by Seth Patrick
‘All clear,’ said Jonah.
Annabel reached for the first aid kit and set to work cleaning up his hands, then bandaging them. She gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek when she finished. ‘Good work, kid,’ she said. ‘When we’re finished here, I vote we get home and have some more of that holiday we agreed to.’
Jonah smiled. ‘I was thinking the same thing.’
She took out the little heart-rate monitor she’d worn that fateful day, and put it on the man’s finger. They sat together and watched him until he started to stir.
‘Nate?’ said Jonah. ‘How do you feel?’
Nate was looking around him as if stalked by something. It was a familiar look – someone waking from a nightmare. How a person reacted now was extremely telling. Some didn’t really get over what they’d had nestled into their being for so long, and they would wake with surly glances and suspicion. Those were the ones you still had to watch out for. Sometimes the darkness had become a habit.
Nate seemed scared, and that was a good sign. ‘God, I’m cold,’ he said.
‘Let’s get you back inside,’ said Annabel.
She and Jonah led him indoors to his wife and son; Jake’s mother took him upstairs, and came down a few minutes later.
‘He’s asleep,’ she said. ‘Out like a light.’ She was dazed, Jonah saw. ‘Did it . . . did it make him do those things? Now it’s gone, is he Nate again?’
‘It pulled him down, somewhere dark,’ said Annabel. ‘That was him at his worst. Just take care of yourself, OK? It won’t be easy for him, which means it may not be easy for you. If you need help, get in touch.’
Annabel bade them farewell and left. Jonah went to take his jacket from the chair, where he’d put it as he’d first come into the house.
‘Will my dad be OK?’ said Jake.
‘He’ll be more like he was,’ said Jonah. ‘Before it happened. Is that good enough?’
Jake thought about it, and then he nodded. ‘I guess it is,’ he said. ‘Do you think those things will all be gone, one day?’
Jonah looked at the boy, wondering how to answer. He didn’t know how many there were. Too many for him to deal with, most likely. In the end, though, he did what he did to help the people affected, not to rid the world of the creatures. For every human he freed, there were thousands more who were just as darkly motivated, yet who were not infected by shadow. People for whom hatred and resentment were the only things they knew; the only things they cherished.
The soul was dark, by its nature. The human mind had been born from death and rage and suffering, and perhaps that was how it would always be, shadows or not.
But perhaps the day would come that it wasn’t.
‘I hope so,’ said Jonah.
Hope.
There was always that.
He picked up his jacket and went to join the others.
Praise for Seth Patrick
‘A brilliant, original and very scary concept – which Seth Patrick carries off with chilling aplomb’
Peter James
‘A highly original story, skilfully told, a thriller that twists and turns all the way to the end’
Simon Kernick
‘A thrilling high-concept book that crosses numerous genres. Chilling and emotional in all the right places’
Mark Charan Newton
‘An excellent combination of Afterlife and CSI that’ll keep you up late with the lights very definitely on . . . Highly recommended’
Neal Asher
‘A skilfully plotted and compulsively readable supernatural thriller’
Guardian
‘A genuine sense of menace, heart-stopping suspense, and a successful suspension of disbelief add up to one of the best paranormal thrillers of recent years’
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
‘Powerful, haunting and frighteningly credible’
Press Association
‘Fast-paced, and at times horrific, thriller that confirms Patrick as a name to watch’
Sci-Fi Bulletin
‘This is a gutsy book . . . an interesting debut’
Booklist
‘Spectacular . . . a nail-biting, action-packed book’
The Book Plank
‘The prose is sharp, the story wonderfully rounded and when added to the crispness of the dialogue for me made this a real pleasure to sit down and enjoy’
Falcata Times
‘A fast-paced book with plenty of interesting plot details to keep you turning the pages in rapid succession . . . very inventive’
SF Crowsnest
THE DEAD ROAD
Seth Patrick was born in Northern Ireland.
An Oxford mathematics graduate, he spent thirteen
years working in an award-winning games company before
becoming a full-time author. He lives in England with his
wife and two children. The Dead Road is the third and
final novel in the Reviver trilogy, following The Reviver
and Lost Souls. He is also the author of The Returned,
a novelization of the hit TV series.
You can follow Seth on Twitter:
@SethPatrickUK
By Seth Patrick
THE REVIVER
THE RETURNED
LOST SOULS
First published 2017 by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2017 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-0-230-76504-7
Copyright © Seth Patrick 2017
The right of Seth Patrick to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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