I felt like I could fly. I’d never felt so filled with light, so happy, so over the top ecstatic.
    The chipmunk ran and ran and ran. And then it froze, turned to me, its little eyes bulging. It keeled over and didn’t move.
    “What happened?” Zach asked. “What’s wrong with it?”
    I rushed to its side, put my hand against its chest. “It’s dead,” I whispered, pulling my hand away. There was no heartbeat. All its energy dissipated, leaving nothing behind but an empty, useless body. All the blood in my own body dropped to my feet. All the good feelings disappeared. The surge of The Hollow retreated.
    Zach looked at me. “Can’t you fix it?”
    I shook my head. “I can’t bring it back from the dead ! I’m not a magician!”
    “Hey, it’s okay,” he said. “You’re just out of practice. It wasn’t your fault.”
    I slumped to the ground. “I killed it.”
    “No, you didn’t. It was dying anyway, remember? You just… you just couldn’t save it. Maybe it was too far gone.”
    The church bell rang in the distance.
    “Oh God, I have to go. She’ll be up soon. She can’t find me gone. Sera, I’m sorry. Look, just … come back down tonight. We’ll talk about it. Okay?”
    I didn’t move.
    “I’m sorry I have to go.” And then he went.
    And I was sitting at the edge of The Hollow staring at the tiny