Free What Blood Leaves Behind (The Poison Rose) by Delany Beaumont

We’re at that bad part where you almost can’t get through. I have to work my way around the wrecks.”
    “You’re going to make us puke. Next time, I’m driving.”
    “You can’t drive,” the driver says.
    “Bodie’s right,” the female in the back says. She’s also standing close to me now. “You can’t drive, Milo.”
    “Shut up. When we get back, I’m shoving you both in the cage. You belong with the animals.” He kicks at me with the toe of his boot and strikes my shin. It hurts but that pain can’t compare to what’s happening in my head.
    The van starts to move forward a little. There are a few sharp turns. The driver has to back up and try to go in another direction. “It’s like a maze,” he says, cursing.
    Suddenly I feel sick, horribly sick to my stomach.
    “What the hell is that?” Milo, the man or boy or whatever he is in back, says.
    “She’s throwing up,” the female says.
    “Get her out!”
    I can sense him step over me, hear the van door squeal as it’s wrenched open and feel a cold rush of air. He kicks me out of the van and I tumble to the hard pavement outside. Even as I fall, I continue to vomit, heaving up watery residue from my empty stomach.
    I hear the sound of boots clatter to the ground as the two in back jump out beside me. “Get up in the light!” Milo orders me. I feel the toe of his boot jab into my side. I think just for a moment that maybe I could get to my feet, maybe I could run. But I can’t raise myself up any higher than my hands and knees and he keeps kicking at me so I crawl forward, to the front of the van until I’m gasping and heaving in the glare of the headlights.
    “She’s bleeding,” the female voice says.
    “Yeah, well, I’m not going to touch her now. And we’re only supposed to bring her back.”
    “We’ll bring her back.” It’s the voice of Bodie, standing with the others.
    “What if she dies?”
    “She’s not going to die. I didn’t hit her that hard.”
    “Maybe she has a concussion.” I wonder if that’s a hint of compassion from the female.
    “Are you going to cry over her? She’s the one that killed Gideon.”
    “We don’t know if he’s dead for sure.”
    “None of them ever had a gun before.”
    “She’s special, isn’t she?”
    “We’ll treat her special, that’s a guarantee.”
    I’m starting to gain some control over myself. My stomach has quieted down and I’m breathing more evenly. But then blackness starts to fill my head. I want to stay awake, alert enough to defend myself, but I can’t. I’m spinning down a dark hole. The wide beams of the headlights narrow into pinpoints, then disappear altogether. I can no longer hear or see anything.
    The darkness swallows me whole.
Two
    There is water below me.
    I know because I can hear the slap of waves against concrete. A bird shrieks as it darts past. There’s a fishy, algae and decay smell. My eyes are crusted shut and I have to rub the gunk loose so I can see. Then a blast of chill wind revives me completely.
    I’m floating in mid-air.
    My mind won’t accept it but my eyes tell me I’m up high, dangling above an enormous river. I try to think of a way to explain it but the only thing I can come up with is that maybe I’ve died. This might be some weird mid-point, a way station between this world and the next.
    But there’s solid wood below my feet, wood above my head and black bars all around me. I try to stand and this platform I’m on sways dangerously in the wind, knocking me back. I slide and think for a moment I’m going to tumble off the edge but my back is caught by the row of iron bars behind me. There is not enough room to stand up straight.
    Then it hits me that I really have been locked in a cage, penned up like an animal, just like the one they called Milo said he was going to do to his companions.
    I have to shut my eyes, force myself to concentrate, make myself believe this is happening. I’m up high enough that the fall might