by Amy Cross
“Why the hell did you sit by my hospital bed for the past few months while I was having plates attached to my skull to hold it together?”
“Well, I...” Pausing, he seemed a little embarrassed, almost as if he was about to blush. “I just thought it was the right thing to do. And, you know, it was kind of fun talking to you. I didn't have to worry about boring you, because it wasn't like you could get up and walk out, not while you were strapped to that bed.”
“I guess I was a captive audience.”
He smiled.
“I liked all the stories you told me,” she added. “You have a good bedside manner.”
“Bedside manner?”
“It's an English phrase.” She smiled. “I guess I just got used to having you around.”
“Enough that you want to come riding with me on the snowplow every weekend?”
“Are you kidding? Of course I do! What else would I do on a Friday night? Go to a party? Watch TV?” Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a tattered copy of her Learn Norwegian book, along with a copy of a collection of old Norse tales. “Anyway, don't worry, I won't keep talking the whole night. I brought some literature.”
“And I brought extra coffee,” he added, holding up a second flask.
“Tea,” she replied, holding up a flask she'd brought. “Don't you know anything about me? I'm British, remember?”
“Then we're all set,” he continued, before glancing over at the farmhouse for a moment. “Do ever wonder if -” he began to say, before pausing, as if he wasn't sure whether he should complete the sentence.
“If what?” she asked.
“I don't want to freak you out.”
“I think my freak-out threshold is pretty high now,” she pointed out. “What is it?”
“The three girls. Do you ever wonder where they went?”
“Somewhere better?”
“But where? Haven't you seen them even once since the barn burned down?”
Looking over at the dark yard, Paula waited, half-expecting to see the same thing. The snowplow's orange light was still flashing, regularly lighting up the yard with a soft glow, but there was no sign of anything moving in the shadows. After a moment, she turned to Sebastian.
“Not once,” she said finally. “Maybe they moved on. Maybe the farm doesn't attract that sort of thing anymore. Whatever, something's definitely changed.”
“And you're feeling good? Punctured lung and broken skull and all?”
She nodded.
“What about the...” He paused again, looking at the burned-out barn. “The thing you said you saw in the barn... Are you sure it's gone?”
“All the rubble has been taken away,” she replied. “I was careful what I said to the police, I didn't want them to think I'd lost my mind, but they didn't find anything in the ruins that made them suspicious. They just figure some kind of arsonist burned the place down. Since my father was relying on the insurance, I decided not to complicate things any further by trying to tell them the truth. Besides, I've barely even got it straight in my head.”
“But you don't think... I mean, you don't think it was really an old god, do you?”
“That's what it said it was,” she continued, turning to him. “It didn't look like a god, but then again it didn't look like anything else I've ever seen in my life. I guess, whatever it used to be, it had just fallen apart and become this kind of... big blob of evil.” She paused. “Whatever it was, it got into my head. I mean, it really managed to get in deep, like it knew how to get me to do anything it wanted. There was a moment back there when I actually felt like I was going to give in to it. God knows how many people fell into its trap over the years, but at least it's gone now. I guess it took a madman like Jonah Lund to finally stand up to it. He'd been through so much over the years, the only thing he wanted was for it all to end.”
“Even at the cost of his own life?”
“He was so far gone,” she replied, “I think it was all he could do to keep his mind together for long enough to get it over with. I can't imagine how much pain he must have been going through. By the end, he just wanted peace.”
“Okay,” Sebastian replied, putting the machine into gear, “we'd better get going. I don't want to fall behind schedule. Last chance to bail.”
“No chance. Anyway, I want to see this spot overlooking the frozen lake. It sounds romantic and -” She paused, catching herself just in time, but now it was her turn to blush slightly. Feeling acutely embarrassed, she looked down at her books. “It was real, wasn't it?” she asked finally. “All the craziness... It wasn't just in our heads, was it?”
“No,” he replied. “No, it was real.”
As the plow began to move off, pushing vast quantities of snow out of the road, its flashing orange light briefly lit up the yard a few more times before finally heading off into the distance. Once darkness had returned to the yard, the whole scene settled for a moment, with light snow falling through the air. After a few seconds, however, three figures moved out of the shadows, holding hands as they ran past the burned-out barn, past the farmhouse, and toward the vast snow-covered field. As they made their way toward the horizon, they left no footprints in the snow.
***
“Enjoy the night-shift,” Ole shouted, waving back across the dark junkyard as he headed out the gate. “Loser!”
“Enjoy getting into bed with your whore of a wife,” Johan muttered under his breath, as he pushed the final bag of waste into one of the skips over by the fence. “Enjoy kissing your snotty-nosed little brats goodnight.” His arms were aching and even though he'd been working at the junkyard for nigh on forty years, he'd still never got used to the really cold nights, to the times when the temperature would drop past minus thirty. The coldest he'd ever known had been minus thirty-nine, which was when it became so bad, he could barely even breathe.
Still, at least it wasn't snowing too much. For once.
Turning and heading back across the junkyard, he figured he could take another coffee-break. It was only half an hour since the last, but now he was alone and, as his own boss for the shift, he felt he deserved to put his feet up. All day, he'd faced nothing but criticism, nothing but constant comments, both to his face and behind his back, intimating that he wasn't pulling his weight. Sometimes, he just wanted to find a way to make the bastards pay.
“I'll give you anything you want,” he thought to himself, before stopping suddenly. “I'll give you anything you want?” he whispered, realizing that although those words had entered his head and pretended to be his thoughts, they seemed to have come from somewhere else, from somewhere outside his mind.
Turning, he looked across the dark junkyard.
“I'll tell you secrets,” the voice whispered.
His eyes widened as he realized that something was talking to him. Either that, or he was losing his mind.
“Secrets about the stars,” the voice continued, “and about life, and about death. Secrets about people, and about the world, and about things that have lived and that will live again. Secrets about how to get exactly what you want. I won't even ask for very much in return. Just a few small favors.”
“Where are you?” he asked, looking around before spotting an old skip that had been partially picked out by the moonlight. “Let me see you.”
“Come to me.”
“I want to see your face first,” he continued, although he'd already begun to make his way over to the skip, the cover of which had been left open to reveal the darkness within. As he got closer, Johan realized that this was one of the skips that had arrived a few weeks earlier, following the fire down south at the Bondalen farm. He'd been meaning to go through the contents and sort it, but for some reason he'd kept forgetting to get around to the job.
“Open your mind to me,” the voice told him, “and I will give you everything in return. A fair exchange, don't you think?”
Despite his generally cautious nature, something compelled Johan to take hold of t
he side of the skip and lean into the darkness. He couldn't see anything, of course, so he took the flashlight from around his waist and switched it on, before shining the beam directly into the skip. At first, all he saw were piles of rubble and burned wood, but after a moment he realized there was something glistening at the very back of the skip, something that seemed to be protruding in several spots from under the trash.
“I have been through so much pain,” the voice continued, “yet still I persist. I have endured great tragedy, and attacks caused by pure hatred, but still... I live. I told him he couldn't kill me.”
“Who are you?” Johan whispered. “What are you?”
“I have been known by many names. You can choose a new one for me, if you wish, or you can just pick one from my past. Names don't matter, not really. All that matters is the present moment. Will you give me what I want, in return for my secrets?”
Johan paused for a moment, as the cautionary voice in the back of his mind was drowned out by an urge to offer the new, stronger voice anything it demanded.
“Just tell me,” he said finally. “Whatever it is, I'll give it to you, I -” Leaning further into the skip, he realized he could hear a faint heartbeat in his head, as if something was slipping into his thoughts. Reaching out, he pushed some of the trash away, uncovering a little more of the glistening, throbbing mass that seemed to be hiding in the skip. “What do you want? Whatever it is, I'll get it for you, I swear.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.” He waited for a moment, desperate to find out what he could do for the creature. “Just tell me!”
“Anything...” the voice continued, as if it was savoring the word. “I think perhaps I have learned from my past mistakes. I think now I can do a lot better. The previous specimens were weak, and I pushed them too far, too fast. This time, I shall take a calmer, more measured approach.”
“What do you want?” Johan shouted, barely able to contain himself. “Please, just tell me!”
From deep under the trash, there came a brief, slithering sound, as if the creature was shifting its bulk.
“First,” the voice said finally, “you must move me from this wretched place. Find somewhere safe, somewhere I won't be disturbed.” A slit on its surface opened, revealing a sticky, gummed eye. “And then, bring me a child. I had a plan before. It went wrong, but this time, I will take greater care. Bring me a good, strong child whose mind I can mold, one who won't become ungrateful and turn against me. One who can tell the world of my coming, and prepare the people for the return of the great god Hel.”
OTHER BOOKS
BY AMY CROSS INCLUDE
Horror
3AM
Tenderling
The Girl Clay
The Prison
Asylum
American Coven
The Night Girl
Devil's Briar
Ward Z
Ward Z: Revelation
The Last Priest
The Devil's Photographer
Darper Danver series 1
Fantasy / Horror
Dark Season series 1, 2 & 3
The Hollow Church (Abby Hart 1)
Vampire Asylum (Abby Hart 2)
Dead Souls Volume One: Parts 1 to 13
Dead Souls Volume Two: Parts 14 to 26
Lupine Howl series 1 to 4
Grave Girl
Graver Girl (Grave Girl 2)
Ghosts
The Library
Journey to the Library (The Library Saga 2)
The Ghosts of London
The Vampire's Grave
The Werewolf's Curse
Thriller
Ophelia
The Dead City (Ophelia 2)
The Girl Who Never Came Back
The Dead and the Dying (Joanna Mason 1)
The House of Broken Backs (Joanna Mason 2)
The Pornographer's Wife
Other People's Bodies
Dystopia / Science Fiction
The Shades
Finality series 1
Mass Extinction Event series 1 to 4
Erotica
Broken Blue
Broken White
Broken Red
Also by Amy Cross
ASYLUM
After killing her younger brother, Annie Radford is sent to Lakehurst Psychiatric Hospital. But Lakehurst hides some dark secrets. Patients are regularly subjected to 'special treatment' in the basement, while the cruel Nurse Winter rules the hospital with an iron fist.
As Annie struggles to retain her sense of identity, she finds herself being drawn deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Lakehurst. Suffering under the horrific conditions imposed on her at Lakehurst, Annie starts to doubt her own sanity, especially when she once again starts to hear the voices that plagued her when she was younger.
Who is the strange old man in the attic? What does Jerry keep in a jar in the basement, and why is he so keen to continue with his macabre and vicious experiments? Where did the husks come from? And how is this all linked to mysterious radio signals being monitored in a forest hundreds of miles away?
Also by Amy Cross
THE NIGHT GIRL
When she starts her new job as a night shift assistant, Juliet Collier has no idea that she's about to meet a mysterious entity that lurks in an abandoned part of the building.
Soon, Juliet finds herself granted a gift that means she can kill indiscriminately, and apparently without consequences. Meanwhile, eleven years earlier, a young Juliet makes a terrible mistake that sets her on a dark course.
The Night Girl is the story of a girl whose decisions lead her to a devastating end-point, as she struggles to reconcile the voices in her head with the reality in front of her eyes.
Also by Amy Cross
DEVIL'S BRIAR
In the remote wilderness of Colorado, Bill and Paula Mitchell discover an entire lost town.
Devil's Briar was abandoned many years ago, and has fallen into disrepair. But it soon becomes clear that the town contains some special and highly unusual qualities, and that elements of the past are seeping through into the present. As she tries to get to the bottom of the mystery, Paula finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into the bizarre time loop that keeps the entire town trapped in eternity.
Soon it becomes clear that nothing in Devil's Briar will ever be the same again, and that two time periods are merging with horrific consequences.
Also by Amy Cross
WARD Z
It began with a strange new kind of cancer, born on the other side of the world. Eventually, it erupted on a British hospital ward...
When a new cancer patient is brought into his care, Dr. Andrew Page assumes it'll just be another case of battling against the odds. Soon, however, he realizes that this new patient has been infected by a type of cancer that shows signs of intelligence. As the ward is put into lock-down, Dr. Page struggles to understand the nature of the disease. More and more people start to become sick, until finally Dr. Page has to face the horrific truth: a new strain of cancer has emerged, taking control of its victims' bodies and turning them into zombie-like creatures.
For Dr. Page, this is a terrifying but fascinating new development. For the military, however, it means only one thing: the ward must be sealed, and the entire building - including everyone trapped inside - must be studied, observed... and then killed.
Ward Z is a medical horror novel about a deadly new disease that emerges from a particularly virulent form of cancer. Also available - Ward Z: Revelation, in which the deadly infestation spreads to a holiday camp.
Also by Amy Cross
AMERICAN COVEN
He kidnapped three women and held them in his basement.
He thought they couldn't fight back.
He was wrong...
Snatched from the street near her home, Holly Carter is taken to a rural house and thrown down into a stone basement. She meets two other women who have also been kidnapped, and soon Holly learns about the
horrific rituals that take place in the house. Eventually, she's called upstairs to take her place in the ice bath.
Over time, however, Holly learns about a mysterious power that exists in the basement, and which the three women can use as they struggle to escape. When they finally manage to get through the metal door, however, the women have no idea that their fight for freedom is going to stretch out for more than a decade, or that it will culminate in a final, devastating demonstration of their new-found powers.
Also by Amy Cross
THE DEVIL'S PHOTOGRAPHER
As she investigates a series of strange images, photographer Kate Logan finds herself drawn closer to a mysterious church that seems to hide a number of secrets. However, just as she seems to be getting somewhere, Kate's shocked to learn that the church has burned down.
Meanwhile, she starts spending time with a man named John Dagwood, who has an unusual interest in medieval medical techniques. Following some bad news about her own health, Kate starts to consider taking extreme action in order to get her body back under control.
As she gets closer to the truth, Kate discovers that her entire life has been affected by a dark promise made many years ago. By the time she learns about the sinister forces operating behind the scenes, it might be too late for her to escape her destiny.
