Free Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy by P. Anastasia

of her favorite set.
    “Alice! You need to see this.”
    “What?” I turned. My jaw dropped.
    The coffee cup hadn’t even stopped falling.
    I bent down. It hung, suspended in midair, rotating so slowly I could barely tell it was moving at all. Caught in time, floating inches from the floor.
    “Hey, Mom!” I called out.
    I poked my head into the dining room.
    Everyone was moving in slow motion. Nearly frozen.
    “Brian. What’s going on?” A lump formed in my throat and I panicked.
    He came to his feet and took my hand. “I don’t know,” he said.
    The floor disappeared out from under us.
    Blinding white light flashed.
    I screamed and shut my eyes.
    Brian’s grasp on me tightened.
    We fell.
    Brightness all around.
    I couldn’t tell which way was up.
    Then the floor returned. Ground beneath my feet again.
    I opened my eyes.
    A dozen figures dressed in matte grey surrounded us, gazes fixated on us. The room completely white—endless.
    “Brian,” I called, colored spots flickering in my eyes as they recovered from the trauma.
    “I’m here.” He pulled me closer, shielding me with his embrace.
    “Where are we?”
    A tall, slender figure moved closer, wearing a seamless tight-fitting uniform similar to a jump suit with raised texture.
    “Don’t come any closer,” Brian growled. “Who are you?”
    It tilted its head and stared, appearing to size us up. Then it looked to another of the figures and took a step back. A second figure, identical in appearance, came forward.
    Fair, elfish and androgynous, I couldn’t tell if they were male or female. Their faces appeared somewhat male. But not like adult men, more like overgrown boys. Almost human. Taller than either of us. Limp white hair past their shoulders, grey eyes, plaster-white skin with a sooty grey-black undertone.
    “They have chosen me to answer,” the second figure said through pale, colorless lips. Its voice was gender neutral, carried no accent and no intonation. “I speak your tongue.”
    “Wh… where are we?” I felt safe enough in Brian’s arms to ask a question.
    “We are galaxies from the planet you call Earth.”
    I must have been dreaming. I kept shaking my head and looking at Brian, who was doing the same.
    A colorless, scentless room. I struggled to breathe the incredibly thin air.
    No windows. Dead silent and still.
    Unnaturally still.
    I even heard Brian’s heart and my own, pounding like drums, but our breathing was the loudest sound in the room.
    “What do you want from us?” Brian loosened his grasp on me, fatigued by his struggle to breathe.
    “Unlike most other humans, the two of you carry a precise genetic code necessary to bond with our own. We have chosen you specifically for our cause.”
    “Your cause? What the hell does that mean?” Brian stepped in front of me and clenched his fists.
    The figure didn’t flinch.
    “You will learn more about our cause as we deem it necessary.”
    “Brian.” I couldn’t stop trembling.
    The figure looked to the side as if he had heard someone speaking to him, and then back at us.
    “You have paired correctly,” it said. “Soon, you will discover the third. She is the key to your success. You must find and start her.” He—or what I thought was a he—looked at me and lifted his hand so I could see his palm. It started to glow from the inside and his long, slender fingertips sparked with fluorescent green light—exactly like mine.
    “You will soon learn your role,” he continued, glancing at Brian. “You, too, are essential.” A second, identical figure appeared beside the speaker, fading in from nothing but more white. It lifted a hand and its fingertips lit with bright azure.
    Brian took my hand again. “You freaks can’t make us do anything. Who are you anyway?”
    “Our kind do not have names in your tongue. However, you may liken us to the ones your people call gods—the Shepherds. The Saviors. Those who lead and preserve their people.”
    Before I could