The Hollow

He held his head in his hands as the echoes of the dream faded from his mind and morphed into haunting memories. He remembered that bathroom. It belonged to the master bedroom of a house he could almost call home. The face that stared back at him from the mirror was younger- still a teenager.
It seemed so real. As though, if he made a connection with this younger self, he could make a difference. Impart some wisdom that would make a future for his present self. In the reflection, he could see the reconstructed karaoke box behind him and remembered with a pang watching his mother destroy it. She did that. Anything he gave a shit about, she would destroy. It was his father that fixed it so he could use it as a source of music while he took his nightly shower.
He locked eyes with his reflection again and smiled at himself. The reflection smiled back but contorted, eyes becoming solid black and skin paling white. He panicked, but at the same time, it made sense. This was his dark side, finally showing itself. Embodying the antithesis of everything he stood for. He woke, gasping for air, but the image stuck, burned into the back of his mind. Looking around, he saw the comforting outline of his girlfriend, and smiled, knowing he had her support. She would soon become his wife. Anyways, he at least had a job that took his mind off things, even if only to provide fast remedies for uncaring patrons.
Several months after the initial dream introduction, the Hollow reared its ugly head one fateful night. That event would rock their lives and leave lasting scars on the both of them. The man tried several times to harness the powers of his Hollow and had only one other dream where he seemed the able to call the Hollow at will. That would be the last time the Hollow would manifest in his dreams. The Hollow had no shortage of fuel in dark recesses of his mind. The man had a lifelong habit of negative thoughts that the Hollow reveled in and helped urged along at every opportunity.

The man had a vast treasure trove of negativity thanks to his childhood. Countless fights between his parents and constant barrage of negativity and judgments from his mother were just a few among them. The Hollow even took on the mannerisms and style of the man's mother. It particularly capitalized on how his mind would flit to one thing or another, directing his trains of thought to the most negative things. The man would be wracked with triggers that would fire off at the slightest and most random things. The whistling sound of his breath or mentions of the death of a loved one were particularly frequent triggers.

The Hollow drank those thoughts in like tears of its worst enemy and the man could certainly qualify as such. He even went as far as to banish the Hollow thrice to never return. The Hollow merely smiled, took a single step back and crossed its arms. The man would attempt to call upon the Hollow several times over the next span of months while at work. One time, the Hollow may have shown itself to one of the man's customers. At least that was his take on the customer startling him and being startled back in return.

That would be the last the last time the Hollow directly manifested itself. The Hollow took up shop in those dark recesses of the man's mind. Drinking those metaphorical tears and taking any chance it could to increase the supply. Weaving its subversive darkness into any unguarded thought and the man's mind was frequently unguarded. Fatigue made it worse. It was easy for the Hollow to turn a thought of annoyance into one of violence or malice. The thoughts would come in a blitzkrieg, leaving the man sullen and full of self-hatred.

The Hollow certainly didn't help with the man's anger either. He was already predisposed to anger. Thanks to an unstable home in his formative days and the usual middle to high school hazing for a kid like him at the time, he already had a metaphorical hulk to deal with as it was. The Hollow took particular pleasure in goading on the man's temper to the point he would involuntarily snap, didn't matter to who it was he snapped at. The man would snap and then immediately fall into the self-hatred loop for allowing the Hollow that small victory.

To this day, the Hollow has not shown itself again in his dreams nor has it manifested again. The man never figured out why the Hollow manifested in the first place. He'd always had the storm cloud of negativity hanging over him as long as he could remember, but never had that negativity manifested itself to him. Every day, the man lives with the Hollow in his mind, never knowing what will trigger the next episode. A quote from a story read years ago drifted into his head. The first step in avoiding a trap, is knowing of its existence. So while the Hollow may still yet reside in the man's head, he knew it was there.

Vigilance would be the key to keeping the Hollow at bay. The man would then attempt to adopt techniques he would come across to add to his arsenal to use against the Hollow. Sometimes they would work, sometimes they left the Hollow stronger. The Hollow would be something inside him for years to come, always watching and waiting.