The Hollowed / Season 1, Episode 4
Pulse from Within
Jake Sutter’s boots hit the polished floor of the New Eden Wellness Center with a muted thud, the kind of sound that gets swallowed by too much quiet. His left knee ached, a dull grind of bone on bone from years in the mines, but today it wasn’t just pain—it was a pulse, like something was tapping from the inside, trying to get out. He stopped mid-stride in the sterile hallway, the overhead lights buzzing a faint hum that crawled into his skull. The air smelled of bleach and something sweeter, cloying, like overripe fruit left to rot under a clean sheet. He adjusted the wristband on his arm, the plastic slick with sweat, and caught his reflection in the glass wall of a lab room. His face looked wrong—too sharp at the edges, eyes too wide, like he’d been stretched over someone else’s bones. He blinked. The reflection didn’t. Not right away. A half-second delay, then it caught up, mirroring him with a lazy drag. His stomach twisted, a cold coil tightening. “Move it, Sutter,” came a voice behind him, clipped and impatient. Kayla, one of the other volunteers, brushed past, her shoulder knocking his as she hurried toward the check-in desk. Her ponytail swung like a metronome, but her hands were trembling, fingers twitching as she clutched her...