Chapter 2
TWO
Amos Watson yawned so wide he felt the dry skin at the corner of his mouth split a little.
He was dog-tired; he hadn’t been sleeping well.
How many teenagers had he chased off the old summer campsite now?
Too many and to make it worse, he’d had to start patrolling the grounds at night which really, really pissed him off.
Especially in the winter when nobody in their right mind should be out exploring on a fell.
He walked to the window of the small cottage that bordered the edge of the forest and the campsite boundary line and peered into the rolling clouds of thick, white fog.
No idiots would be out trespassing in this.
He let out a long sigh. The local teenagers had been telling ghost stories about this place for as long as he could remember.
He had got into a fair few fights at school over it.
How long ago was that? Too long. He’d sworn to himself that there was no way on this earth he was going to take over looking after this place when his dad called it a day.
He’d signed up for the army as soon as he could and got the hell out of this dead-end way of life.
He hadn’t given the place a thought for years as he’d made his way through the ranks; at least not until the day he’d had the lower part of his left leg blown off by a landmine.
He’d spent weeks in hospital, then a rehabilitation centre before realising he couldn’t manage on his own.
His mum had begged him to go home, and with no partner to help him, it left him with not much choice, so he had.
She had nursed him back to health, looked after him so well he’d ended up staying.
His dad, who had been a good fifteen years older than his mum, had collapsed one day inside the old wooden hut that had been the summer camp’s dining room.
Too old-fashioned to carry a mobile phone with him, he’d died all alone, in that decrepit building.
When Amos had managed to go and search for him and saw his cold, stiff body lying there, he’d fallen to the floor crying.
Not just for his dead dad, but for himself as well, because he’d known then that he was now going to be bound to this place for the rest of his life and that thought had filled him with complete and utter despair.
‘You really think you heard a teenage girl screaming in terror out on the fell in this weather?’
Amos paused, did he or was he being overly cautious? It really was more than likely to be an animal. ‘It sounded like one, but I have zero visibility from my cottage window so I can’t be sure.’
‘Right, well patrols are travelling, but obviously the roads are bad, and they may take a little longer to arrive than usual.’
‘Thanks.’
He put the receiver down, was he wasting everyone’s time?
He hobbled to the cupboard where he grabbed his thick waterproof jacket, deerstalker hat and prosthetic leg.
Bending down he strapped the leg on, then shrugged on his jacket and off the shelf he took the big torch he used to scare the kids.
Tucking his mobile phone into his pocket, he hoped he had enough charge in it should he need to call the cops and cancel them.
Wrapping a scarf around his neck and tugging thermal gloves onto his hands, he opened the door and stepped out into the damp night air to go and search the old campsite himself.
He headed towards the huge cabin that had once been the hub of the camp, the dining hall and entertainment room.
It was the only building still standing after all this time, although it was dangerous and falling to pieces.
It was the place he’d heard the scream emanate from and it made sense that whoever needed help might be in there.
As he reached the entrance with the door partially open and blocking the way in because it had fallen off its hinges, he heard whimpering coming from inside.
‘Hey, it’s okay. The police are on their way. I don’t know what’s happened, but I live here, in the cottage over the far side.’
It was definitely a girl; he could tell by the pitch of her sobs. Shep pushed past his legs. He clambered up the steps and went straight inside to go sit with whoever needed help. Amos was scared and didn’t want to make her more frightened, so he hovered around outside before going in.
Shining his big heavy-duty torch around, he started a little and felt his heart skip a beat. Huddled in the corner was a teenage girl. Her eyes were darting around the room, and when they fixed on him, she opened her mouth to scream.
He held up his hands. ‘I’ll wait outside, it’s okay, you’re okay now. Shep is going to look after you.’ Amos shrugged off his coat and offered it to her, holding it out. He tried to throw it over her legs so she could get warm, then he rushed back out of the building, leaving Shep with her.
He waited for the cops to arrive, and when the blue lights pulsated through the fog coming towards the gateway, he exhaled slowly, glad he hadn’t cancelled them. They could deal with whatever was going on. The look of terror in her eyes was going to stay with him for the rest of his life.