The Stelter City Saga: Ultranatural (27 page)

After making sure she was completely
undetectable, Lotus grabbed a big old-lady tote and was just about
to hurry from the room with her car keys when her hand stopped on
the doorknob. Almost involuntarily, she spun around and her eyes
fell straight across the room to her perfectly folded bed. Beneath
the purple silk sheets was her scrapbook.

It was more like a six paged pamphlet
with four pictures and two birth certificates. The scrapbook was no
larger than a passport and only big enough to fit a different
picture on each page. The first one was the only image she knew
that existed of their family as a whole. The next two were
Lambert’s and Haileigh’s birth certificates. She had the real thing
folded and tucked beneath the shrunken down copies. Past the
certificates sat the back to back pictures of Lambert. One of him
weeks before the fire, the other with four-year-old Haileigh
propped up on his shoulders.

Then finally, the last picture. It was
the one that hurt Lotus the most, but having it there was a
reminder. The heiress had purposely kept only a piece of the past
so that she wouldn’t be tempted to dwell on things she couldn’t
change. But the last picture was what tied it all together, and it
wasn’t who was in the picture, but where.

Lotus and Haileigh were arm and arm
seated on the rim of their shallow rectangular pool. It was spring
time in that picture. Lilies were pushed to the far end of the
water by a gentle breeze. In the back ground, Lotus could make out
the familiar image of the cement angel with a trumpet to its lips
guarding the small iron fence. That fence lead to several- what the
kids called- rooms in the Stelter garden. But the angel was what
triggered the painful memories. That’s where she had been standing
when she heard the explosion…

Before the flames, there was a reason
for her father to come home. There was a reason for her mother to
leave work early. They would have vacations on the weekends and
invite family friends over and Haileigh would run around through
their family’s garden with these people as Lambert watched from the
side…

Lotus was across the room now digging
through the mountains of lavender pillows. There it was, looking
exactly as she left it. But there wasn’t much to collect, after
all, the fire had ruined all of their pictures and Lotus had to get
most of the images off the internet and the birth certificates from
her mother’s computer back when she was modeling.

But Lotus didn’t even glance at the
pictures she had already memorized. She was ready to find the real
Haileigh. The scrapbook slid into the granny tote and once more
Lotus was stepping across her bedroom. This time, as her hand
touched the doorknob, she was ready to leave the
penthouse.

~It was like the morning after the
Krome party. Lee felt awful, but this time around, it was a
different kind of awful. Her lips felt swollen like a balloon about
to pop and her arms steamed as if they had been microwaved. “Uggh…”
she muttered sitting up in bed.

“
What is it, Lee?” came
Ace’s voice in the dark of the morning. From the other bed, Lee
heard the sheets ruffle as he too sat up and leaned over to flick
on the light.

The first thing Lee saw was her
reflection in the bathroom mirror. Before she even registered what
she was looking at, a shriek of surprise escaped her mouth. “I look
like a lobster!!” she exclaimed pulling the sheets up to cover her
sunburnt skin. As the blanket slid up her arms, it scratched her
tender flesh. “Oww…”

She made eyes with Ace who had now
tossed his legs over the side of the bed. A hand covered his agape
mouth as his eyes raised up on surprise. “You are so red.” He
finally stated. “Oh my… Lee…”

“
You’re scaring me Ace.” She
said franticly, “I’ve never been sunburnt before. Is this
bad?”

Ace didn’t need time to think about it
and he nodded without changing his expression.

Lee let the blanket slide off her
shoulders and sat there cross legged as she examined what skin her
pajama top reveled.

Her arms had taken the worst from the
sun. There was literally a line around her biceps from where her
shirt had spared her shoulders. From there down to the elbows and
even the skin over her knuckles was beet red. Aside from her arms,
her face got the second to worst blow. Even the skin on her lips
was scarlet and swollen to the point that Lee mostly had to mutter
her words because it hurt to open her mouth. She wasn’t sure if her
eyes could be sunburnt, but for some reason they felt hot and
swollen just like her arms.

“
Oh my gosh…” she muttered
sliding out of bed and hurrying over to the bathroom mirror. She
stared at herself bewildered for a long moment, trying to take in
what she was seeing. “Do you think I’ll get a tan out of
this?”

Ace couldn’t help but to laugh at the
hopefulness in her tone. He tossed the bed sheets aside before
joining her by the mirror. “I don’t know, Lee. This looks really,
really bad.” As he traced his fingers along her arm, his hand felt
like it was hovering over a stove. “Does it hurt?”

Lee tried not to frown. Even when she
spoke the skin on her lips felt tight. “Yeah, but I’m not like,
gunna die am I?” her eyes went to the perfect crimson line at her
neck where the collar of her shirt had offered protection. There
was even a faint pink V where the chain of her necklace had rested.
“Why aren’t you burnt?”

For the first time that morning Ace
glanced at himself in the mirror. Where his baseball T had been,
his skin was still its natural golden tan. Aside from that, his
forearms and face melted into a beautiful brown making his blue
eyes seem even more brilliant.

“
Well, I think of this
mishap as an excuse to finally check out one of those ABC Stores.”
Remarked Lee. “I’m sure they would have something for this,
right?”

“
I guess. I’ve never been in
one. But I see them everywhere.” Ace replied just as a knock came
upon their door.

They both exchanged glances before Ace
tossed his eyes to the clock. “Oh, it’s just the guy with the
morning paper.” He said. “He comes around seven and just leaves it
by the door. It’s some complementary hotel thing.”

Lee nodded then turned back to her
reflection as Ace wandered to the door. “Does my hair look lighter
to you?” she asked as Ace unlocked the door.

The boy opened it halfway before
glancing back at Lee. “Huh, yeah, it kind of does.”

Lee chuckled to herself as she wrapped
her hair around her chin so that her face looked like a tomato
encased in snow. “Hey, Ace.” She called as the boy snatched up the
Avon ad.

“
Yeah?”

“
Look, my hair is white, my
face is red. I look like the Japanese flag.”

Ace tossed his head back with laughter
as he threw the newspaper on the couch. He was still laughing as he
made his way back behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
“I love you Lee.” He said with a grin before pressing his lips
gingerly to her head.

Lee let go of her hair only so that she
could put her arms over his and gaze at their reflection. “I love
you too.” She smiled. “Don’t you think we look adorable together?
There’s so much contrast, I love it.”

“
Oh yeah,” Ace agreed and
with slight sarcasm said, “Especially since the red ties it all
together.”

Lee giggled and turned so that she
could present him with a light peck on the cheek. “Oww…” she
muttered pulling away.

Ace let her slide from his grasp as she
made her way to her stash of clothes. “Let’s make it a priority to
get something for that sunburn first.” He said as she rummaged
around for her pale yellow jacket. It was the only thing she had
with sleeves to keep more sun from touching her.

“
Okay, but do you think we
could grab something to eat first?” Lee asked as her stiff arms
moved gingerly. “The fruit salad is amazing.”

~In all honesty, Lotus
didn’t know what she was doing on Waikiki Beach. The newspaper had
said ‘
Lotus
’ was
spotted on Sunset Beach. Common sense would have told her to start
there, or at least aim for a hotel in that general direction. But
after her short drive through Heleow’s underwater tunnel, Lotus and
her simple Toyota were spat out in Honolulu.

For some reason, starting out in
Honolulu made more sense to her. It was the capital of the island,
that’s where the international airport resided… everything, just
seemed to click if she stared in Honolulu. But she wasn’t finding
anything.

Of course she had just started her
hunt, but living in the world’s most expensive and revolutionary
penthouse made her spoiled when it came to time. She was one of the
most impatient people she knew because normally, things went her
way whenever she wanted them to. Right at that moment as she past a
flock of seagulls fighting over for a cracker, she felt more
impatient than ever. Listening to the rhythmic screeching of the
fighting birds and the rambunctious giggling of the few
beach-playing children made Lotus want to take a baseball bat to a
glass museum.

She wanted to dig through her massive
tote and call up Kasper, but that would have been pointless since
he was probably boarding his jet now. With an aggravated huff,
Lotus spun on the spot and marched up shore. In no time at all she
was she was walking through the strip of sandy asphalt sandwiched
by Honolulu hotels.

In a few short strides, Lotus had
reached her Toyota parked under a tree full of pooping birds. She
sank in her seat and rolled her head up to gaze at the grey fabric
plastered above her. Who was she kidding? What were the odds that
Lotus was going to find her sister that day? It would take weeks,
if not months- that is if Haileigh were even in Hawaii. What if it
was the paparazzi that faked the front of the newspaper? Doubts
spun through her mind like clothes in a washing machine and she
closed her eyes to keep her head from throbbing.

She wanted to see her sister so badly
every cell in her body was cringing. This was her baby sister. Even
though they were five years apart, age didn’t matter. Haileigh
brought out the youth in Lotus while Lotus taught her how to be a
big girl. There were giggles and late summer nights in the back
patio with Lambert and none of them would sleep but instead be
mesmerized by the random streaks of light cast by fireflies. They
even had their own corner in the living room where they would drape
sheets over the furniture and read books with flashlights. Lotus,
at the time did the reading, Haileigh made up stories based off the
pictures and Lambert followed their father around like a
shadow.

He always wanted to be a business man
just like Edrick. Lotus always wanted to be a singer and Haileigh
just wanted to be happy. She was so happy it made everyone around
her adore her that much more. That was probably why Haileigh had so
many friends as a child…

Lotus’s eyes flickered open. Haileigh
had friends… it seemed like Lotus was friends with them too, then
why couldn’t she remember? She would have snatched up her scrapbook
to see if perhaps she had missed a face. But she knew the images
far too well.

But she could have sworn there were
more faces… there was more to her childhood… but nothing came to
mind. It was like hitting a brick wall, almost as if there were
gaps in her memory ripped out by some supernatural force. In her
recollection, there were pits of endless blackness when everything
else seemed so clear… Perhaps Hialeigh knew what Lotus was missing-
if she were missing anything at all.

Once more her head was beginning to
throb and she rested it against the steering wheel. What was she
doing in Honolulu? The wiser thing would have been to go to Sunset
Beach. But that was a forty-five minute drive, not to mention the
drive back. In the scheme of things, if forty-five minutes was all
it took to find her sister, than Lotus would have driven a million
of them.

She sat up and readjusted the knitted
flower hat before starting the ignition. As Lotus glanced in the
side mirror for clear traffic, her eyes caught sight of something
peculiar. Across the bustling avenue and several blocks back, there
almost seemed to be a swarm of paparazzi following a teenage couple
walking casually on the street. The celebrity spun around for a
better look. Her eyes instantly shot through the back window and
glued on to the shorter of the pair- a girl, Lotus concluded since
she was wrapped up in a pale yellow jacket, but from the distance
her lack of curves could have fooled anyone. A pair of big
sunglasses pressed to up her nose and covered her sun-fried face.
Lotus had thought she was wearing lipstick, but before she could
get a closer look, the couple disappeared in an ABC store with the
crowd right behind them.

The sight reminded Lotus of herself.
Several years ago, she had tried to disguise herself by wandering
the streets in a hoodie almost that exact same color and
intentionally painting her skin red- like a sunburn. But the world
had noticed her instantly, and that was the last time she ever
tried an easy disguise.

Then it hit her.

Lotus couldn’t get out of the car fast
enough.

~“Ouch…” Lee whimpered as she reached
for the hotel door. She didn’t mean to complain, but with every
movement, the burning red skin over her arms stretched to the point
of tearing.