In the Shadow of the Lilac: V: Hollow

Halloween is almost over. . . but the Nightmare isn't.

Photo by Fabrizio Conti on Unsplash

Welcome to In the Shadow of the Lilac! This is a wholesome spooky serial. Due in part to an unforeseen amount of research, this episode, intended to be the finale, is being cut in half. The actual conclusion for this serial will be dropping on the 15th. If you’d like to receive occasional mysteries like this in your inbox, please be sure to subscribe to the section “It was a Dark and Stormy Night.” Thank you!

Synopsis: When Melody and Zion Holcomb move to Lavender Vale ahead of their parents, they expect the peaceful Gilded Age town to be a breath of fresh air. They can’t begin to guess that a century-old mystery has been lying in wait for them to solve. . . and the answers lie buried in the halls of the Hotel Lilac.

Last seen: A last-minute Halloween masquerade ball - ghosts and spectres at the Lilac - and poison in the makeup.

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“Why aren’t you driving to the ER?” Zion demanded as Grant, bearing Melody, kicked the front door shut so hard that the little pumpkins rolled off the porch.

Grant had somehow gotten Zion’s sedan through the still-haunting crowds of children at an unheard of pace, but instead of getting out of Lavender Vale, they were back at the Holcombs’.

“The nearest ER is forty minutes away,” Grant snapped. “If we don’t do something to help her right now, she won’t last long enough to get there in the first place!”

“Why can’t we call an ambulance?”

“We can try, but I can promise you: he won’t let it go through.”

Zion whipped out his phone as Grant carefully nestled Melody onto the tapestried couch in the parlor and locked the front door.

“. . . Dial tone.”

“Called it.”

“What about texting,” Zion muttered, and rattled off a text to his father.

The uploading line dragged out and died with an exclamation mark.

“I don’t get it!”