The Gravest Girl of All Read online

  “And if you have room,” he continues, “I want you to try my new biscotti. They're fresh out of the oven and -”

  Suddenly he stops, and then he turns to see Sam standing in the doorway. The sight seems to freeze him for a moment, but he quickly recovers.

  “Excuse me just one moment, Mrs. Allen,” he says, before heading over to meet Sam. “Well, I've got to admit, I had a feeling you might show up sooner rather than later. I thought it might take a tad longer, though.”

  Staring at him with a growing sense of shock, Sam tries to work out whether any of this is really happening. After a moment she reaches down and pinches herself, only to feel a ripple of pain. She pinches herself again, then again, on different parts of her arm, each time with the same result.

  “It's real,” she whispers, before looking around and seeing several customers in the cafe. “It's back, all of it. The world is back to how it was before.”

  “Come on,” the Devil says with a faint smile. “You didn't ever really doubt me, did you?”

  “This cake,” Mrs. Waterson says, slipping between them as she heads outside, “is utterly wonderful. Your scones as well. I shall be back very soon for some more. You really are the most wonderful baker.”

  “Well,” the Devil says to Sam, “it's almost how it was before. I think I earned the right to make one tiny adjustment. Don't you?”

  “You kept your word,” she stammers.

  “No, I broke my word. I told you I'd screw it all up, that I'd get all evil again.” He pauses. “But you know what? Once reality was destroyed and I was free, I spent a few billion years doing just that. Eventually, though, I began to feel restless. I suppose you could say that I missed this quiet little town. And maybe some of its inhabitants, too.”

  “What about Hell?” she asks.

  “Abberoth's well and truly gone,” he explains. “I was going to take up my old position down there, but then they began agitating for democratic representation. I can't be doing with all of that, so I've left them to it. Last I heard, they were trying to form a kind of rudimentary parliament and there was talk of staging some referendums. I don't know how it'll all go, but I'm sure they'll figure things out eventually. Maybe Abberoth was right when he said Hell wasn't working very well. Not that I have much faith in democracy, of course. The whole system is prone to -”

  “You did it!” she shouts, rushing at him and putting her arms around him, hugging him tight. “I knew you would! I had total faith in you, even when you were telling me I was wrong!”

  “You're touching me,” he replies, clearly shocked. “Voluntarily.”

  “And you're going to stay here?” she asks, pulling back and looking into his eyes. “You've retired to run a cafe?”

  “We'll see how that goes,” he says with a faint smile. “I haven't quite made up my mind about this place. Rippon seems like a fun little town, but it's rather quiet and I'm used to having a few distractions.” He pauses for a moment, meeting her gaze. “I suppose I'll have to see whether anything keeps me here,” he adds finally. “You never know, do you? Surprising attachments can arise in the most unexpected moments.”

  Sam opens her mouth to reply, before hesitating for a moment.

  And a moment longer.

  And -

  “Excuse me,” Mrs. Bunscombe says, squeezing between them as she carries some scones outside. “My Harold is going to love these. I know it's naughty, but you don't mind me taking a few home, do you?”

  “Not at all,” the Devil replies, keeping his eyes fixed on Sam. “In fact, I'm flattered. Take as many as you want.”

  “What about Sparky?” Sam asks.

  “I couldn't bring everything back, Sam,” he replies. “I re-formed his mind, but the threat in Rippon is over now. He has other fish to fry.”

  “He's not the only one.”

  “Stay and have some cake.”

  “I can't.”

  “Come on. I'll throw everyone else out. It'll be just the two of us.”

  “I really can't,” Sam says, suddenly turning and heading out into the town square as she realizes that something's not quite right. She feels flustered, and she's worried she might be blushing. “I guess I'll catch you around some time.”

  “Do you want to see Henry?”

  Stopping, she tells herself that she misheard those words. He can't have said -”

  “Do you want to see him, Sam?”

  She turns to see that the Devil has followed her out.

  “You don't have the knife in your head anymore,” he points out. “I changed a few other little things as well. You're free now, you don't have to stay in Rippon.”

  “Where else would I go?”

  “I could take you to see Henry,” he continues, “in a flash. I could click my fingers and we could be there. You have to be curious about him. About his adoptive family. About his life now, and about how he's growing up and what he's like and -”

  “Thanks, but I'm alright,” she says, swallowing hard.

  “I'd have you back here by lunchtime.”

  “Henry's fine without me,” she tells him. “Sure, I'd like to see him, but I'd just disrupt his life. I'd confuse him. It wouldn't be fair to disturb him just for the sake of my own curiosity, so for his sake I think I'd better not.”

  “We can be invisible,” he explains. “He'll have no idea that we're there.”

  Sam hesitates.

  “See you around,” she says finally, turning and walking away, still fighting that feeling of discomfort. “I've got a busy day.”

  “Pop by any time,” he calls after her. “Sam? I mean it. Come for a cup of tea this evening, maybe.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Or tomorrow morning.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Or any time you like.”

  “Maybe.”

  “I'll be here. I'll be waiting. I'll be looking forward to it!”

  By the time she reaches the next street, she's feeling completely kerfuffled. Stopping once she's out of sight, she leans against the wall and tries to get her composure back. Reaching down, she runs her fingertips against the wall's rough surface, and she feels relieved that the world exists again. She also wants to go racing back to the cafe, to tell the Devil that she will take him up on his offer of a cup of tea some time. In fact, she's worried he might have taken her response earlier to be a little rude, and that he might give up and just leave without saying goodbye.

  No.

  No, he won't do that.

  Taking a deep breath, she tells herself that there's no need to panic, and that she can drop by the next day without seeming too keen.

  Or tonight.

  Yes, she can drop by tonight for a cup of tea and a chat.

  Without even realizing, she begins to smile.

  “There's work to do,” she reminds herself suddenly, before turning and walking down the hill, heading toward the cemetery. “Stay focused, Sam. You've got a lot of work on your hands. You'll barely even have time to sit down, let alone swan around having tea dates with people. Not that it'd be a date, of course. It'd just be two friends having some tea and cake, and talking. That's all. Friends or... people who know each other. Don't get ahead of yourself.”

  With that, she continues on her way, walking along a street that – like the rest of the universe – has only recently begun to exist again. The rain has stopped and birds are starting to sing, and a gentle breeze is rustling the tops of nearby trees. It's almost as if every living thing in the world has a faint understanding of what it's been through, and of the fact that it's lucky to have been restored. And the person who enabled that restoration is picking up the pace now, hurrying to get back to the cottage so she can start her long day's work.

  Samantha Marker. The last gardener. Savior of the world. Grave Girl.

  Books in this series

  Grave Girl

  Raven Revivals (Grave Girl book 2)

  The Gravest Girl of All (Grave Girl book 3)

  OTHER B
OOKS

  BY AMY CROSS INCLUDE

  Horror

  The Farm

  Annie's Room

  The Priest Hole

  Eli's Town

  3AM

  Asylum

  Meds (Asylum 2)

  Tenderling

  The Girl Clay

  The Prison

  American Coven

  The Night Girl

  Devil's Briar

  Ward Z

  Ward Z: Revelation

  The Devil's Photographer

  Take Me to Church

  Fantasy / Horror

  Dark Season series 1, 2 & 3

  Ascension (Demon's Grail book 1)

  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)

  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 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.