By the time I'm back in the car with John, I've managed to regather my composure. Half an hour later, by the time we reach the church where the service is to take place, I've received a message from the retirement home on my mobile telephone, to tell me that Mr. Percy Winterbottom died of a massive heart attack just a few minutes after I left his room. I imagine the sight of all those ghosts was more than enough to take him off to wherever men like him go when they die.
The service in the church is pleasant enough. I'm not really religious, but it's nice to come and hear the silly old priests give their sermons, and to sing those jolly carols that I remember from my youth, and most importantly to see my daughter Alice and her family all together for the holidays. While those moments are wonderful, however, they're not the real reason I come to church every Christmas. There's something else, something that always makes me weep tears of joy. As we all stand and start singing, I listen to the lovely voices singing around me and I wait for one in particular to come through them all. No-one else notices her, of course, and she's certainly nowhere to be seen, but tears start to roll down my cheeks as soon as I hear her, and a moment later I feel a small hand resting on my shoulder.
Even in death, Sissy's singing is utterly out of tune, but she does sound as if she's enjoying herself.
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
ANNIE'S ROOM
1945 and 2015. Seventy years apart, two girls named Annie move into the same room of the same remote house. Their stories are very different, but tragedy is about to bring them crashing together.
Annie Riley has just broken both her legs. Unable to leave bed, she's holed up in her new room and completely reliant upon her family for company. She's also the first to notice a series of strange noises in the house, but her parents and brother think she's just letting her imagination run overtime. And then, one night, dark forces start to make their presence more keenly felt, leading to a horrific discovery...
Seventy years ago, Annie Garrett lived in the same house with her parents. This Annie, however, was very different. Bitter and vindictive and hopelessly devoted to her father, she developed a passionate hatred for her mother. History records that Annie eventually disappeared while her parents were executed for her murder, but what really happened to Annie Garrett, and is her ghost still haunting the house to this day?
Annie's Room is the story of two girls whose lives just happened to be thrown together by an unlikely set of circumstances, and of a potent evil that blossomed in one soul and then threatened to consume another.
Also by Amy Cross
ELI'S TOWN
“Someone really should go check on Eli...”
Every year, someone from the Denton family travels to the town of Tulepa, to check on weird old uncle Eli. This time around it's Holly's turn to make the journey, but when she arrives she discovers that not only is Eli missing, but the locals appear to be hiding something.
Meanwhile, a strange curse seems to have struck the town. Every day, at exactly noon, one resident drops dead. Is the string of sudden fatalities just a coincidence? If it's something more sinister, why does no-one seem to be trying to uncover the truth? And what do these deaths have to do with the disappearance of Eli Denton, a strange old man who has barely even left his house in more than a decade?
Eli's Town is a horror novel about an eccentric but seemingly harmless man who discovers a new way to live, and about his niece's desperate attempt to uncover the truth before she too succumbs to the town's mysteries.
Also by Amy Cross
THE ISLAND
(STEADFALL BOOK 1)
“The revolution never came. We all waited, but it didn't happen. Eventually we just had to accept that the world was never going to change.”
In the near future, it's not hard to end up on the wrong side of the law. Every lie counts, every minor mistake. Build up enough points, and you'll be hauled off to work for the government. The only possible escape is the island, a remote wilderness with no rules and no laws. But if you choose to go to the island, you can never come back.
Everyone knows that only crazy people go to the island.
The Island is the first book in the Steadfall series, about two people trying to establish their own order in a mad world, and about the horrors that take place when humanity is let off the leash.
OTHER BOOKS
BY AMY CROSS INCLUDE
Horror
The Farm
Annie's Room
At the Edge of the Forest
Eli's Town
The Cabin
The Priest Hole
The Lighthouse
3AM
Asylum
Meds (Asylum 2)
Tenderling
The Girl Clay
The Prison
American Coven
The Night Girl
Devil's Briar
Ward Z
Ward Z: Revelation
The Devil's Photographer
Take Me to Church
Fantasy / Horror
Dark Season series 1, 2 & 3
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
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 Island (Steadfall book 1)
The Shades
Finality series 1
Mass Extinction Event series 1 to 4
Table of Contents
Prologue
Part One
Part Two
Doctor James Ratcliffe
Part Three
Ivy Jones
Part Four
Doctor James Ratcliffe
Part Five
Ivy Jones
Part Six
&nbs
p; Doctor James Ratcliffe
Part Seven
Ivy Jones
Part Eight
Doctor James Ratcliffe
Part Nine
Ivy Jones
Part Ten
Ivy Jones
Part Eleven
Ivy Jones
Epilogue