Glow Read Online Free Page B

can’t have people in this world just doing whatever they want all the time. Look where doing what I wanted has gotten me. Maybe it isn’t the worst idea, to help set someone straight. Like the sacred text says, “Darkness is needed to better see the Light .” Maybe that is truth. The suffering that comes from our choices is what we want to avoid, but should we?
    According to these ideas, I should have been put in a dark room just like Basil and Hana-Grace. It would have been better than making my own decisions and making things worse.
    Sitting down and leaning against the house, I flip to a page a haven’t read yet, in Integrity’s neat scrawl,
    “Lucy and the Nobleman have grown closer, and it is no surprise she told the Haven today that they were to be Bound.”
    This was the night Lucy bowed before me, along with the entire fold, and announced our Binding. That night was so special, I had never felt so treasured. So wanted.
    “ These two are the Rainbow Children I had hoped they were. They must stay here, together, if The Light is to survive. The Council is too corrupt, everything has changed course for too long. But now it can return to what it once was.”
    What are the Rainbow Children? I have so many things I want to talk to Integrity about. How can we make The Light whole once more? I have ideas of my own. Ideas of how we can better generate energy, and maybe even condense the Refuges into two instead of three. Ideas I have ruminated over in my head during the years I sat in the Energy Room.
    “I have long felt displaced. It happened slowly, over time. My opinions mattered less and less, but I am invigorated as I think of the world we can create once more.”
    “What are you reading?” Perfection slips into view, stealthily. She’s not herself, her tangled blond hair loose from the braid, walking across the damp green grass in her bare feet, circles under her eyes.
    “Nothing.” I close the journal. “You look tired, maybe you should get some more rest?”
    “I thought maybe you could show me how to read, Junie is making a fuss about teaching Timid and Hana. Maybe you could use that book of yours?” Her syrupy words a little too sweet for me. “Don’t you want to?” She looks at me with a deranged smile, pushing strands of hair from her face.
    “Umm, not now. Maybe later, Perfection.” Looking up at her while she rubs her hands nervously, I ask, “Are you okay?”
    “Of course I’m okay. I just wanted to spend some time with you is all. But clearly you’re too busy out here doing nothing to be with me!” She turns, stomping away as quickly as she came.
    I puff out my cheeks, releasing a long exhale. I can’t make her happy, and maybe it’s selfish, but I don’t even want to try to make her happy at this point. I just want to get back to The Light to talk to Integrity and begin my future with Lucy.
    I’m tired of feeling displaced, just like Integrity wrote in his journal. I’m ready to belong.
     

10.
     
    Lucy
     
    The sounds of laughter wake me. Genuine laughing. I haven’t heard the hums of happiness for far too long. I smile to myself as I lie in my bed, relishing the noise.
    A big thud in the study causes me to sit up, but the crash is followed by big belly laughs. Colton.
    I stand and instinctively make my bed, folding the corners of the blue comforter tight under the mattress. There is no order in disorder. Dad’s voice rings in my head.
    I look down at myself, still in my pajamas, but not caring enough to change. I re-braid my long, tousled red hair, as I slip out of my room quickly, not wanting to miss the good mood in the other room. I want some of it to rub off on me.
    Colton’s on the treadmill. God, I hate that thing. Exercise for energy. Another favorite compound quote. And it was vital. That treadmill recharged our batteries and allowed us to have a small lamp in the evening or operate our security devices. It powered our stovetop. It was our lifeline.
    “Hey,