Letter 5 — The Long Way

Margaret writes back warmer than ever — and does the one thing Edwin asked of her, she dates her letter — but the date she sets down is three weeks ahead of the day he reads it, as if her time and his have quietly come apart. Stranger still, she thanks him, lovingly, for the cutting that has taken root by her wall — the same cutting still sitting undelivered on his own desk. Meanwhile the lane down to the old stone bridge has stopped holding its length: some mornings it takes ten minutes, some mornings three hours, and the village reads which it will be the way it reads the weather. As the first hard cold draws Hollowmere inward — sitting-up nights by the fire, an old man's half-told history of a village that set its clock down long ago — Edwin walks the long way home and finds his deepest fear isn't the strangeness at all, but how happy he has become inside it.

A bedtime story for adults. About an hour, read by a single warm British voice over a quiet music bed. No jump scares, no plot twists at high volume, no music that builds — written to be drifted through. Best with headphones, lamps low, eyes closed. If you fall asleep before he signs off, that's the idea. Sleep well.

New letter every week.

Prefer to drift off with your eyes closed? Follow Letters from Hollowmere on Spotify and each new letter arrives on its own — also on Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music / Audible.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033uSY6tL5SpN3jGLG5sMC

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Narration created with ElevenLabs voice synthesis. Words written by a human.

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