Cover

Dedication

To James ‘Shep’ Sheppard

Thank you for always believing in me.

PROLOGUE

When she looked back to the summer it happened, it hadn’t been all bad.

There were six of them that year, the Americans having moved to the village after Christmas. Generally, they were a tight-knit group and seldom let anyone else into their circle, but curiosity had been piqued by the different accents and cool clothes, and barriers had dropped. And for the first time, they had allowed a boy into their fold.

The country had been gripped by a heatwave and when school finally finished for the summer holidays, they made the most of it, meeting up early in the mornings, keen to show their new friends around. Lazy days were spent cycling along country lanes, playing games of hide-and-seek, climbing strawbales and daring each other to ignore the ‘DANGER, KEEP OUT’ notice and venture onto the train track.

When it became too hot, they went swimming in the river to cool off, and made future plans over lazy picnics of crisps, melted chocolate bars, and warm cans of Coke.

The days were hot but the nights were unbearable, and open windows had been a necessity. Heads had tossed and turned, finding no cold side to the pillow, and legs had dangled out of sheets; the need to escape the sticky heat overriding any fears of monsters under the bed.

It had been a blessed relief when they were allowed the occasional outdoor sleepovers. They were entering their teenage years and had excitedly talked about crushes, while spooking each other with urban legends, before falling asleep under a clear sky of stars, the only sounds coming from the intermittent hooting of an owl and the chugging of the last train as it passed through the edge of the village on its way from Marks Tey to Sudbury.

The memories were vivid and should have been innocent. And she guessed they mostly were.

Before the monster. Before her.

Everything had changed that summer, and in the aftermath, the last years of childhood had been robbed as they were forced under a media spotlight, now members of the newly coined Hixton Five, unable to escape what had happened, and having to relive the horrors again and again.

The monster had said that as they were children, no one would believe them. But she had been wrong. The adults had listened and they had believed. And the monster had been taken away.

That was twenty years ago.

When she allowed herself to think back to the sound of the lid closing, the darkness suffocating, that sharp and sweaty scent of fear, it was overwhelming and all too real.

So she tried not to remember. It was easier that way. She had built a good life and she tried to replace the bad memories with happy ones.

For a long time, it had worked.