Free Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy by P. Anastasia Page A

disagree, blazing white light flooded the room and I closed my eyes against it. The floor disappeared and we fell into nothingness.
    The ground returned beneath my feet and my senses became overwhelmed by smells and sounds. A sharp pain throbbed behind my eyes. I cupped my forehead.
    The smell of warm bread, cinnamon, turkey—Christmas dinner—filled my nostrils. I opened my eyes and sucked in a breath of real air. My mouth was dry as paper.
    The mug I had dropped hit the floor and shattered to pieces. I recoiled. Brian quickly reached to cup my face.
    “Are you okay?”
    I couldn’t speak so I nodded instead.
    We stared at each other, unable to say another word about what had happened. Knowing it had, in fact, happened.
    Whatever or whoever they were, they planned on using us for something.
    They had put the light inside us—had had the nerve to compare themselves to gods.
    What did they really want from us?
    Who were the “Saviors”?

Chapter 13
     
     
    A fter dinner, Brian and I stayed quieter than we’d ever been.
    I couldn’t keep a clear mind. I kept fading in and out of conversations during dessert. Mom had forgiven me for breaking her cup and that was one crisis averted, but why couldn’t I have been a normal girl who kissed a normal boy? That’s all I should have been thinking about. A crazy-amazing second kiss.
    “Pie?” Mom asked. “Alice?”
    Brian nudged me in the elbow.
    “Oh, sorry. Yes. Thank you.” I took the plate from Mom. She’d put a slice of pumpkin pie on it with a dollop of whipped cream on the side. Aunt Stephanie glanced over at us and smiled her innocent, big-hearted smile. “You two would make such an adorable couple,” she said with a sigh. “Oh, I still remember when I first laid eyes on your uncle Teddy back in college.”
    My mom rolled her eyes.
    I hunched over. “Guys, please.” I did not need my shoulder flaring up in front of everyone. Brian slid his hand under the tablecloth and clutched mine.
    “I’m happy I met Alice,” he said. “You seem like a great family. It’s nice that I had the chance to meet all of you while you’re in town.” He glanced down at the kiddie table where Sandy had made a little mound out of spit and torn, chewed-up paper crayon wrappers. “Even the cute little monster over there, which I’ve been told is Alice’s cousin.”
    Everyone had a good laugh.
    He’d taken the focus off me. I appreciated that.
    “Hey, I left my gift in your room. Can I go get it?” Brian asked. “I want to show my mom.”
    “Sure.”
    “Excuse me.” Brian got up and pushed his chair in.
    I sat there twiddling my thumbs. I wanted to get up and go talk to him but I couldn’t think of an excuse.
    “Hey, Alice!” Brian called out from the top of staircase.
    I leaned back in my chair, teetering on the legs to look through the living room cutout and toward the stairs.
    “Yeah?”
    “Where did you put it?”
    “By my desk, I think!”
    “I don’t see it.” He leaned over the banister and shrugged. “I looked there.”
    “Oh, I’ll help you find it. Hold on a sec. Be right back.” I pushed my chair in and excused myself.
    I jogged up the staircase to my room.
    “We need to figure out what to do about this,” he said, the journal already in his hands. “Who this other person is. What those things want from us.”
    “I know. But what can we do until school starts again? My mom isn’t going to just let me go anywhere I want with you. Not now that she knows about us .”
    “Did you tell her?”
    “Well, no. Not exactly. But you’re the one who kissed me on the porch, remember? And all that flirting downstairs earlier. My mom’s not an idiot.”
    “Of course not. I didn’t say she was. She doesn’t know about…”
    “There aren’t cameras in my room. Assuming those things aren’t watching us. Ew. I feel icky now.” I folded my arms and tucked my hands behind my elbows.
    “Hopefully they’re not. Besides, you heard them, they said