Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy

by P. Anastasia

  “Like… me?”

  “Oh, no, David. I don’t think you’ve been wrongly accused of anything. I think you did whatever they’ve got you in here for, it’s just why you did it that’s getting to me.”

  She grabbed a bottle of something from an unlocked cabinet on the desk and rummaged through a drawer beneath it.

  “I know they’ve got one in here,” she said, shuffling things around in the drawer. “Ah. There you are.” She pulled out a small blue plastic box. Inside it was a suturing kit.

  I chuckled and shook my head. “You know how to stitch things up, too? Jesus, what can’t you do?”

  “When I was a teenager, I used to hike a lot. Slid down the side of a steep cliff once, bashed into a protruding rock, and split my forearm open. You learn things fast when you have to. And that was just a regular sewing kit, too.”

  “Sorry you had to go through that,” I said, looking her in the eye.

  She had kind eyes. Weathered, but kind. Like she had good intentions but life had thrown her a share of curveballs along the way.

  “We learn from our experiences, right?” She laughed it off and then pressed her lips thin. “Anyway, where was I?” She threaded the short, curved needle. “That’s, uh, an interesting tattoo you’ve got. Any particular meaning?”

  “I’m half Samoan. It reflects who I am and who I’m trying to become. Too much to explain but, yes, it means a lot to me.”

  “I see. Well, it’s better than most of the crappy ball-point pen, self-inflicted trash I see coming out of here.” She patted the skin around the wound with a gauze pad and some liquid that stung like hell. “I know this isn’t your first battle scar, but hopefully it will heal better than the rest of these,” she said, gesturing to a line of scar tissue near the center of my chest.

  “I’m used to it.”

  “Bleeding?” she asked.

  “Fighting.”

  “You really shouldn’t be proud of that.” The needle pierced my flesh and I flinched. “Do… you want me to use an anesthetic?”

  “No. And who said I was proud of that?”

  “Well, I just assumed by the way you brushed it off.”

  “These scars are the reason I am who I am today. Every single one of them shaped me.”

  “Even the bullet wound?” She stopped abruptly and lifted her face up.

  “Even the bullet wound.”

  She shrugged and went back to work, gently tugging the thread before sticking it back through and tugging it down again several more times.

  “Look, David, I’m not supposed to be getting involved with your case, but I did some asking around and it seems like they have some fairly hard evidence pinning you to a handful of crimes. The ballistic report hasn’t even come back yet.”

  “Then why are you telling me this? I thought you just wanted another sample.”

  She pulled the thread through and tied it around itself somehow before snipping off the end with a tiny pair of scissors. She tossed the remnants in the trash and peeled off her gloves.

  “I’ve been at this game long enough to know that there are normal samples and there are abnormal samples,” she said, typing a code into the keypad on one of the cupboard doors. She pressed her thumb into it and it beeped, clicking open. “Yours were neither. They were messed up. I’m going to need another sample of your blood to run them again.” She removed a syringe and rubber tourniquet, along with a new pair of gloves.

  “What makes you think the abnormalities you found weren’t real?” I shrugged my shirt back up over my shoulders and buttoned it.

  “Because if they were, you’d be in the hospital right now. Or dead. There’s no way someone in your condition could have a blood count so low.” She rolled up my sleeve.

  I pulled back.

  “There’s nothing wrong with the sample you have now.”

  “What? You don’t know that.”

  “I do,” I said, clenching a fist.

  She tensed and held her breath.

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “Those witnesses weren’t lying when they said they’d seen me glowing.”

  “David, I think you may have taken one too many knocks to the head out there in the streets.” She reached for my arm again, but I resisted. “David!”

  My escort overheard the commotion and rapped on the door. I heard an intercom switch on. “Do you need help?” His voice came through the speaker on the door.

  I panicked and did the first thing I could think of. I thrust my weight into the wall beside me, sending a shockwave of pain through my system.

  Dr. Cortez gasped.

  I lifted my head and stared at her, my ears ringing and my shoulder pulsing with pain. The burning sensation in my chest assured me I’d done the right thing and the wide-eyed look of disbelief on her face, confirmed it.

  She staggered toward her desk and pressed a red button next to the microscope. “I-I’m fine,” she replied to the guard in a shaky voice and cleared her throat. “Everything’s fine,” she reiterated and lifted her finger off the button. The intercom clicked off.

  Chapter 24

  The throbbing pain persisted. I cupped my forehead and dropped my face down. I’d bashed myself hard against a concrete—not drywall—wall.

  “Are you okay!?” Dr. Cortez pried my hand away from my face and swiped her fingers across my brow. “No broken skin. David, look at me, please? Oh my God, you’re burning up.”

  I lifted my face, squinting in pain. Fluorescence flickered through me but quickly began to fade as the heat cooled.

  “Is your vision blurry?” she asked.

  I nudged her hands off me and blinked a few times until she came into focus. The pulsing ache softened. I rolled my shoulders back and stretched my neck to the side.

  “You saw it, didn’t you?” I asked.

  She broke eye contact with me and chewed her lip. “I-I don’t know what I saw.”

  “I know you saw it—the light. The… fluorescence.”

  Her brow furrowed and she looked me in the eye. “Is that what it’s called?”

  “Yes.”

  “Wh-what is it? This… fluorescence?” She bit her lip again and cautiously reached toward me. “How did you get it? What does it do?”

  “It’s a long story.” I motioned toward the door. The guard was getting restless and moving around a lot. “One I don’t think we have time for today.”

  “I need to know. Please!” She wrapped her fingers around my arm and pleaded with her eyes. “This is what I live for, David! Anomalies like this. Something new and—”

  “I’m not an anomaly,” I said, jerking my arm away. “Don’t ever call me that again.”

  “I’m sorry, David. It just came out. I didn’t mean you, I meant… Oh, I don’t know what I’m saying. I’m sorry, but I need to know what’s going on inside you. Maybe if I can figure out what causes that light to glow, I can help get you out of here.”

  I sneered. “What? Why would a biologist want to risk her job to get a thief and accused kidnapper out of jail? Why don’t you stop with the bullshit and tell me the real reason you want to help me. What’s in it for you?”

  She heaved a sigh. “Why do you think I took this job? Because I enjoy getting people put in jail? No, because I like seeing justice served. I want guilty people to be punished and innocent people to be set free. And no, I don’t think you’re innocent. Not by a long shot. But I think you deserve a second chance. I don’t know what kind of situation you were in back when all of this happened to you, or who put you up to any of it, but people change.”

  “What makes you believe that?”

  “Those scars on the inside of your arm.” She pointed. “It’s not common for people to get clean without major intervention. And I think that story about your daughter is true. She’s the reason you aren’t shooting up anymore or dead in some back alley right now.”

  She sat on the edge of the counter across from me and
clasped her hands together in her lap. “Is there anything at all you can tell me about this? Something I can look for in your blood? Anything?”

  “Do you really want the truth?”

  “Yes. Of course I do!”

  “Two words: Ghost Plague.”

  The color drained from her face. “What?” Her lip quivered. “Do you… have it?”

  My jaw tightened.

  “David? Tell me!?”

  I didn’t reply.

  “David! This could be the difference between life and death! We can’t stop this if we don’t know what we’re dealing with or how you acquired it. You have to tell me what—”

  “I don’t even know what I have!” My gaze shot to the cutout in the door. The guard heard me shout and veered around to try to peer in. “I don’t even know what the hell is going on,” I whispered through gritted teeth. “But I do know that if I don’t get out of here soon, I’ll be next on the list of victims. I have to get back to my daughter. I don’t have much time.”

  There was a knock on the door. The intercom came on.

  “Doctor?”

  She pressed the button to reply. “Everything is fine. I’ll be finished in just a moment.” She turned toward me. “David? Why don’t you trust me?”

  “I don’t trust anyone. I can’t. How do you think I ended up in this mess to begin with?”

  Dr. Cortez frowned. “I’m sorry for whatever happened to you. I wish I could help. And… I wish you believed me.” She pressed the intercom button again. “I’m finished here.”

  . . .

  Un-cuffed back in my cell, I was restless, but too precautious to try to burn it off. I wanted to take another jog around the field, but it would likely tear open the stitches. So I sat on the edge of my bunk and stared at the blank white wall opposite me.

  Did the doctor really want to help me? Or was she talking shit like everyone else? I couldn’t trust her. I couldn’t trust anyone. Not anymore. Brian and Alice were the only people left I could trust. They were the only ones who seemed to remotely understand—

  I saw movement in the corner of my eye and jerked my head to look.

  A ghostly white blur sifted through the air, wafting closer. I backed into the corner of my bunk and held my breath, petrified. The thing flickered and danced for a few seconds and then a shape manifested in its place—a small, fair-skinned child with one blue and one green eye.

  “Solus!” I hopped off my bunk and bent down toward him. He looked to the side and up, and a second shape burst into focus. Alice.

  My heart started thumping in my chest and I quickly ushered them behind me, toward the back of the cell where others wouldn’t see them immediately.

  “How did you guys find me?” I whispered.

  “It was Solus,” she answered quietly. “He found you. Kareena said the Prism told him where you were.”

  “Thanks, kid.” I patted him on the shoulder.

  A small grin spread across his lips and he lifted a hand toward my temple. One touch and a flash of commotion warped through my brain—visions of the police standoff, Judas and Kareena disappearing into a portal behind me, and a blinding white light. Then a flicker of Solus helping Alice conjure a portal.

  “Where are the others?” I looked at Alice.

  “They’re in a safe place for now. Solus will take us back to them.” She looked down and offered him her hand. “Solus? Let’s leave.”

  He nodded and reached up to clasp his fingers around hers.

  That’s when Splitter started shouting at the top of his lungs. “Jail break! Jail break!”

  Damn it.

  The three of us swerved around. He was standing just outside my cell flailing his arms.

  “Shut up!” I yelled back at him, but he carried on.

  “Come on, Alice! We gotta get out of here right now. Solus, you need to help us. Fast.”

  “Lockdown in cellblock D,” someone announced over the intercom.

  My cell door slid closed with a clang and locked. An alarm wailed in the building, prompting Alice to crouch down and cover her ears.

  I swallowed hard, panting from the fear building inside me.

  “Alice!”

  “I know. I know!” She mustered up the strength to withstand the jarring noise and took Solus’ hand. “Solus, please, we have to go now.”

  “How’d you get in here!?” someone shouted. A group of guards rushed to my cell. One already had a taser drawn and pointed toward us.

  “Don’t! She’s not armed!” I shouted. Solus was tucked safely behind us both, so they hadn’t noticed him yet.

  A glint of green drew my attention. Alice’s shoulder sparked with neon light and a bolt of it snaked down her arm toward her bracelet.

  “What is she doing?” the guard asked, quaking at the sight of her chemical green glow. “Stop what you’re doing! I am authorized to use force.”

  “I can’t!” Her voice quaked. “I… can’t stop it.”

  A flash of white energy burst from her wrist and flashed against the wall of my cell, creating a pool of swirling light.

  The guard’s hand shook; he pointed the taser at Alice. I stepped in front of her to take the brunt of the shot, but he didn’t shoot.

  “Whose kid is this?” he asked, drawing back his taser.

  The entire group of guards stumbled over each other trying to withdraw from the gate. Solus was standing right up against the cell door, looking curiously up at the guards.

  “Solus!” Alice screamed.

  The portal spun rapidly beside us. I wanted to grab them both and go, but a sudden move could get her son hurt.

  “How did he get in here?” The guard approached the bars and looked down at Solus. “Your eyes… they’re…”

  Solus lifted a hand toward him.

  “What?” The guard’s voice broke. “What does he want from me?”

  “He wants to show you something,” Alice said, glancing at her son and then at me and then the portal again. “Please let him! He’s just a little boy. He won’t hurt you!”

  “Show me what?”

  He was hesitant at first, but with little Solus just standing there with a hand raised up as high as he could reach and a look on his face that couldn’t possibly be misjudged as deceptive, the guard soon gave in. He bent cautiously at the waist and let Solus stick his tiny hand through the bars just far enough to press a few fingers to the guard’s temple.

  There was a gasp, and the guard swung an arm out to the side, motioning for the rest of the group to back away.

  “What was that?” another guard asked.

  “I-I don’t know. But we have to let the kid go. Just… back up. Go! Give them space!”

  Alice called to Solus and he rushed past me to rejoin her. She scooped him up into her arms and gestured for me to go first.

  I took a deep breath and dashed headfirst into the whirlwind of light.

  Chapter 25

  “You’re back!” Kareena barreled into me, throwing her arms around my neck, nearly pulling me down with her frenzied embrace. I froze, confused.

  “I… uh… Kareena?” I clutched her by her arms and gently pried her from my neck. “Since when are you happy to see me?”

  “I’m sorry for what I did. I was a dumbass, and I didn’t know it was going to get you arrested.” She grimaced. “Oh, shit. What happened to your face?” She brought her fingers toward my bruised, inflamed cheek.

  “It’s nothing.” I brushed her hand away.

  She looked down. “My heart almost stopped when they tased you, and the way your fluorescence reacted, well, I thought it was going to kill you! I’m so sorry, David. Please forgive me for being such an idiot.”

  I didn’t want to forgive her. I wasn’t ready to.

  As much as her embrace should have been appreciated, it wasn’t.

  “David?” She swallowed hard and bit her lip. “David, say something? Please?” Her warm fingers too
k up mine.

  “I can’t.” I exhaled. “Sorry.” I shoved past her.

  Out of the corner of my eye, Brian looked surprised.

  “Wh-what? Why?” Kareena approached me again. “I told you I was sorry. I screwed up. I didn’t mean to.”

  “I don’t want to hear it right now,” I muttered, turning away. “I need some time.”

  “Daddy!” Lucy came at me like a wild animal. I smiled and lowered myself down to give her a hug. “I missed you!”

  “I missed you, too,” I replied, hugging her tightly. She squeezed back and I clenched my teeth to stifle a grunt of pain. My jaw ached. Everything did.

  Kareena heaved a breath and walked off somewhere, muttering.

  “Solus told me you’d be okay,” Lucy said, grinning from ear to ear. “We’re best friends now!”

  I chuckled. “That’s good.”

  Brian and Alice were both smiling.

  “So, what now?” I stood and looked around. We were still in Alice’s mom’s house. Jane was at work.

  Judas materialized nearby, startling me.

  “You’re still here?” I asked. “I didn’t even notice you.”

  “The others have not yet returned for me.”

  “But he’s been, um, twitching a lot,” Alice said, frowning. “You know… because…”

  “More of them are dying?” I completed her sentence.

  “Yeah.”

  “So what happened to you?” Brian asked, looking me over. His gaze snagged on the bloodstain below my ribs.

  “You don’t want to know. Whatever you do, Brian, don’t get your ass put in jail.”

  “Uh, I’m not planning on it.”

  “Neither was I.” I puffed out my cheeks as I exhaled.

  “Do you need my help?” His hand radiated with a blue aura.