Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy (70 page)

I looked down at my little girl and grinned. “You like him, don’t you?” I asked, once Brian was out of earshot.

“I don’t know…” Lucy lied, twiddling her fingers.

I knew meeting Brian had made her a little nervous, but there were obviously some other budding emotions swirling around in her head at the time. It made me chuckle. Maybe Brian and I didn’t hit it off so well at first, but Lucy clearly had a fondness for him already.

Why on Earth the kid was so freaking popular with girls was beyond me.

Finally, Kareena came over. It was strange
seeing her without the glittering diamond stud on her nose. She crossed
her arms and scrunched her lips, making no effort to hide her discontent.

“Hi,” she said, glancing at Lucy and looking away. “I’m Kareena. Um…” Her gaze met mine briefly. “I don’t like to be bothered, so try not to get in my way, okay?”

I narrowed my eyes at her. And mouthed “what the hell?”
at her through clenched teeth.

“What?” she said, raising her voice. “I don’t like kids, okay? Quit judging. I just… don’t. I know she’s part of your family, but she’s not part of mine. I’m being honest.”

Lucy whimpered and reached up for my hand.

“It’s okay,”
I said, running my fingers through Lucy’s
hair. “She’s joking. I promise. Why don’t you go talk to Brian and Alice for a minute? They want to be your friends.”

She squeezed my hand harder but then worked up the nerve to let go and jaunted over to where the others were standing.

“Now that was a dumbass thing to say.” I sneered at Kareena. “Really.”

“Sorry.” Kareena scoffed. “I’m not going to pretend I like
kids when I don’t and I’m not obligated to. I didn’t like that
boy Brian had to stay with when he was being fostered either
,
and he was, like, ten or something. What’s she? Like, three?”

“Five,” I corrected. “And old enough to do a hell of a lot on her own. Don’t judge
her
, either.”

“Okay. Whatever.” She huffed beneath her breath. “God.”

I almost wanted to call her out on her idiotic behavior—at how irrationally uncomfortable she was around a child. She was overreacting.

“You got back fast,” she said, interrupting my chain of thought.

“Uh, yeah. With some help.”

“Oh, shit.” Kareena’s eyes widened.

“No. Not the Saviors,” I replied. “The Prism, I think. I couldn’t tell, but I think it was one of their portals.”

“Oh, good.” She heaved a sigh of relief. “I was… sort of wondering if they’d step in to help. They said they were watching us and…” She looked down at my wrist. I’d have forgotten about the alien bracelet already if it weren’t for the subtle plume of white I could always see curling around my wrist. “With the bracelets and everything… I was sure they’d do something for us if we needed them to.”

“Yeah, but… not without reason,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Don’t tell Brian yet, but people saw me. They… saw my light.”

“Oh, no! How could you let them!? How the hell did you—”

“I didn’t do it on purpose! Quiet down!” I shot a look at the others who were now sitting on the ground beside Lucy,
talking. “I was trying to get Lucy back and some cops showed
up, some shit went down, and my fluorescence started
glowing right while I was standing in the middle of the damn yard.”

Kareena groaned. “Oh, crap. Now what? What if they start
to think something’s going on? What if people start
looking for us? Or… fluorescence?”

“I don’t know right now.”

“Did you notice anyone taking pictures?”

“Not that I saw. It was just for a minute or two
. That’s all! The cops were going to try to take Lucy away. I panicked,
and it just happened.”

“We need to be more careful,” she interrupted. “The other
day, I saw on the news something about a mystery disease that’s killing random people around the states. I mean, if they
start to actually
see
weird shit happening, we’re going to be really, really screwed.”

“I know. I know.” I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. Then I exhaled and opened them. “It’s hard enough
to find a safe place to sleep at night. If people start asking too
many questions, we could all be in trouble. But I’m not going to let anything happen to us. I’ll make sure we’re safe. We’re going to have to stay alert for any information we can
find on how much people know about us and the disease going
around.”

“Sounds like a good idea.” Kareena fell silent and looked
back at the others. “Is
she
going to be okay? With us, I mean?”

“You mean with
you
?” I replied, with a trace of “back-off” in my voice.

“She’s just a little kid. We can barely get by as it is.”

“I’ve been taking care of her for
this long, Kareena. Leave her to me and don’t worry about her.” I took a step closer and lo
oked into her tired eyes. I wanted to be angry with her for
being so rude to Lucy, but I knew Kareena was only using her
attitude to mask her fear.

She was scared. She needed support and she
desperately
wanted someone to care about her, even when she
pretended not to. Brian cared, but not in the way she hoped he would. Not the way I had begun to…

A stroke
of my fingers through her hair
provoked a fleeting smile in her eyes.

“I’ll try not to worry so much, David,” she whispered.

My fingers drifted down her arm and I smiled. “Thanks.”

I wanted her to trust that I had at least a
few
things under control, even if I didn’t…

Chapter 7

“
T
he death toll has risen from 216 to approximately 587 statewide, due to what many are calling the Ghost Plague. In less than one week, the number of deaths has nearly tripled, leaving scientists baffled and the public outraged. The increase in sudden deaths by the phantom
killer doctors and scientists are still struggling to decode has government officials warning people to stay vigilant but stay calm. Officials report there is no evidence that the infection is transmitted through the air or by physical contact.

Doctor Matthew Hannigan, a senior microbiologist with
the CDC, claimed at a recent panel that doctors have been unable to find any information on exactly how this disease chooses its victims. We attempted to contact Dr. Hannigan for
questioning, but he has not returned our calls
. A spokesperson f
or the CDC has assured the public that they are doing everything they can to find a cause and cure for what
some believe could be the next SARS pandemic.”

“No shit, it’s not SARS,” Kareena said, clicking off the television and tossing the remote onto the end table. She lay down on the hotel bed and kicked off her shoes. “Good luck finding a cure for something you can’t see,” she added and glanced back at me. Her expression turned solemn. “Sorry, David.”

Whatever was killing people was inside me, too. Kareena
was the only person who could actually see it, but that didn’t
mean
I could ignore the gut feeling creeping through me that something was wrong with my body—even before she had pointed it out. It could end me in an instant. Without warning.

Kareena once told me it was probably from smoking, but we both knew that wasn’t the truth. That, and she was a hypocrite for assuming I would be the only one dying if that were the case. She harbored the habit, too. Albeit, intermittently.

I stood in front of the window, peering out at the quiet,
near-empty driveway. Fireflies flashed against a colorful backdrop. Dusk rolled in, cloaking the sky in rich, dark colors.

Now that we were migrating closer to my home state where people might recognize me, I held off waving around my fake detective’s badge. Without it, a couple of sweet, carefully baked lies helped us grab two rooms at a small Ma and Pa style motel just on the outskirts of the city.

“So, I take it we’re not going to be alone again any time soon,” Kareena said, crossing her arms and looking over her shoulder at me.

Lucy lay on her stomach, propped up on her elbows,
busying herself with an activity book Brian had purchased for her from a nearby gas station. I was grateful he accepted her presence with such grace, unlike…

“She’s not deaf,” I said, turning to face Kareena.

I walked past the bed where Lucy was coloring and ran my f
ingers playfully over the top of her head. She craned her neck up at me, squinted and grinned, and then went back
to work on her connect-the-dots page. Crude, unsteady lines were a sign of fatigue.

“Yes. I know,” Kareena answered.

“You really think you’re entitled to everything, don’t you?”
I added, sitting down on the corner of Kareena’s bed.

She huffed angrily. “Your loss.”

“What? What does that mean?” I touched her arm.

She looked me up and down quickly and her lips thinned
. “If you don’t know, I’m not going to spell it out for you.”

“You have got to be kidding me.” I laughed. “All this shit goes down, people are dying—
I
might be dying—and all you’re thinking about is—” I lowered my voice to a whisper, “…sex?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She looked away.

“I don’t even know how to respond to that, Kareena.” I stood and walked back over to Lucy, who was now stretching her arms out over her head and yawning.

“So where’s she sleeping?” Kareena asked, raising her voice. “On the couch or…”

“We have two beds. She can sleep with me,” I replied.

She
cocked an eyebrow. “Aren’t you a little old
to be sleeping with your sister?”

“Aren’t you a little old to have your nose in everyone else’s
shit?”

She sneered and flipped me off. All I could do was shake my head and wonder why in the hell I was attracted to such a coldhearted bitch that flaunted her dislike of children like a gold medal. In her defense, a beautiful coldhearted bitch who had recently saved both of our asses from that psychopathic brother of Brian’s, Taylor.

“Lucy,” I said, and bent down to draw her attention away from her activity book. “You should be getting to bed. Co
me on.” I slid the book away from her and reached out my hand to take her marker. She relinquished it without a fight,
yawned again, and rubbed her drowsy eyes with her palms.

I tucked Lucy into bed and pulled the blanket up to her chin. As I came down to kiss her forehead, she curled her delicate fingers around the hem and closed her eyes. “Goodnight,” I whispered. She smiled and rolled onto her side, nuzzling her pillow.

“Night,” she muttered and wriggled further down beneath
the covers.

I clicked off the lamp on her side of the bed and walked
over to the bathroom tucked in the back of the room. Kareena was sitting on the edge of the counter with her arms
crossed and her head down.

“What’s wrong?” I stepped in and closed the door behind
me so the light wouldn’t keep Lucy awake.

Kareena looked up and sighed, fatigued.

“Kareena?” I reached for her shoulder. “What is it?” My fingers cupped the side of her arm and I resisted the urge to try to bring her closer to me. “Tell me, please.” I shifted my touch from her arm to her chin, gently lifting her face.

Her pleasin
g green irises looked back at me and my heart swelled with emotion. Even without a smudge of makeup
on it, Kareena’s face was beautiful. The rich warm color of her skin and the subtle natural rose tint on her lips accented the perfection.

“What do we do now?” Her eyes pleaded for an honest answer.

There wasn’t much we could do.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “But I’m going to do what I ca
n to protect the two of you. I may not have a chance in hell
at surviving whatever it is that’s infecting me, but I’ll do anything and everything to fight back.” I forked my fingers
through her hair and tried to smile reassuringly. “Believe me,
I will.”

I leaned in to kiss her, but she turned her face away before
I could.

“I need sleep,” she said.

Her frigid reaction left me at a loss for words.

Then I remembered what she had said to me the first time we’d gotten together. She didn’t want things getting “messy.”

Was I complicating things?

“Sorry,” I muttered, really only half apologizing for my actions.

“It’s alright,” she added, still looking away from me. “I’m going to go to sleep. Goodnight, David.”

She cracked open the door and I flipped off the bath
room light as we exited.

. . .

I heard a voice in my sleep.

A small, mousey voice.

Words I couldn’t put together in my dreams until I realized whose voice it was.

Lucy?

I was sure of it.

My eyes opened. I rolled over in bed and a wave of fear and dread washed over me, prickling my skin with goose bumps and gnarling my stomach into knots.

Lucy was sitting up beside me, legs crossed, her hands in her lap. Her eyes were fixated on a slightly smaller shape across from her.

A soft white glow resonated from the shape. I tried to speak, but words wouldn’t come out.

“Lu-Lucy.” It was barely audible. Fear choked the breath from me.

“He’s one of the friends you promised,” she said cheerfully.

My gaze darted toward her tiny wrist where a faint tail of smoke swirled.

A bracelet? From the Prism?

Another lamp clicked on.

“Holy shit!” Kareena threw her covers off to the side and crawled across her bed toward us.

The white light faded. The thing sitting with Lucy was a child. A tiny, naked little boy with a pillowcase draped over his back and shoulders like a cape.