Free The Taken by Sarah Pinborough

she tilted her head up into the rain, enjoying its attack on her face, the way it stung her skin. She ran her hands through her hair as if she was in the shower, imagining the water running first red, then pink, and then clear as she rinsed away the blood and tears that covered her. Her muscles ached from throwing up and her limbs felt heavy. God, she was tired. But then she was always so goddamn tired these days.
    Opening her eyes, she saw Simon standing beside her. He didn’t seem bothered by the weather anymore either, ignoring the way it buffeted him.
    “I’ve covered him up with the cloth from inside the 70
    church. It’s the best we can do for now. Maybe he jumped or just fell by accident, but with that vandalism to the altar it’s probably best we don’t move him. Not until the police get here, anyway. The best thing we can do is get back to the house and see if the phones are back on.”
    Alex nodded. “Just give me a minute. I’ll be fine in a minute.” Despite the relief of the cleansing cold and rain, she didn’t think she had it in her to move. It was all too much to deal with—Melanie Parr, the boy from her dream and the things he said. How could any of it make sense? And on top of all that she could feel the pain deep in the core of her abdomen throbbing into life, her cancer reminding her of what she really had to fear. Not ghosts in the night.
    Simon put his arm around her. “It’s the shock. It’s okay. It’s shock.”
    Anger flashed inside her, white and hot and she pulled away from him. What the hell does he know, the patronizing bastard? What the hell does he know about me?
    This had nothing to do with the shock, and everything to do with the shitty hand life had dealt. Her rage gave her energy and she pushed herself away from him and stood upright.
    “Like you said, we need to try and get help. Let’s go.” She wondered if her bitter tone carried over the sound of the rain as she turned and headed back to the road, ignoring his offer of an arm. She hoped it did. She didn’t care whether he liked her or not, and as soon as he realized that, the better it would be for both of them. There was no more time for romance, and as soon as she got that through her own thick skull the better.
    71

Chapter Nine
    Kneeling on her bed to pull the curtains open, Laura figured it wasn’t all bad.
    Yes, it was raining, but it wasn’t cold. And surely once the storm passed, the sun would blaze down for at least a week and then there’d be plenty of time for exploring and dam-building and treasure hunting in the countryside. Not that they’d be staying inside all day today. Mrs. Granville would be driven mad by having all five of her own kids plus Laura in the house. In fact, now that she thought about just how loud and manic that would be, Laura decided it would probably drive her mad too, and she was only eleven.
    She heard the buzzing sound three times before she figured out what it was. Her bed made and toys tidily put away, she stared at her school bag. The buzzing was coming from there and the only thing it could be was her mobile phone. Undoing the straps of the old-fashioned brown satchel, she felt the short vibration through the leather and her brow furrowed. There 72
    were two things confusing her: Number one was the obvious one—everybody knew that no phones got a signal in the village, and she knew for sure that hers didn’t work unless she was at school in Taunton, so the phone shouldn’t be buzzing at all. The second thing was that school had been over for two weeks or more, so even if she’d left it on, the battery would have been dead ages ago.
    Pulling it out, she stared at the lit-up screen.
    New Text Message.
    The screen looked slightly odd and it took a moment or two before she figured out why. There were no lines or bars on either side of the message, framing it.
    Which meant that the phone had absolutely no battery and no signal. She sniffed, not unduly concerned. It could also