Luminosity Read Online Free

she leaves, brushing by Gabe as she does so. “You should be hurrying along to the Training Games, shouldn’t you?” But she doesn’t wait for an answer. The “suggestion” is enough.
    “Interesting, Seer Beatrice. You should be hurrying along to the Training Games, shouldn’t you?” Gabe mocks the Keeper when she’s out of earshot. He’s dead-on with his impersonation, staunch and stuck-up just like her. “It is interesting though. Funny that you should have a Vision that makes absolutely no sense after having one that was almost too clear for your own good.”
    “Yeah, I don’t understand it either. I keep hearing him calling me. Even now, after the Vision, I can hear him…”
    “You didn’t tell the Keeper that.”
    “She didn’t ask, did she?” I smile through the pain in my head.
    “No, I guess she didn’t.” Gabe taps his fingers on the frame of the doorway, as if waiting for something. “So, when are you going to get dressed? We have to be at training in…oh, fifteen minutes? And I shouldn’t stick around any longer than I have to.”
    I groan since the last thing I want to do with a splitting headache is any extra work. But I have no choice. We have the Training Games today, and if I let my team down and we fail, Team B will never let us get over it and there’s no way I’m going to allow for them to get a one-up on us.
    Rolling out of the bed, I stretch my arms over my head and glance into the mirror. My eyes are still glowing, which probably explains why I still hear the echo of my name reverberating through my mind. The Vision doesn’t feel over, but at the same time I know it has to be, or I wouldn’t be able to function. “Fine, fine. I’ll meet you down in the lobby in fifteen.”
    “See you there, Bea.” Gabe leaves me to get dressed. I pull on my black jumpsuit and fasten my name tag opposite the violet eye embroidered on the right chest. My black hair is tightly bound in a bun high at the crown of my head. I lace up my knee-high combat boots and head out of the bunk.
    The halls of the Institution are all the same: dark with dim bulbs that line the floors, with beams of light striating up the walls. Other Seers, also dressed for the Training Games, are heading in the same direction I am. Every few feet, a new door opens to another bunk, one for each resident. Some doors are still sliding closed, filling the hall with hydraulic hissing that mingles with the other participants’ excited murmuring.
    The loudspeaker crackles as the Keeper’s voice echoes through the building. “The Training Games will begin in five minutes. Those players not assembled at that time will forfeit, and their teams will take a point loss.”
    Rounding into the lobby, I spot Gabe and jog in his direction. “You ready for this?”
    “Ready as I’ll ever be. Just remember our new tactics…and stay out of the lights.” Gabe looks at me in concern. Specifically, he looks at my forehead, as if trying to gauge the pain there. “Are you ready, though?”
    “Do I have a choice?” I don’t. The Training Games are mandatory, especially now with the City on lockdown.
    Our team lines up in pairs in front of a large door marked with a big, silver “A.” Everyone holds a machine gun. Instead of live ammunition, the guns are equipped with laser sights that when aimed and fired send a shock through the opponent’s uniform. The better the shot, the more painful the shock. You are out when you can’t take the pain anymore…in other words, when you are unconscious.
    I don’t plan on being unconscious, though. Team A has a pretty good record, truth be told. So far this year we are eighty-three and seven, those seven being the few, rare times that Team B or Team C managed to cut us down. The other teams are classified differently, made up of newer and less-trained Seers. For example, Team A would never go up against Team M, because poor Team M wouldn’t stand a chance in the arena with us. They are still