The Woman in Coach D

It’s been sixteen years since Susie Patterson last told me those words. Sixteen years since our ever-escalating dares and challenges finally went too far, and my best friend plunged into the icy waters of Hangman’s Cave never to be seen again. I’ve spent every moment since trying to come to terms with what happened - and recover the memories I lost the night my best friend died. I’ve been a wreck - tormented by panic attacks, treated like a pariah, and never quite certain that all the terrible things people whisper about me behind my back aren’t true. All I know for certain is that the night Susie died, the person I used to be died as well. Except suddenly, I’ve discovered that Susie’s not dead. I saw her again just now, getting off the same train as me at Manchester Piccadilly station. I looked into her eyes, and they were exactly the same as the eyes I used to stare into back when we were teenagers. It shouldn’t be possible. I thought my fractured mind was playing tricks on me. There’s no way Susie could still be alive all these years later Then, the letter arrives. An envelope containing pages from the diary I wrote back when I was just seven years old, accompanied by a handwritten note. Susie is alive, and she's asking me a “Are you ready to play our game again?”