Hollow Heathens: Book of Blackwell (Tales of Weeping Hollow 1) Read online

  HOLLOW HEATHENS

  Book of Blackwell

  Nicole Fiorina

  Contents

  More Books by Author

  Before you read,

  Glossary

  Character Glossary

  Dedication

  Monsters & Freaks

  Once upon a Time

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  The Protection of the Order

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  The Secret of Bellamy & Sirius

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Lunaticus

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  The Consequence of Betrayal

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  The Curse of the Hollow Heathens

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  The Dawn of Julian

  Chapter 50

  The Moon & the Night Sky

  Coming Soon

  Acknowledgements

  Topics & Discussions

  Join a Book Club!

  Also by Nicole Fiorina

  About the Author

  More Books by Author

  Stay with Me Series

  (Series must be read in order)

  Stay with Me

  Even When I’m Gone

  Now Open Your Eyes

  Tales of Weeping Hollow Collection

  (Interconnected Stand-alones)

  Hollow Heathens

  HOLLOW HEATHENS

  Book of Blackwell

  Tales of Weeping Hollow Collection

  Copyright © 2020 by Nicole Fiorina

  First Edition | eBook

  Publication Date: October 13th, 2020

  ISBN: 978-1-7352047-1-0

  All right reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Cover by Okay Creations

  Illustrations by Surovi Bain

  Published by Nicole Fiorina Books

  Proofreading by Nyla Kourieh & Lisa Bardonski

  Editing & formatting by BohoBooks Publishing Ink

  www.nicolefiorina.com

  Before you read,

  This is the ADULT version of Hollow Heathens. If you are interested in the YOUNG ADULT version. The hardback and eBook will be available by October 31st 2020 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, nicolefiorina.com & other major retailers.

  To stay in-the-know on release dates, giveaways, & more, make sure to sign up for my newsletter:

  www.nicolefiorina.com

  Playlist available on Spotify

  https://spoti.fi/30bzg5C

  For book club info, topics, & discussions,

  please read on at the end of the story.

  Glossary

  From away: This is an expression used for people are not from town.

  Flatlander: What the town calls the people from away. Those who do not belong to either coven and have no ancestors from the original founding families.

  Ayuh: Used to express agreement. Originated in Maine.

  Right out straight: Maine expression meaning, very busy.

  The Summerland: The name given by Theosophists Wiccans and some earth-based contemporary pagan religions to their conceptualization of an afterlife.

  Sawa: Kenyan – meaning, “fine” “all good”

  GRAMPS’ GLOSSARY

  Fopdoodle: A stupid or insignificant fellow; a fool.

  Whooperups: A term meaning “inferior, noisy singers.”

  Wandoughts: A feeble, puny, weak creature; a silly, sluggish, worthless man; another word for impotence.

  Rantallions: A person whose penis is insufficiently long, it its ‘relaxed’ state, not to exceed the length of the scrotum.

  Dunderhead: A stupid person.

  Maffickin’: to celebrate with boisterous rejoicing and hilarious behavior.

  Arfarfan’arf: A lazy drunk.

  Off his/her kadoova: Crazy

  Bedswerve: Jumping from one person’s bed to the other; ie: cheating; a promiscuous person.

  Character Glossary

  NORSE WOODS

  Norse Woods Founding Families

  High Priest: Clarence Goody

  Blackwell - Element of Spirit

  Origin: Vættir

  Current: Julian J. Blackwell

  Brother of Jolie Blackwell; son of Javino Blackwell (deceased) & Agatha Bianchi Blackwell

  Ancestors: Horace Blackwell & Bellamy Blackwell

  Goody - Element of Air

  Origin: Njǫrd

  Current: Zephyr Blue Goody

  Brother of Winnifred Goody; son of Clarence Goody & Beatrix Ricci Goody(deceased)

  Wildes - Element of Fire

  Origin: Loki

  Current: Phoenix Loki Wildes

  Brother of Wren Wildes; son of Hayden Wildes (deceased) & Amelia Ander Wildes

  Ancestors: Kyden Wildes

  Parish - Element of Water

  Origin: Ægir

  Current: Beckham Brooks Parish

  Son of Earl “Drunk Earl” Parish & unknown flatlander (deceased)

  Danvers - Element of Earth

  Origin: Jörð

  Current: N/A

  Last known Danvers; Foster Danvers (deceased)

  Husband of Clarice Woolf Danvers (deceased)

  Sacred Sea Coven

  Sacred Sea Founding Families

  High Priest: Augustine Pruitt

  Pruitt

  Current: Kane Kos Pruitt

  Brother of Koraline Pruitt; son of Augustine Pruitt & Ginevra De Luca Pruitt (deceased)

  Cantini

  Current: Cyrus Olen Cantini

  Brother of Camora; Kaser, & Cillian Cantini; son of Darnell Cantini & Viola Conti Cantini

  Ancestors: Matteo Cantini

  Sullivan

  Current: Ivy Amaya Sullivan

  Adora Oria Sullivan; non-member; pending initiation

  Fable Hazel Sulliva
n; non-member; pending initiation

  Daughters of Ronan Sullivan & Marcelline O’Connor Sullivan

  Members of the Order

  From Sacred Sea:

  Augustine Pruitt

  Viola Cantini

  From Norse Woods:

  Clarence Goody

  Agatha Blackwell

  From the Flatlanders:

  Mina Mae Lavenza

  For my daughter, Grace.

  I always said you were my mother in another life. My tenacious girl, I’m ashamed to admit that you make me forget who is parenting who.

  Thank you for being uniquely you, with a steadfast soul, a thirst for knowledge, & living without fear. You’re a lethal combination, baby, & I don’t think this world was prepared. But, you’re moving way too fast. Slow down & notice the world around you. Even the smallest, inconsequential moments that don’t seem important now, but will be one day.

  Thank you for helping me plan & plot this story. Thank you for bringing Fallon to life.

  Sharing my dream with you has been my favorite part of Hollow Heathens.

  Always remember, you are NOT just a girl.

  Stay humble & be your own lover first.

  xx, Mom

  I believe this world is filled with nothing of the normal, that we are all monsters and freaks, and if my beliefs are true, we can come out of our hiding places and find one another.

  I believe something more hideous and cruel than us has put us there, in the dark corners of our minds.

  Something that isn’t normal itself, for normal is the lie to keep all the monsters and freaks tamed.

  HOLLOW HEATHENS

  By Nicole Fiorina

  Once upon a Time

  Things lurk in the darkness. Monsters, ghosts, ghastly supernatural beings tethered by bottomless energy to keep them there, pinned to the earth and walking without direction, without purpose. A growing gaping hole fed hastily on their darkened soul, and most cannot understand why. Pain, anger, sorrow, grief … emotions bleed into one another after so many years, most forgetting what caused them to be left behind and invisible to most of us.

  And the cruelest is love. Long after death, love has the power to turn us all into the darkest of monsters.

  I had been born with one foot in this world and one in the next. “You’re a Grimaldi,” Marietta would always tell me. I’m a Grimaldi, yet no matter how many times I repeated the mantra, the young man in the corner of my room refused to go away. He was curled up in my reading chair, his knees pressed close to his chest. During the cold months, I’d leave my window open to allow the chilling breeze to slip through the cracks, but he couldn’t be shaking because of the cold. Spirits only felt the hungry emotions eating away at them. Yet, he was shaking. There was something different about him.

  “Don’t cry,” I whispered under the paper white moonlight streaming between us. I’d learned not to fear the ones who would come to me, and kept them as my secret. But there was something different about this one, fading in and out like a poor picture on a TV. His lips were glacier blue and his hair as white as an Arctic wolf. And his eyes … his eyes were demonic. Cold. A starless galaxy. And terrified.

  I pushed the thick quilt off my legs and slid my feet to the cold wooden floors. “What’s your name?”

  His frosted brows pulled together as he looked up at me under thick wet lashes, trembling. Most were surprised I could see them and was unafraid by their presence, but he seemed more confused about my question. He didn’t remember his name, which only meant he was new.

  But he seemed so real, blurring between dimensions. He wasn’t like the rest of them.

  The floorboards creaked as my feet inched forward, and I paused halfway to him when Marietta’s footfalls echoed off the hollowed stairs.

  “Y-y-ou have to help me,” he said through a desperate plea. “F-f-find me.”

  Then my bedroom door creaked open, and I rushed back to bed and under the quilt. The sound of her footsteps crept closer, and I slammed my eyes closed to pretend to be asleep. My hair covered my face. I pulled my arms and legs and fingers and toes, every part of me hiding beneath the thick, hand-made quilt.

  “I know you are awake, moonchild,” Marietta’s silky voice said, and my bed dipped as she sat at the edge. She pulled the quilt down, and I turned to face her. “You cannot be up all hours of the night, or you will sleep all day,” she added with a light tap on my nose.

  I pushed my hair from my eyes and peeked over to the chair where the ghost was sitting.

  But the ghost was no longer there.

  My gaze slid back to my nanny. “I can’t sleep. Will you tell me a story?”

  “Ah! a story is what she wants to hear.” Marietta’s purple lips pulled into a slight grin, and the bracelets lining her arm banged together as she tucked the blanket around me. “I tell you a story, and then you will sleep.” Her brow peaked into the shape of a crescent moon.

  I nodded eagerly. “Yes, I promise.”

  “Oh, I do not know,” she replied with demise. “I do not think you are ready for this one.”

  “I am, Marietta. I am.”

  “Oh, child, all right. But, you see, I will need to start from the beginning.” Marietta dragged in a long breath and shifted beside me…

  “Once upon a time, far, far away, lies a mysterious land. This land became a town, but the new town cannot be seen by people from away, for it is invisible on maps. Many know the name and have even set out to find it, but this town can only be discovered when it wants to be seen. No barriers exist between worlds. Strange happenings. A town of magic and mischief, where superstition and constellations are the only guides, yet just as unpredictable as the Atlantic tide.

  “You see, centuries ago, two separate and very different covens founded this land, yet the stars aligned when they crossed paths. A boat sailed in by sea, escaping cruelty from their country. At the same time, outcasts from the New World came up from the south, running away from the same torment, trudging through dense woods as harsh temperatures and sleet slammed against their chapped faces. Neither would leave once arrived, both marking their claim on the land, casting this very spell, an invisible shield, to hide and protect their people, making the town unseeable to all outsiders. Little did either one of these covens know, something else had already lived in those woods.

  “Branches from birch trees whispered, ravens sang their darkest tale, and with every crackle of fallen leaves beneath their heavy boots, secrets of the forest unraveled, spinning words together like a web from a black widow spider. And this was just from the forest because the sea, child, oh! the sea, it roared with prophecy, waves crashing against the imperishable cliffs, the moon’s transcendent phases glimmering over the eternal waters.

  “And one day, the town will call upon you, my moonchild. But hear me when I say, you will always have the freedom to choose. You will never be forced to return. But if you do, there is no escaping. Not until the town lets you go—”

  “To return? Return to where?” I asked with my fingers clutched around the quilt, ears perked and hungry for more.

  “The town of Weeping Hollow …”

  Chapter 1

  Fallon

  Bouncing off the refrigerator's glass door, which housed numerous caffeinated drinks options, I caught myself staring at my ghostly reflection. My white hair and pale blue eyes looked opalescent, almost as if my doppelganger was stuck between the glass of the chilled door. The more I stared at myself, the more I wondered who was really looking into who.

  “Excuse me,” a man said, opening the glass door and snapping my detached gaze. In an unbuttoned red plaid shirt and dirt-stained jeans, his grimy hands, with black sludge permanently under his fingernails, grabbed a twelve-ounce iced coffee. He turned to face me. “Made up ya mind?”

  A heavy question. It was apparent I'd made up my mind. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been standing in a rundown Shell truck stop half past midnight where the "S" was broken and dangling. It just said Hell
, my last stop before reaching the small town I'd only heard of in stories told under star-filled skies in the middle of restless nights. A town I'd never imagined myself returning to.