Hollow Kingdom / Season 1, Episode 4
Escape from Ashworth Hall
Eleanor’s fingers tightened on the stem of her wine glass, the cheap crystal cool against her palm, as Margot’s voice sliced through the dining room’s stale air. “You don’t even want to be here, El. Why pretend? You’ve been staring at the door like it’s a bloody escape hatch since you arrived.” The words landed like a slap, sharp and deliberate, and Eleanor felt the heat creep up her neck despite the chill seeping through the warped windowpanes of Ashworth Hall. The long oak table, scarred from decades of neglect, stretched between them like a battlefield, its surface littered with half-empty plates of overcooked lamb and congealed gravy. Thomas sat at the far end, his fork hovering over his untouched meal, eyes fixed on some invisible point beyond the peeling wallpaper, as if he could hear the house creaking its own accusations. “I’m here because I have to be,” Eleanor said, her voice clipped, each syllable a brick in the wall she’d built over twenty years. “Same as you. Same as Thomas. Same as Felix, whenever he deigns to show his face.” She set the glass down harder than she meant to, the base clinking against the wood with a sound that echoed in the cavernous room. The candlelight flickered, casting jagged shadows across Margot’s angular face, her twin’s absence...