Murder. Murder is Billy’s offering to his god.
“You can’t offer me to Woden,” said AJ. “Because I won’t let you kill me.”
“I already have,” Billy hissed. “You bleed out by the second at my hand. Your flesh litters the ground.”
AJ wobbled on his knees. He felt his life trickling away with every last drop of blood escaping his body. His heart still wasn’t beating in his chest. Despite all this, he smiled and held up his bloody stump, and the sharp bone pointed up at the ceiling. “I told you, I won’t let you kill me.”
Billy tilted his head and hissed, his forked tongue tasting the air. It was a look that might have been confusion.
“They call this blading, and the kids never see it coming.” AJ jammed the sharp bone of his wrist into his own jugular, going deep and tearing his neck to shreds. The last of his blood arced into the air.
His vision finally deserted him for good. All he could see was black.
And then even that disappeared.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sam parked her beat-up Land Rover in the middle of the road and turned off the engine. She hadn’t thought about the strange broken-antlered stag in a long time, but once she had started down the neglected country lane, she had become almost certain she would see it, and sure enough, it stood in the centre of the road, blocking the way forward.
Tasha leant forward from the back seat. “What are you doing, Sam?”
“Stating our business.”
Ashley chuckled. “Leave the door open in case you have to leg it.”
But Sam wasn’t afraid. She approached the stag without any trepidation, for she understood that it had been intending to save her and her friends that day, exactly one year ago. It was a protector of the darkness that dwelt in the forest. A place called Frenzy.
The stag snorted as she approached, but it made no move to attack her.
Sam put out a hand to show she meant no danger. “I’m not here to cause any harm. Do you remember me?”
The stag obviously didn’t reply, but the look in its deep brown eyes seemed to speak of recognition.
Sam carried on talking. “You tried to save us. You tried to save my friends, but we didn’t listen. Thank you. I need to ask you to stand aside and let me visit again. I need to say goodbye to my friends. I need to know if they’re okay.”
The stag stared at her, and for a slight moment she thought it was going to charge her, but then it turned and trotted casually into the treeline.
Sam sighed. “Permission granted.”
She got back in the car and drove the rest of the way, parking in the same spot AJ had one year ago. Echoes of her friend’s voices – Greg, Ben, and AJ – echoed in her mind and caused her torment, but it didn’t cause her to turn away. She and her remaining friends got out of the Land Rover and headed over the chain-link fence.
“You got what we need?” Sam asked Tasha.
Tasha nodded and shrugged off her pack. From inside she took a pair of bolt cutters. Their previous entrance had been repaired, but it took no time at all to make a new way in.
Ashley put a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “You sure you want to do this?”
“Don’t you?”
Ashley sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I do.”
The three girls ducked through the gap in the fence and headed for the place that had haunted all of their nightmares for the last twelve months. They headed to Pagan’s Grove. It was exactly the same, except for one key difference. Frenzy was gone. The great bronze helmet had been removed, along with the entire building. All that remained was a massive brick foundation and a collection of scraps.
After falling into the hole inside the ride, they had reached a lower chamber outside. The sun had been up and there were birds in the sky. They didn’t need to escape the ride because whatever shelter had once housed the exit had fallen down. A pile of bricks was all that remained.
Sam had tried to climb back up the track, to get to AJ, but Tasha and Ashley had dragged her away. There was no hope that he would still be alive. That he had lasted as long as he had was testament to his courage and strength. He had fought long enough to see them safe, but Sam knew he would have dropped dead right after.
He had saved her, and right then at that moment she realised she had wasted her life by being just friends with a man she loved. It hurt her heart that they could have been so much more to each other. Instead, she had concentrated on a career she hated.
Now AJ was dead and the rest of her life made no sense.
The three girls had walked away from Saxon Hills like battlefield survivors. They leant on each other and limped along through the forest. Eventually they had made it to the main road and collapsed. A local builder had found them while driving past in his van and called an ambulance. At the hospital, Sam, Ashley, and Tasha had agreed not to tell the police anything until they had a story prepared.
The story went like this: they had gone to Saxon Hills to party, but it had turned into a nightmare when the boys had got drunk and injured themselves in the darkness of the ride. They kept it that simple, and refrained from further detail. It left the onus on the police to prove the real truth if they didn’t believe it, and the real truth was something they would never discover.
Eventually the ride had been condemned as a death trap and knocked down. The police had performed their investigations, of course, but all they could find were three dead men inside a dangerous, derelict ride. The tragedy was enough as it was, without turning it into some greater mystery, so they closed the case and everyone moved on.
Except for Ashley, Tasha, and Sam. They had lost three men they loved.
“It’s creepy being here again,” said Tasha.
Sam nodded. She looked at the ruins of what had once been a terrifying place and couldn’t believe what had taken place there. She still didn’t really understand it, except that it had been beyond what most people understood about the world. There was more.
The sun was setting, which made it about the same time they had arrived before.
“It’s time,” said Sam.
Ashley smiled. She put down her pack and pulled out some beers. The plan was definitely not to get drunk and party. They were here for another reason. Tasha did the honours. She held up her beer and the others did the same. “To my brother. To Greg. And to AJ. We will always love you.”
“Hear hear,” said Ashley and Sam in tandem. Then they drank.
“You got one for me?” said a voice. The sound of it caused Tasha to freeze and drop her beer.
Out of the rubble, Ben appeared. Not the Ben they knew, because this Ben was walking. This Ben was smiling. Tasha looked like she might faint. Sam steadied her.
Tasha’s bottom lip quivered. “B-B-Ben, you’re alive?”
Ben shimmered in the dusky sunlight. “Nah, sis, but I’m here anyway. I missed you.”
“Y-Y-You’re here? Really here?”
Ben smirked. “Yeah, sis. We all are.”
AJ and Greg stepped forward from the rubble. “We waited,” said AJ. “As long as we could.”
“We knew you’d miss us,” said Greg with a warm smile on his face that he had rarely worn in life. “Thought we’d throw you a bone. You’re looking fine, Ash. I hope you’re happy.”
Sam was transfixed on AJ. He was even more beautiful than he had been in life. His hair had gone from blonde to golden, and his skin seemed to shine like fine diamonds. “A-Are you okay, AJ?”
He took her hands in his and smiled. “I am now.”
He leant forward and kissed her, a perfect moment that seemed to go on forever and yet lasted no time at all. Then he was gone. They were all gone. The three girls stood alone.
“Did that just happen?” asked Ashley.
Sam sipped her beer. “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we got to say goodbye.”
They poured a beer on the ground for the men they had loved.
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Plea From the Author
Hey, Reader. So you got to the end of my book. I hope that means you enjoyed it. Whether or not you did, I would just like to thank you for giving me your valuable time to try and entertain you. I am truly blessed to have such a fulfilling job, but I only have that job because of people like you; people kind enough to give my books a chance and spend their hard-earned money buying them. For that I am eternally grateful.
If you would like to find out more about my other books then please visit my website for full details. You can find it at:
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Iain has more than twenty novels available to purchase right now. To see full descriptions, visit the link below.
Animal Kingdom
AZ of Horror
2389
Holes in the Ground (with J.A.Konrath)
Sam
ASBO
The Final Winter
The Housemates
Sea Sick
Ravage
Savage
The Picture Frame
Wings of Sorrow
The Gates
Legion
Extinction
Defiance
TAR
House Beneath the Bridge
The Peeling
Blood on the bar
Escape!
Sarah Stone Thriller Series
Soft Target
Hot Zone
End Play
Other
Diary of a flummoxed father
Iain Rob Wright is one of the UK's most successful horror and suspense writers, with novels including the critically acclaimed, THE FINAL WINTER; the disturbing bestseller, ASBO; and the wicked screamfest, THE HOUSEMATES.
His work is currently being adapted for graphic novels, audio books, and foreign audiences. He is an active member of the Horror Writer Association and a massive animal lover.
www.iainrobwright.com
FEAR ON EVERY PAGE
For more information
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Copyright © 2019 by Iain Rob Wright
Cover Photographs © Shutterstock
Artwork by Stuart Bache at Books Covers Ltd
Editing by Richard Sheehan
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