Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy (69 page)

“Put the child down!” the officer barked from the edge of the lawn.

I shook my head. “You don’t understand. She’s with me. She’s—”

“This is your second warning,” he shouted. “Put the girl down and back away from her. I want to see your hands in the air!”

“What the hell are you gonna do!? Shoot her?”

Lucy let out a high-pitched whimper.

The officer gave me a nasty look and adjusted his stance,
his hand nearing the weapon. Another police car pulled up behind him.

Damn it!

“Put the girl down. We know you’re armed, but we’re not
letting you leave with that child.”

“She’s mine,” I replied, out of breath as my heart beat faster. “Those people don’t know what the hell they’re talking
about. They’re just trying to protect their kids. I’m not here to hurt anyone.”

“Sir,” the cop at the edge of the lawn started, “if she is yours, then put her down and let’s talk this over. There’s no need to get hostile.”

“Hostile? You’re threatening
me
right now!”

Lucy yelped.

“Shh. It’s okay, Lucy,” I whispered near her ear. “I’m not gonna let them hurt you.”

“We’re not going to use force unless we have to,” he added.
“Now, please, for the safety of the little girl, put her down so we can talk about this.”

The second officer got out of his car and drew a weapon from his side—a gun.

“Please, don’t do this to us,” I said. “You don’t understand
what we’ve been through. You don’t know what’s happening out there right now.”

“What’s happening right now is you’re committing a crime. If you don’t release that child, you will be arrested for
kidnapping.
Kidnapping
in the first degree is a class A felony.”

“I’m not kidnapping her,” I replied, raising my voice. “She’s been with me her entire life!”

Warmth came over me and I felt the light flaring to life inside my chest again. Lucy gasped and pulled her face away from my shoulder.

“
Crap! What is that!?” The officer closest to me stumbled
back a step and jerked his gun from his holster.

Every hair on my body straightened and a wave of cold air
hit me out of nowhere. I flinched, but didn’t let go of Lucy. I turned my head and saw a faint ripple of smoke swirling
in a circle just inches from where I stood. It looked exactly the same
as it had when I heard Kareena calling for help a few days ago. I could see through the shape—barely—but everything was distorted, as if heat waves emanated from it. I looked back at the cop, who was now pointing his gun straight
at us, and then back at the coiling plume of energy.

It was a portal. It had to be!

As soon as the two police offers took another step forward,
I swerved and dashed into the smoke—shielding Lucy the best I could in case a shot was taken.

A cloud of grey surrounded me and we descended into emptiness. An ocean of the deepest, darkest blue swallowed us whole, and seconds later, dropped me flat on my back on a carpet of soft grass. The thud didn’t knock the wind out of me, surprisingly, and Lucy was safe and unharmed.

I was sure they were going to shoot me on the way through, but they hadn’t. Thank God.

“Where are we?” Lucy asked, getting up off me and staring out at the empty street ahead. We had been dropped
in what appeared to be a small park in the center of a downtown
city strip.

My fluorescence faded instantly and she didn’t so much as mention it. She’d find out sooner or later, but right now, I was glad she was staying calm.

I lifted myself up from the gr
ass and looked around. None of the buildings or even the street name looked familiar to me, but that didn’t matter. We needed to be safe—it didn’t
matter where or how at this point.

I knew the others were nearby…

In the distance, traces of
neon pink, blue, and green light marked a trail of where they had gone. The wispy remains
of fluorescence essence became more vibrant just up ahead—a sign that they were close.

“Lucy, come here.” She had wandered off a few feet.

Lucy jaunted back over to me, her arms flung out to the side,
closing in as she approached. I knelt down, a willin
g
victim to her embrace, and she let out a happy squeal. “I missed
you sooooo much!” she said.

“I know,” I replied. “I’m here
now.” I held her close as she nuzzled her face against my shoulder, her soft brown hair
tickling my neck and the gentle warmth of her hug reminding me how precious life really was.

Her grasp loosened and she looked up at me and grinned, her
beautiful eyes narrowing with joy. I smiled and pressed my thumb playfully to her chin. She was taking this so well; it made me very proud of her.

“I missed you, too. I’m going to take you to meet some friends of mine, okay?” I said, reaching down for her hand. “They’re nice kids and I think they’ll like you, so don’t be scared, alright?”

“Can I play with them?” she asked, looking up at me with an innocent, inquisitive grin. It made my heart skip a beat.

I chuckled. “No, Lucy. I’m sorry. They’re a little too old for that, but we’ll find some new friends for you. I promise.”
I took a deep breath and sighed, her smile bringing me to my
knees again. “I’ll do everything I can to make you happy.” I
embraced her a second time and she hugged me back—harder
than before. “I love you, Lucy.”

“I love you, too, Daddy.”

My throat tightened.

Chapter 5

F
ive years ago…

The door hung open and lamplight filtered out through the
crack. The television had been left on and late
-night infomercials resonated from inside.

I didn’t want to go in, but I had to confront her. I had to cut it off once and for all. She was poison, now more than ever, and being near her would only make the habit creep back into my bloodstream.

Things had gotten out of hand, and if she wanted to pry
child support money out of me, she’d have to prove the damn
kid was mine to begin with—something I
seriously
doubted, knowing she’d do anything (or anyone) to support her filthy addiction.

“Angie?” I
nudged the door open with my shoe and wrinkled my lips at the smell of mold and piss that drifted out. I walked past t
he kitchen and into the living room where the TV was.

“Angie? Where the hell—”

Then I saw her on the couch. Her head was dropped back
against the cushions and she was staring up at the ceiling with a sickly, glazed look in her eyes.

“Christ, Angie.” I inched over to her, side stepping piles of crap she’d left everywhere, immediately noticing the line of cocaine on the end table beside her limp arm.

“Shit.” I grimaced. She’d been on it for so long, the
highs had tapered off—a side effect of long-term snorting. Back when we’d first hooked up, she was the most social person
in the world.

Confident.

Invincible.

Just like anyone else who gets high on cocaine.

At first.

Then it hits you—the low. The need to get more and more because the highs aren’t cutting it and reality is bleeding
back into focus. You start thinking your life is shit. You’re shit (by
then you are). And that you’re not worth a damn thing to anyone.
Depression. Darkness. It eats at you, closing in until you’ve lost touch.

I backed out of the game just before I crashed. But not without help… Eli’s help.

“I-I came to tell you I’m out,” I said, hoping she was coherent enough to comprehend.

“I don’t care,” she slurred,
twisting her neck to look at me while the rest of her body remained dead still. “Go. I don’t
give a shit what you do.” She dropped her head back and stared at the ceiling again.

“Good. Then we’re clean.
Don’t
come begging me for
money
anymore, Angie,” I added, backing away. “And don’t even think of pinning that—”

That’s when I heard it. The painful cry of a baby screaming at the top of its lungs from another room. I took another look at Angie—her eyes rolled back in her head—and then I
shot a glance at the room across from us. “That damn thing,”
she groaned. “All it ever does is cry. All it ever does is keep me up because it needs shit. Milk. Changing. What-the-hell ever.”

The baby kept wailing and I waited for Angie to budge, but she
didn’t. Not that I had expected her to. She was
crashing so hard that nothing else mattered to her. I’d seen others go through it. You could put a gun to their forehead and they’d likely dare you to pull the trigger. No fear. No connection with reality.

“Damn it, Angie,” I hissed beneath my breath. “Damn it.” I walked behind the couch toward the sound of the cries and crept into the room where the baby was. A nasty smell saturated the room and I choked, covering my nose and mouth with my arm as I stepped over the threshold.

I switched on a light. Only one bulb came on out of the three screwed into the rickety ceiling fan overhead. It was enough light to see the large black plastic bin in the center of the room with a blanket hanging over the side. A sickness came over me and my jaw tightened in anger.

That bitch had no idea what she was doing. This was no way to raise a kid.

The feeling worsened as I leaned over the container to
look inside. There was the baby, wrapped in an old towel, nestled atop a pile of damp
, soiled newspapers and paper towels.

I slid a clean corner of the blanket out of the bin and
bent down to take the crying baby up into my arms. I cradled
her head as carefully as I could with one hand and tried to hold my arm like a sling. It was difficult at first—especially for a man who’d never touched an infant in his life. I got it after a few careful shifts of my hand position.

The baby must have felt secure because she stopped crying and looked up at me. Her dark, sparkling eyes gazed into mine and we stared at each other for a few moments. She had fair, golden skin and dark hair sprouting from her chubby round head.

The baby was in poor shape. Dirty and malnourished. I could hardly believe she had survived this long in these conditions, probably damn near starving. No wonder she’d been howling for attention.

I knew for a fact that Angie slept around—one of the m
any reasons why we’d split—and for the longest time, I had convinced myself that her baby couldn’t have been mine.

But as I looked down into the baby’s dark eyes and they peered up into mine, I realized something.

Through all of the hell, drugs, and alcohol she’d been exposed to,
the baby looked… okay. Maybe there were
underlying things going on, but as far as I could tell, she had five fingers on each hand, five toes on each foot, a nose, a happy
curl to her thin lips, and two pretty brown eyes that were now
locked intently onto my face. She looked perfect, unlike her mother, who was sprawled out on the couch high on snow and as sallow-skinned as a zombie.

This baby was strong. She’d barely been alive a few months and, already, she was a survivor.

Just like her father.

Just like… me.

Chapter 6

I
located the group resting in an alley behind a shopping strip. Alice was the first to greet us. Brian followed behind her and Kareena hung back. She looked unsure, or… uncomfortable. I caught her glaring at Lucy.

No way she could have figured it out that quickly, right?

No
. She was smart, but so was I.

Guilty conscience
.

“Hi,” Alice said in a gentle voice, bending down to eye level with Lucy, who was now grabbing my hand and huddling near me. “My name’s Alice.”

Lucy tilted her head to the side and her grasp on me loosened.

“My
name’s Lucy,” she said, raising her hand up
and waving shyly.

“Your sister’s adorable,” Alice said, looking up at me. “She definitely looks a lot like you.”

I shrugged. “But she’s the prettier one.”

Alice laughed.

Lucy was remarkably intelligent for a five-year-old. I’d coached her early on about the importance of hiding her true relationship to me from new people. Eli knew the truth, but I wasn’t ready to come clean with the Fluorescent Ones. For a lot of reasons…

Okay.

Mainly Kareena.

I couldn’t imagine Brian and Alice freaking out about the
difference between
her being either my daughter or my sis
ter,
but Kareena—definitely. Even now, she was straggling several
feet behind the others, leaning up against a brick
wall, pretending not to watch us.

Brian approached Lucy next and knelt down to greet
her—a small gesture that made me grin. He was a few inches
taller than Alice, but his coming down to Lucy’s level made him much less intimidating.

“Hey,” he said, offering her a hand. “Nice to meet you, Lucy. I’m Brian.”

She looked down at her feet and shuffled in place bashfully.

“It’s okay, Lucy,” I assured her, setting a hand on her shoulder. “He’s a friend.”

“I know,” she muttered. “Hi, B-Brian.” She tangled her hands together, wrinkled her lips to the side, and continued to look away from him.

Brian glanced at me, confused, and I shrugged again.

“Well, uh… Lucy,” Brian added. “I’ll try to get Kareena to come over and say hi.” He came to his feet. “Alright?”

I nodded. “Thanks.”

Brian walked off. Alice followed, waving sweetly at Lucy again before turning away. She seemed to really like her for some
reason. Or
maybe
she just liked kids in
general
. I couldn’t
tell.