Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy (21 page)

Searing
pain erupted in my stomach and
I cried out, doubling over. Crumbling to my knees. The glass came crashing down, shattering on the linoleum. Pain ripped through me, squeezing, twisting my stomach. I held my belly, trying to avoid shards of broken glass on the floor even as my vision began to blur. Tears welled in my eyes.

“Alice!” Mom knelt by my side.

I gasped for air but it was like sucking in water. The room dissolved in and out of focus. My head felt heavy, and it was weaving from side to side. I couldn’t keep my chin up.

I swallowed hard, on the brink of throwing
up. The sharp, stabbing pains spread up my abdomen. Into my ribs. The room swirled. My chest burned.

“Alice! Alice, say something!”

I felt my mom holding me, but couldn’t respond. My lips wouldn’t move. Everything inside me tightened and I tipped over onto the floor, my eyelids closing, my mind blanketed by darkness.

. . .

Soft amber light burned my eyes.

I awoke on the couch; the lamp in the living room had been dimmed.

I squeezed with my fingers. Someone squeezed back.

Mom sat by my side, clutching my hand tightly in hers.

“Thank God you’re awake!” She brushed her fingers over my forehead and cupped my cheek.

I struggled to sit up, blinking, fighting to open my eyes fully. My body felt so heavy. My eyelids were tugging closed again. I held my head in my hands, sickness roiling in my gut.

“How do you feel?”

Weak.

I looked up at her, drowsily. “The… Saviors…” My voice echoed in my head. My ears were ringing.

“What? When?”

“When I fainted.” I groaned. I felt disconnected—out of body. Drifting. Like I was dreaming. “They told me the anemia made me
lose consciousness. That they would fix it before…” I dropped my head again and grumbled. “They said something about suppressing
the symptoms of… I don’t remember everything.” I sighed.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Alice. You had me scared to death. I didn’t know what to do. If you had been out any longer, I would have had to take you to the hospital.”

“It’s okay. I’m okay, Mom.” I swallowed hard; a strange metallic taste tainted my mouth. “Ugh. Can I have some water, please?”

“Of course!” Mom rushed off into the kitchen and came back a moment later with a glass filled to the brim. She helped me hold it.

“Thanks
.” I took a sip, my hands trembling. Water
splashing up over the rim of the glass. I fought to steady myself.

“Do you remember anything else?” She supported the glass between sips.

I wiped a drip of water from my lower lip. “I don’t think so. All I really remember was this light. This bright, colorful light that…”

I stopped breathing.

Chills swept over me.

The room went out of focus.

My hands tingled. Cold. Numb.

“What?” Mom set the water on the coffee table. “What is it?”

My face tightened. Mom said something. Drowned out by mental static.

“Brian.” I mouthed his name. My eyes fixated
on nothingness.

“Brian.”

. . .

“She’s been like this since I called you,” my mom said, leading Brian into the living room. “Please do something. I don’t know what’s wrong, but she won’t talk to me.”

He sat beside me on the couch and the cushion sunk in with his weight. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders. I stiffened, resisting unintentionally.

“What’s wrong, Alice?” he asked, his voice shaky. Out of breath. “What happened?”

“I… remember now,” I muttered, focused on nothing. “Bright light scorching my eyelids. Grey eyes staring at me, judging me. Disappointed in me. In… us.”

I looked toward the kitchen and saw Mom leaning against
the door jamb, watching us.

She couldn’t know the truth.

“Ask Mom to leave us alone,” I whispered.

Before Brian could even stand, Mom backed away and disappeared into the other room.

“I’m fifteen, Brian. Why did they have to pick us for this?” I rubbed my arms. The hairs bristled on end. Every inch of my skin was hypersensitive. “Why couldn’t it have been someone else? Anyone else?”

“You’re sounding a little crazy, Alice.” He swallowed hard. “What did they say to you?”

I fidgeted with the hem of my shirt, twisting it around my fingers and untwisting it again.

Over and over.

And over.

“
Alice?” Brian pressed his palm against my knee. “Answer me.”

“They told me you were supposed to heal my anemia but didn’t. That they would have to correct it, instead.”

“How? I didn’t know I could.”

“And they told me what Kareena did was the right thing.
That she is supposed to help us seek out others with
dormant DNA. I am supposed to start them the same way I started Adam.” I filled my lungs with air and exhaled slowly, a sick feeling creeping around the pit of my stomach. “How do we know he wanted to be part of this? We never asked him. I was stupid to just touch him like that.”

“Alice, please stop talking like this. You’re not making any sense.” He shook me gently.

“I’m making perfect sense, Brian,” I said, raising my voice, looking him in the eye. The soft colors were snuffed out by frightened, enlarged black pupils. “Those creatures up there, they want us to do things for them. Things I don’t want to do.”

“Like what? Like what, Alice?”

“One of the Saviors came up to me and took my wrist.
Its fingers felt lukewarm—room temperature
. It was terrible. Corpse-like.” I swallowed and gasped for air. “It turned my hand over and pressed a thumb against my vein. I felt a sharp prick.” I shuddered.

Brian took my hand and immediately checked my wrist for marks. There were none.

“Then I felt this heat come over me—a calm, comforting warmth. Almost like yours. Familiar. They released me and a tiny light appeared in the palm of my hand. Flickering. Alive. But fragile and scared.

I stood there staring at it as it rested within my grasp, glowing, breathing. Soothed by my touch. Smiling, even though it had no face. Invisible—weightless. But… I could feel it inside me. Part of me.”

“Part of you?” Brian’s voice wavered. He shifted in his seat and moved a little closer. “What do you mean by that?”

I flattened my fingers against his hand until our palms
touched. The fluorescence ignited beneath our skin, escaping
through the surface as wafts of dusty vapor. His hand
burned hot blue—mine no longer green, but bright
turquoise. His heartbeat quickened, his pulse throbbing against my fingertips.

“Part of us,” I said, looking up at him.

He sucked in a breath.

“The Saviors think we might be the answer to saving their race, but we need to do more than just store their DNA. All that stuff they kept saying about us spending time together? It was their way of skirting around the truth of what they really wanted from us.”

He pushed up off his seat. “This isn’t a goddamn sci-fi movie, Alice. Spit it out!”

I squeezed my eyelids shut. “I’m pregnant.”

He just stood there staring at me.

“Jesus. You’re… you’re kidding me, right?” His voice broke. “Alice?”

“No! I’m not.”

He scowled.

“This is real, Brian!”

“Like hell it is! So, you’re trying to tell me the Saviors knocked you up with some bastard alien baby?”

“
No, it’s not like that. You don’t understand.”
I stretched a hand up toward him but he stepped back, out of reach.

“I understand enough!” he said. “You were right, weren’t you? They’re using us for their own sick games. I’ll be damned if I’ll let them use me for anything.”

“Brian, please listen! Please.” I reached out to him again but he was still too far away. Too weak to stand, I slipped from the couch and down onto the floor, scuffing my knees on the carpet.

“
How am I supposed to react to this?
That…” He grimaced, pointing at me. “That… thing in you. Whatever the hell it is.”

“She’s ours.”

His jaw dropped. “What?” His eyes narrowed.

“She’s yours and mine. I know she is.”

“She? How the hell do you know that?”

“I felt it in the glow. I felt you in her, too. I know she’s
ours, Brian. It’s what they wanted
from us from the beginning but…”

“They got antsy and did it themselves?!” He clenched
his fists. “Those bastards! I can’t even…” His knuckles turned white.
“This is all wrong.”

“I know you must feel…”

“Like shit. Yeah. I do.” He forked his hands through his hair and tugged it flat against his head. “I’m going outside. I need some air.” He stormed out of the living room.

The front door slammed and the floor shook beneath me.

My shoulder ached and the pain rippled through my torso, tightening my chest and straining my heart. I fought for every breath, just to get air in and out. My emotions were drained, my entire body overwhelmed with fear and… even hate. I dragged myself back up onto the couch and sunk into the cushions.

Why was he freaking out on
me
? Did he think I wasn’t hurt by this? Did he think I wasn’t shaken enough by the thought of having a baby I never even wanted?

A baby we
never conceived on our own
.

Afraid of screwing up, I had tried to make the right decision, but the wrong one had been made for me. Forced on me.

He’d had reason to be upset, but not to walk out on me like that.

I was too tired to cry, my eyes drained of every tear already.

Sharp pricks riddled my temples. I closed my eyes in response to the budding headache.

I heard Mom scuffling around the kitchen, debating whether or not to check on me.

I couldn’t deal with her right now.

The front door opened and shut again, more quietly this time.

“Alice?” Brian staggered in.

He fell to his knees at my feet. “I’m sorry,” he said, his lower lip quivering. “Please forgive me.”

I was wrong about the tears. A fresh stream drizzled down my cheek. I tasted the salt on my lips.

“I’m scared, Brian.” I wheezed. “I don’t want you to leave me.”

“Don’t say that.” He came to his feet and sat on the edge
of the coffee table across from me
, bending over and cupping his hands onto my shoulders.

“But…” I lowered my head, choking on a congested breath.
“I can’t lose you.”

“Hush. I’m not going to leave you. Look at me. Look at me, Alice.” He reached a hand toward my chin, tipping my
face up toward his. His eyes shimmered with tears
. “I’ve told you before, I am not your father. I will never be
anything
like him. I swear to God, I won’t leave you. Not like this, and if I can help it, not ever.” He brushed my hair behind my ear and used his other hand to wipe the shine from his own reddening cheek.

“I meant what I said and I’ll stand by it no matter what happens.” He tried to smile. “I love you. We’ll get through this together
.” He reached for my hands and enveloped them in his.

I gasped. His fingers were cold as ice.

“Alice, the truth is… I’m scared, too.”

Chapter 1

I
eased the door closed behind me and tossed my helmet onto the couch.

Horrible tips. Got off late. Another slow, crappy day at work.

“Hey!” Mom stepped out of her bedroom and into the hallway, blocking the only path to my room. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to lay down,” I replied, avoiding eye contact. I loosened the black satin tie around my neck and unbuttoned the top button of my shirt. “I’m tired. Okay?”

“Where have you been?” She crossed her arms.

I pressed my lips together.

“Brian?” She sneered. The ugliness of her expression made me scowl.

“Really, Mom? Are we gonna do this again? You want to know where I go all of the time?” I took a few steps back, without breaking eye contact with her, and scooped my motorcycle helmet up off the couch. “First of all, I’ve got a job at Jacques’ downtown. I got the job a few months ago, which you were clearly aware of because I told you. I wasn’t lying about that, you know. I’ve got the pay stubs to prove it.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Secondly, I hang out with my girlfriend.”

Mom came closer and pointed a stiff index finger at me. “You never even came home last night.”

“It’s not like you give a damn whether or not I’m here. Anyway, I was with her.” I polished the top of my helmet with my sleeve and looked away.

“The little… brown-haired girl?”

Oh my God, Mom.
She had really lost it this week.

“Alice,” I corrected, offended. “Her name’s Alice, Mom.
And if you haven’t
already
forgotten, we went to her
mother’s Christmas party last year.”

“Oh, yes.” She huffed and muttered something beneath her breath. “I remember. I didn’t like her mother much. All her family and friends over like she was some kind of little goody-two-shoes. Janet. June. Whatever her name—”