Chapter 3

The years in The Hollows bled into one another, each day a repetition of misery.

Five years.

Rory' s spirit, the "inner fortitude" her family prided themselves on, was not just cracked, it was systematically pulverized.

The Elder was methodical in his cruelty.

Starvation was a tool. She grew gaunt, her clothes hanging off her thin frame.

Beatings were frequent, for any perceived infraction, or sometimes for no reason at all. Just to remind her of her place.

She was forced into degrading servitude, cleaning the filthiest parts of the commune, treated worse than an animal.

Then came the worse violation.

The Elder spoke of her "strong bloodline." He, and other men he designated, used her body repeatedly.

They wanted to "breed" her, to bring "strong" children into their miserable fold. Or perhaps it was just another way to break her, to assert their total dominance.

She learned to dissociate, to let her mind float away while her body endured. It was the only way to survive the horror.

The forced phrases continued, becoming ingrained.

"I submit to The Elder."

"My body is for the commune."

"My will is not my own."

Her trauma manifested in conditioned responses.

If a man raised his voice, she would cower, her eyes darting for an escape or a way to appease.

If someone approached her suddenly, she would flinch, sometimes dropping to her knees in a fawning gesture of submission, babbling apologies for offenses she hadn' t committed.

These were the reflexes that kept her alive, that lessened the beatings, that sometimes earned her an extra scrap of food.

Her mind, once sharp and kind, became a repository of fear and automatic compliances.

She forgot what it felt like to be Rory Dubois, the woman from a prestigious family.

She was just a thing, a broken creature surviving in The Hollows.

She rarely thought of her past life anymore. The memories were too painful, too distant.

Ethan, Sam, her mother – they were like figures from a dream, unreal.

The Aegis Locket was a forgotten trinket.

Her only reality was the dirt, the hunger, the pain, and the crushing weight of The Elder' s rule.

She was hollowed out, just like the name of the place that had become her prison and her entire world.

The idea of rescue, of escape, never even entered her mind. There was nothing left of her to rescue.