Deep in the woods and down in the Hollow, you might catch sight of a few long-abandoned shacks. They just don’t seem to belong. There are no roads that lead to them, no wells dug for water. It’s like they got dropped off in the middle of the woods from somewhere else. People say that nobody that ever went looking for the ruins found them, but sometimes hunters or hikers stumble onto them. They tell the story that it looks like nature itself was offended at those strange lodgings. That the trees seem to be slowly ripping them apart. The moldy wood quietly screaming in the middle of nowhere. Of course, locals say that those rotted houses don’t want to be found but what they want is to find you. Invite you inside like a wolf invites a lamb for supper.
There are whispered stories that tell about why those ruins might be out there. That long ago there was a place in the Hollow where witches met in secret to curse their enemies and bless the night. It’s said that local kids were sneaking out and dancing all night under the harvest moon. The Leader was a Witch named Evelyn. One night an angry mob of parents from town came after her. Her followers fled into the night and abandoned her. Evelyn herself disappeared into the Hollow and was never found. Her followers are said to have been cursed by her for their cowardice. She petrified them and planted them on the very spots where they hid themselves that night. Evelyn turned their outside into hard and twisted trees, but their insides were kept human. They are alive to this day, always hungry and always thirsty. These tormented creatures are always ready to feed on anyone who finds themselves lost in their woods while they angrily search for Evelyn to get their revenge. That’s why the trees might sometimes appear to move out of place, the path sometimes changes or ends, and why the old witch house ruins seem to appear sometimes out of nowhere. That’s also why no one who knows goes into Nightmare Hollow.
