The bestselling author of Good Girls Die First is back with a new page-turning thriller for fans of Holly Jackson and Karen McManus.
Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Kathryn Foxfield’s Come Out, Come Out, Whatever You Are, which is out now!
Welcome to the reality game show that’ll scare you to death! Have you got what it takes to last the night?
On the reality show It’s Behind You!, five contestants competing for prize money must survive the night in the dark and dangerous Umber Gorge caves, rumored to be haunted by the Puckered Maiden, a ghost who eats the hearts of her victims. But is it the malevolent spirit they should fear, or each other?
As the production crew ramps up the frights, tensions rise and the secrets of the cast member start coming to light. Each of these teenagers has hidden motives for taking part in the show. But could one of them be murder?
SIXTEEN
We find Marla lying outside the cheese shop, by the village square. She’s on her back with her limbs splayed and her eyes open and unblinking. I approach slowly. She doesn’t move. Behind her, the campfire is burning low. The flames send freakish shadows flitting across her face. There’s blood in her hair.
“Marla?” I whisper, crouching down beside her. I lower my head to listen for breathing.
“Oh my god, Marla,” Python says. “Is she dead?”
Suddenly, there’s an ear-splitting scream. Marla is not dead. She launches herself off the ground and clamps her arms around my neck. The girl’s small but bizarrely strong. We roll over so she’s pinning me to the floor, getting dirt and ash all over my already-filthy suit. She cranes her face toward mine.
There’s a vein on her forehead that looks ready to burst, and she’s baring her teeth like a zombie.
“This is all your fault!” she cries.
“Marla, calm down.” Liam drags her off me and holds her around the waist while she kicks and screams, clawing at the air in an effort to disembowel me with her manicured fingernails. Cameraman Carl is the most animated he’s ever been, following Marla’s every flail with the camera.
“Oh my GOD, oh my GOD,” Python says.
“Stop that!” Abbie orders. “You’re acting like children.” “This is all her fault,” Marla screeches. “She burnt that doll. She’s made the Puckered Maiden angry.”
She stamps hard on Liam’s foot and he releases her with a yelp of pain. Blood dribbles down her temple.
“Marla, your head,” Abbie says. “You’re hurt.”
“I fell over. I hate this place. And you know what? I’m done.”
Marla turns and marches off, through the model town, then into the first cave with its fiberglass grave- yard. We all trail after her as she feels her way past the angels and crosses. We follow her into the entrance tunnel. Cameraman Carl struggles behind us, panting under the weight of his camera. It’s a sign of how pissed off Marla is that she doesn’t check if he’s still filming her. We reach the locked door.
Marla doesn’t hesitate. She walks up to the sign that reads “It’s behind me, let me out” and hammers on the door. Cameraman Carl jogs over to join us, swearing under his breath. We all step aside for him in shocked silence. I always thought Marla would snap first; I knew I could break her. But even so, this is surprisingly dramatic.
I’m reminded of this time with my mom where I went an entire day answering “Why?” to everything she said. It was funny right up until the point she snapped. She screamed at me so loudly my dad came racing in from the garden thinking someone was hurt.
Marla is hurt, but the seconds drag by and the door remains closed.
“Let me out, I’ve had enough,” Marla shouts. “Let me out. Please!”
There is silence. And I know then. No one’s coming. “Marla,” I say. “There’s no one there.”
“What do you mean?” Python says. “This is how the show works.”
They all look at me, confused. “You all sat through the health and safety talk, right?” I say. “The one with the risk assessment on licking mold?”
“So what?” Marla sniffs, pausing her hammering.
“So, if the health and safety team is worried we might get an upset stomach from licking the walls, they must be crapping themselves over that head injury about now.”
Mr. Health and Mr. Safety should be racing in with doctors and lawyers and release forms to sign. Marla should be in a neck brace with an air ambulance landing outside.
Instead, silence. Cameraman Carl peers up at the wall- mounted camera over the door, lowering his own.
“You’re right,” Liam says. “If someone was watching us from the outside, they’d already be in here to take Marla to the hospital.”
There’s a pause while the truth sinks in. The power cuts, the flickering lights, the fact that nothing happened after the séance. I’d thought it was all part of the show. But now I don’t think it was.
“Oh my GOD,” Python says. “We’re on our own.”
