Trust me

Blood, tears, and poison... wait what.

Brandon was pacing. Back and forth, back and forth. It was driving them crazy.
"Brandon if you don't stop I'm going the throw my mug at you" the boy in blue ignored his threat and kept pacing.
"Brandon"
Still pacing.
He threw his cup across the room.
Smash
The brainiac jumped as the car guru's porcelain cup crashed against the wall and smashed against the floor. He straightened himself out and sat on the couch.
"Sorry, Rhett I just don't understand" Gage turned his attention from bandaging Wyatt's leg.
"Understand what, as far as I'm concerned we weren't supposed to understand anything" Wyatt hissed in pain slightly at the sudden pull on the bandages, the caramel-hued boy uttered a quick apology. A lady walked in the door with a wet towel and a bowl, she dabbed some water onto the unbandaged part of Wyatt's leg, wiped up the bloody water and left. He was somewhat grateful the mayor had insisted they refresh in the city hall everyone here was really nice.

"Yeah I know but that doesn't mean I can't think about it, this guy comes out of nowhere, right? Just like out of thin air. They cause havoc injure Wyatt, spew nonsense and when their leader dies they just leave. On top of that, when the police catch one he goes off on this tirade about their boos is going to kill us."

He kept going on about magic and lack of understanding, he just kind of drowned it out.
'Yeah I would love to know who this boss guy is, and more importantly when I can kick his ass' he was snapped out of his trance when another servant strolled into the room with a tray carrying four cups of lemonade. The boys each took one. Rhett gladly took the glass, grateful for the none existent risk of getting splashed. As he drank he couldn't help but notice the slight taste of metal that had slowly started to enter his mouth, he stopped and tasted around in his mouth.

Why did he taste blood?

He shook his head.
'Probably just the smell coming off of Wyatt's cut messing with my head. No biggy'
He attempted to ignore it but it came back. He moved away from his teammate, it didn't go away. Something was wrong. He scanned his team's faces, they didn't seem to have anything wrong. So what...

His train of thought was cut off when a hand slammed over his mouth and he blew into a small coughing fit. Rhett patted his back in order to cease the coughing.
His hand felt a little wet, why was it wet. The metal taste was back and it... was... stronger... oh no.
He looked into his palm and jerked back a little, his hand was covered in blood. Shit. Shit. Shit.
"Uh guys, I've got... an uh. An issue" Brandon looked to their leader in confusion.
"What kind of issue" Gage didn't have time to say as his lungs exploded into another coughing fit, only this time the blood hit the floor.
"Oh my gosh Gage"
"Gage buddy what's wrong"
"Oh my- someone call 911"
The voices of his friends began to muffle. His vision began to blur and he became dizzy.
He could still faintly here Brandon screaming down the hall for someone to call an ambulance.
Black.
Black.
Black.
Red.
Open.
He did.
He was in that room again. Red walls and ceiling but the floor you couldn't see. It was just a pool of blood, sloshing around as he walked.
"Hello"
...
"Is anyone there"
...
"Gage"
He turned to the voice.
A woman stood there, her long platinum hair swayed as she stepped closer, her white summer dress was slightly stained from the blood, the thing that got him was the pale beige sunhat she wore the flowers sewed to the ribbon were dead.
He knew her.
"Aunt Leah"
She smiled.
"Hello bluebell" he ran to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, tears welling as he hugged her.
She stroked his hair and hummed a soothing lullaby. They stayed like that for what seemed like hours. Finally, the humming stopped and he spoke.
"Am I dead"
She hesitated.
"No... you won't die for a while..." she pulled away. Her haunting green eyes pierced his soul.
"You cannot stay here, the longer you linger the sooner he will come"
Wut.
"Who?"
She bit her lip.
"You'll find out in due time, for now, you need to wake"
...
"But, aunt Leah I just got to see you again, I don't want to leave"
She placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled. Kneeling she pulled him into another hug.
"I'm always here, you never have to look for me I will always be apart of you" she pulled away, cupping his face in her hands she placed a kiss on his forehead.
"You need to wake bluebell, focus your mind and wake" he did. Never breaking eye contact he watched as his vision faded, her smile clear as day when his world went black.
"I am so proud of you"
×××××
Beep Beep Beep
Medical equipment. Where...
His eyes opened slowly, not his personal preference but what can you do, he reached and grabbed his head. Holy fuck it was pounding like someone had plunged a knife into it. He heard voices, concerned, happy, familiar.
His eyes opened fully.
Standing over him was the team, his mother, larry, and the mayor...
Wait. what.
He sat up slowly and stared blankly at him.
"Why are here"
Mara immediately started laughing, Larry facepalmed and the guys (except Wyatt he was laughing too) just stared. The mayor chuckled as well.
"Well I feel slightly responsible since it happened in my house"
What did happen anyway, the only thing he remembers was the blood, the coughing and...
"Aunt Leah"
Mara stopped laughing.
"What"
He looked to his mother, a look of pure heartfelt on his face.
"I woke up in this sort of bloody void and aunt Leah was there... she helped me wake up" Mara's face was stoic, her eyebrows furrowed worryingly.
"Are you sure it was her"
He nodded.
"Platinum hair, honey hue skin, iconic white summer dress, and that sun hat I bought her for her birthday when I was five. Yeah it was her"
Rhett raised his hand.
"I thought Leah was dead"
...
"She is... but I think she knew I wasn't supposed to be where I was so she... just popped up"
More worried stares.
"I am not going crazy so stop with the weird looks"
Larry put a hand on his knee.
"Gage you are the furthest thing from crazy, it's just concerning how city hall was attacked by a bunch of psychos and then you got poisoned and-"
His eyebrows flew up.
"I GOT POISONED"
Mara put a hand up.
"Yes, when you arrived at the hospital a kitchen hand back at the city hall had phoned and said they found some sort of residue at the bottom of the glass you were drinking. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that an imposter had slipped a poisonous powder into a cup clearly not having enough time to do the rest based on how the powder was all over the floor. He didn't know who was going to drink it and obviously didn't care he just left... we don't know who did it"
He sat there processing the information. Someone tried to poison them but had only managed to put the powder into one before the tray was taken out of the kitchen. Damn.
"What kind of poison was it"
Larry and Mara exchanged glances.
"The doctors don't know really, it didn't match anything in their database. It might be homemade, luckily whoever's did it was a dumbass and left the bag of powder behind. It was simple as taking a sample and scanning it, I was able to develop a cure within an hour. Cut it close I'm afraid almost died"
Okay, that's scary.
But.
Then.
"How did he sneak in"
"What"
He looked the mayor square in the eyes.
"If this was a poison job how did the culprit sneak in a huge bag of it"
...
"Exactly, the guy was already in the building... and so was poison"
The realization sunk into their faces, Brandon got sick on the floor.
"Men... and lady of the defense counsel, I believe we have a traitor among us"