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I begin moving colored pins one by one.

"The disappearances become more frequent the closer they occur to this location."

Another pin.

"The electrical interference expands outward in a measurable radius."

Another.

"The corrupted digital records all trace back to the same geographic center."

I tap the circle.

"And every encounter we've survived has pushed us a little closer to it."

Rhett folds his arms.

"You think it's drawing us in."

"I think we've already been inside its investigation."

Sayer tilts his head.

"What does that mean?"

"It isn't just hunting."

I look at both of them.

"It's observing."

The realization still unsettles me.

"We've been treating every attack like an isolated event."

"They've been experiments."

Rhett nods slowly.

"Testing responses."

"Exactly."

I point toward another board.

"So I stopped asking where it appears."

I slide a transparent overlay onto the map.

"I started asking what it wants."

Silence. Then…

Everything lines up. The disappearances. The corrupted records. The attacks. Every line converges. Not on our cottage. On the Hollow.

"It's an anchor," I say quietly.

"The entity doesn't simply live there."