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

Joanna moved slowly, peering around the corner of the opening, then stepping out of the lift. The doors remained open as she disappeared from screen for a few seconds, then walked across the frame. She backed into the lift again, moving in a stilted fashion, seeming to count her steps as she did so.

She moved back to the same position again, her back to the lift near the controls. The doors remained open.

‘Watch now,’ DS Cavanagh said, turning to Mark, shaking his head. ‘This is where it gets weird.’

Mark nodded and continued to watch, thinking it was pretty weird already. On screen, Joanna stood for a little while longer, the doors remaining open. She moved forward tentatively, her feet stopping in the lift opening, her head attempting to peer around its corners and into the corridors. She then jumped out, two feet planted together. She was there, looking around yet again, then sidestepped to her left a few times, then back again. Then walked forwards two steps, then all the way backwards into the lift again.

Once inside, she began dragging her left foot in a circle. Then she did the same with her right. She peered out of the doors again, standing there for around ten seconds, her head jutting out of the doorway repeatedly. Then she stepped again, standing to the side, so only one of her arms and a slight portion of her lower body were visible. Mark watched as she lifted her arm up, moved it around for ten seconds, then let it drop to her body again.

She walked back into the lift, pressing buttons on the controls again, stepping to the side as the doors closed. She stood there, rocking on her heels, as her lips moved soundlessly.

‘You’re right,’ Mark said, his eyes stuck to the screen now, watching every moment as the images unfolded. ‘It is weird.’

DS Cavanagh sniffed, but didn’t say anything. The doors of the lift opened again, the same pattern as before emerging. Joanna peering out into the corridor. Joanna stepping to the side and backwards, in a seemingly random pattern. Joanna walking out into the corridor and moving in an odd fashion. Then she went back into the lift and began pressing buttons again.

This repeated for the next three or so minutes, the lift opening on different floors of the building and Joanna seeming to perform the same ritual each time.

Until what Mark assumed was the top floor.

Joanna seemed to pause this time, taking deep, slow breaths, shaking her hands out as she did so. She suddenly looked nervous, whereas before she looked assured, even while doing increasingly bizarre things.

Mark watched the counter on the top of the screen tick by, five seconds, then ten, as Joanna continued to stand in the middle of the lift.

The doors continued to stay open.