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"HEY SWEETIE, DRAWING something?" Cullen greets as she enters her daughters room. Things had seemed normal since last night. No mysterious deaths, no surges of power, no body swapping. It seemed the Hollow was officially dead.
"Yes." Hope responds, keeping her eyes trained on a blank piece of paper.
"What's that supposed to be? A snowstorm?" Cullen takes a seat next to her daughter, trying to make a joke, but Hope doesn't find it amusing. "So... now that all this trouble's behind us, I thought that we could have a chat about what happens next. I know that you want to have a normal life with friends and school and art and sports and... Hey. You okay?"
"I'm fine." Hope states, her voice monotone.
"Hope." Cullen pushes a strand of hair behind her daughters ear. "If you're worried about the Hollow, don't be. Everything's okay now, I promise." Cullen kisses her fingers, expecting Hope to do the same. When she doesn't Cullen pulls away slightly, her eyebrows furrowed.
"Can I go back to my drawing?" Hope questions.
"Sure." Cullen tries to smile, but it just comes out awkwardly. "Yeah." Quickly exiting her daughters room Cullen walks towards Freya, not even bothering to knock on the door. "We have a problem."
"What is it?" Freya looks up from her phone, not having expected to see Cullen.
"I think-" Cullen shakes her head, hoping when she was thinking wasn't correct. "I think the Hollow's still alive. And I think that bitch is inside my daughter. I was supposed to be able to kill her what happened?"
Seeing the actual worry on Cullen's face Freya moves towards her, knowing this wasn't just some kind of mother's intuition, it was a witches intuition. "Maybe we were wrong. I don't know- maybe- maybe you needed to allow the Hollow to take over your body. Maybe the only way to kill her is for you to... die as well."
"Well we lost our one opportunity." Cullen snaps, running her hands down her face. "She knows that I wouldn't hurt my own daughter."
Freya shakes her head, her voice coming out in a whisper. "What do we do?"
After taking a moment to figure out a plan the only thing the two witches could come up with was to take the pendant and place Hope into it before they could figure out a more permanent solution. "Hey... sweetie." Cullen drawls as she enters the study, seeing Hope playing chess by herself. "Why don't you... take that chess set downstairs and we can play together. You want to find a spot and I'll fix us a snack?" Hope looks at Cullen, the young child sensing that Cullen could tell it wasn't her. Looking the woman up and down Hope finally lands on her mothers face, a smirk on her lips. Cullen's face hardens seeing the odd expression on her daughters face. "I want my daughter back. I don't care how long it takes or what I have to do, I will get my daughter back."
"It won't be long." The Hollow replies, standing from the chess set. "Hope is still fighting, but she'll give in soon. Once I have control of her I'll use her body until I have enough power to transfer my spirt into you." Raising her hand, the Hollow uses her magic to send Cullen flying across the room. Cullen grunts as her body slams into a picture, the glass shattering behind her. When she jumps up from the ground, her fangs are drawn, the veins under her eyes growing noticeable. "You won't hurt me. I'm your daughter. You can't."
