When Daniel Mercer travels to the forgotten town of Ash Hollow after his grandmother’s cryptic final warning, he discovers a community inhabited only by children who are obsessively counting their population. Beneath the town’s church lies a vast, living darkness known as the Hollow—an ancient entity that consumes adults and leaves the children eerily “empty.” As Daniel learns the truth, he realizes the town doesn’t need more victims—it needs a conscious warden to keep the entity sleeping. With the count nearly complete, Daniel must decide whether to escape the endless cycle or become the next guardian of the Hollow.
