The Haunting of Briarwych Church Read online

  There is only the hatred on her face, tightening into a sneer as she continues to look at her daughter.

  And she is powerless.

  “You can't hurt her,” I say out loud, as I come to understand the limits of her powers. “Not now. If you could hurt her, you'd have done it by now. Maybe you can whisper in her ear and convince her to leap to her death, but you can't really do anything to her. Maybe you can scratch her back from time to time, but that's not enough for you, is it? Even that push in the bell-tower was more a hint than a proper push. Maybe the push was the absolute strongest move you could make and -”

  Suddenly she snarls and leans closer to Lizzy.

  “And that's all you can do!” I stammer, although at the same time I instinctively take a step back. “You can't even leave the church, can you? Otherwise you'd have wrought your revenge upon the villagers long ago. Mrs. Canton didn't actually see you from her window that night, it was just a guilt-induced vision. You're trapped here in the place of your death, and you'll be trapped here forever, which means I only have to get Lizzy away from you, which means...”

  I look past her, toward the door, and in that instant I know what I must do.

  She snarls again. A cruel, angry snarl, but also one that is utterly impotent.

  “You are real,” I tell her, “but that doesn't matter. Not once we're out of this place.”

  I pause for a moment, before taking a deep breath. Everything I think I know about the world is crumbling, but I know that I have no choice, even as I feel my sanity beginning to slip.

  And then, finally, I look down at Lizzy as I take a step forward, followed by another step, then another. I feel a freezing cold shudder, and my knees are trembling with fear, but I step straight through Judith Prendergast's ghost and then I fumble for the door handle.

  It takes a few seconds before I manage to turn the handle, but I manage to get the door open and then I step out into the cold night air. I step forward again, then again, with Lizzy still in my arms, and then slowly I turn and look back at Judith Prendergast.

  She is staring at me.

  Suddenly she screams, unleashing a howl of rage and fury. She comes at me, but as she approaches the church's threshold she fades entirely from sight until she is gone.

  Holding my breath, I wait in case she reappears.

  A moment later, the door slams shut with such force that I hear the entire frame shudder.

  Immediately, my knees buckle and I drop to the floor, inadvertently spilling Lizzy from my arms in the process. I manage to protect her head, keeping her from injury, and then I roll her over and look down at her poor, beautiful face.

  “Lizzy!” I gasp, forcing her eyes open, only for them to slip shut again as soon as I let go.

  I shake her shoulder, but she seems incapable of waking.

  “Help!” I shout, looking toward the cemetery gate, hoping that somebody out there will hear me as I continue to shake her prone body. “Help us!”

  Epilogue

  One year later

  “May the Lord hear me, and guide me through it all.”

  Keeping my head bowed, so as not to be noticed, I make my way along the corridor. Voices are shouting out in the distance, patients and nurses, as I head toward the exit. I can see the double-doors up ahead, and the glorious sunshine beyond, and now I am only a few meters away. If I just keep walking, and don't look back, I shall be fine.

  “Father?”

  Suddenly a hand touches my shoulder from behind, and I freeze.

  “Father Loveford, where are you going?”

  I half turn to look at her, but I already know that this is Nurse Simpkins.

  “Father, why don't you come back this way with me?”

  “I -”

  “Please, Father. You know it's important.”

  I hesitate, before turning fully and seeing her kind face smiling back at me.

  “I know you weren't really going to leave,” she continues, “were you?”

  After staring at her for a moment, I turn and look once again along the corridor. The daylight seems so bright outside, and I can see the beautiful green gardens stretching out toward a distant treeline. And then, looking up at the panel above the door, I feel my heart sink as I see – etched in reverse in the glass – the name of this place:

  Meadow's Downe Asylum

  “Come on, Father,” Nurse Simpkins says, moving her hand down to my elbow. “You don't need me to tell you, do you? You know you have to come with me.”

  “I wasn't leaving,” I reply, although I can hear my voice trembling. “I was just going to fetch something from my bicycle.”

  “You were?”

  She pauses, before letting go of my elbow.

  “I'm sorry, Father,” she continues, sounding a little relieved. “Please forgive me. It's just that... You mustn't be discouraged, that's all. She'll recognize you soon, I'm sure of it. You must just give her more time.” There are tears in her eyes now. “Please, Father Loveford, don't give up on her.”

  “I would never,” I reply. “I could never. I'm just going to the bicycle, and then I'll be back. I promise.”

  ***

  Stopping at the bicycle, I open the basket at the front and take out the small bunch of flowers that I brought today. The flowers were purchased at the local market in Fetchford, and they're yellow and purple. Just the colors that Lizzy always said she likes.

  ***

  “At least he gave me his word on that score,” I say as I finish arranging the flowers in a vase on the windowsill. “Bishop Carmichael has issued an irrevocable decree. Briarwych Church shall remain locked forever. Nobody will ever so much as unlock that door again. Just in case...”

  I pause for a moment, thinking back to the horrific sight of Judith Prendergast's dead face, and then I turn and look over at the bed.

  Lizzy is still flat on her back, still staring up at the ceiling the same way she has been staring for the past twelve months. Occasionally she blinks, at night she sleeps, but otherwise she shows no sign that she is aware of the world around her. It is as if her experience at Briarwych, and the haunting sight of her dead mother's spirit, left her mind completely ruined and incapable of returning to normal.

  Still, Doctor Ferguson and Doctor Stewart both say that there is hope.

  Patients have woken from longer, deeper reveries in the past, I am told. Lizzy responds to certain basic forms of external stimulation, for example to pain when a needle is pushed against one of her fingertips, and I am told that this is a very good sign. I am advised to keep talking to her, to keep chatting away, which is one of the reasons why I come here every single day – even Sundays – and waffle on about inconsequential matters so that she might hear my voice.

  One day, she will wake up.

  Yes, I'm sure of that.

  And when it happens, I intend to be here to welcome her back to the world.

  “You're safe now,” I tell her as I take a seat next to her bed. “It's been a year now and there's been no sign of your mother. I can't profess to understand how or why, but it seems that her spirit cannot stray far from Briarwych Church. Not that I am even certain that what we saw that night was...”

  My voice trails off as I think back to that awful moment in the bell-tower, to the moment when Judith Prendergast screamed and lunged at Lizzy. As much as I do not want to believe that such things are possible, I know deep down that what I saw that night was real. I cannot explain how it happened, but it seems that for some reason Judith Prendergast was indeed able to return after her death and drive her daughter to commit terrible acts and, ultimately, to madness.

  But now she is gone. Or, at least, far from here.

  “The weather is rather good today,” I tell Lizzy, hoping that perhaps I might interest her in the world once more. “A little warmer than of late, and the wind has not been so biting. Indeed, on my way here I noticed some fresh patches of bluebells by the side of the road, and that is often indicative of a change in the s
eason. You would like the view from the hill, I am sure. Perhaps some time we shall be able to take a short walk out there.”

  I watch Lizzy's face for a moment, but there is no hint of recognition. It is as if – as usual – she has not even noticed my arrival.

  “Yes, a walk would be very nice,” I add, as I turn and look out the window. “Perhaps later in the year, before autumn. Then again, the autumnal tones can be quite beautiful, so there is no need to hurry. It might even be better to wait. Have I told you about the view from the hill? Oh, it's utterly magnificent. You'll love it, Lizzy. Truly, you'll feel a sense of peace there that's unlike any you've ever felt before.”

  As I continue to talk to Lizzy, I feel a growing sense of calm. She'll wake up soon, I know she will. She must. And she will make the most wonderful wife, just as soon as she is released from this asylum.

  BOOKS IN THIS SERIES

  The Haunting of Briarwych Church

  (The Briarwych Trilogy book 1)

  The Horror of Briarwych Church

  (The Briarwych Trilogy book 2)

  The Ghost of Briarwych Church

  (The Briarwych Trilogy book 3)

  OTHER BOOKS

  BY AMY CROSS INCLUDE

  Horror

  Stephen

  The Farm

  The Haunting of Hardstone Jail

  The Curse of Ah-Qal's Tomb

  Better the Devil

  American Coven

  The Ghost of Molly Holt

  The Devil, the Witch and the Whore (The Deal book 1)

  Like Stones on a Crow's Back (The Deal book 2)

  The Devil's Blade

  Haunted

  Devil's Briar

  The Night Girl

  Last Wrong Turn

  Friend From the Internet

  The Haunting of Caldgrave House

  The Haunting of Blackwych Grange

  The Bride of Ashbyrn House

  The Ghosts of Hexley Airport

  The Curse of Wetherley House

  The Haunting of Marshall Heights

  The Nurse

  The Ash House

  The Girl Who Threw Rocks at the Devil

  The Cabin

  After the Cabin

  The Ghosts of Lakeforth Hotel

  The Ghost of Shapley Hall

  The Body at Auercliff

  The Haunting of Emily Stone

  The Soul Auction

  The Dog

  The Border

  The Death of Addie Gray

  Eli's Town

  Laura

  Annie's Room

  The Priest Hole (Nykolas Freeman book 1)

  Battlefield (Nykolas Freeman book 2)

  Perfect Little Monsters and Other Stories

  Twisted Little Things and Other Stories

  The Ghost of Longthorn Manor and Other Stories

  The Vampire of Downing Street and Other Stories

  Room 9 and Other Stories

  Fantasy / Horror

  Grave Girl

  Raven Revivals (Grave Girl book 2)

  The Gravest Girl of All (Grave Girl book 3)

  The Library

  Beautiful Familiar

  Dark Season (book 1, 2 & 3)

  The Hollow Church

  The Vampires of Tor Cliff Asylum

  Dead Souls (book 1 to 13)

  Lupine Howl (books 1 to 6)

  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

  ALICE ISN'T WELL

  (DEATH HERSELF BOOK 1)

  “There are lots of demons in the sky above London. The problem is, this one came crashing down to earth.”

  Ten years ago, Alice Warner was attacked and disfigured by an attacker in her own home. She remembers nothing of the attack, and she has been in a psychiatric hospital ever since. When she's finally released, however, she starts working as a security guard at an abandoned shopping mall. And that's when she starts to realize that something is haunting her, keeping just one step out of sight at all times...

  Meanwhile, seventy years earlier, a little girl named Wendy is left orphaned after a World War 2 fighter plane crashes onto her house. Taken to a monastery, Wendy is quickly singled out by the nuns for special attention. They say she has been possessed by a demon, and that there's only one way to save her soul. Fortunately for Wendy, however, there's someone else who seems to know far more about the situation.

  What is the shocking connection between Alice and Wendy, reaching out across the years? Does a demon really lurk in the girl's soul? And who is Hannah, the mysterious figure who tries to help Wendy, and who seventy years later begins to make her influence felt in Alice's life too?

  Alice Isn't Well is the first book in the Death Herself series, about a dark figure who arrives in the night, promising to help deal with the forces of evil whenever they appear.

  Also by Amy Cross

  MEDS

  (THE ASYLUM TRILOGY BOOK 2)

  “Welcome to the Overflow. And remember, all roads lead back to Lakehurst.”

  At the edge of a ruined town, a burned-out hospital houses one final, functional ward. There, a small group of doctors and nurses tend to patients who have been consigned to the Overflow. Unloved, forgotten by the people who knew them, these are the patients who will never receive visitors. If something happens to them, no-one will ask questions.

  When she starts work at Middleford Cross, Nurse Elly Blackstock thinks she's getting a second chance. She soon discovers, however, that this particular hospital is unlike any other. In one of the beds, an old man grapples with the horrors of his past, while in another there's a woman condemned to a life of darkness and silence. Ghosts stalk the corridors, and more ghosts are on the way. And watching over all of this is the hospital's administrator, Nurse Kirsten Winter, a woman who is desperately searching for someone named Annie Radford...

  Asylum: Meds is a dark horror novel about the lengths one woman will go to as she searches for the truth about the voices in her head.