Torn (33 page)

There’s a missed call from Cass on my phone. She’s left a message, but I don’t listen to it. I send a text: ‘I’m sorry.’

The background on my phone is a picture of me and Jack. I took it myself, angling the phone over our heads. It’s a nice picture. I delete it.

Ghost Tara appears next to me. Close enough to
touch, if she wasn’t a figment of my imagination. Her hands are no longer muddy and bloody. And she’s not sixteen any more. She’s Tara Chambers, my best friend. Wet hair scraped back into a ponytail after swimming. School uniform a little too big for her. Braces on her teeth.

She doesn’t say anything.

I enter a number into the phone.

My finger hovers over the call button.

I look at ten-year-old Tara and she nods. There’s a hint of a smile there too.

I press the button and close my eyes.

‘Hello? I’d like to speak to Detective Inspector Marshall. I have information about the disappearance of Tara Chambers.’

I open my eyes and Tara is gone.

I don’t think she’ll be back.

the end

Much of this book was written under difficult circumstances, so these thanks are especially heartfelt. I couldn’t have completed
Torn
without the help, support and total awesomeness of:

Lara Williamson, Nova Ren Suma, Liz de Jager, Kaz Mahoney, Courtney Summers, Sarah Stewart, Irene Hodgson, Michael Bedo, Non Parish, Emily de la Mare, Liz Scott, Sam Meredith and Jessica Pitcairn.

Big thanks to the utterly marvellous Victoria Birkett, the legendary Nancy Miles, and Caroline Hill-Trevor – a rights-selling superhero if ever there was one.

Thank you to Roisin Heycock, Niamh Mulvey, Talya Baker and all at Quercus.

Thanks to my Sisters: Keris Stainton, Luisa Plaja, Kay Woodward, Tamsyn Murray, Keren David, Sophia Bennett, Susie Day, Fiona Dunbar and Gillian Philip.

Thanks to the brilliant bloggers of t’interweb for being incredibly supportive, especially: Lauren, Sya, Carly, Iffath, Becky, Caroline, Jo, Sophie, Andrew, Jenny, Sarah, Sammee and Ryan.

A special thanks to Rae at St Augustine’s RC High School, Edinburgh, for letting me steal her name.

Music-wise, I’d like to tip my hat to My Chemical Romance, Imogen Heap and Owl City.

And finally, an extra-special big fat thank you to my family for being brilliant.

CAT CLARKE
entangled

‘Clarke gets brilliantly inside the head of her protagonist’
Bookseller

‘Moving, thought-provoking and truly gripping from start to finish’
Mizz

‘
Entangled
is incredibly poignant and thought-provoking’
Birmingham Post

The same questions whirl round and round in my head:
What does he want from me?

How could I have let this happen?

AM I GOING TO DIE?

Seventeen-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with a table, pens and paper – and no clue how she got there.

As Grace pours her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she’s tried to forget. There’s falling hopelessly in love with the gorgeous Nat, and the unravelling of her relationship with her best friend, Sal. But there’s something missing. As hard as she’s trying to remember, is there something she just can’t see?

Grace must face the most important question of all.

Why is she here?