Glow Read Online Free Page A

the shelves, but never fought for more for myself?
    Fear.
    My life had been planted in fear and those roots went deep. I don’t want to be like that anymore. I want to cover these walls in color, shoot up from the earth like a blade of grass. I don’t want to stay underground, in the dark. I want my life saturated with the kind of color that swirls around Lukas and me when our bodies collide.
    The compound is peaceful as I try to reconcile myself with the past, but then the room outside my door grows loud, cutting short my rest. Charlie and Lukas begin shouting at one another in the study. The walls are thin, and though I can’t make out their words, I can take a guess. Not even reunited for twenty-four hours and already tensions are high.
    I hear them leave the house through the front door, and the air of the house settles once more. Intent on not letting myself get worked up about what they are mad about, I close my eyes, hoping they can come to some sort of understanding. They have a lot of ground to cover; for starters they could discuss what’s happening with their parents. Why we aren’t going to them right now. Why Charlie and I chose to leave without saying good-bye.
    My eyes drop to a close; heavily weighted with the thoughts of the two boys my heart has a tight hold on. As my eyelids shut, I’m lulled back to the place I always go, where the Light dances inside me.
     

8.
     
    Charlie
     
    Lukas is quieter once we’re outside. I don’t understand him, he’s a literal ball of energy, too explosive for me. I want things steady, he wants things to combust. And all because he’s lived too many years trapped, never having practiced spreading the breadth of his wings.
    “I just want to see them. It’s the moment I’ve wanted for the past six years -- wanted even when I thought they chose to leave me. They’re my parents. You wouldn’t understand because you’ve always had them.” His words smack bitterly and his Light burns brighter as he speaks.
    “Lucy did it for you. She knew if we stayed with Mom and Dad they’d convince you to help them. She didn’t want that for you.”
    “So now?”
    “Now I guess you and Lucy have to figure out what happens next. The rest of us are here for you both, we have no place else to go.”
    “Do you think Mom and Dad are bad people?” Lukas looks at me, this lost-then-found brother. This person who is nothing like me, but a person who shares my DNA-- he’s my family. I don’t want to let him down because he’s suffered more than I’ll ever understand.
    “They aren’t bad people, Lukas. Just misguided.”
    “Aren’t we all?” he asked. Regret crosses his face as though every misguided choice weighs him down. As though everything weighs him down.
    I feel sorry for him, my brother. He’s only just decided to be his own person and it resulted in the one he loves being betrayed.
    It all keeps coming back to her.

9.
     
    Lukas
     
    I walk away from Charles, needing space. That seems to be the one thing we can both agree on.
    I look to the right and see the large ring of ash now settled on the ground. I’m not interested in going that way, to the past. Instead I warp to the back of the domed circle and sit with my back against its curved wall. Grass grows high and large evergreen trees surround the property. It’s a secluded home, which makes sense. The entire point of her parents building here was for isolation. It’s hard to imagine a world before. Before houses-in-hiding were one of the only ways to stay alive. Before Refuges were the safest choice.
    Back here, hidden from everyone’s eyes, I reach in my pocket and take out Integrity’s journal. I hesitated to open it after I read how the dark rooms were his idea as a measure of creating subordinate Vessels.
    But then Integrity helped Perfection, Basil, Hana-Grace, and I escape.
    And now I don’t know anything anymore.
    Maybe the dark rooms are for people’s own good. Who am I to say they aren’t? We