by Amy Cross
“The sound?” Pausing again, the woman seems genuinely confused. “I don't know what you -” Hearing a voice calling from inside, she smiles again. “Sorry, I've got to get back in there, but you kids have fun, okay? I hope you get time to take a look around our little town. We're very friendly and we don't bite! Where are you from, anyway?”
“Um... Denver,” Bryony replies.
“Far from home, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Welcome to Pine Ridge,” the woman replies. “My name's Mary. If I can help you guys out with anything, don't hesitate to come in and let me know, okay?”
As the woman heads back into the diner, Bryony turns to Tom. “What the hell is going on in this place?”
“We should get out of here,” he replies. “Seriously, the vibe here is, like, wrong on so many levels.”
“It's obviously just some kind of weird hick tradition,” she tells him. “They're obviously just a little... weird. Like, the kind of weird I thought you only ever found below the Mason-Dixon line. Maybe that, like, southern gothic stuff's leaking out.”
“How can they even stand it?” he asks, wincing as the scream continues. “It's, like, drilling into my soul.”
Turning to look across the town square, Bryony sees that people are going about their everyday lives as if absolutely nothing is wrong. The scream, which if anything seems to be getting a little louder, just goes on and on, filling the air and seeming to bounce between the buildings surrounding the square. The craziest thing is that no-one is reacting at all; people are just carrying on with their lives, smiling and chatting and acting as if nothing is wrong.
“What have we got here, then?” asks Don Ridley, adjusting his pants as he wanders toward them with a smile. “Strangers in town? You're a little early for the celebrations.”
Turning to him, Bryony and Tom stare for a moment.
“We just came for gas,” Tom says finally. “That's all, I swear!”
“Well,” he replies, “the gas station's down that street over there, right at the end, but if you're not in a hurry you should really think about sticking around. I know small-town life might not seem that exciting to a couple of kids such as yourselves, but we're a real friendly town. We also do mean barbecue ribs.” He turns to Matt, who has just emerged from the diner with a coffee in his hands and a newspaper tucked under his arm. “Ain't that right, Doc?”
“Pretty friendly, yeah,” Matt replies with a smile.
“What's with that horrible sound?” Bryony asks, stepping toward them. “Is it, like, an art installation or something?”
“I'm sorry, sweetie?” Don replies with a frown. “I don't quite get ya.”
“That sound,” she continues, “the scream. What's going on?”
“Scream?” Don pauses for a moment, before turning to Matt. “Doc, do you know what this lovely young lady is talking about?”
Matt shakes his head.
“It's everywhere,” Bryony continues. “It's, like, filling the whole town. It sounds like someone's in agony!”
“Well, I tell you what,” Don replies. “In truth of fact, there was a bit of a... thing... a few months ago, but it's all over now. I think you must just be getting a little confused.” He turns to Tom. “Maybe your girlfriend's hearing things.”
“I hear it too,” Tom tells him.
“You do?”
“How can anyone not hear it?” Bryony asks, as a couple of smiling women walk past with a child right behind them. “How can people just get on with their lives while that scream is everywhere?” As another woman walks past, Bryony grabs her arm. “You can hear it, right? It's not just us?”
“Hear what?” Mrs. Chinnery asks, before turning to Don.
“What about you,” Bryony asks, looking down at Alice. “Do you hear the scream?”
“I...” Alice pauses, before frowning slightly. “I... I'm not sure, I... I remember...”
“What's going on?” Mrs. Chinnery asks, turning to Don. “Who are these people?”
“Nothing's going on,” Don says, taking Bryony's hand and moving it away from Alice's arm. “Just some kids having a little fun.” As Mrs. Chinnery leads Alice quickly along the sidewalk, the little girl turns to look back.
Forcing a smile, Don turns to Tom again. “Maybe you two should get your gas and keep on going. Like I said, we're a friendly little town, but we're not too keen on people coming in and causing a disturbance. We're not here for your amusement. We like peace and quiet here in Pine Ridge.”
“You can still hear it, can't you?” Bryony asks, turning to Tom. “Please tell me you can still hear it.”
He nods warily. “I think maybe we should go,” he tells her, heading back around to the driver's side of the car. “Come on, let's find that gas station.”
“You kids have fun on the road,” Don tells them as they get back into the car. “You're only young once!”
“What the hell is wrong with these people?” Bryony asks as she pulls her door shut. “They're acting like they can't even hear the scream!”
“I don't know,” Tom replies, starting the engine, “and I don't want to find out.” He turns the music back on and increases the volume, before flooring the throttle pedal. “Whatever's going on in this freak-ass town, I want to get out of here. Now!”
As the car speeds away from the town square, Bryony turns and looks back. Despite the music, she can still hear the scream. It sounds like a girl, suffering horrific pain and crying out for help. Feeling a shiver pass through her chest, she turns to Tom, but no words leave her lips. There are no words. After a moment, she turns to look forward and simply stares straight ahead, before reaching over and turning the music up even higher.
“It's some kind of weird art installation,” she says finally, trying to convince herself. “That's all. It's an art thing. Goddamn freaks.”
They don't stop at the gas station. They figure they can wait until the next town.
***
“Well that was weird,” Don says, watching as the car disappears into the distance. He turns to Matt. “Kids, huh? Crazy.”
“What they said about the scream -”
“They were punkin' us,” Don continues, adjusting his belt again as he heads toward the diner's main door. “Trying to scare us, you know? Put the wind up us. Kids these days, I swear, their sense of humor just shoots right over my head.”
“But -”
“Don't think about it, Doc.”
“Yeah, but if -”
“Don't think about,” he says again, more firmly this time. “They obviously heard about what happened here a few months ago, with that scream n'all, and they though they'd stop by and play a prank.” He pats Matt on the shoulder. “The scream's gone. It stopped ages ago, remember? It was horrible while it lasted, but it's all over now.”
“How exactly did it end, again?” Matt asks. “I remember that morning when people started losing their minds, and then... I mean, everything's kind of hazy after that.”
“It's gone, buddy. That's the important thing. I mean, I sure as hell don't hear it anymore. Do you?”
“No, but we never found -”
“It's gone,” Don says again, with a hint of grit in his voice. “Long, long gone. You remember what it was like when that scream was still hollerin' out everywhere, everyone was losin' their goddamn minds. We're just lucky it stopped, that's all.” He pauses, before forcing a smile back to his face. “Well, that cup of coffee won't drink itself. Got a pain in my knee, too, wouldn't mind gettin' your thoughts on that if you've got time. See you later, buddy, yeah? I'll drop by your place.”
Matt lingers for a moment in the doorway. Looking across the town square, he sees familiar faces going about their daily business. There's Judy Cluny, sitting on a bench with her new boyfriend Robbie; nearby, Kelly Hargreaves is laughing as she walks with Elizabeth Kellerman; over on the far side of the town square, meanwhile, the Hunter brothers are hard at work on the Beauy building, getting it ready for its
grand reopening in a few days' time as a new civic hall. Everything seems perfect, and everyone seems happy. The sky is blue, and the sun is shining, and people are laughing.
For a moment, just a fraction of a second, Matt imagines he can hear the scream again. Ringing out across the town, filling the air, as loud as before or maybe even louder. Terrified, tortured, begging for help, worse than ever and getting louder and louder until -
“Yeah, buddy?” Don says suddenly, shaking Matt out of his daze by putting a hand on his shoulder. “Everything okay? Did you hear a word I just said?”
For a moment, Matt listens again to the sounds of the town. People are happy. A car drives past. A child rides his bike along the sidewalk. For a moment, Matt feels as if something might be wrong under the surface, something he's forgotten or something he's simply learned to ignore, but...
Nearby, a pretty girl talks to her friend about boys, and a child laughs.
“Yeah,” he replies finally, forcing a smile as he turns to Don. “Everything's great.”
OTHER BOOKS
BY AMY CROSS INCLUDE
Horror
The Farm
The Lighthouse
Annie's Room
The Scream
The Priest Hole
Eli's Town
3AM
Asylum
Meds (Asylum 2)
Tenderling
The Girl Clay
The Prison
Devil's Briar
Ward Z
The Night Girl
American Coven
Fantasy / Horror
Dark Season series 1, 2 & 3
Ascension (Demon's Grail book 1)
Evolution (Demon's Grail book 2)
Dead Souls Volumes 1 to 4
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 Werewolf's Curse
Thriller
Ophelia
The Dead City (Ophelia 2)
Fallen Heroes (Ophelia 3)
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
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Epilogue
Also by Amy Cross
THE FARM
No-one ever remembers what happens to them when they go into the barn at Bondalen farm. Some never come out again, and the rest... Something about them is different.
In 1979, the farm is home to three young girls. As winter fades to spring, Elizabeth, Kari and Sara each come to face the secrets of the barn, and they each emerge with their own injuries. But someone else is lurking nearby, a man who claims to be Death incarnate, and for these three girls the spring of 1979 is set to end in tragedy.
In the modern day, meanwhile, Bondalen farm has finally been sold to a new family. Dragged from London by her widowed father, Paula Ridley hates the idea of rural life. Soon, however, she starts to realize that her new home retains hints of its horrific past, while the darkness of the barn still awaits anyone who dares venture inside.
Set over the course of several decades, The Farm is a horror novel about people who live with no idea of the terror in their midst, and about a girl who finally has a chance to confront a source of great evil that has been feeding on the farm for generations.
Also by Amy Cross
ALICE ISN'T WELL
(DEATH HERSELF BOOK 1)
“There are lots of demons in the sky above London. The problem is, this one came crashing down to earth.”
Ten years ago, Alice Warner was attacked and disfigured by an attacker in her own home. She remembers nothing of the attack, and she has been in a psychiatric hospital ever since. When she's finally released, however, she starts working as a security guard at an abandoned shopping mall. And that's when she starts to realize that something is haunting her, keeping just one step out of sight at all times...
Meanwhile, seventy years earlier, a little girl named Wendy is left orphaned after a World War 2 fighter plane crashes onto her house. Taken to a monastery, Wendy is quickly singled out by the nuns for special attention. They say she has been possessed by a demon, and that there's only one way to save her soul. Fortunately for Wendy, however, there's someone else who seems to know far more about the situation.
What is the shocking connection between Alice and Wendy, reaching out across the years? Does a demon really lurk in the girl's soul? And who is Hannah, the mysterious figure who tries to help Wendy, and who seventy years later begins to make her influence felt in Alice's life too?
Alice Isn't Well is the first book in the Death Herself series, about a dark figure who arrives in the night, promising to help deal with the forces of evil whenever they appear.
Also by Amy Cross
MEDS
(THE ASYLUM TRILOGY BOOK 2)
“Welcome to the Overflow. And remember, all roads lead back to Lakehurst.”
At the edge of a ruined town, a burned-out hospital houses one final, functional ward. There, a small group of doctors and nurses tend to patients who have been consigned to the Overflow. Unloved, forgotten by the people who knew them, these are the patients who will never receive visitors. If something happens to them, no-one will ask questions.
When she starts work at Middleford Cross, Nurse Elly Blackstock thinks she's getting a second chance. She soon discovers, however, that this particular hospital is unlike any other. In one of the beds, an old man grapples with the horrors of his past, while in another there's a woman condemned to a life of darkness and silence. Ghosts stalk the corridors, and more ghosts are on the way. And watching over all of this is the hospital's administrator, Nurse Kirsten Winter, a woman who is desperately searching for someone named Annie Radford...
Asylum: Meds is a dark horror novel about the lengths one woman will go to as she searches for the truth about the voices in her head.
