The Stelter City Saga: Ultranatural

by Stefany Valentine Ramirez

  She was going to die. She was going to face the fate that had taken her siblings away from her. The fire was so intense, Lotus wondered if anyone would recognize her corpse after the fire had burnt out. What would her sister do without her? How would Kasper feel? He had told her to stay put and she deliberately disobeyed him. She knew that even though it was her fault, Kasper would never stop blaming himself.

  Her death was as inevitable.

  Just before Lotus was about to give up entirely, she witnessed the most peculiar thing. The wall of fire that seemed to be right on top of her pulled back as if an intense rush of wind had blown it back. Then the fire was spinning. It rose up into the air like a tornado of flames. As it spun, the chunk of ceiling that was moments from crashing down on her was ripped back and pulled into the whirling fire. Lotus watched it spin, faster and faster until the flames had extinguished itself. All the flame within a ten foot radius had been extinguished leaving behind an area of charcoal and burnt cement.

  Perplexed, Lotus couldn’t figure out what else to do but gape at the relief of flames surrounding her. As she stared at the space, she could feel the ball of water around her to strengthen. She commanded the wall of water to strengthen around until she heard a familiar voice call her name.

  When she turned around, Kasper stood before her standing on nothing but the air beneath his feet. He was levitating in midair. As Lotus’s eyes widened at his sight, she noticed another fiery vortex blowing out the flames on the ground beneath him. His pale hand was open and extended to the fire as if he were controlling the wind blowing out the flames.

  “You’re a-” Lotus gasped putting the pieces together. Her tongue was tied and the fire must have burnt her brain because she couldn’t choke out the rest of her words.

  Kasper glided towards her like a kite caught in the wind and set his business shoes on the charred cement floor. Before Lotus could say more, Kasper raised his arms. Every tropical breeze seemed to obey his single gesture because the moment he raised his hand, a rush of wind appeared on the scene and pulled the flames up in pillars. Lotus watched as the air seemed to create a sort of invisible barrier. It kept the flames away but only for a moment. She could feel the gust weakening around her. It was only a matter of time before the persistent flames would fall back onto the charred studio.

  “I can’t hold the flames back any longer Lotus.” He said seriously. “We need to go.”

  When Lotus had willed the ball of water around her to vanish, she was suddenly very aware of the charred stench in the air and the droplets of rain falling on her skin.

  “Kasper!” she exclaimed as he scooped her up in his arms effortlessly. “You’re a… a…”

  Before she could say much more, a rush of wind had blown them up into the sky and then they were soaring far, far away from the scene. Lotus watched as the raging fire below continued to incinerate every sliver of the studio that hadn’t been lit. She watched the black smoke billow up and mix with the grey rain clouds that seemed to do nothing to extinguish the flames. They soared higher and higher until the rainclouds and mountains had made the fiery mess vanish. That was when Lotus finally remembered she was in the middle of saying something.

  “Kasper, you’re a half-natural!” She exclaimed over the rush of wet wind.

  Kasper smiled down at her and she watched the droplets of rain run across his pale face like the way rain rushes off speeding cars. “I’m just glad you’re safe, Lotus.”

  “How could you?!” Lotus exclaimed ignoring his remark. She had known him nearly all his life, but he managed to keep that a secret from her all those years. She was grateful that he had come to rescue her, but at the same time, appalled that one of her dearest companions would keep such a massive secret from her. For a moment Lotus forgot about her sister. She even forgot about thanking him for saving her life. Now she was focused on the sole fact that she felt betrayed by him. “You made me keep my secret for years!” She exclaimed, “I thought I was the only one!! And now… Now you’re just like me?!”

  Kasper glanced down at the ocean far beneath them and sighed. “Dad told me not to tell you. I wasn’t keeping it a secret from you. I was doing it for him.”

  Had he said dad? Lotus’s jaw dropped as she gazed into his familiar green eyes. So familiar… too familiar… How could she not have noticed before..?

  “Lambert?” She nearly sobbed.

  He nodded before smiling down at her once more with that familiar joy in his eyes. “You were never alone, Lotus.”

  ~“For the love of all that is good!” Ammon exclaimed as he stepped between his two bickering friends, “Please stop arguing! Both of you!”

  “Well-” began Cassie.

  “Zip it!” Ammon exclaimed.

  “But she-” Josh interrupted.

  “I said enough!” shouted Ammon once more. “Okay, you know what? The two of you can look for Larissa together, I’m going by myself.” And with that, Ammon turned around and began walking back to the studio’s small lobby.

  “Way to go Cassie…” Josh’s voice was fading behind him. “You made him mad.”

  “Please, Josh. I’ll just hotwire that Stelter Hailstorm parked up front for him and he’ll forget why we are even here.”

  They had only just arrived five minutes ago and since then, Josh and Cassie had not learned to stay quiet. It was already going to be hard to find a supernatural that wanted nothing to do with her old friends, and Cassie and Josh’s bickering were only making it worse. If Larissa had heard them, she would have fled. But Ammon was hoping on a miniscule chance that he would find her and that he would be able to talk some sense into her.

  The light coming in from the lobby was just enough to illuminate the dark hallway. Along one side of the hall, a door reading: House Audience Entrance Only illuminated in the gloomy haze. He hadn’t noticed the door before. Most likely because he was too busy fighting the urge to hit his friends in the face. He glanced over his shoulder once more to see if they were still bickering but by then, they had vanished around the corner. With a shrug, Ammon jigged the house entrance door and with a click, it opened.

  Utter darkness greeted him from the inside and anxiously, Ammon fumbled against the wall for a light source but there was nothing.

  “Larissa?” He whispered into the darkness knowing full well that her ears would be able to pick that up even if she were hiding in the farthest corner of the dark room. “Larissa, if you’re in here could we please talk? I’m not mad. I miss you… we all miss you.”

  As he spoke, Ammon reached into his phone and set his home screen to the brightest setting available. When he shut the door behind him, darkness swam around him and his phone was only bright enough to illuminate five feet in front of him. As he shined his phone around, Ammon discovered that the door had lead him to a small cavity between two sets of bleachers. When he took a couple steps forward, his phone was able to illuminate an elevated stage. He didn’t need to see much more to know that he was on the set of the Dylan Dade Show.

  With a sigh, Ammon realized he had walked into a dead end. He had just started to turn around when the faint sound of footsteps behind him made him freeze in his tracks. Before he could strain his ears, all of the house lights turned on, blinding him with their sudden intensity.

  Startled, Ammon nearly dropped his phone as he slapped his hands over his eyes to shield from the brightness.

  The footsteps approached him quickly from behind. “I heard we had some visitors.” A woman’s voice hissed coldly.

  Ammon whirled around and peeled his fingers from his face just for a moment. The barrel of a gun was only inches away from his nose and he stepped back quickly with a startled gasp.

  “What the-?” He began as he blinked the last few stars from his eyes.

  When his eyes finally adjusted to the scene, he finally glanced back at the woman holding the gun. With a gasp, Ithaca had remembered who he was before Ammon could.

  Ammon stared at the woman with familiar eyes w
ide with shock. There was something recognizable about the shape of her lump pink lips as they hung open in astonishment. He almost didn’t realize the height in her cheekbones with the way her long dark hair was pulled back. Nor did he recognize the intensity of gold and green in her eyes. With stilettos on her feet, she was several inches taller than he had remembered.

  Slowly Ithaca lowered her gun and Ammon watched as her eyes began to shimmer as her mind took her back to the times they had known each other. Her hand went limp, so limp that the gun threatened to clatter on the ground. She took a hesitant step back, and as she did so, Ammon’s mind continued to travel back in time as he tried to remember why this stranger looked so familiar.

  Slowly, like the way a rainstorm fills a tank, his memory came back to him in bits and pieces. She was his first kiss. That was why those lips looked so familiar. He had never known just how brilliant her eyes were because she had hidden them with a pair of rectangular glasses. The bold features of her stunning face had been hidden by long bangs that had fallen down to her small nose. She had always been shorter than Ammon, but it was the perfect height when their bodies were pressed together in an interment embrace.

  She was his first love. The women he could never stop thinking about until Larissa came into his life. She was the one he wrote silly notes for. He had written their names in sharpie on the tops of her old shoes. Even after she left him, Ammon had used the strip of pictures taken at the photo booth on their first date as a bookmark for his text books. She was everything to him. And by the way she stared back at him, Ammon knew she never forgot him either.

  His heart seemed to catch on fire just before he muttered her name, “Isobel…”

  Ithaca shook her head and brushed the water from her eyes before they could spill over. “No, Ammon, you can’t be here…” Her voice was almost inaudible. “I don’t want you to see what I’ve become…” Her voice was trembling along with her entire body.

  Since he had remembered who she was, Larissa was blown out of his mind. All the old feelings for Isobel came back in a snap. She was on the verge of tears and the gut wrenching sensation in his core made him reach for her.

  “No!” she barked, stepping back quickly. A cold glare flashed over her eyes. A part of her wanted to point the gun back at his face. The other part wanted to remember what it was like to wrap her arms around him. But she couldn't. She wasn't his Isobel anymore. That part of her died long ago when her uncle Gadiantion found her and reminded her of her terrible past. She was Ithaca Iglesias now; ruthless, merciless, and powerful Ithaca. She knew that, and yet her entire body strained to pull the gun up to his chest.

  "I'm sorry..." she gasped without meaning to. The words seemed to be pulled from her throat.

  Ammon had been too bewildered at the sight of his first love that he had completely forgotten that she was holding a gun until it was pointed at him once more. She had mentioned she had changed... but he didn't know that by change, it meant that she was now a murderer.

  "What are you doing?" he gasped, noticing that her hand was struggling to keep aim. "This isn't you-"

  "Of course it is!" Ithaca screamed. She felt her usual self recovering from the shock of seeing the only man she had ever been in love with. Those feelings were slipping away from her heart but her body and mind were still indecisive. "You don’t know what I've had to do to become the way I am!" She wailed, "It's a shame really. I'm capable of many incredible things." she cocked the gun and felt the confidence swell up inside her. She needed to do this. If she didn't, she knew she would fall back in love with him. Love would be her only weakness.

  Though her words were vicious like a snake, Ammon could read the pain swelling up behind her eyes. He should have been terrified at the very thought of her holding a gun to him. But he couldn't see the killer in her. She needed him more than ever, and though they had been away for years now, his feelings for her had never changed.

  "Isobel," He said calmly as her lips quivered slightly. He raised a hand slowly and set it on the gun.

  Ithaca didn’t resist. She let the weight of his hand glide the gun back down to her side. As she did so, his fingertips brushed against hers. It was as if they had never been separated. The familiar surge of butterflies in her stomach swam up to her chest and she was reaching for him before her mind could tell her not to.

  Ammon didn’t hold back. Their bodies fit together like a puzzle piece as their lips pressed tightly together. Kissing her felt more real in his mind than it did to his touch. She was taller now than he remembered and she had filled out her curves so much more than when they were freshman I high school. As he tilted his head to the side, he reflexively compensated for the glasses that were no longer on her face.

  But the way she moved was what remained the same. The way she pulled on his hip with her long thin fingers and balled her other hand in the hair behind his ear. The way she sighed against his lips when she was satisfied and gasped when she couldn’t get enough; all these things brought back an ocean of memories he had managed to forget one day at a time. It felt so right to be kissing her again, and for the first time in a long time, he didn’t want to let go.

  "Ammon," Ithaca muttered pulling away slightly.

  He didn't want to stop, but somehow, Ammon found it in himself to stop kissing. He pressed his forehead against hers and sighed deeply. "Yes, Bell?" he asked as if only yesterday he had called her by that name.

  Ithaca looked up at him. Her eyes glistening once more with tears. At the sound of her name, Ithaca couldn’t take it anymore. Tears flowed from the corners of her eyes and ran like rivers down her smooth cheeks. She couldn't choke out what she needed to say. The building would burst into flames at any minute now and they both needed to get out immediately.

  Ithaca held him tightly and let the world spin out from under her feet. The sudden event nearly knocked the wind from Ammon's lungs. Before he could understand what was happening, the lush green mountains were spinning into view and the pitter-patter of rain on his brown hair made him realize he had appeared just outside the studio. If Ithaca hadn't been holding on to him, the sudden impact of uneven ground would have sent him to his knees.

  "You can't be here." Ithaca gasped before Ammon's eyes could focus on her face. "Ammon... you need to go."

  "How did you…?” he sputtered rubbing his temple. Before he could finish asking, he had remembered that the reason why they had broken up was because she was capable of doing things like that.

  "Ammon." Ithaca said again, this time more seriously. She slid her hands around so that she was clinging onto the collar of his shirt desperately. "Listen to me-"

  Before she could say anything else, her voice was drowned out by an earthshattering explosion. When Ammon looked up at the studio, an enormous ball of fire was rolling into the air like a monstrous fiery cobra slithering into the sky. Large chunks of metal and wood were thrown into the air. Some of them flying at such high speed, Ammon could have been cut in half. A wall of heat washed over him with such intensity that it incinerated all the humidity from the rainy atmosphere. If Ammon had been any closer, he knew for sure that the sudden explosion would have singed his hair if he were lucky enough to avoid being decapitated by shrapnel.

  Before another ball of fire could roll into the air, Ammon had grabbed onto Ithaca’s hand and was sprinting across the vacant parking lot to the nearest warehouse sized filming studio. The sound of fire feasting on the studio was almost defining and the heat was sending beads of sweat rolling down his neck as they ran. When Ammon glanced over his shoulder, the fire had already sent a section of the large studio crumbling to the ground. As the metal roof crashed through the rooms filled with fire, it launched a car sized fire ball out to the parking lot. It would have incinerated them if Ammon hadn’t decided to run.

  “Let go of me!” Ithaca barked once they had rounded the enormous warehouse. Ithaca pulled her hand from his sharply and glanced up at his bewildered expression. “Ammon, we can’t be doing this.�
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  Ithaca glowered up at him as they stood hidden from the flames. The intense heat still surrounded the air, but from where they stood, they could neither see the flames nor feel the incoming rainstorm sprinkle its droplets over their head.

  “I need you to leave me alone.” She snapped. She wasn’t sure what it was, perhaps the fire and the explosion knocked the sense back into her brain. But she had already made the mistake of letting Ammon back into her heart. “Just stay away from me!” She barked taking a step back, “And I swear Ammon, the next time I see you… I won’t be afraid to shoot.”

  Her words were so cold that even with the heat surrounding them, she managed to pierce his heart with an arrow made of ice. A flicker of darkness flashed over her eyes. Darkness, or was that sorrow? Before Ammon could get a second glance, she had vanished as if she had never existed.

  Ammon stood there staring blankly at the imprints of her stilettos in the damp grass. If it weren’t for the proof that she had been there, he would have never remembered why he was standing alone behind a filming studio. He wasn’t sure how long he stood there dazed, but if it weren’t for the sudden gust of wind that sent the rain splattering across his face horizontally, he would have stood there for hours trying to figure out why his ex-girlfriend had changed immensely.

  When he glanced back up, the grey rain clouds had turned black. Ammon poked his head around the corner of the warehouse and saw that just across the parking lot, the film studio had nearly been burnt to the ground. Josh and Cassie.

  Ammon’s heart leapt up into his chest and his stomach churned as if he were about to vomit. There was no way they could have survived. He knew it from the first time he set eyes on the ball of fire rolling into the air. This was a fire that was meant to annihilate everything. It had erupted so suddenly, they were probably dead before they even knew what was going on. Ammon knew this was true even as he stared at the growing blaze, but he couldn’t find it in himself to believe it. He had already lost his father. He couldn’t imagine what he would do if his friends had died only a few months later.