As she steps closer, I turn and hurry to the door, limping heavily. I don't want to sound like a panicking fool, but I quickly start banging on the door, hoping to get the guard's attention.
“Hello?” I stammer. “I'm ready to come out now!”
Behind me, there's a faint shuffling sound as Doctor Pullman edges closer.
“Hey!” I call out, still banging on the door as I hear slow, lethargic footsteps in the corridor outside. “Can you hurry up? I need to get out of here!”
I wait, but the guard clearly isn't in a rush.
“Let me out!” I yell, trying not to panic. “I'm not -”
Suddenly I freeze as a hand rests on my shoulder from behind. I hold my breath, and a moment later I hear a slow creaking sound. I don't want to turn and look at her, but at the same time I feel as if I have to see what she's doing. Slowly I look around, and I let out a gasp of shock as I see that her face is now just inches from mine, with her long hair still hanging over her eyes.
Still holding my breath, I wait a moment longer.
“Doctor Pullman?” I ask finally, as my voice trembles with fear. “Are you okay?”
She tilts her head slightly, causing her hair to shift. Now I can see her eyes, and I realize that they're pitch black, as if she now has the eyes that were seen on the ghost of Elizabeth Marringham.
“You're going to leave the hospital now,” she whispers, as her smile grows, “and I'm coming with you.”
Behind me, the door is unlocked and swings open.
Before I can say another word, Doctor Pullman lunges at me, screaming as she digs her fingernails into my face and passes the vengeful ghost of Elizabeth Jane Marringham into my body.
Also by Amy Cross
THE BODY AT AUERCLIFF
“We'll bury her so deep, even her ghost will have a mouth full of dirt!”
When Rebecca Wallace arrives at Auercliff to check on her aged aunt, she's in for a shock. Her aunt's mind is crumbling, and the old woman refuses to let Rebecca stay overnight. And just as she thinks she's starting to understand the truth, Rebecca makes a horrifying discovery in one of the house's many spare rooms.
A dead body. A woman. Old and rotten. And her aunt insists she has no idea where it came from.
The truth lies buried in the past. For generations, the occupants of Auercliff have been tormented by the repercussions of a horrific secret. And somehow everything seems to be centered upon the mausoleum in the house's ground, where every member of the family is entombed once they die.
Whose body was left to rot in one of the house's rooms? Why have successive generations of the family been plagued by a persistent scratching sound? And what really happened to Rebecca many years ago, when she found herself locked inside the Auercliff mausoleum?
The Body at Auercliff is a horror story about a family and a house, and about the refusal of the past to stay buried.
Also by Amy Cross
LAST WRONG TURN
If you're out late at night and you see her face, it's already too late.
Lost on a rural English road, Penny and her husband are involved in a sudden, violent car crash. Waking up tied to a metal table in a remote farmhouse, Penny quickly discovers that she's the latest victim of a strange, deadly family. But Penny is different to all the family's other victims, because she just happens to be eight-and-a-half months pregnant...
Last Wrong Turn is the story of a woman who desperately tries to save her child from a horrific fate. Contains adult language and scenes of violence.
Also by Amy Cross
PERFECT LITTLE MONSTERS
AND OTHER STORIES
A husband waits until his wife and children are in bed, before inviting a dangerous man into their home...
A girl keeps hold of her mother's necklace, as bloodied hands try to tear it from her grasp...
A gun jams, even as its intended victim begs the universe to let her die...
Perfect Little Monsters and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by Amy Cross. Some of the stories take place in seemingly ordinary towns, whose inhabitants soon discover something truly shocking lurking beneath the veneer of peace and calm. Others show glimpses of vast, barbaric worlds where deadly forces gather to toy with humanity. All the stories in this collection peel back the face of a nightmare, revealing the horror that awaits. And in every one of the stories, some kind of monster lurks...
Perfect Little Monsters and Other Stories contains the new stories Perfect Little Monsters, I Hate You, Meat, Fifty Fifty and Stay Up Late, as well as a revised version of the previously-released story The Scream. This book contains scenes of violence, as well as strong language.
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.
OTHER BOOKS
BY AMY CROSS INCLUDE
Horror
The Body at Auercliff
Perfect Little Monsters and Other Stories
The Printer From Hell
The Farm
The Nurse
American Coven
Eli's Town
Asylum
Meds (Asylum 2)
The Night Girl
Devil's Briar
The Cabin
After the Cabin
Last Wrong Turn
At the Edge of the Forest
The Devil's Hand
The Ghost of Shapley Hall
The Death of Addie Gray
A House in London
Table 9: A Ghost Story
The Blood House
The Priest Hole (Nykolas Freeman book 1)
Battlefield (Nykolas Freeman book 2)
The Border
The Lighthouse
3AM
Tenderling
The Girl Clay
The Prison
Ward Z
Fantasy / Horror
Dark Season series 1, 2 & 3
The Girl With Crooked Fangs (Vampire Country book 1)
Ascension (Demon's Grail book 1)
Evolution (Demon's Grail book 2)
The 13th Demon (Demon's Grail book 3)
Grave Girl
Graver Girl (Grave Girl 2)
Ghosts
The Library
Thriller
The Girl Who Never Came Back
Other People's Bodies
Dystopia / Science Fiction
The Dog
Th
e Island (The Island book 1)
Persona (The Island book 2)
Mass Extinction Event