Chapters (68)
- Cover
- Dedication
- NOW
- One
- BEFORE
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- NOW
- Twenty-One
- BEFORE
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- NOW
- Thirty-Nine
- BEFORE
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- NOW
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- AFTER
- Fifty-Six
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
Chris didn’t answer, but Mark could feel the answer hanging in the air between them.
‘I promised not to tell anyone what she’d been doing. That was the deal we made. I was one of the lucky ones.’
‘How did she do it?’
‘Through email. Said she was going to send them to everyone she could, post them everywhere, if I ever said anything about what she’d done. I took it serious, like. I was too scared about what would happen, so I didn’t say a word. She’s a nutcase.’
‘Still, the messages you sent to her… they weren’t friendly.’
‘I didn’t have nothing to do with her going missing, if that’s what you mean. I’m over it, man, haven’t even thought about it in months.’
That’s the only lie he felt Chris had spoken in the time he’d been sitting in his parent’s living room. The fact he’d been taken for a ride probably slipped into his thoughts at night. His pride had been hurt.
‘You said you wanted to kill her…’
‘I didn’t mean it, not really,’ Chris said, his voice getting louder now. He half rose out of his seat then thought better of it. ‘Have you never said something like that before? I’ll bloody kill you. It doesn’t mean you’re actually going to kill that person. I swear on my life I didn’t even know she’d gone missing until the tweets were getting shared around and that. I saw them and that’s all I know.’
‘What did you think when you saw that she’d gone missing?’
Chris didn’t answer, his hand curling into a fist and resting against his mouth. He shook his head and sniffed. ‘I thought, good, hopefully she’s topped herself. Done herself in. Before she screwed over the wrong person and they did it for her. I don’t think that’s what happened though. I reckon she’s just done it for attention, because that’s all she ever did anything for, in the end. No one paid her any attention in school and this is her way of finally getting some. She shared pictures of us. You know what I’m talking about? Pictures, and stuff we’d said, that should have stayed private. It’s embarrassing, you know? She made us all look like idiots. Only, that wasn’t enough for her so now she’s gone one better. She’s “disappeared”. She’ll be back by the end of the week, I bet.’
‘If something’s happened to her though…’