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Above ground, the smoke had changed from a faint thread to a dark, billowing signal of distress. Realizing the danger was no longer a mystery but an emergency, Callahan returned with a rescue crew. They tore into the earth, revealing the hollowed-out sanctuary and the unconscious girl within. When Lila finally woke in the hospital, the town was forced to confront a reality far more unsettling than any ghost story. They hadn’t found a monster on the hill; they had found a child who had fallen through the cracks of a world that was too busy to notice. The smoke hadn’t just been a sign of a fire; it was a silent plea for help from someone who had forgotten how to ask for it. Lila never returned to the hillside, but she didn’t need to—for the first time, the people of Red Hollow were finally looking, and they refused to look away.
