The Haunting of Emily Stone (23 page)

“If there's another way,” the old man replied, “then I do not know of it. Then again, I would never present myself as an expert. If I
were
an expert, I would find better things to do with my time than sit on this rock and watch the water flow past. I mean, I suppose it makes me
look
quite wise and thoughtful, but the truth is, I'm just sitting here because I don't know what else to do.” He shrugged. “I suppose there are worse things. At least I gave up trying to climb the wall. Some do.”

“Which way should I go?”

“I have no idea. You will find people, though, regardless of which path you choose. There are new arrivals here daily. Many of them make straight for the wall so they can try to break back through, but the ones who are at peace, the ones who can accept what has happened to them...” He smiled again. “You'll just have to find out for yourself.”

“There's another way back,” he replied, stepping past the old man and hurrying along the shore. “I'll find it, I swear! There's no way I'm going to end up stuck here!”

With that, he hurried away, heading toward the vast horizon of a new world.

Epilogue

Six months later

“I think they like it,” Emily said as she sat next to Lizzie in the garden. “I think they even might put in an offer before they leave. They're not part of a chain, either.”

“And then we can move to that other house?” Lizzie asked.

“That's the plan.” Looking down at her hand, she slowly, and with some effort, clenched and then unclenched her fist. “It doesn't hurt much now. Looks as good as new, huh?” She watched as Lizzie linked some daisies together.

“It's for Doctor Slocombe,” the little girl explained after a moment. “Wherever he is.”

“That's nice of you. I'm sure he'd appreciate it.”

“Is my name Lizzie Sloane now?”

Emily nodded.

“And you're Emily Sloane?”

“It's not a big change. Anyway, I've got this new job coming up and I really don't want to have to deal with people asking questions again. We're starting a new life down in Kent, and I think that should apply to everything.” Reaching out, she put her arm around her daughter. “How about we go and put some flowers on Grandma's grave this afternoon? Once we move, we won't get back up here so often. And then we'll go and visit Uncle Stan and tell him the good news. Does that sound like a plan, or what?”

“It sounds like a plan,” Lizzie replied.

“And now,” Emily added, getting to her feet, “I'm going back in to make sure these people take the house. Wish me luck, I'm going to have to try to be charming.”

“Good luck.”

After watching as her mother headed inside, Lizzie turned and looked across the garden. She was waiting to see the lady again, the same lady she'd seen several times since the night at the laboratory. There had been no more strange noises in the house, and everything thought that the ghost was gone, but Lizzie had seen her a few more times, except that now she looked happier, and she seemed to spend her time in the garden, as if she liked being out in the sun. Most of the time, she was down by the old cherry tree over by the fence, which was where some bones had been found a few months earlier.

Spotting a hint of movement near one of the trees, she glanced over just in time to see a figure slipping through the sunlight. It was gone in the blink of an eye, but Lizzie knew it was her again. Whoever the ghost was, she seemed much happier now, as if she'd finally got what she wanted. The strangest thing was that when she saw the women in the garden, Lizzie no longer felt scared. She smiled as she realized that the ghost was at peace.

***

With all the boxes finally packed, Jenna stopped and looked around the room that was once Doctor Robert Slocombe's office. Six months after his disappearance, and with the police investigation having reached a dead end, the university had finally decided that they needed to use the space. She allowed herself a faint smile as she imagined Robert's reaction if he one day returned and discovered that his office was being turned into a janitorial storage room. The worst part was that the janitor had complained about the lack of a window, and now one was being installed.

Then again, she knew there was no hope. She'd accepted a long time ago that wherever Robert had ended up, he wasn't coming back.

“Knock knock,” Douglas said suddenly.

Turning, she saw him standing in the doorway, holding the Myrkia book in his hands.

“Sorry I didn't get down to help out,” he continued as he stepped inside. “I was too wrapped up in this thing.” Reaching the desk, he set the Myrkia down. “I finally read it all the way to the end, including each and every addendum.”

“I spoke to some people in the faculty office,” she replied. “I don't think they're going to give us the funding we need.”

“Then we'll find someone who will,” he muttered, opening the book and turning to one of the pages near the back. “This isn't over yet. We have to keep working.”

“He's not coming back,” she pointed out.

“I know.”

“Then why -”

“Have
you
read to the end of this thing?” he asked.

“I skimmed it. There's been so much to do lately.”

“So you haven't read this section?” he continued, pointing at one particular section of text.

“What does it say?” She took a glance at the last line. “They say he walks still? What does that mean?”

“It might be nothing,” he replied, “or it might be...” He paused, before starting to read from the top of the page. “The land of the dead is a vast, unmapped place. Some of the dead roam freely, while others look to create something new here. Those who accept the end of their lives are able to discover a new way of existing, but those who refuse to accept their new state are doomed to an eternity of pain and longing, usually at the foot of the great wall as they desperately try to climb up and -”

“We know all this,” she pointed out impatiently.

“Hang on,” he continued. “Only one person has ever truly set out to catalog and map this world,” he read out loud. “He appeared once at the foot of the great wall. An inquisitive, curious man, he himself tried to find a way back to the world of the living, before finally accepting that he should, instead, walk this new place and learn as much as he could, exploring all its areas and attempting to create the impossible: a map of this dead world.” He paused, before turning to her. “Sound like anyone we know?”

“You can't be serious.”

“Don't you think that's what Rob would have done if he'd survived and ended up trapped over there?”

“But...” She looked down at the book. “This thing was written hundreds of years ago.”

“We know that time works differently there. We also know that the Myrkia was supposedly transcribed by a man who heard voices in his head. After everything we've seen, let's not pretend that a discrepancy of a few hundred years makes much of a difference.”

“Still, we can't...”

He waited for her to continue.

“Can't what?” he asked.

“Let me see it,” she replied, making her way around the table. After a moment, she began to read from the book: “The man walked and walked, and since he had no means of writing his discoveries down, he carried them all in his mind, and he found that he never ran out of space, and he never forgot anything he had learned.” She paused, with tears in her eyes as she imagined Robert all alone, exploring a strange new world. “He befriended people along the way, he stayed with some of them, but he always moved on eventually. He was in no rush, he had all the time he could ever need, and he devoted himself to the twin acts of discovery and exploration. He saw things...” She paused again, taking a deep breath as a tear ran down her cheek. “He saw things...”

***

He saw things no living man had ever seen before. He walked the land of the dead, and yet he himself was not dead. Somehow, in some manner that has become lost to the mists of time, he had found some other way into this place. It is said that as he walked and walked, he saw everything there was to see. He crossed the Valley of Blood and met the Herremanites on the other side. He climbed the jaws of death and saw the view from the top. He met Archylegia and discussed the next step while sipping tea from the arches of an ancient city. He dined with the twelve-sided god and offered advice on the problem of the Mes. He even crossed to other worlds for a time, and spent many years with the Drazi, and learning the ways of the Grandapams, and wandering the continents of the Great Library. It is said that no living creature in all of existence has seen so much, and that no matter how long or how far he walked, he never tired and he never forgot a thing.

They say he walks still.

***

“Come on!” Emily called out from the back door. “Let's go and get some ice cream!”

Smiling, Lizzie got to her feet and hurried to join her mother.

OTHER BOOKS

BY AMY CROSS INCLUDE

Horror

3AM

The Farm

The Scream

Tenderling

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

THE GIRL CLAY

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

ASYLUM

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?