A mother named Laura wakes up in the middle of the night to blue light creeping into her bedroom. She rolls out of bed, careful not to wake her daughter Jenny beside her, and her son Tony, in the crib. She knows the Gentlemen have arrived. As Laura walks through the living room to investigate the light, she picks up a blue notebook above the television where she has been writing notes about the sound the Gentlemen make, such as faraway traffic noises or heavy rain. She has been writing these notes all her life, but she feels like none of these descriptions capture it.  

Laura remembers her younger brother, Kyle, dying when she was in second grade. Laura had asked her mother why Kyle died, and she told her that people in Brooks Hollow get sick sometimes, but reassured Laura that the Hollow is a good place. The Hollow is relatively friendly, with its amiable people and popular small church gatherings. It is normal for the children to die and then be buried in the Hollow. When Laura met her husband Rich in high school, she worried her parents would kick her out of the Hollow, as many girls were. However, her parents supported their marriage and bought them a trailer home in the Hollow. On her wedding day, Laura heard her old babysitter disparage her mother for bringing an outsider into the Hollow. She tells her mother that Rich was too good and that she should have sent Laura away with him because “you get sent or you get taken."     In the Hollow, there are never any miscarriages from women, fires, or starvation. After her mother’s death, a lawyer arranged an entire town meeting. Almost all of the Hollow attended, and the lawyer asked them to join in a class-action suit. However, the minister of the church said that a lawsuit couldn't help them. The long-lasting silence of the Hollow had a chance to be broken that time but failed. Eventually, Rich went to war and came back with PTSD. He told Laura that he kept seeing things in the Hollow after his return, and became paranoid. He offered to Laura for them to leave, but Laura told him the Hollow is her home. She divorced Rich and sent him away. Laura also made a bargain with “the union man” that she knows she broke when she left the Hollow for Toby’s birth.      Now that the Gentlemen have arrived, Laura thinks she should have sent her children away, but she knows people in the Hollow have tried to find loopholes in the bargain but always ended up dying. Laura steps out into the light outside the house and sees the Gentlemen, their two dozen sets of eyes watching her. They ride giant white owls, who stand by them. One of the men gestures toward the house, but Laura tells him they cannot get her children, only her. She tells the riders that the bargain is over and they won’t be renegotiating. The owls attack her, cutting into her body.