Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy (79 page)

“And the boy survived. Somehow. But since he was with them, he grew up faster and… Oh, Mom. I don’t know how to tell you this, but—”

“Is he here!?” Jane blurted through her cupped hands.

“Yes,” Brian said. He turned toward Lucy. “Solus, show yourself, please.”

Lucy shifted eagerly and flexed her hand.

Solus materialized and dropped his glowing fingers to his
side.

“Oh my God!” Jane stumbled back. “You have a son!” She propped herself against the dining table. I pulled out a chair for her and prompted her to take a seat. “How long have you known?”

Judas remained invisible, and I hoped he’d stay so a while
longer. Jane could collapse from shock if she had to face everything in one blow. It was too much.

“Not very long,” Alice replied. “Only a few days.”

“And he can turn himself invisible!?” She hunched over in the chair and cupped her hands over her face again. “Oh my God. How? Why? Why didn’t they tell you about him sooner? And how did you even get here? How did he—”

“There are other aliens out there, Jane,” Brian said. “They
rescued Solus from the Saviors and brought him back to us so we could protect him. He’s the key to whatever it is that’s killing people. That Ghost Plague everyone’s talking about.”

Jane’s eyes darted toward Alice and then away with a horribly sharp, shuddering gasp.

“Mom!?” Alice dashed to her and knelt beside her chair,
pressing her hands onto her mother’s knees. “Mom!? What’s
wrong!? What happened?”

Jane shook her head and muffled the word “no.”

“No, what, Mom? What happened?”

“Jane, please,” Brian added. “You don’t have to be afraid
of Solus, he’s ours. He really is—”

“
That’s not it!” Jane cried, bringing her face
up. Tears ravaged her cheeks and her skin flushed red. “It’s not that, it’s… it’s Sam.”

“Mom?” Alice yelped. “What do you mean? What happened to her? Mom! Tell me.” She grabbed Jane’s hands. “Please!”

“I’m so sorry, baby. I’m… so sorry…”

“Mom!” Alice shrieked. “No! Don’t tell me Sam… No!” Alice moaned beneath her breath and her mother reached down to hug her tightly.

Brian stood there in shock.

I didn’t know who Sam was, but she must have meant a lot to Alice and her mother. I glanced at Kareena, uncomfortable myself because I didn’t know what to say.

Kareena frowned. “I’m sorry, Alice,” she said. “I’m really sorry.”

Chapter 18

“
W
e’re too late!?” Brian sneered, clenching his teeth. “Shit! We can’t be too late! Too late to save… Sam?” He
brought both hands up to rub his face and let out a loud,
frustrated grumble. “Damn it! Why did this all happen so quickly?”

I looked away and tried to come up with something to say, but the truth was, I didn’t know shit about Alice or her friend. She was just lucky she didn’t have to watch her die—that she wasn’t there when it happened.

I’ve seen people die. A horrifying chill creeps through
your blood stream, taunting you with the inescapable truth about your own frail mortality. It’s not something you forget
. Ever.

But there’s a weird quirk about being told about someone’s
death and not actually seeing it happen. There’s an
emptiness in you that believes they’re still here. You don’t see them
go and you want nothing more than to believe in the possibility that they never really passed away to begin with.

“Who’s Sam?” Lucy asked, tugging on the hem of my shirt. “Daddy?”

“Shh,” I whispered. “She was Alice’s friend. I’m sure she’ll tell you more about her later on, but right now, she needs us to be quiet.”

“When, Mom?” Alice asked. “Did she say anything about
me? What happened?”

“A few weeks after you two left, actually,” Jane replied,
her voice trembling. “Her parents said she didn’t even act like she was sick. They didn’t know anything was wrong with
her
until she went to school one day and…” Jane heaved a breath.
“And… it happened in the middle of class. The school closed for the rest of the day. Doctors couldn’t figure out what it
was, but they’re blaming it on that thing that’s going around
. Whatever it is.”

“So this is our fault?” Brian muttered. “We did this? We killed Sam?”

Alice lifted her face from her mother’s lap. “No. We didn’t do this.” She narrowed her eyes and scanned the room.
“
They
did!”

She staggered to her feet, seething. “Where are you?” she roared, a vile expression creasing her brow. “Damn it! Where are you!?” She lunged past me, pressed a hand to the wall, and started dragging her fingers across as she walked the length of the room. “Coward!”

“Alice!” Jane stood.

“Come out of hiding!” Alice waved her arms around the
empty space between us. “Judas! Show yourself!” she hissed.
“This is your fault!” Alice wrapped her fingers around the back of a dining chair and hurled it across the room. A leg
cracked off and the decorative back split open. I shielded Lucy from
wood shards that spit toward us.

“Calm down, Alice!” Brian grabbed her from behind and tried to pull her arms in close to her body to restrain her. “Alice! Calm down! Please! There’s nothing we can do!”

“He’s here! He’s the one who did this to her! He killed my best friend!” Alice screamed at the top of her lungs and kicked her feet like a wild animal, thrashing and pushing to try to get out of Brian’s arms. He held on tightly.

“Alice! Stop! Damn it!” Brian grunted and fought to keep her arms down as he backed away from the table. “Please!”

“I… He…” She wheezed. “This is all their fault. Brian… you know that, don’t you?” Her voice broke. “Brian?” She gasped for breath.

“I know!” Brian strained to reply as he held her back from the furniture. “Alice, it is their fault.”

She quit flailing and collapsed into his arms. Brian stumbled back and adjusted his grasp on her to help her catch her balance
. Then he turned her around and put his hands on her face, cupping her cheeks.

“Alice, it’s too late. We can’t change things now. We can’t
change what’s already happened.”

“But… that
thing.
He…” She searched the room with weary eyes.

“I know. But we can’t change that now. We have Solus to
take care of and I can’t have you breaking down on me.” He brushed his hand through her hair and lifted her chin with his fingers. “Alice, we’ll get through this, somehow. Please
calm down. I feel like shit, too, but taking it out on Judas isn’t
going to change things.”

“Judas?” Jane repeated. “Who’s—”

I lifted a flattened hand toward her and she paused.

Solus inched his way over to his mother and stared up at her. When she didn’t acknowledge him, he tapped her on her leg. She looked down at him and sighed.

“What is it, Solus?” she said weakly.

Solus gestured for her to come down to his level. When she did, he stretched both arms out to the sides and closed them as tightly as he could around her.

She let out a painful cry and burst into tears. Solus rested
his head against her as she wept.

Her heavy sobbing made my stomach twist into an anxious mess. Every shuddering inhalation made my heart ache. She
didn’t deserve this. She didn’t deserve any of this.

Maybe if we had all said no to begin with and I hadn’t forced her and the others to play their parts... Maybe then—

“I-I think I should go see my family, too,” Kareena said. “Just in case something happened to them.”

Brian turned. “It’s probably not the best idea, you know?
W
ith everything going on and, well, you were already arrested
once. What if someone finds you and you end up getting arrested again?”

“Yeah
,” I agreed. “And not to mention, who the hell is
going to watch Judas? You and I are the only ones who can and I’m not doing it on my own.”

“Well, then, come with me!” Kareena groaned. “Please!? I really, really want to check on my parents. I mean, if Sam died, how do I know my parents are safe? What if something happened to them, too? Or… what if it reaches them soon and I never even said goodbye? Guys, please.”

Shit.
There she goes again. Feeling things.

Brian wasn’t budging and Alice was a blubbering mess on the floor with Solus. Judas stood in the far corner of the room, still only a faded halo of light, and Kareena was about
to start crying her eyes out, begging us to let her see her family.

I didn’t think it was a good idea, but if I had been given the chance to see my dad before he died, even if it meant going to jail because of it, I’d have taken that risk in a heartbeat. Because living the rest of your life having never said goodbye to someone you love is worse than jail any day. And I would know. I’ve lived through both.

“I’ll go with her.”

Everyone’s eyes were on me.

“Y-you will?” Gratitude curled Kareena’s lips. “Thank you, David. Thank you so much.”

Alice wiped her arm across her eyes and sniffled. “Be careful.”

“I will,” Kareena replied. “Jane. Do you have a cell we can
borrow? In case something comes up?”

“Oh, sure.” Jane cleared her throat and stumbled off into the kitchen. She returned a moment later with a cell phone in hand
and passed it to Kareena. “Call if anything happens, please. It’s the home number in the address book.”

“Will do. We’ll be fine. Just a quick visit.”

“Judas, Lucy.” I turned. “You’re coming with us.”

Lucy jogged over to me and I began to follow Kareena toward the front door.

“Lucy!” a tiny, unfamiliar voice cried.

I jerked my head around and a breath caught in my throat.

Solus ran toward us, flailing.

“Lucy!” he repeated, eyes wide and a glint of fear on his face.

My heart dropped like a stone. The one word Solus finally spoke was my daughter’s name.

He thought I was about to take her away from him…

Chapter 19

D
usk closed in. We had to get moving. After some firm convincing, I agreed it would be okay to leave Lucy with Alice and Brian. Solus didn’t want to see her go and it hurt to hear him call out to her in his tiny, underdeveloped voice.

Kareena’s parents lived a few streets down. Having not even introduced him to Jane, we brought Judas along. We decided it was for the best. Seeing how Alice had almost attacked him, we didn’t need Jane losing it, too.

We kept to ourselves for most of the walk, trying to avoid attention, but then we turned a corner and Kareena stopped abruptly. I tripped into her and nearly fell.

“Hey!” I composed myself. “What is it?”

She was staring off at someone’s lawn across the street.

“That’s
my
goddamn car!”

“What?”

“Oh my freaking God! They sold my car! What the hell!?”

“Kareena, keep your voice down!” The tiny, sickeningly wealthy-looking suburb looked like the type that would call 911 any time some kid fell off a bike. I didn’t like the look of
the neighborhood at all. Nice, maybe, but not my kind of subdivision.
Extravagant two- and three-story brick houses all
around. Tiny mansions a guy like me couldn’t afford in a
million damn years. And here, privileged Kareena was yelling at a red sports car parked in someone’s driveway.

“But… but… it was, like, the only thing I ever loved!” She
frowned, over exaggerating beyond belief. “My baby! How the hell could they sell her!? That son-of-a-bitch. He had his eye on her from day one. Damn it.”

“What are you going on about, Kareena? Really? Right now? We have some seriously important sh—”

She pointed. “My neighbor’s son, Brad, was jealous of my car from the day I got it. He didn’t take long to creep up after I’d disappeared and make a deal with my parents for it. Sneaky little bastard.”

“Look, Kareena, it was your parents who sold it to him, so stop freaking out.”

“Well, they shouldn’t have,” she growled.

What I would give for the slick ride she once had. Custom platinum rims with matching red spinners. Black accents.
Racing stripes. Tri-coat finish. Shit. The car must have cost more than sixty grand. Easily.

I could have stripped that beauty and made back a quick ten or twenty thousand overnight. However, I couldn’t help but think Kareena wouldn’t have appreciated me cutting up her “baby.” Even if we
did
need the money.

Besides, I wouldn’t try it in a neighborhood like this. And definitely not in plain sight. Cars weren’t as easy to hotwire as they used to be.

Kareena bent over and scooped a rock up from the edge
of sidewalk. “I should go over there and bust a window.” She
exhaled loudly. “Would serve him right.”

“Kareena, we’re not here to settle grudges over stupid shit. Come on. Let’s get going before people start thinking something’s up. I don’t want to be caught staring at a car like that for too long in a place like this.” I looked at some windows on the houses and then scanned a few overhangs
in peoples’ driveways. No doubt there were security cameras
everywhere. This subdivision was rich. Filthy. Rich. Perfect for the little princess tagging alongside me.

“Fine.” Kareena huffed. “My house is, like, three houses down. On this side of the road.” She tromped off ahead and
I sprinted to catch up with her, checking behind to make sure
Judas was keeping up. The fuzzy white blur followed us like a ghost.

She stopped in front of a large, bright white, two-story brick mansion set right at the end of the cul-de-sac, and turned
to head up the driveway.

“Wow,” I accidentally said out loud.

She turned. “What?”