BooksBarbecue
Back The Game
Chapters (68)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. NOW
  4. One
  5. BEFORE
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. NOW
  26. Twenty-One
  27. BEFORE
  28. Twenty-Two
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. NOW
  46. Thirty-Nine
  47. BEFORE
  48. Forty
  49. Forty-One
  50. Forty-Two
  51. Forty-three
  52. Forty-Four
  53. Forty-Five
  54. Forty-Six
  55. Forty-Seven
  56. Forty-Eight
  57. Forty-Nine
  58. Fifty
  59. Fifty-One
  60. NOW
  61. Fifty-Two
  62. Fifty-Three
  63. Fifty-Four
  64. Fifty-Five
  65. AFTER
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Acknowledgements
  68. About the Author

He breathed through it and tried to ignore the feeling. Tried to remember why he was there. Why he wanted to be there to hear this.

‘Emily wouldn’t have believed this,’ Stephanie said, her voice shaking now, as she struggled to hold back the events of that day. ‘She was smarter than that. It’s all so stupid. It doesn’t even make sense.’

‘Could someone have noticed she was talking about it?’

Stephanie shrugged, but didn’t say no. Mark tried to walk it back, work out what he actually understood, what would make sense.

‘If Joanna Carter had been discovered doing something bad to people, was told the same story, was in the same situation, then it makes sense that the two things could be linked. That someone was making both Joanna and Emily play this game and they were killed at the end of it.’

‘Are you saying they both killed themselves or that someone killed them?’ Stephanie replied, carefully. ‘Because there’s a big difference. And Emily definitely didn’t kill herself. Maybe that’s part of what happened – she fought back. Could that be it? Because she didn’t really do anything wrong?’

‘I don’t know yet,’ Mark said, but he felt he was close. Closer than he had been all week. Not to actually finding the person who had done this, but closer to a reason why it had happened.

‘I need to find out more about this. It’s going to take some time to get people to believe this is a possibility… I mean, that both girls were involved in some sort of game and were pushed into doing it.’

‘Thank you. For trusting me,’ Stephanie replied, a smile briefly appearing on her face, before falling away.

Mark smiled thinly at her, the atmosphere thickening. He suddenly saw the weight she would carry for the foreseeable future. The twin left behind.

After a few seconds, he broke the silence. ‘Go back to your mum. Get back home. She’ll need you right now.’

He watched her leave as he remained sitting there, processing everything she’d said. Inside his pocket, his phone vibrated. He took it out, seeing Natasha’s name on the screen. He paused, then let it go to voicemail. Another missed call from her, to join the others from earlier.

His private life would have to wait. He needed to think.

He needed to work out what to do next to find out who had done this.

Posted: TODAY

Status: Live

All players eliminated.

A new game has begun.

New players chosen.

Player One and Player Two.

They’ll think they can bring this to an end, but we’ve already won.

KEEP PLAYING THE GAME.

THIS IS OUR TIME.

TIME’S UP FOR THEM.

I’M WITH YOU ALL THE WAY.

Forty-Five