Chapter 1: Demon Child at Silver Hollow

Lucas McKay, the supernatural streamer, was seriously asking for trouble—he pulled in a hundred vengeful spirits, all fighting to take over his body. After I helped him clean up the chaos and was about to head out, I suddenly sensed a surge of dark energy shooting up from this neighborhood, straight into the night sky.

The air was thick, heavy with something you could almost taste—like the smell after a lightning storm mixed with old pennies. I paused at the curb, heart thumping. No way I was imagining this. The streetlights flickered overhead as if they too sensed the unnatural charge. My sneakers crunched on the gravel, grounding me in the here and now, but every hair on my arms stood on end.

My best friend, Mariah Torres, called me: "Savannah! I did a tarot reading—something big’s about to go down in the southeast! At best? We’re talking a hundred ghosts fighting over a corpse. At worst... I swear, Savannah, a demon child."

She sounded breathless, her voice crackling with static and nerves. I could practically picture her hunched over her desk, incense burning, cards scattered everywhere. Mariah never called unless it was urgent, and now, her words sent a chill straight down my spine.

"Okay, but which street? Exactly where in the southeast?" I asked, my patience wearing thin.

I pressed the phone tighter to my ear, scanning the rows of cookie-cutter houses and manicured lawns. Southeast. My mind raced—was that...?

"Silver Hollow Estates!"

Wait. Silver Hollow Estates?

Wait a second—Silver Hollow Estates? That’s where I am!

I nearly dropped my phone. My pulse spiked. I spun in a slow circle, suddenly hyperaware of every shadow. Am I being watched? A couple walked a golden retriever across the street, oblivious. But I could feel it—something was seriously wrong.

Meanwhile, my livestream chat was blowing up—everyone was begging me not to stop.

[Don’t turn it off! I still wanna watch!]

[I still don’t get the whole ‘hundred ghosts fighting over a corpse’ thing. And now you’re saying a demon child’s being born—what does that even mean?]

[WTF, I’m home alone, I’m actually freaking out!]

[When Lucas got possessed by those ghosts, I about peed myself!]

[Stop arguing! Chill and listen to the host—I wanna know what it means for a demon child to be born!]

The chat was a rolling wave of emojis—crying faces, skulls, no cap, bro—and frantic caps lock, pure digital panic. I could feel their collective anxiety pulsing through my phone. Some viewers typed so fast, their messages blurred together. It was like the whole country was holding its breath, waiting for the next scare. My nerves were right there with them.

A demon child? That’s when a malicious spirit gets forced into a pregnant woman’s womb—and it’s even worse than it sounds. Over a hundred newborns are sacrificed to help the spirit be born. Demon children are originally formed from the souls of kids who died young, carrying a ton of resentment. If you use more than a hundred infants as sacrifices, its hatred and evil energy are off the charts. Once it’s born, disaster is guaranteed. Who would even do something like that?

I knew how insane this sounded, but the chat wouldn’t let up. So I leaned into the camera, lowering my voice for effect. “Picture this: a spirit with a grudge so deep, it hijacks a pregnancy. To make it stronger, people sacrifice newborns—more than a hundred. That kind of evil? It’s a walking, screaming disaster waiting to happen.”

As soon as I finished explaining, the chat blew up again.

[Over a hundred infants!?]

[What the hell! Birth rates are low enough—who’d be sick enough to hurt babies?]

[Host, this demon spirit sounds intense—can you handle it?]

The shock was palpable, even through the screen. A few viewers threatened to log off, but most stuck around, their curiosity outweighing their fear. Someone even joked about calling the FBI, but yeah, nobody was laughing.

I hesitated, thinking through my options. “If the demon child hasn’t been born yet, I can handle it. But if it’s already here...”

My voice sounded steadier than I felt. I squared my shoulders, trying to look like I had it together for the viewers. Truth was, I was praying I wouldn’t have to find out what happened if I was too late.

Just then, Mariah came running up. She barely caught her breath before she frowned. "This is bad, the evil energy’s already this thick!"

She looked pale, clutching her deck of tarot cards like a lifeline. Her sneakers were scuffed and her hair stuck to her forehead. She must’ve sprinted the whole way. Even the air around her seemed to hum with static, like she’d walked through a storm cloud.

"Relax, Mariah. The demon baby’s not full term yet—probably," I said.

I tried to sound casual, but my eyes kept darting to the shadows pooling in the corners. The neighborhood felt wrong—too quiet, too still.

As if the whole block was holding its breath.

She saw how calm I was and gave me a look. "How do you know? Did you find the pregnant woman?"

She tugged at her hoodie sleeve, voice dropping to a whisper. She was more the burn-sage-and-read-cards type—definitely not the front-line exorcist.

"I only know the general area. Haven’t seen her face to face yet."

I shrugged, scanning the shadows. The streetlights buzzed overhead, moths circling the bulbs. Somewhere, a dog barked. Otherwise, it was just us and the dark.

"Then how do you know it’s not full term?" Mariah pouted. "Listen, if we pull this off, we’re splitting the karma fifty-fifty!"

I snorted, half-laughing. “Karma points, huh? I thought we were splitting DoorDash coupons, not cosmic credit.” Not that I’d ever admit it, but if Mariah hadn’t done her reading, I’d probably still be lost.

I pointed to the floor where the McKay family lived. "That’s where I worked today. The client’s Lucas McKay, the supernatural streamer."

The building was classic suburbia: brick facade, white trim, and big windows that reflected the moonlight. Lucas’s place was still lit up, the blue glow of his streaming setup visible from the street.

The chaos from earlier still lingered, like the echo of a bad dream.

"Didn’t you say in this building, it was either a hundred ghosts fighting over a corpse, or a demon child being born?"

Mariah nodded, her face serious. “Exactly.”

She hugged herself, like she was bracing for a blizzard. Her eyes darted to every shadow, every flicker of movement.

"Well, the hundred-ghosts thing already happened. And the demon child? Yeah, it’s here too."

Mariah’s jaw dropped. She started pacing, her sneakers squeaking on the polished floor. “What!?” she blurted. “What do we do? It’s just us two, and I can’t exorcise demons. We’re toast! For real.”

She kept glancing at the exit. I could tell she was already calculating her odds of escape.

"Toast for what? I already handled the ghost pile-up." I pointed again at the McKay’s apartment. "But I haven’t figured out the demon child yet. If I’m right, the pregnant woman is either upstairs or downstairs from the McKays."

I pulled out my notebook, flipping to a page scrawled with messy diagrams. The building layout made sense now, every floor a piece in a dark puzzle. My pulse raced as the pieces finally snapped together.

At first, I didn’t know what the four Dripping Water Traps in the McKay apartment were for. Later, when Mariah mentioned a demon child might be born in this building, it clicked.

The memory hit me: the sound of water dripping, the chill in the air, the way shadows clung to the corners. My skin prickled with dread as I pieced it together.