3AM Read online

“I think so,” Megan said with a faint smile. “I think she went to the better part of that place.”

  “I hope so,” Rose replied. “I guess maybe one day we'll find out. Not for a while, though. I think I might have seen a glimpse of that place too. I definitely wanna take the long path getting there.” With that, she turned and limped back toward her room.

  Holding the necklace up, Megan let it glint in the low light for a moment. She still remembered the day Scott had given it to her as a gift. It was the only time he'd been brave enough to choose an item of jewelery for her. She'd been thinking she should get rid of it, but finally she realized there was no harm in hanging onto it, at least for now. Despite the pain in her back and shoulder, she managed to fasten the necklace back around her neck.

  Looking down at her belly, Megan tried to imagine the tiny life inside. She still hadn't been able to get used to the idea that Scott was truly gone, and now she found herself with a part of him in her body. Even worse, she couldn't help wondering if his ghost was out there somewhere, lost and trapped, unable to break through. The only consolation was the sense that

  “It's going to be okay,” she said finally. “I'm going to look after you, I'm going to -”

  Hearing a noise nearby, she looked across the room, expecting to see a nurse in the doorway. Instead, she found herself staring into space. She felt certain there was a presence nearby, but the longer she waited, the more she realized she must have imagined the noise. She looked back down at her belly, but she still couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. Glancing at the clock on the wall, she saw the time:

  3am.

  “Hey,” said a nurse suddenly.

  Megan turned and watched as the woman entered the room and checked her drip.

  “Who were you talking to?” the nurse asked.

  “The baby I'm apparently having,” Megan replied uneasily.

  The nurse smiled. “But before that. I heard you having a real old conversation.”

  “That was my sister,” Megan said, turning to look at the window. “She saved me.”

  Outside, the hospital's bright lights burned bright in the darkness. Nearby, a motorway ran past the building. Even late at night, there was a lot of traffic, as huge lorries rumbled through the night with their heavy cargo, causing the road to vibrate as they passed.

  Epilogue

  Five years later

  “Come on,” the woman said, reaching out and taking her daughter's hand. “Time to get home.”

  The little girl climbed off the roundabout and followed her mother across the playground, as a train rattled past on the train tracks just a few meters past the nearby fence.

  “Did you used to come and play here when you were little?” the girl asked.

  “No, this wasn't a playground back then,” the woman explained, rooting around in her pocket for her car keys. “It used to be a big building, really ugly, but there was a fire and it got knocked down.”

  “Why did it catch fire?”

  “I don't remember. There was a big fuss about it in the papers at the time, but...” As she reached the car, she unlocked the passenger side and helped her daughter in. “Don't forget your seat-belt,” she added as she slammed the door shut.

  After slipping the head of the buckle into its slot, the little girl turned and looked back at the empty playground. No-one else had shown up to play, so all the swings and climbing frames were empty. As her mother climbed into the seat next to her, the girl watched as one of the swings seemed to twitch a little, as if a particularly strong gust of wind had suddenly started to make it move. A moment later, the next swing along did the same thing.

  “We have to get going,” the woman said, starting the engine. “You don't want to miss Hannah's party, do you?”

  As the car eased away from its parking space, the little girl took her friend's birthday present from the dashboard and began to examine the tag. If she'd taken a moment to look in the rear-view mirror, however, she'd have seen a little boy playing on the swings while a woman gave him a push.

  Another train passed on the line nearby, and by the time it was gone, the child and the woman were nowhere to be seen.

  ALSO BY AMY CROSS

  Horror

  Asylum

  The Girl Clay

  The Prison

  American Coven

  The Night Girl

  Devil's Briar

  Ward Z

  The Devil's Photographer

  The House We Haunted and Other Stories

  Darper Danver series 1

  The Writer (13 Nights of Horror)

  The Disappearance of Rose Hillard (13 Nights of Horror)

  The Fan (13 Nights of Horror)

  Hugo: The Lockton Downs Haunting (Novella)

  Fantasy / Horror

  Dark Season series 1, 2 & 3

  The Hollow Church (Abby Hart 1)

  Vampire Asylum (Abby Hart 2)

  Dead Souls Volume One: Books 1 to 13

  Lupine Howl series 1, 2, 3 & 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)

  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, 2 & 3

  Erotica

  Broken Blue

  Broken White

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Part One:

  Dawn

  Part Two:

  The Basement

  Part Three:

  Intruder

  Part Four:

  Voices of the Lost

  Part Five:

  Parallels

  Part Six:

  Hidden

  Part Seven:

  Broken Teeth

  Part Eight:

  Survival

  Epilogue