The Madness of Annie Radford Read online

  Epilogue 2

  “Lemonade?”

  Suddenly stirred from her thoughts, Elly turned and saw that Carrie was coming down the steps at the rear of the farmhouse, carrying a glass of pale yellow juice.

  “It's homemade,” Carrie explained as she handed the glass to Elly. “I was telling you about it the other day, remember? It's been a while since I last made it, but I don't think I've lost the knack. Well, maybe I shouldn't be presumptuous. Maybe I should let you be the judge.”

  Elly hesitated, staring at the contents of the glass.

  “Thank you,” she murmured finally, before taking a sip.

  The lemonade was good.

  Really good.

  And cold, too, which was a godsend on such a hot day. So she downed the rest and then gasped as she finished, and then a moment later she let out a small burp.

  “I'm sorry!” she stammered.

  “Are you kidding?” Carrie said with a smile, as she took the glass. “I can't think of a bigger compliment. You shouldn't have more than one glass a day, but I suppose...” She hesitated. “Well, you're a growing little girl, so some extra sugar won't hurt you. Just make sure to brush your teeth later, okay?”

  Elly nodded.

  A moment later, hearing a loud bang coming from the shed, she and Carrie both turned and looked toward the far end of the yard.

  “Ricky's just working on that old truck again,” Carrie explained. “I know this might sound crazy, but I think it's actually a kind of meditation for him. He can just spend hours and hours out there, tinkering with bits of machinery. It'd drive me crazy, but it keeps him out of trouble.” She paused, before turning to Elly again. “Listen, I'm going to get you one more glass, okay? But then I need you to help me beat those rugs.”

  Elly nodded again.

  “You're a good girl,” Carrie added, turning and heading toward the back door. “I can't remember how we managed before you showed up. Oh, and Clarice -”

  She began to turn, but then she caught herself just in time.

  “I'm so sorry,” she continued. “I didn't mean to say that.”

  “It's okay,” Elly replied. “I understand.”

  “Sometimes it's hard,” Carrie explained. “For Ricky too, but I just want you to know... Ever since that day you showed up here, we've loved having you. I don't suppose you can stay forever, I know some day we'll have to see about finding out where you're from, but... Well, it'd be nice to have you stay around for a little while longer. A month. Or maybe two. I know I said that two months ago, but this time...”

  Her voice trailed off.

  “You know the funny thing?” she added. “You're the second stray who's turned up and stayed with us in the space of a month. There was a girl named Annie a while back, but then she vanished one night. I still wonder where she went.” She paused, staring at Elly. “You know,” she continued, “sometimes you really remind me of her. Not in the way you look, more the look in your eyes and the way you talk. I know this is a silly question, but you're not related to someone by the name of Radford, are you?”

  Elly hesitated, before shaking her head.

  “Well, we'll see,” she added finally, before turning and this time heading back into the house. She was muttering to herself, but Elly couldn't make out any of what she said.

  In the distance, Richard was still banging at his truck in the shed.

  Sitting all alone, Elly took a deep breath. She'd been watching the sunflowers for a while now, and she supposed that this was her way of meditating. Time passed quickly whenever she sat like this, and her mind came close to being clear. Not completely clear, of course, since that seemed to be impossible. Often her thoughts raced, especially at night, but while watching the sunflowers she was able to more or less empty her mind of thoughts.

  Occasionally, she though back to those final moments at the radio telescope. She'd been filled with fury, and she'd fully expected to die as the roof collapsed. She still wasn't quite sure how she'd escaped, but she had a vague memory of being dragged out from the burning rubble. That was impossible, of course, since she'd been the only one there. Still, deep down she felt that Elly had dragged Annie to safety, and that then Annie had stopped existing and Elly had taken over. The idea seemed crazy, but then again she'd experienced plenty of crazy things lately.

  Looking up at the sky, she thought of all the stars out there. Even during the day, she often wondered which star Kirsten Winter had ended up at, and whether there had been anyone or anything around to pick up the signal of her mind. Again, the idea seemed insane, but she supposed there was a chance. And if Kirsten's idea had succeeded, it would mean that she'd broadcast her mind across the galaxy and had eventually found a new home out there in the stars. Elly couldn't help thinking that – as unlikely as that scenario might seem – it did seem to be the kind of thing that Kirsten Winter might be able to pull off.

  Nearby, thistles danced in the wind.

  It was these moments that Elly cherished most of all, when her inner voice subsided entirely and she could simply watch the sunflowers and listen in case another voice came.

  An unwelcome voice.

  A voice that, perhaps, might persist even though its brain had been destroyed.

  Impossible, she told herself, but the fear remained. Yet still she waited, because every second that passed without another voice entering her head was another moment of peace. She couldn't shake the worry that something still existed out there, that perhaps the entity might reform and come again, or that Langheim might have survived. And while she kept replaying those final moments, the moments when she'd seen some kind of creature snarling in the heart of Langheim's brain, she couldn't quite convince herself that the image had been a part of her madness.

  But now the storm had passed. Annie Radford – madwoman, escaped prisoner, brother-murderer – was dead, and the madness was over.

  And this was the world as she saw it. Maybe it wasn't real, maybe it was all in her head, maybe she was dead. That possibility had occured to her, but then she figured she'd be burning in Hell rather than holding a glass of cold lemonade on a warm day. She'd finally realized, however, that there was no way to tell for sure, so she wasn't going to worry about it any longer. She knew, deep down, that she wasn't the most reliable narrator, not even of her own story. So when it came to choosing between the various possibilities – the possibility that she was still at Lakehurst, or the possibility that she'd left and saved the world and survived, or the possibility that she'd saved the world but had died in the process and was now in the afterlife – she realized she could never be sure which was true.

  So she'd just have to hope for the best.

  As long as her own voice was the only voice in her head, she could allow herself to believe that the nightmare was over. So although she'd soon have to go inside and do some chores before dinner, for now she stayed on the bench and watched the sunflowers and listened in case any other voices arrived. And as she waited, she was comforted by the silence, because that – apart from her own thoughts – was all she heard in her head these days.

  Silence.

  Epilogue 3

  Four-and-a-half light years away, Nurse Kirsten Winter opened her eyes.

  BOOKS IN THIS SERIES

  1. Asylum

  2. Meds

  3. The Madness of Annie Radford

  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

&n
bsp; 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.