by Amy Cross
Joe was hanging from one of the light fittings, his body partially illuminated by a patch of moonlight that shone through the window.
***
“I love you too,” Jane said, before the call was cut off.
Sighing, Jack stared at his phone for a moment longer, before slipping it into his pocket. The night was cold and he was facing a long walk home, but he figured the fresh air might do him some good. Making his way along the empty street, he saw Christmas decorations in some of the nearby windows and he realized that in less than twelve hours’ time he’d have to be at his sister’s house, pretending that everything was okay. Still, so long as Jane was with him, and the kids, he knew he’d manage, even if he had to fake a smile while he was in the same room as his brother.
Soon the morning papers would be delivered, and people all across Bowley would start to learn the truth.
After a moment, he realized he could feel something vibrating beneath his feet. The sensation only lasted for a fraction of a second, and it was over by the time he looked down at his feet. Still, there had definitely been something, and he stood in silence as he waited to see if it would return.
Eventually, he began to walk again. Turning away from the main road, he took a shortcut behind one of the old factories. There were no lights, but the moon was bright and he knew the route by heart, having played in the area with his brother and sister when he was younger. Reaching the yard behind the factory, he checked his phone again to make sure that Jane hadn’t tried to call back, and then he began to make his way toward the far side.
Suddenly he stopped.
There was someone up ahead, a dark silhouette barely visible in the shadows.
“Hello?” Jack called out.
No response.
Taking a couple of steps forward, he realized that there was something wrong with the shape of the figure. It seemed tall and strong, and its head seemed to have something protruding from the top. And then, with no warning, the figure seemed to fade away, disappearing into the shadows as if it had never really been there at all.
“Hello?” Jack said again.
Silence.
After looking around to make doubly certain that no-one was nearby, he took a few steps forward, trying to ignore the growing sense that he was being watched. He told himself that he was wrong, that the supposed ‘figure’ had actually been a brief, coincidental alignment of shadows, but as he got closer to the spot where the figure had been standing, he began to feel distinctly uneasy. Stopping, he listened for a moment, and slowly he became aware of a faint, slow creaking sound approaching from behind. He began to turn, before telling himself that he was being foolish, that there was no way anyone was nearby.
Still, the creaking sound came closer.
“Okay,” he said, turning, “what -”
Before he could finish, an arm reached around his neck and pulled him back with such force that he gasped with pain. Feeling something sharp sliding into the small of his back, he immediately tensed, trying desperately to pull away before he was suddenly pushed forward into the wall. A moment later his shoulder was grabbed and he was spun around, finally allowing him to see the figure looming over him.
“Ben -”
A long, wide blade sliced into his chest, cracking two ribs as it cut to the edge of his heart. His whole body shuddered, and a fraction of a second later warm blood erupted from his mouth and ran down his chin. He tried to say something, but his throat was filling with more blood as the figure pulled him away from the wall and gently, almost tenderly laid him down against the cold, dirty concrete.
Leaning over Jack, the figure’s head was silhouetted against the night sky. He was wearing a tattered cloth mask that covered his face, with just two eye holes torn to allow him to see. Fixed to the top of the mask, a set of dried twigs and wooden latches had been linked together to form a circle, supporting several thick, sturdy hornlike structures that rose up in varied, jagged directions. Some of these structures had been broken low down, while others twisted several inches above the crown, resembling the antlers of a stag in crude facsimile. The figure tilted his head, allowing the whites of his eyes to be seen briefly through the eye holes, and a moment later he let out a muffled snort that caused the front of his cloth mask to ripple slightly.
Reaching up with trembling hands, Jack tried to push him away, but his strength was already fading.
Hunched over Jack now, the figure pulled the knife from his subject’s chest and then looked up toward the sky. Through the torn eye holes, he studied the stars for a few seconds, marking out the territory of the half dozen brightest. Once he was sure of them, he looked back down and forced the knife into Jack’s chest again and again, each time creating a thick red slit in the pattern of one of the stars. He looked up again, briefly rechecking the positions, while working furiously to replicate the star map on Jack’s chest. Ignoring his victim’s increasingly pained gasps, he dug deeper, focused purely on the task at hand until finally the tip of his knife’s blade stopped directly above Jack’s heart, ready to cut one more time.
“Please,” Jack whispered, reaching up with a trembling hand toward the mask. “Ben…”
Sliding the knife into his chest, the stag-headed man carved a circle and then pulled away a chunk of meat and bone. He set the knife aside and then reached in, wrapping his fingers around his prize and then slowly, carefully, lifting Jack’s shuddering heart up until he was able to tear it free. Blood poured down from the heart and between the stag-headed man’s fingers, dribbling back down into Jack’s empty chest. The figure’s cloth mask fluttered with each anxious, heavy breath. He raised the heart, watching it glisten in the moonlight, feeling its warmth, holding it higher and higher until it was above his head, dripping blood down from its position silhouetted against the stars.
Epilogue
Nine years ago
“You chased him away!” Beth hissed, hurrying after Jack as he made his way to the kitchen. “If you hadn’t been such an asshole to him, Ben would still be here!”
“I didn’t chase anyone away,” Jack replied, trying to keep his back to her as he grabbed a cup and poured himself another coffee. “If Ben’s skipped town again, it’s because he’s got his reasons. Whatever those reasons are, do you seriously think there’s any way he’d tell us?”
“You don’t seriously think Dad’s right about him, do you?” she asked.
He shrugged.
“Jack -”
“He had blood on his hands,” he continued, turning to her. “I walked in on him yesterday in the bathroom, and he was washing actual blood off his hands.” He paused, seeing the shock in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Beth, I didn’t want to tell you, but this isn’t something I imagined, and it’s not another of Dad’s wild stories. I saw Ben frantically trying to wash all this blood away, and he wouldn’t give me a straight answer.” He took a sip of coffee. “So come on, tell me what you’d think if you’d seen him like that.”
“Ben isn’t a killer,” she replied, although her voice seemed a little more fragile now, as if some of the certainty had ebbed away.
“So where did the blood come from?” Jack asked. “Tell me that, huh? If Ben’s this squeaky-clean, totally innocent guy who never hurt anyone, why did he have all that blood on his hands? And before you try defending him, it wasn’t just a patch here and there, it was smeared all over his hands, and there was more on his shirt.”
“He probably -”
“What?” he continued, stepping past her. “He probably just got covered in blood in some innocent way? Then why did he refuse to even acknowledge it had happened?”
“Because you always believe the worst about him!”
“No,” he replied, turning to her again, “I don’t believe the worst, I know the worst. And one day you’re going to see it’s true, and I’m sorry, Beth, but it’d be easier if you get to that point sooner rather than later.” He paused for a moment, seeing the tears in her eyes. “Ben isn’t a good person.
Hell, it’s worse than that. He’s a very bad person, worse than you can even imagine, and one day you’ll see that for yourself. I wish it wasn’t the case, but it is.” Reaching out, he put a hand on her shoulder. “Trust me. I’m not wrong about this.”
***
“Wait a moment!” Ben shouted, stumbling across the room until he reached the window. Pulling the curtain aside, he peered out and saw a scrawny-looking girl waiting outside in the sun, leaning against the railing that overlooked the empty swimming pool. Pausing for a moment, he finally tapped the window to get her attention. “What do you want?” he called out. “Who are you?”
“Does Bobby still live here?” the woman replied, stepping toward the window.
“Bobby?” He paused. “Yeah, Bobby lives here. I’m a friend of his, I’m just staying for a few days.”
“So is he in?”
He shook his head.
“Well, where is he?”
“At work.”
“What time will he be back?”
“I don’t know,” he replied, still trying to clear his head slightly after the previous night’s heavy drinking session. “Do you want me to give him a message or something?”
“Can I wait inside until he comes back?”
He paused. “Um… No, sorry. I don’t think that’ll be possible.”
“Fine,” she muttered, reaching into her pocket and pulling out an envelope. “Can you give this to him?”
He nodded. “Just slide it under the door.”
She frowned. “What’s wrong? Are you scared of me?”
“I’m just being a little careful these days,” he replied. “Slide the damn thing under the door, I’ll make sure Bobby gets it.”
“And tell him Elaine came by.”
“I’ll tell him that too.”
Sighing, the woman set the envelope down and then slipped it under the door. Ben looked down and realized he still couldn’t shake a sense of panic in his gut, not even as he heard the girl walking away from the door. He picked up the envelope and turned it over in his hands, before setting it down on the table. Just as he was about to head back to the sofa and get some more sleep, however, he looked back at the door, and finally he pulled the chain across, turned the key and swung it open before leaning out onto the walkway.
The morning sun was so bright, he had to squint.
Looking around for a moment, he realized that the apartment complex was dead as hell. He was quite certain that people from Bowley would be looking for him, and that if they knew where he was staying, they’d be at the door in no time. Still, he figured he’d covered his tracks pretty well, and that there was no way they could track him down. Closing the door, he turned the key again and then shuffled back toward the sofa. He had to think about where to go next, about how to keep running so that the consequences of his actions would never catch up to him. The one thing he knew for certain, as he lay down and got comfortable again, was that going back to Bowley would be suicide.
If he ever went home, sooner or later someone from the Border would kill him. Of that, he had no doubt at all.
NEXT
The Border
Part Seven
Another shocking murder leaves the community reeling, and it becomes increasingly apparent that long-buried secrets can no longer be ignored. With Alex unable to help, Jane realizes that she’s going to have to be the one to take action, even if by doing so she exposes her own secrets. The true nature of the Border is about to be revealed, as Jane gathers some unlikely allies in her bid to free the town from the horror that lurks beneath.
Available soon to pre-order. Release date: September 3rd 2015
The Border
Part Eight
The final part of The Border sees an unlikely team come together to fight the evil that lurks beneath the town. As more lives are lost, it becomes apparent that something dark and cruel is lurking in the shadows, and the ghosts of its victims are agitating for revenge. After a deadly confrontation, the survivors are forced to go down and face the true horror the lurks on the Border’s lowest level.
Available soon to pre-order. Release date: September 17th 2015
OTHER BOOKS
BY AMY CROSS INCLUDE
Horror
3AM
The Farm
The Scream
Tenderling
The Girl Clay
The Haunting of Emily Stone
The Prison
Asylum
American Coven
The Night Girl
Devil’s Briar
Ward Z
Ward Z: Revelation
The Devil’s Photographer
Fantasy / Horror
Dark Season series 1, 2 & 3
The Hollow Church (Abby Hart 1)
Vampire Asylum (Abby Hart 2)
Dead Souls volumes 1, 2 & 3
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
Archangel (The Ghosts of London 2)
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
Mass Extinction Event series 1 to 4
Table of Contents
Prologue
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Epilogue
