Welcome back, wanderers of the uncanny —
it’s your midnight Tale Teller, reporting from somewhere under the canopy,
where the forest listens more intently than any living thing should.
Our story, The Grey Daughter Hollow, follows a forest with memory deeper than soil,
children who return changed,
and a detective whose grief makes him the perfect seed for something ancient.
This tale doesn’t leap —
it roots.
It spreads slow and silent,
like something growing beneath the floorboards of your mind.
Theo steps past the treeline, lured by whispers only the young can hear.
The forest consumes him softly.
What forms beneath the soil is not a boy —
but the forest’s first reshaped child.
Sadie breaks the rules, hopping the fence on a dare.
Graydaughter takes her too, but with more intention.
She emerges underground with fungus-eyes and a sharper, more knowing mind —
a second experiment.
Detective Rourke investigates the disappearances.
He hears movement beneath the soil —
hands, breathing, a forest shifting awake.
Theo and Sadie sense him.
And the forest tastes his grief.
It approves.
Rourke returns at night.
Theo surfaces, trembling, remembering his own name —
a failure the forest never intended.
Sadie rises too, violent and perfected.
Theo protects Rourke.
Gray daughter punishes them both.
The forest begins to see Rourke differently.
Rourke is pulled underground.
He sees the core:
a massive, living archive built from the fused bodies of every child the forest has ever taken.
Among them, he recognizes his daughter’s remains —
not resurrected, only remembered and badly copied.
The forest begins sculpting Rourke as its new creation —
not a creature that hides,
but one that can walk the world,
lure children,
and carry the forest’s will outward.
Theo tries to save him.
The forest tightens its grip.
Rourke’s transformation begins.
Thank you for venturing this far into the hollow.
This tale doesn’t sprint —
it burrows.
It waits.
It thrives in the quiet between breaths.
The darkest part of the story still lies ahead.
And the forest’s patience…
has grown very thin.
Stay curious, stay wary,
and if the earth moves beneath your feet tonight…
...don’t look down...
— Your Tale Teller 🕯️🌲
