Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy

by P. Anastasia

“Now you know how it feels,” Brian said.

  Chapter 16

  Brian exited the tunnel first to scout out the area. “I think it’s an old construction site,” he said, turning to face us. “I can’t really tell, but there’s a lot of old masonry stuff lying around.” He scanned his surroundings, bringing a hand to his brow to shield his eyes from the afternoon sun. “There may be a street on the other side of the containment fence.” He pointed, squinting. “I can’t really tell from here. If not, we’ll just have to go back the way we came and try another route.”

  “What are you searching for?” Judas asked.

  “A place to stay,” I answered. “Mostly.”

  “Do you not have a permanent place of shelter?”

  “Not anymore. Not since you Saviors screwed up our lives.”

  He stared at me blankly.

  “I’m in trouble with the law and so is Brian, technically,” I elaborated. “You don’t understand how this works, but because he left with Alice, it’s considered kidnapping. That’s a crime here, among other things. I robbed a place to get them some money to stay in hotels, and then Kareena disappeared from the police department, thanks to you.”

  “So you wander? Every day?”

  “Yes.”

  I left the tunnel next with Lucy trailing behind. Alice and Solus followed, and then Judas’ misty shadow and Kareena.

  “If we’re going to have to put up with you, you should at least be able to pull your own weight,” Brian said, trying to figure out where to look since he couldn’t see the translator. I pointed to where Judas was standing and he adjusted his line of sight. “Can you do anything to help us?”

  “Help you with what?” Judas replied.

  “Help us find a safe place to stay. Someplace we won’t be in danger and where there aren’t a lot of people. You’ve got to have a better sense of direction than we do. Right? Don’t you have anything other than that breathing mask with you?”

  Judas materialized and Alice gasped, caught off guard by his sudden reappearance.

  Judas paused, still as a statue, and gazed off into the distance. I couldn’t even hear him breathing.

  “Judas?” I broke the silence.

  “Yes,” he responded, moving again. “I have thought of a solution. I can alter the Prism’s creation to help you move more easily between locations.”

  “How?”

  “Let me see your wrist.”

  “No way.” Brian shook his head. “I don’t trust you. The Prism gave us these to protect us from you.”

  Brian was right, but what if Judas could help us? He was kind of screwed at the moment, too. If it were so easy to grab Solus and run, he would have already.

  Right?

  I lifted my arm. “Go ahead.”

  “David?” Brian looked at me, disgusted. “What the hell are you thinking?”

  “We need help, and if he can do something to make it easier for us to get around, I’d like to know what it is and how to use it. Don’t worry about me. I’m the one who has a shot at fighting back, remember?”

  “I-I guess,” Brian replied. “I still don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  Judas bent over and investigated my bangle closely. He raised his left arm, turned it over so the forearm and palm faced up, and used his other hand to pull open an inconspicuous flap on his jumpsuit sleeve. He withdrew a set of delicate silver tools and sorted through them in his hands.

  With a tool that looked a lot like a sanding burr, he poked at my bangle. Heat flushed through my wrist at the site and I flinched.

  “What are you doing to it?” I asked.

  “Minor adjustments,” Judas replied. “Please wait until I finish before asking questions.”

  Okay then.

  He tucked the first tool back into the pocket on his sleeve and used a second one—a long, cotton-swab-like stylus with a glowing white tip—to resume prodding at the thing on my wrist. The heat continued to rise until I grunted from discomfort and pulled back.

  “It’s getting too hot,” I said.

  “I am nearly finished.” He blinked and waited for me to relinquish the bracelet again.

  “Can you hurry up, please?” The others’ gazes were fixated on my wrist.

  An electrical shock jolted through me. “Ah!” I jerked my hand away. “What was that!?”

  “I am finished.” Judas slid the glow-tipped rod back into its slot and folded the cover closed on the pocket. The outline of the pocket faded into obscurity against the rest of his suit.

  “What was that shock from?”

  “It was your fluorescence linking to the band. It will act as an additional power source to support the adjustments I have made.”

  “Which were?”

  “It can condense fluorescence, amplifying what you already have.”

  “How?”

  “You control it, as you always have. Direct the light toward the band.”

  I imagined yellow light skittering through me, warming me from the core. Golden amber bolts of wild, dangerous electricity rocketing through my veins. I concentrated on sending fluorescence through my chest and down my arm, but the heat wouldn’t rise and the light wouldn’t spark to life.

  Nothing.

  “I can’t call on it whenever I want,” I replied. “What am I supposed to do?”

  “The process will be simplified after it has been activated for the first time,” Judas said. “Could you do it if your daughter’s life were at risk?”

  “What?” Warmth flushed through me and my hand started to tremble. “Don’t bring her into this again!”

  My arm jerked forward involuntarily. An arc of white blasted from my wrist into the air and tore open a swirling whirlpool of gleaming light.

  “A portal?” I stared in disbelief. It was close to what I had pictured it to be, but with a vivid, pulsating glow more brilliant and mystical than anything I could have put together in my head. Streaks of white-hot light zipped around the circumference, weaving between continuous streams of soft blue and pale copper. “And… I can actually see it.”

  “Yes,” Judas confirmed. “Because it has merged with your fluorescence.”

  “I see it, too,” Kareena added.

  Brian and Alice appeared mesmerized by it. They hadn’t been able to see portals before.

  “Where does it lead?” I asked.

  “That is decided by you,” Judas replied. “You must choose a location and clearly understand where it is before you make that choice. If you do not visualize correctly, you could become stranded in a dangerous or unfamiliar place.”

  Another sharp zing of electricity buzzed through me and I brought my arm in close to my chest, reeling from the heat of the sting. The spinning white portal sucked closed and disappeared into nothingness.

  “Shit! It burns, damn it!” I shook out my wrist. “Why does it burn so much?”

  Brian tried to take a look at the subtle reddish mark left on my wrist, but I declined his healing.

  “You must learn to channel your light more effectively to minimize physical injury,” Judas said.

  “Are the portals safe?” Kareena asked. “Are they exactly the same as the ones we used before? The same ones the Prism created for us?”

  “They have been altered slightly. The variation allows you to power the doorway with your own energy instead of the external source previously required.”

  Alice looked down at her wrist. “Judas, can you program all of our bands to do this?”

  “If you want.” Judas looked at her. “Is this something you want me to do?” He glanced at Brian and Kareena. “You two, as well?”

  “I don’t know,” Brian said, his lips wrinkling with cynicism. “I don’t know if I trust you that much. I don’t know if I trust you enough to let you screw with whatever it is the Prism gave us to keep us safe from you. If it hurt me, I could heal, probably. But we haven’t tested one of the portals. How do we know th
ey work?”

  “Maybe we should test one,” Alice spoke up. “I’d… like to see my mom again.”

  “Jane?” Brian faced her. “We can’t go back there. You know that, Alice. We ran away for a reason. If we go back, I could get arrested. Who knows what they’ll do to Kareena. We might both end up in jail.”

  “I’m not going to jail!” Kareena yelped. “No freaking way.” She took a step in front of me and walked toward Brian. “Brian! I’m not going back there! Because I know you’ll get your ass arrested and mine, too! We don’t need this right now. We’ve been safe ever since we left our homes. We should just keep moving. It’s been working.”

  “And do what?” Alice raised her voice. “Be homeless forever!?” She rolled her hands into fists—something I’d never seen her do before. “No! I don’t want to live like this. I want to go home. I want to see my mom and my best friend. I want to know that they’re okay! That they aren’t sick or… worse. Don’t you, Kareena? Don’t you want to see your family? Or do you not care about them anymore?”

  Kareena pressed her lips thin and frowned. “Of course I care, damn it. Why in the hell wouldn’t I care about my own family? Jesus, Alice. What do you think I am? A robot? I-I just don’t want our asses to get into trouble. We’re all the world has right now. Us and that kid of yours. We’re the only people who have a chance in hell at saving everyone from this shit. If we die—”

  “We need to know if they work,” I interrupted. “We need to know if they can get us where we want to go, regardless of where that is. I’ll try it if you two don’t want to. I’ll test it out first.”

  “Are you sure about this, David?” Brian asked. “You don’t have to do this. You’ve got—”

  “Just watch Lucy for me. Okay? If… by some chance I can’t get back or… something happens to me, please—”

  “Of course,” Brian cut me off. “We’ll take care of her either way, but you’ll be fine, so… don’t say shit like that.”

  Immediately, I regretted my decision and started to ruminate on the risks.

  But I wasn’t a man who’d go against my word, so I had to suck it up and hope for the best. The ability to teleport anywhere we needed to could be a lifesaver.

  I closed my eyes and tried to visualize a place. Details were fuzzy at first and then they eased into view, becoming crystal clear, complete with color and sound. Vivid imagery set free from the depths of my memory.

  It was the perfect place and a perfect opportunity to test the bracelet.

  “Okay. I’ve got a location in mind now,” I announced, lifting my arm. It was difficult to keep the picture in focus while I tried to simultaneously conjure up the anger and emotion necessary to make my skin glow.

  Positive and negative emotions whirled inside. I wanted the portal to work, but I wanted to keep my daughter safe even more. If I could do both, maybe… just maybe we had a chance.

  I can’t lose Lucy. I can’t get hurt doing this. I just can’t.

  Heat filled my chest and I felt light emerging. I opened my eyes and watched flecks and dashes of yellow shooting down through my veins toward my hands. Then a burst of white light boomed from my wrist like a firework and ripped open a gash of radiant, swirling white light in front of me.

  I glanced back at Lucy and smiled. She smiled back with confidence and I stepped into the glowing whirlpool. It blinded me momentarily, as a whoosh of cool air pushed me through nothingness. Weightlessness engulfed me, but it didn’t feel like falling. Not like being propelled or pulled. I was floating and I couldn’t tell which way was up.

  The illumination dissipated and there was ground beneath my feet. I moved my foot and soft ground moved with it. A breeze licked past my cheeks and I took in a deep breath of warm, salty air. A low rumbling noise filled my ears, tainted by the shrill squawks of seabirds.

  I didn’t have to open my eyes to know where I was, so I waited a moment to do so.

  I waited until a gentle wave rolled in, splashing against my ankles before retreating back from where it came. Then I opened my eyes and looked down at the sand around my feet. I scanned up to see patches of sea foam dusting across the ocean surface and the beautiful, majestic blue-green water of the Hawaiian shores. I sighed. My heart filled with peace.

  My shoes were soaked, my feet wet, but it didn’t matter. For a single, frozen moment in time, nothing mattered.

  All I could do was smile, close my eyes, and take in a slow breath of the deeply missed, salty sea air.

  It had been so long since I’d been back to the one and only place I’d ever truly called… home.

  Chapter 17

  It took time for me to channel the negative energy required to create a portal back to the others, but it finally happened, and I reluctantly stepped through. If my little girl hadn’t been waiting for me on the other side, I may not have.

  “We thought you’d gotten lost,” Brian said.

  “I did. But not because of the portal.”

  “Oh?”

  “It took me back to one of the beaches I used to play at when I was a kid. A stretch of shoreline just behind a rock formation most people didn’t know about.”

  “Did anyone see you?”

  “Apparently nobody knows about it still.” I chuckled. “Lucy, I want to take you there someday. It’s beautiful in Hawaii. The air tastes clean and the ocean is so blue it’s…” I drifted off in thought.

  “Your shoes.” Alice pointed. “They’re soaked. Are you going to be okay like that?”

  I shrugged. “It’s only water. I’ll leave them out overnight by the fire and they’ll dry.” The damn things had enough holes to drain most of the water already. I think some sand had even gotten in.

  “So I take it they work, then? The portals?” Brian looked at me.

  “Uh huh.”

  “Did it feel any different than the ones we used before?” Kareena asked.

  “No.”

  “Good. Maybe they’re right. Maybe these are useful.”

  “Mine, too,” Alice spoke up, lifting her arm toward Judas. “This is the wrist with it on there, right, Kareena?”

  “Alice!?” Brian’s eyes widened. “No!”

  “I want to protect our son as much as you do,” Alice said. “But we can’t keep doing what we’re doing. We have to change something. We have to learn new things. Any new ability we can get, we should, because we don’t know where we’ll be tomorrow, or what the world will be like.” She cupped his cheek in her palm and stared up into his eyes. “We need this, Brian.”

  “So you trust it, then? That… thing?” He motioned at Judas and scowled. “Really? And the rest of you think this is a good idea, too?” His eyes scanned Kareena’s and then mine. “Well?”

  “I think,” I started, “we need any technology we can get. Anything that might help us.”

  “Ugh!” Brian clenched his teeth and huffed angrily. “Shit! You guys, I don’t like this at all.”

  “Just think of it as if we’re using the Saviors like they used us, alright?” I suggested, trying to smooth the tension. “They took some things from us. We’ll take some things from them.”

  “What do you think the Prism will think about this?” Kareena asked, intently watching Judas remove his tiny, lighted tools from the inside of his sleeve.

  “I don’t know,” I replied. “Hopefully they’ll understand the circumstances. If they were concerned, shouldn’t they have been here by now to warn us? We haven’t seen them since he showed up.”

  “Guys!” Alice called out. Judas had already finished and was tucking the instruments back into his hidden pocket. “I’m going to try it.” She held her hand out and closed her eyes tightly. “What do I do, David?”

  “Uh. Well,” I stammered. “I don’t know how your fluorescence works, actually. I mean, what makes it glow?”

  “Getting pissed off seems to work.” Kareena smirked.

  “I’m not mad at anyone right now,�
� Alice replied. “Judas, what do I do?”

  “Ask the child to help,” he replied, looking down at Solus.

  “Solus? Can you…”

  He was already lifting a hand toward his mother’s. He cupped his fingers over her wrist and teal light radiated from his hand. A subtle glimmer of neon green fire lit her shoulder, emanating through the back of her shirt. Pencil-thin lines of hot green light crackled down her skin, racing toward her hand.

  She grunted in pain and a ball of energy shot from her wrist into the air, transforming into a spinning oval of white light.

  “I did it!” She opened her eyes. “Thank you, Solus.”

  Solus forced a toothy smile in response and Alice laughed.

  “It’s nice to see you smile,” she said.

  We could all tell he was forcing it, but the fact that he even tried meant he was beginning to understand how we worked. He didn’t seem dead to the world by any means, but the kid needed to learn to not stifle his emotions.

  “Are you absolutely sure about this, Alice?” Brian asked, taking her hand.

  “Yes.” She smiled. “Absolutely.”

  “And what about Judas?”

  “Mom will understand, Brian. You know that.”

  “It’s still a lot to take in.” He looked at the translator. “Can you go into the other realm until we’re able to introduce you properly?”

  Judas acknowledged the request with a partial nod and then lifted his hand and spread out his fingers. Green fluorescence saturated his hand and he faded into soft white smoke.

  “I’ll go through first with Lucy,” I suggested. “Then Kareena can send Judas through and she can follow. Then you two and Solus, just to be certain the portal stays open long enough for us all.”

  “Okay,” Alice agreed.

  I reached for Lucy’s hand and, together, we passed through the swirling white light.

  After the initial blindness, blurred surroundings, and cool rush of air, we arrived in a darkened room. Light from the portal cast a soft, TV-like glow to us, making our shadows bounce from wall to wall. The floor was soft. Carpeted. I stepped forward slowly, Lucy’s hand still tight in mine, and raised my fingers in front of me. I felt the wall. Textured paint of some kind. Warm, not cold. We were indoors, at least.