Glow (26 page)

82.

Lucy

I know that if I want to fight half as hard as Lukas has for me, I need to do this next part. Not let Junie speak the words of my heart. I can speak my own truth. I will not stumble. I will not falter. I will be brave.

Just like Mom wanted for me.

Bravery has come in the unexpected places. I wonder if that is what Lukas realized before he laid down his life.

“Lukas is my partner, and he is your Nobleman, he is your son and your brother and your friend. But more than that, he is a person. He is a person born with light. But he isn’t alone in that. We all have a light inside of us. If we choose to believe in ourselves. To believe in one another.”

Layla and Ernie hold one another up, arms wrapped together and I see the strength they have gathered by doing this.

“I am going to ask you to be brave like Lukas has been today. He chose to give of himself when he knew the cost. I’m asking you to give when you don’t, because you don’t know what will happen when we hold hands and you find the light within yourself, and send it to him.”

Everyone nods in understanding, or maybe it’s not understanding. Maybe it’s hope. Hope in something we don’t understand.

Maybe it’s faith.

Maybe it’s
trust
.

Trust in the unseen, the unknown. Even if it’s scary. Even if it wracks us with fear. We can choose to be fearless and walk through this part, together.

I press my left hand on Lukas’s still heart and I clasp my right hand in Junie’s. And she takes Duke’s, who takes Agreement’s and so on and so on.

Until all the hands hold onto trust and faith and hope in the power of the unseen. The Humblemen and Vessels, the Council and the Cowboys are gathered in this circle we have created. Then, with a force we may never understand, the prophecy that never really was, comes to life.

The Rainbow Children bring the kaleidoscope of color to the Energy Room, to the stairwell, to the marble hallways of the Refuge. There are shades of red and green and blue and yellow coming out from every single person gathered here. There is no darkness; there is no muddled grey. The rainbow of color bursts forth from our hearts and our souls. We create a power greater than ourselves as we stand together, united in this one goal.

In bringing Lukas back to the land of the living.

It’s a different light that pours out of us; it isn’t like the Haven’s tranquil white shimmer. It is stronger, deeper, truer. It’s a life-breathed light that is in all of us, and none of us and everything and nothing.

It is because it isn’t.

It defies gravity and reason. It defies the energy Layla and Ernie searched for and never found. It is right here. They had the energy all along. They had power inside themselves since the beginning.

They just saw it in someone else. They saw it in Lukas, instead of themselves.

Looking at Lukas I want to believe I see something, a slight trace of his white light.

I press my lips to his. Wanting to give him the breath of life his body seeks. “Lukas, come back.” My tears fall and Junie presses her hand against mine, tighter. Everyone continues to pour their strength toward Lukas.

“Do you feel it? The Rainbow Children are real. It’s all of us. Not just you and me,” I whisper to him, wanting his soul to hear the truth, the thing he felt made his life a sham. He gave himself up believing that what he lived for had been a waste, a farce.

But it is real.

And then I feel his lips press against mine and his hands wrap around my face as he grabs hold of me.

Grabs a hold of life.

“Lukas!” I cry his name through my tears and the room erupts in smiles and shouts of relief. And he’s alive.

“I thought you left me, forever,” I say, looking into his bright eyes, filled once again with life.

“I could never stay away. I swear it, Lucy. You are the light of my life, of my heart.”

83.

Lukas

When I thought I was leaving this life, going to a place I never really considered, all I could think about were all the things I never had a chance to do.

It was this sense of regret of a life not fully lived.

I don’t know why I had to die to realize just how much I had to live for, but once my eyes opened and I looked into her bright eyes, I knew.

I knew how very precious this life we have is.

I realized the reason Lucy knew taking the lives of the Councilmen was not an option. If they can have a chance at living,
really living
, they should have it.

The room is full of the cocoon of colors Lucy and I have always created when we let our worlds collide. It is no longer ours alone, it’s somehow better.

“The Rainbow Children….” I say, seeing the truth through the colors.

“It’s all of us.” Lucy takes my hands and we stand, and the room suddenly erupts in applause, wild cheers fill the air. With hands no longer held, the color is gone, no longer pulsing as the rainbow it just was. But the air is still charged with the energy of people working together.

“You’re here.” Mother cries in my arm, as she pulls me into a hug. “We really thought….”

“How did you figure it out, how to bring me back?” I ask.

“Junie,” she answers, looking at the girl who somehow knows more than the rest of us.

“Thank you,” I say softly. “For being my friend, for saving my life.”

Junie wraps her skinny arms around me, as if in disbelief.

“I just can’t believe it worked,” she says, laughing. “You are one crazy dude, Lukas. What would we have done with Lucy if you’d left her? She was a mess!”

“I’m glad we don’t have to find out.”

“Me too,” says Basil stepping forward. “I mean, I lost my mind once, and I don’t wish it on anyone. Especially Lucy. She’d be, like, trying to heal herself at the same time she was going crazy. It would all be very confusing.”

Colton puts his arm around Basil. “You’re seriously the funniest girl I know.”

“More importantly, the smartest,” Basil says with a smirk. “I always knew Lukas was special. And look, he’s a Saint. He died for the freaking Councilmen. I’d never do that!”

She goes silent when we all realize Conviction and Discernment have walked toward us.

“Nobleman, you have changed me,” Conviction says. “I am forever in your debt. If you will forgive me….” he falters, and then bows to me.

“Don’t do that,” I say, firmly. “No more. This light, it is back, but it’s changed. Just like I gave up my anger in flames, I gave up my light, my holy light. I gave it up for you. I am no longer the Nobleman. I’m Lukas.”

Lucy takes my hand and we realize the reaction our bodies usually have when we touch is gone.

She gasps, shaking her head. “Oh, Lukas.” She runs out of the Energy Room, past the crowds of the once-strong fold. I follow after her as she turns down the hall.

“Stop,” I call after her.

She swings open a door I know well. I wind up the staircase after her, although she’s yards ahead of me.

“Lucy, stop.”

I reach the top and I see she’s slipped through the window and stepped out to the ledge. Our ledge.

She stands there, her hair blowing in the wind; her eyes closed as she lets the sky fold around her. The sun is high, beaming down on her.

“Lukas, I’m so sorry.”

“What do you have to be sorry for?”

“Everything. You’ve given up so much. Don’t you see, you’re light is gone. You did that because I asked you too. I asked you to keep those men alive. And if I’d just let you ki--” She buries her head in my shoulder.

“Shh … shh … Lucy. It is all exactly as it should be. You can’t rewind the steps that it took to get us here, where we are right now.”

“I know, I’ve been so upset with you, ever since you came back to me with Perfection. I held it against you and doubted you, doubted us. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too. For pushing you further into this then you ever wanted to go. I was so desperate to be … be … important that I lost myself.“

“And now you’ve lost your light.”

“Do you still love me, even if I’m not the prophet? If I’m just Lukas.”

“I love you because you
are
Lukas, not because of the light or the prophecy or anything else. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“Even though we no longer have our color wheel when we kiss?”

“Can you still heal?” I ask.

“I don’t know. But if I can, it is all different now. I can go back to being Lucy.”

“You’re still glowing,” I say, tilting her face to the sky.

“I know, I’m a green glowing freak.”

“No, you’re glowing because you are
alive
.”

And I kiss her, out here on our ledge. Like I kissed her before, when we were here, alone, when took down the power at the Refuge.

The kiss that started it all.

84.

Charlie

Everyone files out of the Refuge, itching for sunlight, wanting to experience real rays on our faces. Man-made light is no longer enough.

“Do you think people will stay here?” Perfection asks, twirling her hair in her fingers. We sit down on a grassy hill where people have gathered. Vessels have brought out food and hand out sandwiches to anyone who wants one.

“The Refuge has a lot to offer. Their gardens alone are insane, but I don’t know if it’s enough anymore. If people stay they’ll be isolated here, with no way off. The Light should have invested in sailboats.”

“A sailboat runs without fuel?” Perfection asks, curiously. I have to remind myself how little she knows beyond the walls of the Refuge.

“Yeah, I’ve passed this big one a bunch of times. It’s pulled into the driveway of an abandoned house.”

“Where?” her eyes gleaming.

“By the Headquarters, near my parents’ house. But why would anyone use it? I mean, where would you go?”

“We could go somewhere together. If that’s what you wanted.”

“Where?”

“Anywhere.”

“I don’t want to run away, Perfection.”

“Well, what do you want then?”

“I want to stay with you and build a life. I want a house and a garden and friends and play the harmonica around a fire with the girl I love by my side. That’s the adventure I want.”

“I can give you that.”

She kisses me, and it’s impossible not to smile, knowing we met years ago at this very Refuge. Grew up here, and now we’ll never grow apart.

Our kiss is interrupted. “Perfection?” Discernment calls out.

“Oh, sorry. Hello, Humbleman.”

“Dad. Call me Dad.” He walks over with Honor. “We wanted to say … so many things. But first, we’re sorry. For ever coming here. For letting this place be our home for so many years.”

“Stop, you didn’t know. And you lost your way.” Perfection’s poised words fall out of her mouth. “We’re lucky. We survived.”

“Even so, we knew many years ago how bad things we becoming, but we’d found our home here,” Honor says. “We let the things we knew were wrong, slide. We lost our way and failed you.”

“You can start again,” I say, surprising myself. “We’re going to start over, and so can you. Be our neighbors. Be our family.”

Perfection pulls her parents in for a hug and a warmth flows through me. Mom and Dad are at the top of the hill, and I wave them down.

Mom’s face is flush with joy, she’s seeing the full circle, and it’s like this huge gust of fresh air.

“What are your plans, after the celebration dies down?” I ask.

“So many happy reunions are happening up there, in the courtyard,” Dad says. “Cowboys and Vessels who have been separated for years have finally found one another.”

“And the plan is,” Mom explains. “Whoever wants to leave, which I’m guessing is everyone, will go on the ferry back towards the Headquarters. We’ll take everyone to the mainland and everyone can decide what they want to do next.”

“How will the ferry operate?” Honor asks.

“There’s enough energy stored from when Lukas drove it earlier to get us back to shore. We aren’t far. See,” Mom points to a speck of green across the water. “That’s where we’re headed. We can make it there.”

“Then we’ll go. Together,” I say, taking Perfection’s hand.

85.

Lucy

Every single one of us has filed onto the ferry. No one chose to stay behind. For some they are leaving the only life they’ve known and you can see the uncertain excitement in their eyes. I couldn’t be happier for the Vessels and Humblemen who are beginning their lives for the very first time.

I know what it is like.

It wasn’t long ago I was that girl, leaving the shelter of the compound for the very first time. Taking off the helmet of my Hazmat suit with terror pulsing though me. Taking a bite of an apple as Mom did cartwheels in the forbidden green grass.

I am thankful, in a way that feels wrong, but also right, that Dad and the others made that pact so many years before. The pact to drink the poison the night the food ran out. The pact that took their life, because it gave me mine.

I stand next to Lukas, patiently supporting him as Vessels and Humblemen, who I suppose are now just men and women, come by to give him hugs and kisses on his cheeks. So many people want to give him their love and support.

Jax stands next to a woman I know, a woman who holds a very tender piece of my heart. Duty. The woman who knew Mom best here at the Refuge. I pull away from Lukas and walk over to them.

“Lucy,” Jax says, holding a picture in his hand. I look at them, trying to find the connection. Looking closer I see it’s a picture of a much younger Duty. That picture. In the back of my mind, I know I’ve seen it before. 

“How do you know one another?” I ask.

“Reagan gave me this picture. His wife.”

My stomach crawls as I remember where I have seen this picture. Ages ago, beneath the cedar tree with Junie and Colton, I rifled thought Reagan’s bag looking for something to help Timid’s pain.

Timid.

“You were Reagan’s wife and Timid’s mother.” The realization overwhelms me.

“Yes,” Duty says. “He took us to The Light when Timid was a baby. It was very dangerous in the world and you know how things go from here … I didn’t have much of a choice to leave when I realized what we’d really joined.”

“I understand. I’m so sorry … about your losses.” The words escape in a hiccup of tears.

“I never expected to see Reagan again. Once I learned the truth about why Integrity sent Timid, I knew. But really, Lucy, I knew that living with her as long as I did was a gift. Not all the women at The Light were as lucky.” She sets her hand on my arm. She remembers. Remembers Mom.

“Timid was a very strong girl. She helped me find my way many times when I thought all was lost,” I say. “And Jax knew Timid too.”

“To think his daughter was right there, at the Safe House.” Jax shakes his head. “His one dream in life was to find her again. And there she was, but no one had eyes to see. I’m so sorry.”

They embrace and I pull away, letting them relive memories of Reagan. They both knew him as a man I never did, and this is their reunion to share.

I walk over to Lukas and pull him from his adoring fans.

“Want to come out to the deck with me?” I ask.

“Anywhere you want.”

“Do you think we’re going to drive people crazy with our sappy love story?” I ask.

“I hope so.”

Stepping outside, we see what a beautiful night it is. Our friends are all out here, laughing and talking. Somehow we keep finding one another. I hope that never changes. 

Everyone has paired up and I can’t help but smile. Maybe we aren’t the only ones with a sappy story. Duke lifts Junie off the ground to her delight. She screams as he swings her around. Colton twirls Basil as Charlie plays his harmonica, filling the sky with sounds of another life. A life that has somehow become ours. We’re no longer defined by the blackout.

Perfection looks adoringly at Charlie. Watching them I see how perfectly they work together and what a disaster swapping places would have been.

I lean over the railing, letting the wind fill my sails. The ones that have felt empty for so long.

“Lucy, look,” Lukas points to the horizon.

The sun sets in the west.

The sky fills with the same colors that filled the Energy Room hours ago. It takes my breath away.

“Charlie said there was a massive sailboat by your parents’ house.”

“Do you want to chase the sun?” Lukas asks me.

“I do.”

*****

I’ve always dreamed of Light. The kind that came when I closed my eyes tight but still seemed too far away for me to hold.

Even when I found the green flicker of light in my hand, I never knew how powerful it really was. I didn’t understand that it has always been right here, in front of me.

When the lights went out in the world, somehow that energy was absorbed by Lukas. Yes. And that light was tremendous and fearsome. His light was different then the light I discovered. 

The light we all discovered.

The light that is inside of me.

Inside of us all.

THE END

****

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