Page 132 of The Corruption of Hollis Brown

“Shit. Shit!” Hollis took off in a sprint.

Wait!

Walt’s mom reached the threshold of the house, and the door burst wide open.

Immediately, the floor behind them tilted with a sickening whine, and Hollis slipped, sliding backward. Walt caught up with him, and they scrabbled up the flexing floorboards. Walt scraped their fingers against the doorstop, took every ounce of strength he had left and threw them outside just as the house began to crumble.

Hollis landed on his shoulder and bounced down the stairs violently, arms wrapped around his head, grit stinging his eyes.

He managed to look up in time to watch the rest of the building slide into the basement. All three floors of it, flimsy without the load-bearing supports that had been obliterated completely.

It made a sound that set his ears to ringing, loud enough to be heard over the city line, loud enough to be heard back home.

It was a long moment before he noticed the shade of Walt’s mom still next to him. Five feet tall and sweet and wide, looking down at him.

“Thanks for that,” Hollis said.

She didn’t answer. She turned and went back to the rubble. Sinking into the basement to answer the call of her door.

Fair

Hollis lay out flat. Everything hurt.

He’d lost all of Yulia’s stuff under the house, barely managed to get his phone and wallet. His shoulder was bruised enough that he thought it might be bleeding, his lungs burned from all of Walt’s shouting. Throat still ached from whatever that spirit did, his skull pounded with what was sure to be a terrible migraine, and his ears were still ringing.

It took far too long for him to notice that he was alone.

Walt.

Hollis looked at the collapsed building.

“Walt,” he said, out loud this time.

He forced himself to sit up.

He couldn’t even scream because he’d done enough of that already. It was too dusty to pick out water droplets in the bright midday sun. He didn’t know what to do. He tried not to think about how Yulia’s solution had worked. How if he’d gone to Yulia and her pa to begin with, he and Walt could have been separated months ago. He could have placed Walt in this house with the rest of the ghosts and gone home like nothing happened.

Hollis didn’t think about that. He couldn’t.

Rose Town was finally quiet, and it was cold.

Hollis covered his face with his hands.

Blue

It was night by the time Hollis made it back home. His fingers and face were smarting with cold and red enough to warrant a trip somewhere medical. He went around the back and opened the gate, trudged through the garden.

He didn’t want to startle his ma, and he didn’t have enough energy to answer any questions.

He didn’t think anyone heard the building collapse now that he was here. It wasn’t exactly a skyscraper, and it was far away. The police should have at least come to the city limits to check something like that out, but no one showed up. Even after he sat there for an hour.

Waiting.

Food and Shelter

Hollis managed to make it up the stairs and into the bathroom.

Closed the door and locked it.