Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy (39 page)

“Yeah. I’m fine.” My heart had jumped into my throat, and it was still beating like a drum as I stumbled through the grass. I stepped on something hard and lifted my foot to see what it was.

“Oh, God,” I groaned.

Scattered pieces of metallic blue fiberglass shimmered beneath the moonlight.

Chapter 23

W
hite light stung my eyes. I squeezed them shut. My chest tightened and I wheezed, barely able to breathe. The sensation of weightlessness engulfed me, lifting me off my feet. Then I fell.

I awoke with a gasp, winded. Panting hard. Jarred from
sleep by an awful nightmare—rain and never-ending darkness
surrounding me. Pain shooting through my core, boring into
my bones.

Crushing pain.

I sat up in my bed and held my face in my hands. Sweat beaded on my forehead. My stomach coiled into knots.

Alice shifted in her sleep and rolled over to face me. Her eyes eased open.

“Brian? Are you okay?” she murmured, reaching a hand up to caress my back.

“Yeah,” I lied. “I’ll be fine. Go back to sleep.”

“Okay. Just checking.” She groggily rolled back over and nestled into her pillow.

I wasn’t okay.

I could barely stay awake during the day anymore, my nights had become so hellish.

Ever since the night David had hurt me, Jane had given up telling us what to do. No more advice about the Saviors. No more objections to Alice and me staying together at night. She couldn’t change things.

Still, I hadn’t slept worth a damn in almost a week, even with Alice within arm’s reach.

For the second time in my life, I had been on the brink of death. The sickening ache had rippled through my veins, tainting my mouth with the metallic taste of iron. Blood.

I’d started to believe the fluorescence made me stronger
—invincible almost.

I’d been wrong.

David could have killed me if he had wanted to, and I couldn’t have raised a fist to fight back. He had paralyzed me—crushed me with a force I couldn’t even see.

What if he had killed me? What if he had hurt Alice? How far were the Saviors willing to let him push us to get the job done?

The Saviors didn’t give a damn. Their lack of sympathy was appalling. It seemed like each time we were transported someplace, they did it less delicately. And they were never apologetic.
Never
.

Cowards
.

What if we disappeared in the middle of class? What then?

Social services would be coming back to check on me soon, too. What if I wasn’t there? Would Jane get into trouble? Would it put her custody in jeopardy? My future? Again?

I’d turn seventeen in a few months, but I’d never wanted
to be eighteen so badly in my entire life. I needed the independence
—the space.

What little precious freedom I had gained—in the form of my bike—had been totaled just weeks after I’d finished
paying it off. Days later, the memory of shattered motorcycle
parts strewn across the street still angered me. Because of the Saviors, I’d almost lost my job, which was now hanging on by a thread.

Life’s a real bitch.

. . .

“You have to pass this year,” said Alice, putting her hand
on my shoulder as she sat down beside me at our lunch table. “You just have to. We can’t be separated next year.”

I put down my pen and clapped my sketchbook closed.

My grades were suffering again. I’d never given a damn about grades until Alice had come into my life. She’d made me change my mind. Convinced me to try harder. For a little while, at least.

Now I couldn’t care less about classes or homework. None of it mattered, not as long as
they
were screwing with our lives. We were toys to them—pawns in some ridiculous game we couldn’t win. A game with no rules. No limitations.

I had the weight of the world pushing my head underwater
—drowning me in fear and uncertainty. Good grades weren’t going to stop the Saviors from hurting us—from playing God with us.

“I’ve been accepted into the college I applied to,” said Kareena, swirling her mashed potatoes around on her plate with a plastic fork. “I hope you guys graduate on time. Maybe we can meet up again after college.”

“Does college really matter anymore?” I glared at her.

“Well, yeah. We can’t stop living because of this,” she replied, laying down her fork beside her tray. “We don’t know when it will stop.”

“And what if it doesn’t?” I asked.

Kareena shrugged and lowered her head. “I dunno. I… hope it does.”

“Hope hasn’t gotten us anywhere so far.” I pushed my
lunch tray away, sat back and crossed my arms. “Hope didn’t
stop them from turning us into freaks.” I gritted my teeth. “It didn’t stop that coward, David, from almost killing me!”

“Shh.” Alice looked around nervously. “Keep it down, please.”

“See? You’re already worried about people hearing us. I’m being honest, Alice. Lying doesn’t change things and neither does hiding from the truth. Face it. We can’t keep doing this. They’ve already taken us right off the street. Someday, they’re going to pull us out of class and people are going to see it. We can’t take chances. We shouldn’t even come to school anymore.”

“I know. I know.” Alice looked down, fidgeting with the bendy straw sticking out of her chocolate milk carton. “But I think we should do our best with what little time is left this school year. It’s only a few weeks. We can’t give up. I want to do well, Brian. I want you to do well, too.” She reached her left hand out and cupped it over mine. The gold and silver band glistened on her finger. I glanced at it and then back at her. She smiled. “Please. Keep trying. Please do it for me? For us?”

I wanted to give up. Hide myself in a dark secluded place far away from school and work. Away from people. Away from responsibility.

I wanted it all to stop.

“Please?” Alice’s fingers entwined with mine.

I took a deep breath and sighed.

“Okay.” I placed my other hand on top of hers. “For now, I’ll try.”

“And keep working on your comic,” she added. “Don’t let go of your dreams, Brian. You’re so gifted.”

My drawing had become sporadic lately. The few sketches
I had managed to squeeze out had been dark and angry, full of blood and gore—not the sort of subject matter that Staggered Hart was originally meant to focus on. It was supposed to be about a hero—a man trying to find himself—but it was turning into a story about struggling with identity and morality. Something too close to home now.

“You of all people have been through so much,” I said to Alice. “What they did to you was inexcusable. Doesn’t it get beneath your skin? Everything that’s happened? Doesn’t it make you angry? Make you want to…”

“Yeah.” She frowned. “Of course it does. But when I sleep
at night knowing you’re close, cared for, and in a stable family—that makes it bearable. That makes every morning worth waking up to.”

She was right. We were luckier than most people our age. Lucky we had someone like Jane who understood our problems.

“I’ve put it behind me for now, but I won’t forget that
guy. That… David,” said Kareena, scooting closer and leaning toward us.
“I’ve never been so frightened—so violated—in my entire life. And I never want to be again.”

“We won’t give him that chance next time,” I said. “We’ll fight back.” I glanced reassuringly at Kareena. “He needs to be put in his place. But we have to be prepared to take action next time. There has to be a way to stop him.”

The thought alone of a “next time” made my heartbeat quicken. A sickness twisted up my stomach and the memory of the gut-wrenching pain he’d inflicted on me made my entire body tense.

Chapter 24

K
areena’s early summer graduation ceremony was hell. The boisterous crowd reeked of soda, body spray and sweat. People surrounded us in every direction. I was on the edge of my seat with a horrible throbbing in my stomach, certain
something
would happen—that we would be pulled right out of the middle of the crowd and dropped somewhere with that bastard David again.

We should have stayed home. We shouldn’t have come.

“Brian? Are you okay?” Alice wrapped her arm around mine and looked into my eyes, a concerned wrinkle in her brow.

“Yeah. I just… I’m worried.”

“We can’t live every moment in fear,” she said. “If they want to take us somewhere again, we can’t stop them.”

“No. But we can try to not be in public so much,” I
whispered, shifting in my hard,
uncomfortable
seat on the bleachers.
I’d been on pins and needles since the opening speech. “This
was a bad idea, Alice. We should have stayed home.”

“This is the last day of school, Brian. We’ll be fine. Then we have all of summer break to figure something out.”

“What about my job? I won’t be able to afford another motorcycle for a while, but they’ll want me to work longer hours soon. I need the money. We need the money.”

“You’ll be okay. Mom will drive you when she can, and you can hop the bus the rest of the time.”

“I guess.” I hated the bus. The fear of vanishing in public
ate at me every time I stepped foot on one. “I’m just tired of having to rely on your mom all of the time.”

“Shh.” Alice shushed me with a flattened hand and her gaze fixated on the podium in the center of the auditorium. Kareena had just been called and was sashaying across the stage in a navy blue cap and gown. The top of her cap had a rhinestone letter K glittering on it. She’d pretty much gotten
over the whole David incident by now and moved on.
Lucky
.

“Wow. That blue is not her color,” I said, shocked she’d
be caught wearing something so horrible. I was honestly surprised
she hadn’t stayed home instead.

Alice snickered. “That’s not nice, Brian.”

“Well?” I shrugged.

Kareena had tied a sparkly beaded sash around her waist
so she would stand out, but it made her look like a frumpy wizard instead of a runway model.

“Okay. Maybe it isn’t the best, but it’s not like she picked
the color.”

Kareena looked up at us and waved, grinning like a thir
teen-year-old girl at a boy-band concert.

At
me
, not Alice.

Alice hopped up out of her seat to wave back, flaunting a big toothy grin as if she’d thought Kareena had been waving at her. I felt bad, but shouldn’t have. It was Kareena, after all. The girl with the emotional depth of a mannequin.

Alice sat down.

“Wow. Really, Alice?”

“I’m happy for her. Aren’t you?”

“I’ll be happy when we’re both over eighteen. That’s all I want right now. I couldn’t care less about this.”

She screwed up her face and narrowed her eyes at me.

“Sorry.” In my defense, no amount of homework would get the Saviors off our backs. “Yes. I’m proud of her. To be honest, I’m surprised she graduated at all, considering how little she seemed to care about studying.”

We met Kareena outside on the school lawn after the ceremony. She’d already taken off the hideous robe and had
it draped over her arm. Her cap and crumpled up fake diploma
were in her hands. Like everyone else who’d graduated that day, she’d get the real one in the mail in a few weeks.

“So, you want to come over to my place and celebrate?” Kareena asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

“Um. No. Not really.” I shook my head and tried not to grimace so obviously.

“Aw, but Daddy said I could have whoever I wanted over.”
She grinned at me again. I caught a glimpse of something glittering on her nose. A diamond stud in her left nostril.

“Oh, you noticed?” she said, tilting her head to the side
so the sun made the gem sparkle. “Graduation slash eighteenth
birthday gift from me.” She giggled.

I rolled my eyes.

“Did it hurt?” asked Alice, standing up on her toes to get a better look.

“No,” Kareena replied matter-of-factly. “Well, yeah. It hurt like hell, actually, but it was tooootally worth it. It’s hot, right?” She bit her lip and looked to me for a reply.

I shrugged. “Whatever.”

Her lips thinned. “Fine,” she said, crossing her arms. “Be
that way. Look, what’s your problem lately anyway, Brian? You barely dragged your ass out of the tenth grade and now you’re mad at the world!”

“My problem? Really?” I raised my voice and clenched a fist unconsciously. “My problem is—”

“Brian, no. Just drop it, please,” Alice said, stepping in front of me. “Please? Just let her have fun today.”

Kareena scowled and turned away. “You guys suck. I can’t believe I got stuck with you two as friends because of this alien crap inside me. This is so unfair.”

“How do you do it, Kareena?” I asked, my blood boiling. “How do you go about every day acting like nothing has happened? You pretend you’re not a part of something bigger, that you aren’t as susceptible to the risks as we are. How do you know they don’t have other plans for you, too?”

She turned back and her expression melted into a frown.

“You can’t let anyone have fun, can you?” she said. “Who
made you king, anyway? You’re so goddamn selfish and you think everything is about you. Poor Brian. He’s got a bad heart. His motorcycle got trashed. Oh, poor Brian, his mom went mental.”

“Shut up, Kareena!” I took a step closer. “Don’t you dare bring my mother into this. She’s got nothing to do with it.”

“Yeah, right. You’re so sorry for yourself it makes me sick. All you do is complain and moan and groan about how rough your life is. Ever since that guy hurt you, you haven’t shut up about it. You’re just a whiney little brat. Well, you know what? He hurt me, too. And my life isn’t exactly going the way I’d like it to, either. I haven’t been able to have a boyfriend since this shit started and you… you at least have
her
. Hell, you get to live with your damn girlfriend. I can’t get close to another guy without feeling like my head’s gonna freaking explode.” She looked away, trying to hide the redness flushing her face.