In Lantern Hollow, there are three rules. 

Do not wander after dusk. 
Do not speak your full name aloud. 
If the Lantern Man knocks, let him take what he asks. 

He comes only in winter. He is polite. He takes the grief you can’t set down, the guilt you can’t explain away, the memory that has moved in and won’t leave. And he leaves you lighter. The whole village calls it mercy. 

Delia was eleven when she opened the door. He didn’t take her pain. She didn’t have any worth taking. He took something else, something she couldn’t name for years. 

Now she’s sixteen, the Lantern Man is coming back, and Delia finally understands what he collects.