Buried During Snowfall – Chapter 30
The Way Humans Taught It
The chamber beneath Blackwater Lake was moments from complete collapse.
Concrete groaned under impossible pressure while the abyss below widened with every tremor. Black water surged upward around the Hollow in unstable spirals, carrying thousands of fragmented faces through its shifting form like drowned memories trying to breathe.
And in the center of all that horror—
the Hollow sounded lonely.
“I WANT TO STOP BEING ALONE.”
The sentence lingered through the collapsing cavern long after the voices stopped.
Mara lowered the gun slightly without realizing it.
Noah looked devastated.
Even Elias seemed unable to look directly at the thing he spent decades feeding.
Because for the first time since awakening—
the Hollow no longer resembled a monster.
It resembled humanity.
Broken by fear.
Warped by pain.
Taught violence before kindness.
The second Adrian, however, remained unmoved.
“You’re all making the same mistake,” he said calmly.
Noah glared at him weakly. “What mistake?”
“Believing loneliness excuses destruction.”
The Hollow shifted toward him slowly.
Thousands of faces turned in unison.
“YOU DO NOT FEAR ME.”
“No,” the second Adrian answered. “Because I understand you.”
Adrian felt dread instantly.
The second Adrian stepped closer to the abyss beneath the chamber.
“You absorbed humanity correctly.” His voice echoed through the collapsing space. “Pain defines people more honestly than love ever will.”
Mara snapped immediately:
“That’s bullshit.”
“No.” He looked toward her coldly. “Pain changes people permanently. Love rarely survives fear.”
The Hollow listened carefully.
Adrian realized the danger instantly.
The second Adrian wasn’t resisting the Hollow anymore.
He was validating it.
And the Hollow desperately wanted validation.
Elias noticed too.
“Stop talking.”
But the second Adrian ignored him.
“You were alone beneath the lake for centuries,” he continued softly toward the Hollow. “Then humans arrived and taught you exactly what they truly are.” His faint smile returned. “Violent. Selfish. Cruel.”
The whispers surrounding the chamber grew louder again.
The Hollow flickered violently between emotions.
Confusion.
Hunger.
Sorrow.
Anger.
It was trying to decide which version of humanity was true.
Adrian stepped forward immediately.
“Pain isn’t all we are.”
The second Adrian looked at him almost pityingly.
“You know better than anyone that it is.”
“No.”
“You burned children alive beneath this lake.”
The words hit like knives.
Mara flinched.
Noah closed his eyes.
Adrian’s voice cracked. “I was a child.”
“And now?” The second Adrian stepped closer. “What changed?”
Silence.
Because part of Adrian feared the answer.
The Hollow turned toward him again.
“YOU STILL CARRY VIOLENCE.”
Adrian whispered:
“Yes.”
The second Adrian smiled wider.
“There.”
But Adrian kept speaking.
“I also carry guilt.”
The chamber went still again.
The Hollow paused.
Processing.
The second Adrian frowned slightly for the first time.
Adrian looked directly into the shifting mass of water and faces.
“Humans hurt each other constantly.” His voice shook but remained steady. “But guilt means we understand suffering matters.”
The Hollow whispered softly:
“ELIAS NEVER FELT GUILT.”
Elias froze.
Adrian slowly looked toward him.
And finally understood.
Elias feared death so deeply he abandoned guilt entirely. He justified every murder, every experiment, every child destroyed beneath Ashriver because guilt threatened the one thing he worshipped most:
his own continuation.
Noah whispered bitterly:
“He stopped seeing people as people a long time ago.”
Elias didn’t deny it.
The Hollow shifted violently again.
Faces surfaced faster now.
Victims.
Killers.
Parents.
Children.
Humanity itself tearing through the water trying to reconcile contradiction.
The second Adrian spoke once more.
“Love didn’t stop Ashriver.” He pointed toward Noah. “Love didn’t save him.” Then toward Adrian. “Love didn’t stop you from killing.”
Adrian felt the truth of those words.
And hated it.
The Hollow leaned closer toward him.
“THEN WHY DOES LOVE MATTER?”
The question echoed through the abyss beneath the lake.
And Adrian realized there was only one honest answer.
“Because it’s the reason guilt hurts.”
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Even the collapsing chamber seemed to pause.
The Hollow stopped moving entirely.
Thousands of faces stared at Adrian from within the water.
Trying to understand.
Adrian continued quietly.
“If humans were only violent, we wouldn’t regret hurting each other.” His eyes filled slightly. “Guilt exists because part of us knows connection matters.”
Noah slowly looked upward.
Mara stared at Adrian.
Even Elias appeared shaken now.
The Hollow whispered:
“REGRET…”
And suddenly the water changed.
Faces surfaced across the Hollow faster than ever before.
Not murders this time.
Moments.
Parents holding children.
Friends laughing.
Hands touching.
People comforting each other before death.
The Hollow had absorbed those memories too.
It simply never understood why they mattered.
Until now.
The chamber trembled violently again.
The abyss widened further beneath them.
But the Hollow no longer rose higher.
Instead—
it began sinking.
Slowly.
The second Adrian stepped forward immediately. “No.”
The Hollow ignored him.
Its enormous form rippled uncertainly while thousands of voices whispered through the chamber simultaneously.
“TO LOVE…”
“…IS TO LOSE…”
“…TO LOSE…”
“…IS TO HURT…”
Then finally:
“…BUT TO NEVER LOVE…”
“…IS WORSE…”
The second Adrian’s expression darkened instantly.
“It’s weakening.”
Noah whispered:
“No.”
He looked toward the sinking Hollow.
“It’s changing.”