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  “It's just like Lindsay described,” I mutter, looking down at the restraints that hang from the side of the table. “Penny too. How many people do you think ended up here?”

  “Fuck knows,” Roscoe replies, examining a rusty old buzz-saw. “I'll tell you one thing, though. If I'd ever woken up in a place like this, surrounded by a bunch of freaks, there's nothing in the world that could've kept me here. I'd've fought my way out.”

  “And how would you have done that?” I ask.

  “Pure, brute strength.” As if he's trying to underscore his point, he slams the buzz-saw back down on the table. “Survival instinct. When the adrenalin gets pumping, there's not a fucker in the world that can hold me back. First thing I'd do would be to rip the restraints off that table, and then I'd break the door down, and then I'd beat the crap out of anyone who tried to stop me. These fucking freaks sure as hell wouldn't be able to keep me down.”

  “Keep telling yourself that,” I mutter under my breath, before turning and looking over at the various saws and drills on one of the other tables. “How does something like this happen?” I ask finally. “How do people like this exist without the rest of the world knowing? How do they literally hide away from us all?” I turn to him. “We scoured the countryside for them, we knew exactly what we were looking for, and we still couldn't find them.”

  “They just got lucky,” he says dismissively as he heads out into the hallway.

  “I'm not so sure about that,” I reply, standing alone for a moment in the empty room. “Sometimes I think the more we try to know the entire world, the more the world works to keep little pockets hidden from us. Out of stubbornness, if nothing else. It's not mankind's destiny to be master of everything.”

  Running my hand over the metal table, I can't shake the feeling that this farmhouse exists at a slight angle to the rest of the world, as if it doesn't quite fit in with everything else. And even though we've finally managed to find the place, I can't stop wondering how many other places there might be that manage to remain unnoticed. How many in this county? How many in the whole of England? How many in the world? Just little tracts of land, with a few people living on them, and with everyone else somehow kept out.

  Stepping around the table, I head over to a set of cupboards. Each has a piece of glass on the front, and I see my own tired reflection as I pull one of the doors open and look inside, only to find nothing more than some old, unopened tins of paint. Checking the other cupboards, I discover an assortment of brushes and other tools, but nothing too exciting. In fact, in some ways this entire farmhouse is incredibly mundane, although it's clear that Enda worked hard to keep the place tidy.

  Reaching the last cupboard, I reach out to grab the handle. At the very last moment, however, I spot another face reflected in the mirror.

  Enda Clare's face, as if standing right behind me.

  Startled, I turn and look across the room, but there's no sign of anyone. My heart is racing, but I quickly remind myself that Enda is dead and gone. Still, feeling a little uncomfortable here in the storeroom, I make my way out into the hallway, keen to get on with things. As I reach the stairs, however, I turn and look back at the doorway, and I stare for a moment at the metal bed in the middle of the room.

  Suddenly the door slams shut, with enough force to leave the frame rattling for several seconds.

  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.

  Also by Amy Cross

  THE FARM

  No-one ever remembers what happens to them when they go into the barn at Bondalen farm. Some never come out again, and the rest... Something about them is different.

  In 1979, the farm is home to three young girls. As winter fades to spring, Elizabeth, Kari and Sara each come to face the secrets of the barn, and they each emerge with their own injuries. But someone else is lurking nearby, a man who claims to be Death incarnate, and for these three girls the spring of 1979 is set to end in tragedy.

  In the modern day, meanwhile, Bondalen farm has finally been sold to a new family. Dragged from London by her widowed father, Paula Ridley hates the idea of rural life. Soon, however, she starts to realize that her new home retains hints of its horrific past, while the darkness of the barn still awaits anyone who dares venture inside.

  Set over the course of several decades, The Farm is a horror novel about people who live with no idea of the terror in their midst, and about a girl who finally has a chance to confront a source of great evil that has been feeding on the farm for generations.

  Also by Amy Cross

  ELI'S TOWN

  “Someone really should go check on Eli...”

  Every year, someone from the Denton family travels to the town of Tulepa, to check on weird old uncle Eli. This time around it's Holly's turn to make the journey, but when she arrives she discovers that not only is Eli missing, but the locals appear to be hiding something.

  Meanwhile, a strange curse seems to have struck the town. Every day, at exactly noon, one resident drops dead. Is the string of sudden fatalities just a coincidence? If it's something more sinister, why does no-one seem to be trying to uncover the truth? And what do these deaths have to do with the disappearance of Eli Denton, a strange old man who has barely even left his house in more than a decade?

  Eli's Town is a horror novel about an eccentric but seemingly harmless man who discovers a new way to live, and about his niece's desperate attempt to uncover the truth before she too succumbs to the town's mysteries.

  OTHER BOOKS

  BY AMY CROSS INCLUDE

  Horror

  A House in London

  Annie's Room

  The Farm

  Eli's Town


  American Coven

  At the Edge of the Forest

  Perfect Little Monsters and Other Stories

  The Priest Hole (Nykolas Freeman book 1)

  Battlefield (Nykolas Freeman book 2)

  Asylum

  Meds (Asylum 2)

  The Border

  The Devil's Hand

  The Cabin

  After the Cabin

  The Lighthouse

  3AM

  Tenderling

  The Girl Clay

  The Prison

  The Night Girl

  Devil's Briar

  Ward Z

  The Devil's Photographer

  Fantasy / Horror

  Dark Season series 1, 2 & 3

  Ascension (Demon's Grail book 1)

  Evolution (Demon's Grail book 2)

  The 13th Demon (Demon's Grail book 3)

  Dead Souls Volumes 1 to 4

  Lupine Howl series 1 to 4

  Grave Girl

  Graver Girl (Grave Girl 2)

  Ghosts

  The Library

  Journey to the Library (The Library Saga 2)

  Thriller

  Ophelia

  The Dead City (Ophelia 2)

  Fallen Heroes (Ophelia 3)

  The Girl Who Never Came Back

  Other People's Bodies

  Dystopia / Science Fiction

  The Island (The Island book 1)

  Persona (The Island book 2)

  The Shades

  Mass Extinction Event series 1 to 4

  Table of Contents

  Prologue One

  Prologue Two

  Part One ENDA

  Part Two PENNY

  Epilogue