CUT: Part 8
Seb stirred awake, a dull throb pulsing through his skull like a distant drum. The first sensation was cold metal pressing against the back of his head, unyielding and alien. His vision blurred and swirled for several heart-pounding seconds, shapes bleeding into one another. Hard plastic encased his face, trapping the humid heat of his own breath as it rebounded back at him, thick and claustrophobic. With a surge of panic, he clawed at the edges and ripped it off. He didn’t need to look to know what it was. But he turned it in his trembling hands anyway, and there it stared back: Sunny’s face. He’d been wearing Hollowface’s mask. His own nightmare made real. A gasp tore from his throat as he hurled it to the dirt, where it landed with a soft thud. It took precious moments for the world to snap into focus. He was outside, slumped on the ground, back propped against the driver’s-side door of a car. A few feet away, a crumpled black cloak lay discarded in the mud, black gloves tossed atop...