by P. Anastasia
“Brian?” I put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?” I rubbed his arm.
“Yeah.” He shook his head again and blinked several more times. “It’s going away. She’s telling the truth, Alice. Those other kids have it, too—whatever it is. It’s some kind of energy. I couldn’t tell much else. The vision faded too quickly.”
A few nearby students stared at us and I turned to confront them. “We’re fine,” I said, forcing a toothy grin at them. “Thanks for your concern. Feel free to go back to whatever it was you were doing.” They shrugged and looked away. One of them had the nerve to roll their eyes at me.
“I can still see it,” said Kareena. “Alice. You should go talk to them. See if you can figure anything out. Touch him, maybe. Do whatever it is you do.”
“What? No.” I shook my head. “I’m not going to just go up to some stranger and grab him.”
“Just say hi. Introduce yourself or something,” Kareena added with a shrug. “You’re a cute girl, that guy will be okay with it.”
Had Kareena just called me cute? How badly did she want me to do this?
“Don’t tell her what to do.” Brian tugged my hand, motioning for me to sit back down.
“I’m not.” Kareena scoffed. “I just think we need to figure out if he’s one of us or not. We could use more friends, you know?”
“I think you just want a new boyfriend,” Brian grumbled.
“No. I’m serious. I thought the pasty crazies up there said Alice was supposed to be the ‘Starter’ or whatever. She apparently activated it in both of us. So… maybe she needs to go over there and touch him, too. Maybe that’s what they want us to do. The Sav—”
“Shh!” I gave her a dirty look. “Quiet.” I got up and stepped over the bench, careful not to get a leg tangled in my book bag strap. “I’ll do it.”
“You don’t have to.” Brian snagged the edge of my shirt.
“It’s okay. I’ll be fine.” I looked at Kareena, whose eyes were still locked on the guy. “The boy in the red shirt, right?”
“With the sports logo on the pocket. Yes,” she confirmed.
I took a deep breath and exhaled, puffing out my cheeks. “Okay.” I put on my best friendly smile and meandered over to the table a few rows across from ours.
“Hi. My name’s Alice,” I said, my voice shaking. “I’m… um…” I froze up. “Um.”
Think! Think!
“Yes?” The guy’s eyebrows furrowed. He set down his drink and screwed the plastic cap on top. “Can I help you, Alice?”
I felt like an idiot.
I offered my hand and smiled even bigger, forcing it so much it probably looked creepy. “I’m with the student government. I just wanted to say hello and welcome you to our school.”
“Uh… Thanks? But, I’ve been here for a year.”
“Oh? I’m sorry.” Even more of an idiot, now. “I didn’t know. They just told me…”
“It’s okay.” He grinned. “Don’t worry about it.” He leaned over to glance back at my table and then looked me in the eye again. “Weren’t you just sitting with him?”
“Yeah, she was.” Brian came up behind me.
“Hey! You’re the guy with the motorcycle, right? I saw you this morning. It’s real nice, man. It’s no wonder girls like to hang out with you.”
Okay. I raised an eyebrow. Guess he thought Kareena, Sam and I were all…
Brian laughed. “Not really, but thanks. Name’s Brian.”
“Hi. This your girlfriend?”
I hated being the focus of a conversation.
“Yeah,” Brian replied, proudly.
“Alice.” I eagerly stretched out my hand toward the stranger again, holding my breath this time. He hesitated, his eyes darting from Brian’s to mine, contemplating if being friendly with the motorcycle guy’s girlfriend was a good idea. Brian sensed his misplaced concern and took a step back.
“I’ll go grab your stuff,” he said, heading back to our table.
“Adam.” The guy grinned, reaching up from the table to shake my hand.
Our palms touched and my heartbeat quickened. The hairs on the back of my neck perked up, my fingertips flushed with heat, and my skin prickled with goose bumps. Static flitted through my body.
I gasped.
Adam snapped back.
“Whoa!” His eyes widened and he stared at me, blinking. “What have you been doing, girl? You are electric.” He shook his hand. “Ow. You shocked the hell out of me.”
“I’m… sorry,” I said, backing away slowly.
“Wait. Where are you going?”
“I’m so sorry, Adam.”
Chapter 30
“I was right! There are others!” Kareena jabbed me in the shoulder and I recoiled from the prick of her sharp fingernail. “I told you I knew what I was seeing.”
“I’m sorry, Kareena,” I said, switching out one of my textbooks in my locker. “We didn’t know.”
“Did you feel anything?” she asked. “After you touched him, I mean?”
“It was about the same as when I touched you. A pulse of energy and then he got shocked. I feel bad about it, really.”
“The light totally changed, though.” She flipped open a makeup compact and started reapplying her bright red lipstick.
“It did?”
“Yeah.” She snapped the lipstick closed and smacked her lips together. “It got super bright. It didn’t change color or anything but as soon as you touched him it exploded into this, like, little ball of white fiery stuff. Kind of creepy almost, but whatever.” She shrugged and tucked her makeup back into her purse.
The bell rang.
“We gotta get to class.” Brian reached for my book bag and slid it off my arm, shouldering it himself. “See you, Kareena. We can talk about it later.”
“Okay. Whatever.” She rolled her eyes and clicked off down the hall in the opposite direction.
“So what exactly did she do to you?” I asked, walking beside him. “It sounded like you were seeing things, too.”
“I was. It was like putting on a pair of really dark sunglasses. Everything got blurry. That’s why I started blinking like crazy. When things came back into focus, they seemed washed out, like the colors weren’t all there. That’s when I saw it—the light.”
I leaned in closer.
“It resonated in Adam’s chest, flickering like a dying flame. Weak, but moving—alive, I think. Sleeping. That was the first thing I thought of when I saw it. Doesn’t that sound crazy to you?” He paused and looked down at me.
“Yeah. Weird.”
“Definitely weird. But at the same time, wouldn’t it be good to have more people we could trust? More people who knew about…” his voice came down to a whisper, “the fluorescence?”
“Yes.”
“You have to admit, some little part of you got excited after you thought about it, right?”
I nodded.
“Then maybe… this is what you’re supposed to do. What we’re supposed to do. Find others like us and…”
“It felt wrong, though,” I interrupted, tangling my hands together nervously. “Touching him.”
“Hey, I’m not upset or jealous,” he added with a smirk. “Besides, did you see the look on his face when I told him you were my girlfriend?” He chuckled.
This wasn’t funny.
“Not about that, Brian.” I tugged on his belt. “I mean, what if he didn’t want this? What if what I did to Adam was wrong? They’ve hardly told us anything about it. How do we know it’s safe?”
Brian stopped and turned toward me. He cupped his hands around my shoulders and pressed them gently. “All I know is, it made my heart better and it helped save Kareena’s life. I’ve got no complaints.”
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe we can do some good with this. Maybe we’re meant to.”
. . .
I tossed my book bag onto the couch and went int
o the kitchen. Brian had dropped me off after school. He would have stayed but had to be at work in an hour.
“How was your first day of tenth grade?” Mom asked, bent over the open oven door, checking on a pizza she was cooking. Cheese bubbled and the room smelled like garlic and oregano.
“It went fine, thanks.”
“That’s good. And how’s Brian doing?”
“He’s okay. His mom never apologized for anything, but he’s alright.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Alice. Guess not all kids are as privileged as you are, huh?” She grinned and closed the oven door. “Pizza will be done in about ten minutes.”
“Got it.” I took two clean plates out of the dishwasher and set them on the counter behind Mom. “Oh, I almost forgot.”
“Yes?”
“We may have found another few students like us.”
“With fluorescence in them?” She plucked several paper towels from the roll on the counter and started folding them in half.
“Yeah. Not like ours, but a variation of it. We just learned Kareena can see it in other people and she can see ours, too, even when it seems inactive to us. Boy, did she freak out at school today. I hope she’ll get used to it eventually. Her voice is sooooo…”
“Oh, great. So they’re messing with more kids?” Mom shook her head and huffed an angry sigh. “Just in time to ruin dinner.”
“I’m sorry.” I sat on a kitchen chair and clasped my hands together on the table.
“No, it’s okay. I asked you to let me know. I wish they would find a cure and get it over with or die trying and leave us alone. One of the two.”
“Mom. That’s just mean. No one wants their entire civilization to disappear. What if there weren’t many of us left and someone was willing to help keep us alive? Would it be right if the entire human race just died?”
“When you put it that way. No… But I wish the Saviors would have considered getting some kind of consent before they started.” She laid the folded paper towels beside our plates at the table and set two coasters down. “We didn’t ask to be part of this. And I didn’t want you to be part of it, either. It’s hard enough being a teenager in love, but you and Brian can never have a normal relationship because of them. It’s not right. You’re only young once.”
“We’ve been okay so far.” I got up from the table and pushed in my chair. “We’re happy and we’ll get through this.” I pulled open a cupboard door and reached up, feeling a slight twinge inside, but ignoring it. My fingers wrapped around a tall glass and then I cringed, clenching my teeth.
Searing pain erupted in my stomach and I cried out, doubling over. Crumbling to my knees. The glass came crashing down, shattering on the linoleum. Pain ripped through me, squeezing, twisting my stomach. I held my belly, trying to avoid shards of broken glass on the floor even as my vision began to blur. Tears welled in my eyes.
“Alice!” Mom knelt by my side.
I gasped for air but it was like sucking in water. The room dissolved in and out of focus. My head felt heavy, and it was weaving from side to side. I couldn’t keep my chin up.
I swallowed hard, on the brink of throwing up. The sharp, stabbing pains spread up my abdomen. Into my ribs. The room swirled. My chest burned.
“Alice! Alice, say something!”
I felt my mom holding me, but couldn’t respond. My lips wouldn’t move. Everything inside me tightened and I tipped over onto the floor, my eyelids closing, my mind blanketed by darkness.
. . .
Soft amber light burned my eyes.
I awoke on the couch; the lamp in the living room had been dimmed.
I squeezed with my fingers. Someone squeezed back.
Mom sat by my side, clutching my hand tightly in hers.
“Thank God you’re awake!” She brushed her fingers over my forehead and cupped my cheek.
I struggled to sit up, blinking, fighting to open my eyes fully. My body felt so heavy. My eyelids were tugging closed again. I held my head in my hands, sickness roiling in my gut.
“How do you feel?”
Weak.
I looked up at her, drowsily. “The… Saviors…” My voice echoed in my head. My ears were ringing.
“What? When?”
“When I fainted.” I groaned. I felt disconnected—out of body. Drifting. Like I was dreaming. “They told me the anemia made me lose consciousness. That they would fix it before…” I dropped my head again and grumbled. “They said something about suppressing the symptoms of… I don’t remember everything.” I sighed.
“I’m glad you’re okay, Alice. You had me scared to death. I didn’t know what to do. If you had been out any longer, I would have had to take you to the hospital.”
“It’s okay. I’m okay, Mom.” I swallowed hard; a strange metallic taste tainted my mouth. “Ugh. Can I have some water, please?”
“Of course!” Mom rushed off into the kitchen and came back a moment later with a glass filled to the brim. She helped me hold it.
“Thanks.” I took a sip, my hands trembling. Water splashing up over the rim of the glass. I fought to steady myself.
“Do you remember anything else?” She supported the glass between sips.
I wiped a drip of water from my lower lip. “I don’t think so. All I really remember was this light. This bright, colorful light that…”
I stopped breathing.
Chills swept over me.
The room went out of focus.
My hands tingled. Cold. Numb.
“What?” Mom set the water on the coffee table. “What is it?”
My face tightened. Mom said something. Drowned out by mental static.
“Brian.” I mouthed his name. My eyes fixated on nothingness.
“Brian.”
. . .
“She’s been like this since I called you,” my mom said, leading Brian into the living room. “Please do something. I don’t know what’s wrong, but she won’t talk to me.”
He sat beside me on the couch and the cushion sunk in with his weight. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders. I stiffened, resisting unintentionally.
“What’s wrong, Alice?” he asked, his voice shaky. Out of breath. “What happened?”
“I… remember now,” I muttered, focused on nothing. “Bright light scorching my eyelids. Grey eyes staring at me, judging me. Disappointed in me. In… us.”
I looked toward the kitchen and saw Mom leaning against the door jamb, watching us.
She couldn’t know the truth.
“Ask Mom to leave us alone,” I whispered.
Before Brian could even stand, Mom backed away and disappeared into the other room.
“I’m fifteen, Brian. Why did they have to pick us for this?” I rubbed my arms. The hairs bristled on end. Every inch of my skin was hypersensitive. “Why couldn’t it have been someone else? Anyone else?”
“You’re sounding a little crazy, Alice.” He swallowed hard. “What did they say to you?”
I fidgeted with the hem of my shirt, twisting it around my fingers and untwisting it again.
Over and over.
And over.
“Alice?” Brian pressed his palm against my knee. “Answer me.”
“They told me you were supposed to heal my anemia but didn’t. That they would have to correct it, instead.”
“How? I didn’t know I could.”
“And they told me what Kareena did was the right thing. That she is supposed to help us seek out others with dormant DNA. I am supposed to start them the same way I started Adam.” I filled my lungs with air and exhaled slowly, a sick feeling creeping around the pit of my stomach. “How do we know he wanted to be part of this? We never asked him. I was stupid to just touch him like that.”
“Alice, please stop talking like this. You’re not making any sense.” He shook me gently.
“I’m making perfect sense, Brian,” I said, raising my voice, lookin
g him in the eye. The soft colors were snuffed out by frightened, enlarged black pupils. “Those creatures up there, they want us to do things for them. Things I don’t want to do.”
“Like what? Like what, Alice?”
“One of the Saviors came up to me and took my wrist. Its fingers felt lukewarm—room temperature. It was terrible. Corpse-like.” I swallowed and gasped for air. “It turned my hand over and pressed a thumb against my vein. I felt a sharp prick.” I shuddered.
Brian took my hand and immediately checked my wrist for marks. There were none.
“Then I felt this heat come over me—a calm, comforting warmth. Almost like yours. Familiar. They released me and a tiny light appeared in the palm of my hand. Flickering. Alive. But fragile and scared.
I stood there staring at it as it rested within my grasp, glowing, breathing. Soothed by my touch. Smiling, even though it had no face. Invisible—weightless. But… I could feel it inside me. Part of me.”
“Part of you?” Brian’s voice wavered. He shifted in his seat and moved a little closer. “What do you mean by that?”
I flattened my fingers against his hand until our palms touched. The fluorescence ignited beneath our skin, escaping through the surface as wafts of dusty vapor. His hand burned hot blue—mine no longer green, but bright turquoise. His heartbeat quickened, his pulse throbbing against my fingertips.
“Part of us,” I said, looking up at him.
He sucked in a breath.
“The Saviors think we might be the answer to saving their race, but we need to do more than just store their DNA. All that stuff they kept saying about us spending time together? It was their way of skirting around the truth of what they really wanted from us.”
He pushed up off his seat. “This isn’t a goddamn sci-fi movie, Alice. Spit it out!”
I squeezed my eyelids shut. “I’m pregnant.”
He just stood there staring at me.
“Jesus. You’re… you’re kidding me, right?” His voice broke. “Alice?”
“No! I’m not.”
He scowled.
“This is real, Brian!”