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

‘I was her only friend for years. She should have known what was right. These girls… they can’t treat us like pets. There at their beck and call, only to drop us as soon as we ask for more. She owed me. I treated her like a princess and she treated me like shit she’d found on her shoe. She just dropped me, out of the blue. Last year. Years of talking, then it just stopped. I was just, dead inside. All that time, only to have her dismiss me that way. I was upset, angry, everything. I knew her secret as well. What she did to people, but it didn’t matter. She knew I’d never tell anyone. My parents took me to the Lake District to get my mind off it. Just a snap decision they made to take me up to the cottage we have up there. Didn’t help though. Nothing did. Not until I found that place. The forum for The Game. I had all our conversations saved, so I could show everyone. They read them. All of them. And they could see how she’d manipulated me then thrown me away when she wouldn’t accept that I was her best option. She should have been lying on her back, waiting for me, but instead she just used me for what she wanted, then I’m left with nothing. It’s not right. Not only that, but what she was doing to people was evil. Something needed to be done. It was just a way of getting back at her. I didn’t think anything bad would happen to them, not really.’

Mark listened, trying not to grab the lad by his throat there and then. ‘And Emily and Joanna were both nominated by men with the same stories?’

‘Pretty much,’ John replied, sniffing again. There were still no tears though. ‘It was Holly’s fault, really. She asked for it. They all do. I tried to tell her that, but she wouldn’t listen. If she had just given herself to me, this wouldn’t have happened.’

‘They’re forced to do challenges. Show that they are atoning for their crimes.’

‘Holly did some fucked up things online,’ John said, wiping a sleeve across his face again. ‘When she rejected me, she needed to pay for those things. She had to play The Game and she lost.’

‘And they’re supposed to be suicides,’ Mark said, trying to follow all the lad was saying but failing to keep up with the bullshit. ‘That’s right, isn’t it? So, you vote for the people who should play, then sit back and wait for the results? Is that right?’

‘I didn’t think anything would really happen to her. I thought it was just talk.’