The Ferry (15 page)

I open my mouth to say something, but I still feel too weak.

A moment later, without even thinking about it, I reach past him and adjust the wheel slightly. We were off course. I can’t let that happen. For a moment I feel a tug of panic in my gut, but it quickly passes when I hear another reassuring creak from the ferry’s hull.

“Sophie,” he continues, with a hint of panic now, “for God’s sake, say something! We need to get off this boat!”

Again I open my mouth, but again no words emerge. I have to find the strength from somewhere, I have to talk to him. I try to take a deep breath, but there’s a sharp pain in my chest and all I can manage is a faint gasp.

“There’s no lifeboat,” he tells me. “We used the only one last time, so I don’t know how we’re going to get away. Maybe I can make something, maybe I can find a way, but right now I need your help. Sophie, come back to me!” He nudges my shoulder. “Sophie, say something!”

I open my mouth, and this time I’m able to find just enough strength to get a few words out.

“Help me,” I whisper. “Get me out of this chair.”

“What?” he asks, leaning closer. “I couldn’t make out what you said.”

“Help me,” I say again, mustering a little more volume this time. “You have to…
help me
…”

He stares at me for a moment. “Sophie,” he says cautiously, with fear in his eyes, “I don’t know what you’re trying to say, but your voice… It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Help… me…”

Taking a step back, he seems confused. “You sound like… Sophie, what language are you speaking? You sound just like the…”

“Help,” I whisper again, starting to feel frustrated by his failure to hear me. “Mark, you have to help me, you have to -”

I try to lean forward, but the effort is too much. Sitting back, I feel a strange, loosening sensation on the side of my face, as if part of my skin is starting to fall away. A moment later, something soft lands on my lap, and I feel a cooler breeze against my left cheek and temple.

“No,” Mark whispers, stepping back as if he’s horrified by what he’s seeing. There are tears in his eyes and his whole body is trembling, as if he’s finally losing his mind. “Sophie, please, no…”

I want to call out to him, to make him understand, but my mind is already sinking again and the sense of panic is passing. All I know is that I have to keep the ferry on course, and that I have to collect the next batch of passengers and take them to the river, and then I have to let them off so they can be taken from the shore. This is my duty now, it’s my penance for interfering. The sickness will have ended on the shore, I feel certain of that, but someone had to take the old captain’s place. One day someone else will do the same for me, and then I’ll finally be able to go down to the shore and find peace, maybe Mary Sullivan will be waiting to forgive me, but for now I have a job to do.

Ignoring Mark as he lets out the cry of a madman, I lean back in my seat. Looking straight ahead, I see my reflection in the window at the front of the bridge. Most of my face is gone, with just my skull staring back at me.

My arm creaks as I reach out to adjust the wheel.

Horror

The Farm

The Scream

Tenderling

The Haunting of Emily Stone

The Girl Clay

The Prison

Asylum

American Coven

The Night Girl

Devil’s Briar

Ward Z

Ward Z: Revelation

The Last Priest

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

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 Vampire’s Grave

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

Also by Amy Cross

Ten years ago, a scared little girl was supposed to lead a doomsday cult to a new level of spiritual awakening. Today, that same little girl is on the run, desperately trying to stay one step ahead of a vengeful minor deity.
Rebecca ‘Clay’ Layton knows that one day the past will catch up to her. Ever since her mother took her to live with the Cult of Attaroth, something has been different about Clay: not only does she have a striking ability to communicate with the dead, but she has also drawn the attention of a dangerous, unstable entity that wants to use her as his instrument.
Attaroth is both a god and a demon, all rolled into one. He has Clay in his sights, and he’s determined to draw her back into his game. When he forces her to travel to the remote town of Silverglade, however, it becomes clear that Attaroth’s plans are far darker than anyone could ever have expected. After ten years, a horrific prophecy is about to be put to the test, and Clay’s blood is required.
The Girl Clay
is the story of a little girl who was pushed too far, and a woman who finally has to stop running and face the demon from her childhood.

Also by Amy Cross

After killing her younger brother, Annie Radford is sent to Lakehurst Psychiatric Hospital. But Lakehurst hides some dark secrets. Patients are regularly subjected to ‘special treatment’ in the basement, while the cruel Nurse Winter rules the hospital with an iron fist.

As Annie struggles to retain her sense of identity, she finds herself being drawn deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Lakehurst. Suffering under the horrific conditions imposed on her at Lakehurst, Annie starts to doubt her own sanity, especially when she once again starts to hear the voices that plagued her when she was younger.

Who is the strange old man in the attic? What does Jerry keep in a jar in the basement, and why is he so keen to continue with his macabre and vicious experiments? Where did the husks come from? And how is this all linked to mysterious radio signals being monitored in a forest hundreds of miles away?

Also by Amy Cross

One hundred years ago, a horrific mass murder resulted in the permanent closure of Hardstone Women’s Prison. Now the prison is being re-opened, but as a new generation of prisoners arrive to fill the cells, something evil is waiting in the shadows.
Amanda Weir doesn’t remember killing her children. All she knows is that she woke up with their bloody bodies in her arms. Sentenced to life in prison, she arrives at Hardstone and tries to adjust to her new life. All she wants is to forget her old self, and to find some way to live with what she did. After all, there’s no way she could be innocent…
There’s something else at Hardstone, however. Something lost and alone, something angry. The ghost of a little girl has been spotted several times, and the prisoners have learned a valuable lesson: whenever the ghost is seen, anyone who looks into its eyes will be dead within a matter of days. But what does the ghost want, and exactly how far has its influence spread in the lives of the prisoners?

Also by Amy Cross

When she starts her new job as a night shift assistant, Juliet Collier has no idea that she’s about to meet a mysterious entity that lurks in an abandoned part of the building.

Soon, Juliet finds herself granted a gift that means she can kill indiscriminately, and apparently without consequences. Meanwhile, eleven years earlier, a young Juliet makes a terrible mistake that sets her on a dark course.

The Night Girl
is the story of a girl whose decisions lead her to a devastating end-point, as she struggles to reconcile the voices in her head with the reality in front of her eyes.

Also by Amy Cross

DEVIL’S BRIAR

In the remote wilderness of Colorado, Bill and Paula Mitchell discover an entire lost town.

Devil’s Briar was abandoned many years ago, and has fallen into disrepair. But it soon becomes clear that the town contains some special and highly unusual qualities, and that elements of the past are seeping through into the present. As she tries to get to the bottom of the mystery, Paula finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into the bizarre time loop that keeps the entire town trapped in eternity.

Soon it becomes clear that nothing in Devil’s Briar will ever be the same again, and that two time periods are merging with horrific consequences.

Also by Amy Cross

It began with a strange new kind of cancer, born on the other side of the world. Eventually, it erupted on a British hospital ward…
When a new cancer patient is brought into his care, Dr. Andrew Page assumes it’ll just be another case of battling against the odds. Soon, however, he realizes that this new patient has been infected by a type of cancer that shows signs of intelligence. As the ward is put into lock-down, Dr. Page struggles to understand the nature of the disease. More and more people start to become sick, until finally Dr. Page has to face the horrific truth: a new strain of cancer has emerged, taking control of its victims’ bodies and turning them into zombie-like creatures.

For Dr. Page, this is a terrifying but fascinating new development. For the military, however, it means only one thing: the ward must be sealed, and the entire building - including everyone trapped inside - must be studied, observed… and then killed.
Ward Z
is a medical horror novel about a deadly new disease that emerges from a particularly virulent form of cancer. Also available -
Ward Z: Revelation
, in which the deadly infestation spreads to a holiday camp.

Also by Amy Cross

He kidnapped three women and held them in his basement.
He thought they couldn’t fight back.
He was wrong…
Snatched from the street near her home, Holly Carter is taken to a rural house and thrown down into a stone basement. She meets two other women who have also been kidnapped, and soon Holly learns about the horrific rituals that take place in the house. Eventually, she’s called upstairs to take her place in the ice bath.
Over time, however, Holly learns about a mysterious power that exists in the basement, and which the three women can use as they struggle to escape. When they finally manage to get through the metal door, however, the women have no idea that their fight for freedom is going to stretch out for more than a decade, or that it will culminate in a final, devastating demonstration of their new-found powers.

Also by Amy Cross

THE DEVIL’S PHOTOGRAPHER

As she investigates a series of strange images, photographer Kate Logan finds herself drawn closer to a mysterious church that seems to hide a number of secrets. However, just as she seems to be getting somewhere, Kate’s shocked to learn that the church has burned down.
Meanwhile, she starts spending time with a man named John Dagwood, who has an unusual interest in medieval medical techniques. Following some bad news about her own health, Kate starts to consider taking extreme action in order to get her body back under control.
As she gets closer to the truth, Kate discovers that her entire life has been affected by a dark promise made many years ago. By the time she learns about the sinister forces operating behind the scenes, it might be too late for her to escape her destiny.

Also by Amy Cross

When Kate Langley arrives on the island of Thaxos for a vacation she never wanted in the first place, she has no idea that she’s about to be drawn into an ancient and deadly struggle.
Before long, Kate learns that she’s not the only recent arrival. Edgar Le Compte has come to Thaxos in order to reclaim his family’s long-abandoned ancestral home. Many of the locals are dismayed by the return of the Le Compte name, and it seems as if the entire island is gripped by paranoia.
When Kate finally meets Edgar, she’s surprised by his friendliness. But dark secrets lurk in the shadows, and when Kate receives an unexpected job offer that could keep her on the island, she’s forced to decide whether or not she believes some of the wilder and more fantastical claims about the Le Compte family.

Dead Souls
is an ongoing, weekly paranormal horror serial. Each 15,000 word installment ends on a cliffhanger. As of June 2015, the serial is up to part 41.