Horror Thriller Box Set 1

by Amy Cross

  "So is this it?" I ask. "Is this Devil's Briar?"

  He shakes his head. "The actual town's another mile or two to the north. This must have been an outlier. People lived here, Paula. They probably built this house with their bare hands. This is a part of American history that none of us have ever seen before. This is the American Dream. These foundations have laid undisturbed for decades, maybe even a century or more. Aren't you excited? This is literally new history being unearthed."

  "I'm very excited," I say, although I immediately realize that I'm a terrible actress. I don't sound excited at all. I sound bored.

  "We need to get going," Bill says, standing up and hurrying back to the truck. "There might be a whole town to explore!"

  Sighing, I waddle after him, keeping a protective hand on my belly. It's not that I'm disinterested in the prospect of discovering the remains of an entire town. It's just that I'm not sure how much we can determine about the place from a bunch of ruined foundations. It's not like we're going to find too much left behind, not if the whole place has been covered by snow and soil for almost a century. Still, I have to keep my cynical side in check for now. This trip is about Bill.

  "Think about what we might find out here," he says as we get back into the truck.

  "Huh," I say wryly.

  "Everyone needs to be passionate about something," he says. "Come on, Paula. Get with the program." He looks down at my belly. "I bet little Bill Jr's having a great time."

  Reluctant to say anything that might burst his bubble, I decide not to argue. Instead, I fire up the truck and we head off along the dirt road. For mile after mile we see nothing ahead of us but the dirt road lined on either side by pine trees. I start to worry that Bill's hopes of finding an abandoned town are going to be dashed. Just as I'm ready to give up, however, I spot something in the distance.

  "You see that?" I ask.

  He stares at the map for a moment. "It's not marked down here," he says. "It could be the ruins we saw on the satellite image."

  I smile nervously. As we drive closer and closer, it becomes clear that whatever we've found, it's more than just a set of ruins. The trees have been cut back and there are whole buildings left standing, arranged in what looks to be two contra-parallel streets. Whatever this place used to be, it was clearly never a big town, but it was definitely a town, with stores and houses. I park the truck right next to the closest building, and Bill immediately climbs out and takes a few steps toward the town before turning to me. He looks awestruck, as if he never expected to find anything so stunning. It's a small town. It must have been hidden by snow and dust for close to a century before a shift in the local conditions uncovered it. There are no historical records of the place, no firm mentions in any old books or letters. It's as if the place has just cropped up from nowhere: a hundred-year-old ghost town, ruined and abandoned in the middle of nowhere.

  "This must be it," Bill says, grinning. He turns to me. "This must be Devil's Briar."

  I open my mouth to reply, but instead I'm hit by a huge wave of recognition. For a split second, I feel as if I've not only been to this place before, but I've explored it and... I feel a sense of dread, as if something truly awful has happened, or is about to happen, or both. Feeling like I need some air, I climb out of the truck, immediately feeling extremely dizzy. I sit on the ground and try to take deep breaths to regather my composure. As Bill runs over to check if I'm okay, I look over at the town and I feel this dizzying sense of having been here before. Something about Devil's Briar feels really familiar and really wrong.

  Chapter Two

  1925

  Standing naked in the town square, I watch calmly as Henry Porter burns to death.

  In truth, I had always thought Mr. Porter to be a good man. He seemed wise and kind, and I assumed he would be spared as the flames cleansed Devil's Briar. However, this has not proven to be the case. Clearly, he was hiding some hidden sin that was known only to God. What other explanation could there be for his screams? As I watch, he tries to crawl from the burning hotel, but he is weak and injured. Eventually the flames take hold, burning all over his clothes and skin. For a moment, it's as if he's looking directly at me; then he falls still and the flames consume him completely. Finally, the front of the hotel creaks and comes crashing down. I take a few steps back and watch as the whole building collapses in on itself, becoming nothing more than a pile of burning timber. Somewhere in that inferno, Henry Porter's body continues to burn.

  "Why did Mr. Porter die?" I ask. "I thought he was a good man."

  "For the love of God, Victoria, what did you do?" Standing next to me, Albert seems awestruck by the flames.

  "What do you mean?" I ask, turning to him. Of all people, I thought my husband would understand my need to cleanse Devil's Briar. After all, Albert is a godly man and he surely recognizes that this place had become sinful. How could he not have expected the wrath of God to descend and burn away both the sins and the sinners?

  "You have destroyed everything!" he says, a look of total shock in his eyes. "All of it, Victoria. The whole town is going up in flames."

  "Not everything," I reply calmly. "Just the things that needed to be destroyed." I turn and look at the flames that are roaring through all the buildings around us, and I feel nothing but joy. After all, this is what my uncle wanted. It took me so long to decipher his notebooks and to understand his calculations, but finally I determined that the sinfulness of this town was preventing the experiment from being completed. Once all the bad things have been seared from Devil's Briar, only the good things will remain, and then finally my uncle can return from his glorious journey.

  "We must get out of here," Albert says, grabbing my arm and pulling me across the town square.

  "I want to stay and watch," I reply.

  "Where are your clothes?" he asks. "You cannot be seen out here naked!" Pulling his coat off, he drapes it over my shoulders. It is almost as if he considers my body to be a shameful thing.

  "I'm fine," I say. "Please, don't worry about me. I was troubled yesterday, but now I am free."

  "They will know it was you," he says, with tears in his eyes. "Everyone will know that you were the one who did this. They will know that you, my wife, burned down our town." He pauses for a moment. "Do you know how many people have died tonight, Victoria? The rest will blame me. They will think it is my fault that you were able to do such horrific things, and they will be right! I should have known. I should have stopped you."

  "No-one will blame you, my dear," I tell him as I look up at the large metal cross my uncle raised when we arrived in this town. "They will eventually recognize that this was necessary for the -" At that moment, there is a huge crashing sound as another building collapses. Fueled by the gasoline, this fire is ripping through the town at a breakneck speed. By the time dawn comes, Devil's Briar will undoubtedly be ready for its rebirth, and there will be no more barriers to my uncle's return. He will sleep no longer.

  "You're insane," Albert says, staring into my eyes with such love and sorrow. "My dear, it pains me to say this, but you have lost your mind. You have misplaced your sanity in the pages of your uncle's notebooks!"

  I smile. Poor Albert doesn't understand my uncle's work. As far as he is concerned, my uncle was a troubled man who arrived in Devil's Briar, erected a tall cross, and later shot himself for no apparent reason. If only Albert could understand the truth about my uncle's experiments. Perhaps I should have made more of an effort to explain things to my husband; perhaps I should have gone through the notebooks with him line by line, and shown him the calculations. I am sure that Albert would have struggled to understand everything that my uncle wrote, but he would at least have seen that there is order to this chaos. To him, the burning town must seem to be entirely out of control, yet it is all perfectly in order. In the end, everything will be clear, but I do not begrudge Albert this moment of fear.

  "This is supposed to be happening," I say. "Everything you see, Albert. This is
how it is supposed to be."

  "Come!" he says, holding my hand firmly and pulling me away from the town square. We hurry along one of the narrow streets, making our way between the burning buildings until finally we reach the edge of town. Albert drags me into the forest, and we turn to see the conflagration as it devours the town. For a moment, I cannot help but wonder how many people have died in there, and how many were able to save themselves. God must be so busy tonight, judging each of the town's residents and deciding who should live and who should die.

  "Do you not think the flames are beautiful?" I ask, captivated by the gorgeous oranges and yellows that burn under the night sky.

  "Come here," Albert says, putting his arms around me and holding me tight. There are tears in his eyes, and he seems utterly distraught.

  "Why are you crying?" I ask. "I have already explained to you that everything is going perfectly."

  "My dear," he says. "I have no doubt that your heart is strong and good, and I know that everything you do is designed for a worthy purpose, but your mind is twisted and warped. You mistake order for chaos, and chaos for order. Surely you must recognize that this is wrong!" He stares at me for a moment, as if he is searching for some kind of answer in my eyes. "You must not blame yourself, Victoria. None of this is your fault. It is mine. I foolishly believed I could help you, that I could deliver you from this moment of madness. I placed the burden of your recovery on my own shoulders, and I was not strong enough to carry you from your torture. If only I had been a better man..."

  "Hush," I say, smiling as I put a finger against his lips. "You must try to understand, Albert. This is a wonderful night. It is the night when Devil's Briar changes and becomes whole again. It is the night when the town achieves its destiny and -"

  "The town is destroyed!" he shouts. "The whole town! Look at it! You have burned it to the ground! How can you talk of destiny and wonder when you have committed such an atrocity?"

  "You are wrong," I say, shaking my head. "Wait. You'll see. Everything will be perfect, Albert. You must simply have faith in my uncle."

  "Your uncle?" he replies. "Oh God, now I see the full extent of your madness. Your uncle is dead, Victoria."

  "No," I say. "He is merely sleeping. He will return soon."

  "The man is dead!" he shouts, shaking me as if to help me better understand. "He put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger! I saw the body and I saw the grave! You cannot keep deluding yourself into thinking that -"

  "He will return," I reply, smiling at Albert's complete lack of understanding. "You will see. There is no doubt. He will return and everything will make sense. Why, I imagine he is already in these woods somewhere, watching as Devil's Briar burns. It's all part of his plan, you see. He was just waiting for me to complete the last stage, but it took me so long to understand what he needed me to do." I cannot help but laugh at Albert's failure to understand. "Oh, my dear husband, I -"

  Suddenly, without any warning at all, Albert slaps my face and I fall silent, shocked that such a gentle man could commit such an act.

  "I am sorry," he says. "Oh, my dear, I am so, so sorry. Please forgive me. I just cannot let you keep rambling on about your uncle, when the plain truth is that the man is dead and rotting in his grave!"

  I take a deep breath, feeling tears in my eyes. Albert has never struck me before, and I was quite certain he was not the type of man to do such a thing. I thought he would never, ever hurt me, yet it is clear that in his confusion and fear he has reached a point of unprecedented anger.

  "You must overlook my actions," he says, reaching out and gently stroking the side of my face. "Everything will be okay, Victoria. I will look after you, I promise. I have been deficient in my responsibilities to you, my dear, but that is about to change. We must go away from here. We must go far, far away, and we must never speak of these events again. We can be other people. Time will heal your wounds. I love you with all my heart, Victoria. You know that, do you not?"

  "I do," I reply, even though my face still stings from the impact of Albert's hand.

  "Then we must go," he says. "We must go right now. There is nothing left for us here. Nothing at all."

  "No," I say, "we must stay." I turn and look back at Devil's Briar. The town still burns, but the fire seems to be abating a little and, in the distance, dawn is slowly breaking. As the night pall begins to lift, Albert will surely start to recognize why I had to cleanse the town with fire. The rebuilding work will be glorious, and we shall be led by my uncle, who is surely afoot even now. "The grave!" I say, suddenly realizing that I have been most remiss to not go and wait patiently for my uncle's return. Pulling away from Albert, I run through the trees until finally I reach the grave. Expecting to find my uncle waiting for me, I am shocked to find, instead, that the soil has been torn away, exposing the bare and empty grave from which my uncle has already risen.

  Chapter Three

  Today

  "Are you still saying this isn't creepy?" I ask Bill, as we sit on the steps outside the hotel. It's getting late now, and we've spent the past few hours exploring Devil's Briar. So far, we've found no sign of people, not even any bodies. What we have found, however, is a huge metal cross standing right in the middle of the town square. The thing looms over the darkening town, while all around us there are the empty buildings of a place that - for whatever reason - was forgotten for so long. Fortunately, I went and got some flashlights from the truck, so at least we'll be able to get around during the night.

  "It's calm," Bill replies. "And peaceful. It's not remotely creepy. Not unless you believe in ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night." He takes a drag on his cigarette. "You don't believe in all that garbage, do you?"

  I shake my head.

  "Thanks for agreeing to stay," he continues, reaching out and placing a hand on my belly. "I know it's not ideal. Are you sure you're feeling okay now?"

  "I'm fine," I say. The dizzy moment after we arrived has long since passed. I guess I under-estimated the effect that the pregnancy would have on me. "Besides, it's just for one night. We can work tomorrow during the morning, but I want to head back to Florence in the afternoon. Got it?"

  He nods. "I'll get a proper team together so we can come back next week. This could be the biggest find for decades. We're going to dig through the history of this town and find out exactly what happened. I want to know everything. Who lived here. What they did. What they ate. What they wore."

  "Where they went?"

  "Where they went," he agrees. "A town doesn't just stop existing like this. The people of Devil's Briar didn't just disappear into thin air. This isn't another Roanoke." He sighs. "There's a story here, Paula. I can feel it in my gut. Something happened in Devil's Briar. Something extraordinary."

  "Careful," I say, "you're starting to -" I flinch, feeling a slight pain in my belly.

  "What's wrong?" Bill asks.

  "Nothing," I reply. "Just a cramp."

  "Maybe we should get you to bed," he continues. "It's been a long day. You want to see our room?"

  "Our room?" I turn to him, before looking up at the imposing edifice of the hotel. "Right. Sure. Our room."

  Taking my hand, he leads me into the reception and then up to the first floor. "It's the largest room in the whole damn building," he says as he opens the door and shines the flashlight inside to disturb the darkness. "Welcome to the master suite. It's a little dusty, but I don't think we're going to get away from the dust while we're here. What do you think?"

  I step into the room and find that, surprisingly, it's not too bad. It's fairly large, and there's a big double bed over on one side. "We need to open a window," I say, walking over and struggling with the latch for a moment before I'm finally able to slide the window up. A cool breeze enters the room, immediately making the place seem less stuffy. "Give it a few minutes," I say, "and it should feel a lot better." I turn and shine the flashlight across the room. "Nice wallpaper," I add, feeling slightly creeped out by the
yellow patterns all over the walls.

  "You think you can sleep in here?" Bill asks with a smile as he pushes the door shut and drops his rucksack on the floor. "You sure you won't be listening out for ghosts?"

  "I'll try to keep my imagination in check," I reply. "Like a good girl."

  "Bed's firm," he says, pushing a hand down onto the mattress. "We'll have to test it out later."

  "Maybe," I say, smiling as I spot something resting on the dresser by the door. Walking over, I find that it's a small painting. It's an old, fairly crude picture of a woman bending over some washing, while a little devil hides nearby. "Talk about some Freudian shit," I say. "You know, I bet the woman in this painting would have loved it if the devil had jumped her and given her a good session in the sack. I bet all the women of Devil's Briar used to hang up their washing and get all quivery at the thought that some horned beast was eying them up."

  "What nice young lady doesn't want to be deflowered by a devil?" Bill asks, coming over to look at the painting. He puts a hand on my waist and leans closer, kissing the side of my neck. "What do you think the good folk of Devil's Briar would say if they could see us now?"

  "I think they'd want us to put their painting back up," I reply, noticing a rectangular bare patch on the wall where the painting appears to have once hung. I walk over and put it back in place. "There," I say. "Now doesn't that look nice?"