The Hollow Space

Welcome to In The Cards, a twenty-two author collection of standalone thriller and horror short stories. In this series, you’ll find stories inspired by the meaning of a specific Tarot Card, thoughtfully written with that thread woven through. Whether you’re a Tarot Card lover or not, you’ll find thrillers and horrors that will creep under your skin and into your thoughts. *Knowledge of Tarot Cards is not necessary to read or enjoy these stories.*

The Hollow Space is based on the High Priestess Tarot Card.

Some families pass down heirlooms. Hers passed down a curse.

On the night she turns thirty-five, librarian Tess Davis discovers a hidden book concealed inside her library’s antique shelves. The journal tells an impossible story—one that traces back to 1855, when a desperate mother bargained with a demon to save her child. The price was blood. Every woman born into the family would live long enough to raise a daughter, then die at thirty-five.

Tess has one lunar month to uncover the truth hidden in books her ancestors left behind. As the demon’s influence grows stronger, reality fractures. Time slips. Reflections move on their own. The line between madness and truth disappears.

The answer is terrifyingly simple and devastatingly final. To save her daughter, Tess must destroy the library that anchors the curse—burning history, reputation, and her own future to the ground.

A haunting, emotionally driven horror short story about inherited trauma, motherhood, and the terrible cost of survival.

Make sure you come back and check out the other 21 stories, because you never know what’s In The Cards.