Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy

by P. Anastasia

  . . .

  The Prism had told me it would be about a day before the effects of the door would wear off, so with the evening of my third day back just hours away, I couldn’t relax.

  I felt like a ticking time bomb waiting to explode and take everyone with me. Waiting for Taylor to suck my seeking ability from me and poison another thousand or more people with this damn curse of ours.

  I found a few sleepers at our hotel, too, but kept my mouth shut so Alice wouldn’t feel obliged to start them for any reason. We couldn’t risk activating any more people.

  There was a knock on my hotel door. I got up from the bed, clicked off the television and went to check the peephole. It was exactly who I thought it was, so I opened the door.

  “We need to leave,” Brian said, slinging his backpack over one shoulder. Alice stood beside him with a smaller pack hanging from her hands. “Are you ready?”

  “Yes. I’m ready.” I grabbed the small travel bag they’d given me off the floor and closed the hotel door behind me.

  It seemed three days was the most we could do without overstaying our welcome at these places. Three days was a safe number, Brian had told me, and fewer days were even better.

  We didn’t have any idea where our next place would be, but we had to keep moving. Funds were getting low, so we had to budget every dollar we had left. It made me think about the diamond stud still in my nose. I wasn’t about to give it up before, but… things were getting tough and we weren’t exactly in any city long enough to get part-time jobs.

  But… funds were low, not gone.

  I’d pull my own weight, somehow.

  “I got us some bus tickets to the next city,” Brian said, holding one out to me. “Grabbed them last night.”

  “Where are we headed?” I asked, flipping the ticket over to read the destination and answering my own question. “Oh.” A city in Minnesota, apparently. It was as good as any other.

  We’d arrive in the morning.

  . . .

  “Kareena, wake up.” Brian nudged me in the arm and I jolted awake, kicking the seat ahead of me accidentally. He stood in the aisle of the bus looking down at me. “We’re here. We have to get off.”

  I groaned beneath my breath and grabbed hold of the headrest in front of me for balance as I lifted my groggy ass up off the chair. Brian handed me my bag and I followed him off the bus.

  The motel was only a block from the bus station. Thanks to our remarkably on-schedule bus, we’d arrived just after six in the morning. It was a nice place. Ten floors and very clean from what I could tell. I was going to ask how he’d managed the reservations, but it wasn’t my business. If David did it, so could Brian. And so could I, if I needed to.

  Alice went ahead and took their things to their room while Brian followed me to mine. It was a few doors down. He slid the keycard through the lock and pushed down the handle.

  “Thanks, Brian. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me,” I said as he came in behind me and started looking around the room to make sure everything was in order. For some reason, I thought back at how stupid I must have seemed to him when this had all started. At that first hotel we were in, I was hitting on him so hard, I must have looked really desperate. “I’m sorry,” I said just as he headed toward the door.

  “What? What for?” He turned back around and took a step closer to me.

  “For being a bitch earlier—when all of this started. I shouldn’t have tried so hard to get your attention. You’re with Alice and… that’s your choice. I shouldn’t—”

  “It’s fine,” he replied as his hand came up toward my face and then jerked away suddenly.

  My brow furrowed. “Brian? Is everything okay?”

  “I’m sorry.” He shook his head and backed up. “It’s… never mind.” He forked a hand through his hair and heaved a sigh. “It’s just that… Alice hasn’t been herself lately. She’s… distant. I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”

  “She seems to do that sometimes,” I said quietly, reaching for his hand. “It will be okay. You love her, don’t you?”

  He looked into my eyes and tried to smile. It was so forced, it was unsettling.

  “Don’t you, Brian?” I repeated.

  He looked away. “Yeah.”

  I squeezed his fingers a little more tightly and cupped my other hand over his.

  “Brian?”

  He looked back at me.

  “It will be okay,” I said, trying to console him. I didn’t like Alice much, but I didn’t want to see him upset, either. “You’re strong. Things will be okay. Like I said, stay strong for me. Okay?”

  He nodded and a tiny grin curled his lips. “Okay.”

  “Thank you, Brian,” I said and then leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. Before I could withdraw completely, he turned his face and our eyes locked. I tried to pull away, but his hand held tightly to mine.

  “Brian?” I whispered, looking him in the eye.

  His eyes widened and he immediately released my hand.

  Without another word, he left my room.

  Chapter 20

  After getting settled, the three of us went to breakfast at a café down the street. We should have gotten the food to go to avoid being recognized, but we put our best interests aside in an effort to actually sit down to a decent meal. But after what Brian had done last night, I was apprehensive.

  Alice and Brian got water to drink and I ordered a hot tea—for once.

  “You guys don’t want tea this morning?” I asked, laughing a bit at the irony as I reached across the table for a couple of sugar packets.

  “I don’t know. Guess I don’t have a taste for it this morning,” Alice replied, shooting Brian a brief but judgmental look.

  Brian’s eyes narrowed angrily at her and he mouthed something I couldn’t hear.

  “Are… you guys okay?” I asked.

  “Yes,” they both replied, clearly annoyed that I had even asked.

  “We’re fine,” Brian added, putting his menu down so he could fold his arms.

  “You don’t look fine,” I continued, knowing it wasn’t my business but still… Weird shit was going on, and if Brian and Alice were breaking up, the world was surely ending or something.

  “Stay out of this, Kareena,” Alice snapped. “What do you know, anyway? You haven’t known Brian for as long as I have.”

  Actually, I had known him for nearly as long. Not… intimately, but as an acquaintance and then a friend.

  “Okay. Fine.” I rolled my eyes and scoffed. “Chill. Jesus.”

  “Could you watch your language, young lady?” The patron behind us swerved around and glared at me. Her two toddlers were bobbing around in the bench across from her, dueling each other with drinking straw swords.

  “Sorry,” I dropped my head down.

  The server came back to our table with our food and started sliding the plates across to each of us. I didn’t say anything to the others, but our server was infected, too. Not just a sleeper, but one of those with the corrupted darkness inside. I shook it off and returned my attention to my plate. French toast and scrambled eggs with a sprinkle of cheddar cheese on top. Normally I’d hold the cheese. And the eggs. And the French part of the toast, for that matter. But I was freaking hungry and I had a killer craving for fat, sugar, and salt.

  “Wow.” Alice gawked at me. “Are you eating for two over there?”

  I dropped my fork on the table. “Ex-cuse me?”

  “You’re not going to keep your figure if you stuff your face with all of that,” she continued.

  My jaw had dropped so far open, I probably looked like a gargoyle water spout. “What in the hell are you talking about, Alice? Worry about your damn self, okay?” My stomach was tangling up already. I wanted to eat in peace.

  What the hell, Alice!?

  “Sorry. Just saying.” She shrugged and went back to moving a pile of hash browns around on her plate wit
h a fork.

  I looked at Brian and shook my head. He shrugged, too, and then reached for the syrup to pour on his pancakes.

  Alice’s comments had me ruffled, but I needed to eat so I forced the uncomfortable feelings aside and took a bite of my food. The French toast was amazing. Perfectly cooked with just the right amount of sweetness and the perfect texture. I cut another square off the slice with my knife and fork and shoved it into my mouth. A sip of tea. A bite of the deliciously cheesy scrambled eggs.

  Why don’t I eat real food more often? Dieting sucks.

  “I’m going to take the rest to go,” Alice said, standing up and ushering Brian out of his seat so she could scoot past.

  I looked at her food, which had been nearly untouched, and tipped my head to the side. “Alice? What’s going on?”

  “Nothing. I just don’t have an appetite right now,” she replied, carrying her plate over to the front counter.

  “She knows they’ll bring her the box, right?” I watched her march over to the bakery case and wave down a server.

  “Let her go,” Brian said. “She’s in a bad mood today.”

  “I can tell.”

  Alice took the to-go box from the waitress and came back over to us.

  “I’m going back to our room to watch something. I’m tired anyway,” she said, then turned and left the café.

  I could hardly believe Brian didn’t bolt out of his seat to go after her. Things between them must have gotten really bad while I was away.

  “Wow, and I thought I was the hormonal bitch in this party,” I said, chuckling, trying to get Brian to perk up. He didn’t, and I quickly cleared my throat and straightened my smile. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. She’s just… I don’t even know anymore.” He sighed and then picked up his fork and knife and went back to eating his pancakes.

  “Brian?”

  “Yeah?” He looked up from his food. “What is it?”

  “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  He set his fork down beside his plate and I leaned over mine.

  “Our server,” I whispered, “is infected with the same stuff as that guy we saw at the other diner. The stuff that’s,” I lowered my voice so it was hardly audible, “killing them,” I finished.

  “Really?”

  “Yes.” I ate another fork-full of scrambled eggs. “There are a lot more of them now than there were before. It’s ridiculous.”

  “Hmm.” He looked for our waitress and flagged her down as she came out of the kitchen. She walked over to us with a friendly smile on her face and asked if we needed anything.

  “We don’t need anything,” Brian said with a slightly exaggerated smile. “I just wanted to say that we’re new here in town and we really appreciate your hospitality. People like you make this kind of town a great place to visit.” He reached a hand out to her.

  “Oh, you’re welcome, dear,” she said, just about blushing, offering her hand to him.

  He took it and cupped it between his hands. “Thank you.” He glanced quickly at her nametag. “Rachel.”

  I gasped, just about choking on my scrambled eggs.

  “Brian!” I stood up from my seat and pointed. The corrupted ball of fading white light inside her had cleared and brightened.

  “Yes, Kareena?” he turned his head toward me while simultaneously releasing Rachel’s hand. She walked off without saying a word.

  “What the hell is going on here!? Does Alice know about this?”

  “We don’t need Alice, do we?” he said with a smirk. “You and I make a much better team.”

  He stretched out his arm toward me, blue light sparking from his fingertips as if it were leaking out of him like liquid electricity. I’d never seen it do that before. Ever. Not even David could manifest external bolts of fluorescence.

  “Brian? What’s happening to you?” I tried to back away but felt my body grow heavier, causing me to thump right back down into my seat.

  “Don’t worry about it, Kareena,” he replied. “Just rest. You’ll feel better in the morning.” Tiny crackling lines of fluorescence skittered across the table toward me, and a pulse of hot energy blasted into my chest, knocking me back.

  The room blurred and my head hit the table.

  . . .

  I awoke in a musty room. The blinds had been drawn.

  I glanced at the clock. Noon.

  No. Not again.

  “Nice to have you back,” a voice said from the hall near the bathroom. I turned my head and huffed with disgust.

  “Taylor! How did you find me!?”

  “I didn’t find you just now,” he replied, grinning from ear to ear. “I’ve been with you for a while; manipulating your thoughts so you’d believe you were still with the others.”

  “What? How? How long have I been here? Where are the others?”

  “Does it matter? They can’t get to you now. Not while I’m with you. Why are you so worried about them?” He sat on the edge of my bed and inched closer to me. I squirmed to get away, but he reached out and grabbed my arm. “You have me now. Aren’t I enough?”

  “No, Taylor! You have to stop this sick game of yours. I’m not yours to do whatever you want with!” I fought to get my hand free of his, but his grip tightened and his fluorescence started to burn my wrist.

  “That’s not what the Saviors told me,” he said, almost breathing on me now.

  “You’re full of crap and delusional.”

  “No. I clearly recall them telling me I could do whatever I wanted with the Seeker as long as I did what they asked of me.”

  “And you think you can use me because of that?”

  “At first, I thought that was pretty messed up, but then I met you and I saw how important you were to your friends, not to mention how incredibly powerful your fluorescence is.” He sucked his lip. “It’s already been too long. I need you.” Violet light started glowing and flickering through his skin, creeping its way across mine. A hundred tiny shocks of electricity stung my body and I winced.

  “Taylor, please. No.” I pushed away from him but trapped myself against the headboard of the bed.

  His eyes glinted with pink light and I clenched my teeth as he siphoned more and more fluorescence from me.

  “No!” I pushed him with my aching arms, but he didn’t budge. Then the air suddenly became thin and even he flinched as we both realized what was about to happen.

  A blast of white light filled the room, the floor disappeared, and we fell into nothingness.

  I looked up and met the translator’s stern gaze. There was a small number of other Saviors behind him. Five. No. Seven. The number was much smaller than it had been in the past. We usually had quite an audience. I struggled to come to my feet, but the feeling of being sedated stopped me.

  The translator turned to address Taylor. “What are you doing with her?” he asked him.

  “What do you mean?” Taylor replied, cocking an eyebrow as if he were so innocent and he couldn’t understand the translator’s intention. “Nothing. I’m not doing anything with her. I’m doing what you asked me to.”

  “We never instructed you to deliberately exploit the Seeker.”

  “No.” He scoffed. “But you said I could use her power if I needed to. That’s what I’m doing.”

  “She has offered to comply, has she not?” He looked at me and I nodded in confirmation. Then he focused on Taylor again. “Why do you continue to take unnecessary action?”

  Taylor lifted his chin and narrowed his eyes at the translator. “It makes me stronger, okay? And that makes it easier for me to take care of everything you asked me to. I don’t need her help to do this.”

  “But you do need her abilities. Yet you choose to take them from her forcefully?”

  “Yes,” he replied nonchalantly.

  My jaw tightened. I couldn’t just stand there and let him talk shit.

  “I don’t want him to,�
�� I interjected, taking a step closer to the Savior. “I’ll help you if you make him stop draining me. Please.”

  The translator tilted his head to the side. “We will consider it; however, there is another concern we must discuss with you, Seeker.”

  I swallowed hard, already knowing what he was about to ask.

  “Who is responsible for the portal that sent you back to the others?”

  Wait. They didn’t know?

  “I-I don’t know,” I lied. “It just appeared and I thought I heard the others calling for me, so I went through it. I don’t know who created it. I thought it was you.”

  “We had nothing to do with it. If you should see one again, you must choose to ignore it. It is dangerous.”

  “Dangerous? How?” I was finally able to come to my feet. “It took me back to Brian and Alice. Ever since I left them, Taylor’s been doing nothing but hurting me. I’m not strong enough to deal with this every day. If you want my help, you need to protect me. You need to help me!”

  “What is it you want us to do?” the translator asked.

  “I want to be safe.” I shot a quick glance at Taylor, who was fuming. “From him. I don’t want him taking my powers anymore. I don’t want to black out. I’m sick of waking up places and not remembering what the hell happened before I fell asleep. Help me, please!”

  The Savior considered my words momentarily before speaking again. “Will you continue to resist our instruction? Because of the disobedience of you and the other three Fluorescent Ones, we were forced to resort to another option—a Variant.” He gestured toward Taylor. “The fluorescence inside him differs greatly from your own. It was of our own creation. Without viable offspring from the Healer and Starter, we had to find another way.”

  I curled a hand into a fist and my nails pricked my skin. “Can’t you see this isn’t working!?”

  “To judge what is or is not working is not your job,” the translator snidely replied.