At about this point the first pedestrian scream ripped across the beach. If Larissa hadn’t been in the haze of shock, she might have turned to see where the scream came from. Instead her gaze was frozen on Zach’s back, shredded apart like the stripes of a tiger. More screams flooded the beach, people were fleeing, a baby wailed in the distance, a man was on the phone for the police, but Larissa hadn’t moved. The blood had stained the sand in such a crimson that when the waves came up to clean it, it dispersed the blood by soaking in the red and making it look like a greater horror than what it already was.
Tourists were running around her, hurrying out of the way for fear of being the next victim but once more Larissa didn’t even budge. Slowly another woman approached her through the chaos. It wasn’t until they were an arm’s length away that Larissa finally slid her eyes to the side.
“I tried to warn you.” Ithaca muttered glancing at the corps.
Heat rose to Larissa’s cheeks as her friend’s dead body reflected back in her damp eyes. When she closed them, Larissa tried to pull herself as far away from the moment to remember what Ithaca had told her on the mountain. There was something about how her powers were unstoppable; she wouldn’t know when the next outburst would be and she wouldn’t know how to control them. Ithaca said she could help…
“I warned you.” Repeated Ithaca.
“SHUT-UP!!” Larissa roared whipping herself around. She had no idea where the sudden burst came from but the look in Ithaca’s eyes conveyed she was hardly surprised. “You are not my family and you never will be! I don’t need you in my life!” she raged pulling her fist back. “Leave me ALONE!!”
When her fist launched forward, it was like watching someone else control her body. Larissa only showed violence with her words and never with her actions, but even as her fist flew, she had no regret.
Larissa’s fist was headed straight for Ithaca’s beautiful face. But even with supernatural speed behind the punch, Ithaca managed to smirk before swerving out of the way. The blow had come from an inexperienced fighter so Larissa let her body swing forward with momentum. That was the technique Ithaca was waiting for. Without a moment’s notice, she snatched onto Larissa’s extended wrist and pressed her other hand on Larissa’s back. With Larissa still leaning forward, all Ithaca had to do was give a light nudge between Larissa’s shoulder blades to send her face into the sand.
Quickly Ithaca squatted over Larissa’s back and pinned the captured wrist against her spine. Larissa let out a howl of pain as Ithaca jammed her knee into the back of Larissa’s forearm. When Larissa opened her mouth to call her capturer a filthy Spanish name, she ended up inhaling sand and gagging as Ithaca spoke.
“You don’t have to treat me like your cousin Larissa.” Ithaca insisted as she tried to balance atop the gagging. “I am trying to help you. You are not alone. I have powers too.”
It hadn’t dawned on her until Ithaca said it. It would have been impossible for any natural to pin her down while she was fighting with all her might. With that realization, Larissa quit resisting but she was still coughing.
“I can teach you how to control it.” Ithaca continued loosening her grip as well, “Please Larissa, if food and shelter don’t appeal to you, at least join me so I can help you stop ruining your life. That’s all.”
With her grip finally loosened, Larissa was able to knock Ithaca off. She climbed to her feet spitting the last of the sand from her tongue and glancing once more at her surroundings. The strangers were still running around but abandoned beach towels seemed more abundant than people. The sound of sirens wailed in the distance and just over Ithaca’s golden glow of hair, red and blue lights flashed against a building.
“You have one minute before they show up.” Ithaca said unfazed. “So I’m asking once more and possibly for the last time, Larissa will you join me?”
Join what?! Larissa wanted to bellow. But the remains of her dead friend had caught her attention. She couldn’t bear to lose control again. What if that had been Ammon? Or Lee? Larissa wasn’t a murderer and if only she had taken Ithaca’s word, Zach could still be alive.
“Yes,” she finally muttered despicably. “You can have me.”
Wickedly, Ithaca’s lips pulled back in a satisfactory grin and before saying anything else, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a cell phone. “Get rid of the body.” She said handing Larissa the phone, “and expect me to give you a call within the next hour.”
Larissa took the sleek black device and stared at her reflection in the touch screen. “How do I get rid of the body?” she asked slipping the phone in her pocket.
Ithaca tilted her head to the side. “You have powers don’t you?” she asked rhetorically, “use them.”
Though that wasn’t the response she was looking for, an idea popped into Larissa’s head. She had managed to levitate the night Ammon discovered who she was. Perhaps she could do it again. Without thinking twice, Larissa bolted for the corpse. She grabbed under Zach’s contorted arms just as she leaped in the air. Then she was soaring. The wind rushed through her hair as she continued to climb into the atmosphere.
For as remarkable a moment taking flight should have been, Larissa couldn’t feel a thing. Too many emotions and thoughts clouded her mind. But the only thought to take over was the idea of burying the body hanging from her arms. She willed herself to soar into the mountains and that was all Ithaca saw before vanishing from the crime scene.
~In the grog of early morning, pots and pans tinkering from the kitchen managed to make its way to Lotus’s ear. That must be Haileigh, Lotus thought in her sleep as she pulled the covers over her head. How sweet of her to bring a blanket and make breakfast… Perhaps Lee had turned on the radio as she cooked around the kitchen because Michael Caster’s voice lulled her into a dream. In her subconscious Michael was there and they were touring in France again. After a show, they had gone out to eat for the first time as a couple. Before her sleeping mind could make her relive the past, a gentle shake of the shoulders had awoken her.
She sat up quickly and nearly forgot she had fallen asleep on the grey medallion sofa. Her blanket fell to her lap just as the throw pillows she had been using to cushion her head landed on the white rug. When she glanced at the person that had awoken her, his name escaped her lips with a gasp.
“Michael!” she exclaimed, “How did you get in here?!” But she knew the answer before he replied. She had never woken up with an intruder in her home before and even though it was Michael, she still didn’t like the idea that he had invaded her privacy. “What are you doing here?”
In his hands a trey of breakfast food waited to be eaten. Two sausage rolls sat on the main plate with a side of sunny eggs and a small bowl of pineapples. He set the meal on her lap as she stared at it in bewilderment.
“For me?” she asked dumbstruck.
Michael smiled and waited for Lotus to put her feet on the rug before sitting beside her. “I’ve always wanted to cook breakfast for you Lozey.” He said with a smile, “Mum used to make sausage rolls for special occasions. I hope you like them. I’m not the cook she is.”
Lotus hadn’t realized her mouth was open until she shut it to gaze at her ex. She wasn’t sure what time in the morning it was. But the sun had already risen and the light streaming in from the glass window illuminated both his brown eyes so they looked like the button eyes of a teddy bear. Instead of having the colored part of his hair drape in his face, Michael had managed to brush it across his forehead so that it covered everything above the crease in his eyelids.
“For special occasions, huh?” Lotus asked finally finding her voice and picking up a hotdog-sized roll. “What’s so special you had to break into my house and make me breakfast?”
Michael’s calm complexion took a back step at her question. “Sorry Loze, I didn’t think you would mind me breaking in. You know what I am now so…”
Lotus hadn’t meant to offend him so she cut him off quickly. “It’s fine Caster. You
just startled me.” To change the subject, Lotus took a bite from the roll and gestured to his clothes. “It must not be that special of an occasion if you’re wearing jeans and a hoodie. Are you opening up a thrift store?”
Michael made a short laugh. “Nah Loze.” Then he hesitated before saying, “I miss you. I know I wasn’t the best boyfriend. Asking you for something more was wrong of me and I’m sorry.” He paused before taking a seat beside her and saying, “But now that you know everything there is to know about me, do you think we could start over? Please? I want to show you what I do as King. It’s a side of me no one really knows about but I want you to see.”
Lotus swallowed hard even before she took a bite. She had always hated the idea of bandits and criminals. For Michael to invite her to see how they operated was the last thing she would have ever agreed to. But at the same time, perhaps seeing what he did would give her an insight to the numerous questions that lay within her family.
“I’m curious as to what you do as King.” She said before taking a bite. “I’ve been learning so much about supernatural lately my brain is about to pop.”
Michael nodded. “There is so much you don’t know Lozey.” For a moment they held eyes and the eager look behind Michael’s eyes made Lotus think there was more he wanted to tell her. Even his mouth hung half open as if willing his mind to spill some more thoughts but nothing came.
“So what should I wear?” asked Lotus moving onto the next sausage roll. “I assume we are going to hang-out for a majority of today. Should I look thrifty or like I’m excited to see you cut the ribbon?”
Michael beamed, “Honestly Loze, I’m just happy to be spending time with you again. But you should probably wear something warm. I know you hate the cold and its cold as where we’re going.”
Cold as what? Lotus wanted to ask but she knew that was just an Australian expression. “How cold?” she asked instead.
Michael shrugged but stepped into Lotus’s room. “Reckon it’s fifteen degrees in Arizona.”
“Fifteen degrees!?!” Lotus wailed. But even as she said it, she couldn’t help but wonder if it were even possible to be that cold in Arizona.
Michael rolled his eyes “Fifteen degrees Celsius. Americans… I think it’s 60 in your units but my math isn’t the brightest. Either way, grab a coat.”
Lotus nodded before finishing her first sausage roll. “Alrighty then. Just let me finish this breakfast. It’s really good by the way so thanks Chef Caster.”
This only made Michael smile wider. Seeing her happy brought back old memories for him. He wanted to lean in and whisper that he loved her, but they were no longer together. His feelings still hadn’t changed, but he knew he couldn’t keep acting like they were an item.
Michael didn’t have to say anything. Lotus could read his thoughts through his eyes. Instead of letting the moment linger, Lotus asked instead, “When should we leave?”
Michael snapped from his trance and reached for his cell phone. “We probably have half an hour- oh. Nope. I need to be there in ten.”
“But you’re the King. You can show up late and it’s whatever right?”
Again Michael shook his head, “Nah. Enough people think I’m arrogant and I’m not exactly proud of that.”
That statement surprised her. She knew he had his arrogant moments, but she had no idea he knew that about himself. “Oh,” Lotus mentioned stupidly, “Well, let me throw something on real quick then we can go.” She stood up and snagged the bowl of pineapple before handing the trey to her friend. “Thanks again for the breakfast. I’ll be right back.”
She nibbled on a piece of fruit as she hurried up the steps. In no time she was in her room and throwing on a pair of jeans. The array of tops in her closet stretched on for miles but hanging to the back of the closet door was a letterman jacket her character wore in her latest movie Stuck. Quickly she grabbed it and tossed it over her shoulders.
When she stepped out of her closet, Michael was right there to greet her.
“Michael!” She exclaimed jumping back.
“Sorry!” He exclaimed, “But we’re late!” He smiled as he reached for her. Lotus let his fingers weave into hers even though her hand was as stiff as a block. When she glanced up at Michael she could tell he was letting the moment linger where they touch. Old feelings were beginning to swell up inside her and she let her fingers fit around his like they used to.
Then the world was spinning and suddenly Lotus had lost her footing. The whites and silvers of her bathroom whirled around before being replaced with swirling reds and browns. A cozy blue sky was beginning to settle before her eyes just as small tuffs of desert shrubs began to spot along her vision. Then her feet were slammed to the ground and she reached for Michael to steady. As she looked up at him, the vast landscape of an Arizona desert literally took her breath away because she had never seen anything like it before.
He had taken her to the top of a plateau with only a step away from the fifty foot plummet to the pile of rocks and dirt mounded beneath them. From where she stood, Michael’s eyes seemed to come in line with the faded horizon and the red in his hair seemed to accent the red in the rocks around her. Over his shoulder, three separate plateaus decorated the flat stretch of desert like three separate cities raised on a pedestal. Against the pale sky a portion of their silhouettes cut like jagged bar graphs against the clouds while the cliff faces made her imagine towering Tarrillian buildings molding to form a single mass.
She hadn’t noticed that it was a later time in Arizona than it was in Hawaii until she glanced up at the sun at noon. Not a single plateau shadow stretched out over the prairie of brown rock. A breeze of dry winter air chapped her lips as she kept her awestruck gaze over the scene. When a cloud drifted by, Lotus watched it’s shadow roll over the patches of different colored earth; moving from greens to browns to reds and even yellows. She could stay there forever just admiring the scene.
“Wow.” Lotus managed to say after what felt like an eternity of staring. “Michael, this is beautiful.”
The boy smiled and reflexively reached to caress her cheek but his hand stopped halfway and he turned around to gaze at the surroundings. “Yeah. It’s pretty inspirational. It’s nothing like Australia but it’s close enough. I can show you sometime, if you’d like.”
Lotus kept her eyes out on the flat brown land that stretched on forever. “Yeah,” she agreed, “I’d like that.” She kept staring at the landscape eventually panning over to a cluster of plateaus so numerous they looked like mountains. That’s when Michael’s hand found hers once more. Just before Lotus could ask what he was doing, the world was spinning again but the brown-red hues of the desert remained the same.
When their feet touched down, she was at the base of a giant mound of dirt worn like a skirt against the towering plateau. Giant boulders scattered about the mound of lose rocks as the runoff from past rain showers carved veins into its surface. In between the grooves and rocks, small tuffs of bushes helped accent the scenery. Lotus hadn’t noticed how cold it was until the wind picked up and she folded her arms before turning around and gazing at what Michael was looking at.
Being on the floor of the desert made her feel so small. Especially with a towering plateau just behind her. But what she was now looking at didn’t just make her feel small, she was a weakling and entirely helpless. Instinctively she grasped onto Michael’s arm and took a step back as she tried to keep her face from expressing any amount of fear.
She knew Michael was going to show her the underground life, but it hadn’t dawned on her just how scary it was until she saw them. Almost a dozen men formed a half circle with some sort of firearm as a handful of armed Jeeps added to their numbers. Even though it was cold, some of the men hadn’t bothered to wear coats. Instead they loomed around in black and yellow wife beaters and t-shirts as thick ink designs plastered into their muscled skin. In a heartbeat Lotus knew who these thugs were. They were the notorious Tarrillian City gang; the Brotherhood
of Artillery.
“What are we doing here?” Lotus asked her own voice shaking with unease.
Before Michael could respond, three men that had been seated on the hood of a Jeep slid off and began to approach. Their heavy boots crunched against the frozen dirt and with each step Lotus could feel her heart beating even more furiously. If her trembling grip wasn’t enough of a hint to Michael, surely her hammering heart would get his attention.
“It’s alright,” Michael whispered pulling his hand away only to slide his arm over her shoulder. “You’re with me. They wouldn’t dare hurt you.”
Even though his voice was soothing, Lotus couldn’t shake the fact that the men approaching her had guns except for the one in the middle. He was probably a head taller than Michael and the tightness in his black wife beater only managed to show the mountains of cut muscle rippling over his olive-skinned back and down his arms. By far, he was the most built man Lotus had ever seen and it was almost uncanny. His neck was so thick; there was hardly anything to distinguish his shoulders and jawline until he smirked. His beady black eyes gleamed hungrily as he gazed at Lotus. “You brought a friend Highness.” The man said his voice as vicious as a dog on a chain.
Michael nodded and held Lotus a little closer. “I did. And if you so much as look at her wrong, I will rip your arms off myself. Are we clear?”
Lotus had never heard such command behind Michael’s words before and for a moment she was as scared of him as she was of the advancing BOA. When she glanced up at Michael, his brown eyes seemed almost as dark as the man’s shirt. Was this what being the King was all about? Intimidation?
The three men stopped a good distance away as the man in the middle replied, “Of course your Majesty. We are here for you after all.”
The Stelter City Saga: Ultranatural Page 31
