In the dusty suburb of Warrigal, 17yearold Jax
McAllister lives in a house built on a
foundation of secrets. His father, a local
builder, recently unearthed something beneath
the old Hollow Block—a site long abandoned after
a series of unexplained deaths in the 1950s. The
council had sealed it off, but Jax’s father
insists it was just a bad patch of soil.
Jax’s life fractures when he meets two girls:
Lila, his childhood friend who’s returning from
boarding school, and Elara, the new girl with a
strange accent and an uncanny knowledge of the
Hollow Block’s history. Both claim ties to the
land, and both seem to know more than they let
on. A love triangle forms, but it’s not the
usual kind—Elara speaks of a ritual tied to the
block, one that requires a blood offering to
awaken what sleeps below.
The town’s rules are clear: no one is allowed
near the Hollow Block. But Jax’s curiosity—and
his growing attraction to both girls—pulls him
toward the edge of the forbidden lot. He finds a
rusted gate, halfburied in dirt, marked with
symbols that match those in Elara’s sketchbook.
When he touches it, the ground trembles, and the
air thickens with a scent like burnt eucalyptus.
Lila tries to stop him, warning that the block
is cursed, that her family once tried to bury
the truth. Elara, however, urges him forward,
saying the ritual needs a willing heart. Jax
refuses to choose, but the land chooses for him.
That night, the Hollow Block erupts in a storm
of dust and light, revealing a chamber carved
into the earth. Inside lies a stone altar, and
at its centre, a hollow space where something
ancient waits.
The town wakes to find Jax missing, the Hollow
Block sealed again, and Lila standing at the
gate with a bloodstained hand. She says nothing,
but the air feels heavier, the streets quieter.
The ritual was completed—but what it awakened
remains unseen, buried deep beneath the suburban
sprawl.
No one dares speak of it again.
