The Hollow Lock Chapter 1 "Some Scummy Day!" Preview 1/3

[Supie-Chan]

Credits to @pawthetic for the idea! Feedback is greatly appreciated since i'm still working on Chapter 1 and tweaking the Prologue so gimme gimme!

!All the censors (!@?#$%&*) won't be in the final version they're just there for now cuz i'm writing this on a school account!

“AH! #?!@ING HELL!” yelled Ava after being silent the whole time. If there’s one thing she hated the most, it was a bright light shining directly in her eyes.
“You kids alright?!” the man who was driving asked. It seemed as if he appeared out of thin air with how much the light was blinding them.
“I-uh..yeah? We’re fine....I….I think.” Dan stuttered hesitantly. He was usually rather confident, quiet, but confident. Yet he sounded uncharacteristically shaken, scared almost.
Suddenly, everything felt cold, a gentle yet harsh breeze blew by.
“C’mon i’ll help you up” the man said. He had a friendly tone but sounded as if there was no room for argument. He immediately helped each of them up before asking with a concerned tone,
“What are you kids doing out here this late? Don’t you care about your safety?” he asked, voice tinged with concern.
“We’re trick-or-treating, that’s all,” Phoenix muttered, eager to end the conversation and crawl into bed. Jess nudged them gently, trying to lift the mood. Phoenix grumbled back, a silent ‘buzz off.’
“Well do you kids know how to get home at least?” he asked.
“Of course we do, we have it on our phones.” Tom said a bit shakily, he was the only one noticeably rattled by the man. Though you couldn’t blame him, the man sounded friendly but his looks said otherwise. His clothes were ragged, torn and fraying like they’d survived a war. His voice was gravelly, as if he'd spent years coughing with no end. His skin was strange: dry and pale like bone, stretched over what looked more like skeleton than muscle. And yet... his car told a different story.
Sleek, white, and gleaming, one of those futuristic electric models everyone recognized. But something about it felt off. Too clean. Too perfect. It had the same shape as the others they’d seen, but it pulled at them, like it wanted them closer.
They stood there for a moment staring at the car before suddenly let out a loud HONK at them, almost as if it knew they were staring and didn’t like it. Tom jumped a bit, he’s already spooked enough and for a minute, he began to wonder if he was hallucinating. But when he saw everyone else he internally let out a sigh, grateful to know he isn’t losing it. That reassurance however didn’t help with the fact that the man seemed rather…sketchy.
It was odd, he didn’t flinch. In fact, he just smiled wider at it. A small calico cat suddenly hopped out, it seemed confused and shaken before hopping out.
“Well how far is the walk back to your homes?” The man asked with an almost giddy tone, as if he had a plan of sorts, as if he was expecting something.
Ivy took out her phone to check, expecting to be 2 hours away tops but when she checked it showed that her home was almost a whole day away just with driving! Her eyes widened and she refreshed the page numerous times thinking her phone was broken but it just gave her the same estimation.
“Well?” the man asked with an odd bruise-like color in his eyes.
“I-uh-wel-I…” The words didn’t leave Ivy’s mouth. She was shocked, puzzled, and frightened. They had no money for an Uber and they couldn’t possibly walk all that way, not willingly at least.
“Speechless ey? How bout this, i’ll give you a ride! How's it sound?” The man sang, grinning sinisterly as he spoke.
The group stared at him before Phoenix bluntly went “Hell the #?@! no! What do we look like?! You’re probably tryin to snatch us up!”
“Oh no no no! You’ve got me all wrong! I'm simply trying to help!” the man exclaimed.
Phoenix looks at the man deadpan, glaring at him.
The man sighs a bit annoyed but he keeps his composure.
The rest of the group looked wary, praying Phoenix wouldn’t stir up any issues with the man.
“Look son-”
“Dont call me that” Phoenix said sharply.
“...”
There was an odd eerie silence for a few seconds before Trixie spoke up.
“We’re so sorry, Phoenix can be a bit....sharp-tongued.” She muttered. While she looked at the man smiling she couldn't help but slightly side eye Phoenix.
“...What?” Phoenix sighs noticing the look
Trixie pulls Phoenix away from the man and whispers “Look we get you’re sketched out by this man- we ALL are! But can you not possibly risk our lives cuz of your attitude?!”
Phoenix rolls their eyes and walks away.
The man coughs before asking the group once more “Well kids, you for sure can’t walk to your homes! I say take the free car ride before you die out there trying to get back.” He suddenly sounded antsy, as if the kids have been getting on his nerves for ages.
The group looked between each other and the man.
“I mean……it's a nice ride…”
“Yeah until we’re all squished together I mean there’s not enough space!”
“Well would you rather walk for a week to get home?”
“Well it's not ideal but I'd rather walk for ages than hop into a random stranger's car!”
“Dude, we’ve already been walking around for hours I can’t take it anymore!”
“Well suck it up ya baby!”
“I-wait where’s Ava-” Jess says, ending the back and forth.
“Well one less of you to deal with” Nicholas grumbled.
Jess roughly elbows Nicholas with an odd mix of a glare and a smirk.
Meanwhile Ava walks up to the man making the choice for the group-
“We’ll take your car ride”
“Perfect~!” he says grinning widely
“AVA!!!” the group exclaims angrily
“Wait wait wait sir you don't understand we haven’t-” Before Tom could finish his sentence he found himself squished between Jess and Nicholas who were using his legs to assault with their elbows as they argued.
“What has my life come to…” Tom sighed, his eyes twitching as Nicholas and Jess bickered over the candy situation.

[Supie-Chan]

Soooo ik it says Preview 1/3 of chapter one but I'm actually done with chapter one and only added this
"The ride soon fell silent as Nicholas and Jess finally finished arguing, The moonlight gently touched the damp streets, causing the ground to glisten majestically.
It was a peaceful time and the group began falling asleep after being up so long. The man chuckled quietly to himself as he began driving. He grinned as he suddenly took a U-turn back around away from their homes..."

So instead I'll post 3-5ish previews of chapter 2!