by Nevill, Adam
Eventually the father extended one arm out and over the waists of his daughter and his wife, and carefully placed his chest against Penny’s back. The smell of her hair engulfed him and their three hearts beat together. The blood of the parents warmed the little one in the middle.
He made a vow. Unto death he’d never let them go, and if death were to divide him from them, he’d go first. But before he left, he would find a place for them to be safe, and he would fill their hearts with so much love, it would glow within them long after the last reactor died.
Tears made his cheeks slippery. Into the hair that tickled his nose he whispered, ‘Daddy loves you.’
A profound silence seemed to fill and then become a pressure in the darkness. He was afraid to fall asleep in case he woke up and found himself alone again. But gradually, the exhaustion he had held back for those days that had seemed like years thickened within his aching body and swaddled his conscious mind, leading his thoughts deeper and into strange places.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For informing and inspiring the state of the world in this story, as well as many of my own suspicions about what awaits us in this interconnected world’s future, I owe much to the ideas and books of James Lovelock (The Revenge of Gaia and The Vanishing Face of Gaia), Mark Lynam’s Six Degrees, Jared Diamond’s Collapse, Gwynn Dyer’s Climate Wars, David Quammen’s Spillover, The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett and McMafia by Misha Glenny. Writing this story made me imagine other things, and it was near-unbearable to do so, like the worst kind of treatment of children, and I don’t think I could have imagined that side of the father’s story as vividly without recourse to the work of Harry Keeble, Kris Hollington and Kate McCann. Master of Death by Michael Camille provided Oleg Chorny’s verses here and here and augmented his ‘afterdeath’ philosophy, and The Black Death by Philip Ziegler completed about fifteen months of reading that became as horrifying, grim, ghastly and terrifying as our own (near) future as a species might be.
Thanks to my readers, Anne and Clive Nevill and Hugh Simmons. For bringing my horrors into existence, thanks again to my literary agent, John Jarrold, Julie and team at Gotham, Julie Crisp and colleagues at Pan Macmillan, Susan Opie for her eagle-eyed copy-edit, Michael, Loren, and the crew at St Martins, and Stefan at Bragelonne.
Heartfelt appreciation goes out once again to (many of) the reviewers who’ve taken time to read my books and write about them. Special thanks to Jim McCleod of Gingernuts of Horror, Anthony Watson, Delia of Postcards from Asia, Alex Cluness, The Reading Passport, Jo Playford, Alan Kelly, Wayne Simmons, James Everington, Pam Norfolk, Theresa Derwin, Marie O’Regan, Gemma Files, Mathew Fryer, SFX, Sci Fi Now, The British Fantasy Society, Tim Lebbon, Mark Morris, Paul and Tracey Melloy, Hugh and Del Simmons, Gary McMahon, Gary Fry, Lisa Tuttle, Mathew Riley, David Willbanks, Simon Strantzas, Ramsey Campbell, Justin Steele of Arkham Asylum, Sean Kitching and the Quietus, Jeff Vandemeer, Johnny Mains, Stephen Volk, Gary Power, Jonathan Wood, John Roome, Zahar Znaev, Diala Atat, Rosil Barrantes, Ruba Naseraldeen, Emma Beckett, Lucy Twitty Halls, Jonathan Maberry, Scott Smith, Michael Marshall, Michael Koryta, and the many appreciative friends that I’m lucky to have in social media. Special thanks goes out to those booksellers who’ve championed my novels, particularly Forbidden Planet in Belfast, Patty Dohle of Waterstones, Witney, and Ellie Wixon of Blackwells, Edinburgh.
As ever, my final thanks go to my readers: without you, my books would be another endangered species.
Praise for Adam Nevill
‘This is riveting, and Nevill is fast becoming Britain’s answer to Stephen King’
Guardian
‘A wonderfully creepy and disturbing novel’
Independent on Sunday
‘This emotionally intense, intellectually challenging supernatural novel explores secret geographies of conscience while raising hackles, and is addictively readable’
Publishers Weekly
‘Adam Nevill has forged his reputation as one of the UK’s best horror writers by writing elegantly stripped down, deceptively simple novels’
SFX
‘Frighteningly relevant and all the more compelling for it’
Starburst Magazine
‘A fiercely original imagination . . . a book that never looks down upon its readers and continuously delights with its unique approach to the classic haunted house trope. And it’s scary as hell’
Upcoming4me
‘An ambitious, scary and remarkable step forward in the career of one of Britain’s finest horror writers’
ThisisHorror
‘Nevill is proving to be a strong creative force . . . It won’t be long before Hollywood comes knocking to adapt his books’
SFCrowsNest
Lost Girl
Adam Nevill was born in Birmingham, England, in 1969 and grew up in England and New Zealand. He is the author of the supernatural horror novels Banquet for the Damned, Apartment 16, The Ritual, Last Days, House of Small Shadows, No One Gets Out Alive and Lost Girl. In 2012 The Ritual was the winner of The August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel, and in 2013 Last Days won the same award. The Ritual and Last Days each won the RUSA for Best in Category: Horror. Adam lives in Devon, England, and can be contacted through www.adamlgnevill.com.
By Adam Nevill
Banquet for the Damned
Apartment 16
The Ritual
Last Days
House of Small Shadows
No One Gets Out Alive
Lost Girl
First published 2015 by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2015 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-0-230-77212-0
Copyright © Adam Nevill 2015
Cover Images: Figure © Stephen Mulcahey / Arcangel, all others © Shutterstock
The right of Adam Nevill to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third party websites referred to in or on this book.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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