The Stelter City Saga: Ultranatural (55 page)

A single door in the wall had separated their
hotel rooms. Larissa was sure that if she wanted to, she could
force her body to melt through the wooden door so she could peer at
his things one last time. Before her mind could express the
foolishness of that choice, Larissa began crossing the room. She
had just pressed her fingers against the smooth mahogany when
something unfamiliar caught her eye. Sitting on the corner of the
dresser in her line of sight was a thick white envelope with her
name written in bold.

Larissa wasn’t sure what contents made the
envelope so fat, but as she reached for it she could almost hear
Cassie’s voice singing about how she would take pictures and print
them out for the whole group. Sure enough, as Larissa let the
contents fall into her hand, the picture of the group sitting on
the peer at sunset was the first thing she saw.

Instantly Larissa became nauseous. She wanted
to burn them. Every single one of them. Her heart swelled
uncomfortably in her chest, pushing on her inner organs and she
felt as if she were going to be sick. It was one thing to bring
back a dress that reminded her of Ammon, but to see his arm around
her resurrected her dead memories. Swiftly, she hurried to the
bathroom for fear that she would vomit. She hadn’t realized that
she was still holding onto the stack of pictures until she reached
for the toilet seat and yanked it up.

Her stomach heaved, and she felt her eyes
tear up from the amount of pressure needing to explode from her
body. A mound of spit rolled down her tongue and she watched
through blurry eyes as it dripped in a line down to the toilet
water. By now she was familiar with this sort of reaction. She was
about to develop something, she could feel the familiar surge of
energy building in her core. She could count the beats of every
pulse it brought as it fought its way to her surface. For once
there was no one around, and Larissa felt her mind relaxing from
the mental stress that tended to accompany these unstoppable
happenings.

She knew she should just let it happen. There
was no way to avoid it and the sooner her body picked up on this
new talent, the sooner she could get rid of the pictures and move
on with her life. She knew that looking at the memories was what
triggered the reaction and to hurry up the process, Larissa studied
the picture in her hand. She studied the way Ammon’s skin tanned
from all the walking around and felt the center of her chest
tightening as she did. She gazed into his green eyes and remembered
the way he would look at her. Just as she let those thoughts enter
her mind, she could feel the wave of energy snaking up her throat
and sliding over her own eyes. As the heat and pressure continued
to fill her vision, white stars began to dance across her sight
until eventually everything went white. That was when the pain
began to settle in.

It was as if a thousand needles penetrated
the tender tissue of her eyes and continued ever slowly into her
skull. There was nothing but white in her vision and the feeling of
acid filling up her tear ducts before running in tears down her
cheeks. As the pain drew closer to the back of her head, a surging
migraine hammered against her temples chiming with the rapid
beating of her heart. An agonizing scream ripped through her teeth
and she rubbed fiercely at her eyes to flush the pain away but
nothing would sooth it. It was as if white hot spears were sinking
into her brain through her eyes. The moment the spears collided
with the bone behind her eyes, the brilliant white blaze
intensified as if she could see some nonexistent light through
every inch of skin covering her body.

Larissa screamed again, this time out of
shock more than pain. With every surge of pain that followed,
another urge to wail choked the back of her throat. But her pride
wouldn’t allow her to submit to the agony of the change. Eventually
the scorching white light had nailed itself to the back of her head
and the moment the pain collided with her skull, the wave of energy
in her chest extinguished. The strength that her muscles needed to
keep her upright phases away and she could feel every ounce of
power recoil to her chest. The blazing white that had clouded her
vision switched to black as swiftly as someone flicking a switch.
She could feel herself falling. When her sight vanished, so did her
strength and her inability to command her body sent her collapsing
on her back in the empty bathroom.

It was dark. It was cold. And Larissa felt
weak. There was no way of knowing what she had done, or what had
happened to her. If it weren’t for the fact that she could feel the
tile against her cheek, she would have thought this last
transformation had blown a hole through the back of her head. But
she recognized the state she was in. She had felt this before, even
back before she knew what a supernatural was. There had been times
when Larissa was sleeping, but her mind was awake. She could scream
at her arms to tell them to move, but no matter what, her body
would remain frozen like a cocoon. It usually wasn’t until someone
shook her shoulder that Larissa snapped from that state and she
dreaded the idea of one of Ammon’s friends finding her like
that.

Moments went by and still no strength
returned to her. She could hear the luggage carts in the hallway
beside her and the explosions coming from a TV screen in the
neighboring room. Still nothing happened and she continued to
imagine the minuets that ticked past.

Finally, something shook her. It was the
phone in her pocket vibrating angrily. With her body still half
asleep, Larissa had to force her hand to her pocket. Using muscle
memory, Larissa swiped the icon on her screen and pressed it to her
ear.

“
Hello?” she said noting the
weakness in her voice. But of course she was weak; she couldn’t
even muster the energy to open her eyes.

“
There’s been a changing in
plan.” Ithaca said harshly.

Larissa inhaled deeply as she waited for her
cousin to explain. With her first deep breath, she felt the oxygen
spread down her veins and slowly her body came to life like an
ancient tree uprooting itself.

“
We’re There’s been a change
in plan. We are leaving for Tarrillian City in two hours. Mason
came back a little bit earlier than I had imagined.” today. There’s
a jet waiting for us in hanger 7.” Larissa could almost see the
agitated glare across her hazel eyes as she spoke.

Again Larissa sucked in a deep breath and
when she exhaled, she asked, “But how are we doing that?”

Ithaca spat one of her familiar scoffs at
Larissa then replied, “You don’t know how to get on a plane?”

Slowly Larissa sat up and rubbed her eyes.
When she pulled her hand away, she was relieved to see her thin
legs sprawled out before her atop the bathroom floor. “Well… I
don’t have a ticket.”

“
You don’t need one. We’re
riding a private jet.” Ithaca explained, “There’s a supernatural in
Tarrillian who can bring machines to life with his touch. It’s
leaving for Tarrillian in two hours and you had better be on that
flight.”

Larissa was still too exhausted to snap back
at Ithaca, but she did find energy to climb to her feet. With the
aid of the bathroom sink, Larissa pulled herself up onto wobbly
legs and glanced at her pale complexion in the mirror. “How do I
know…” Larissa completely forgot what her next words were.

The woman in the mirror had Larissa’s thick
auburn hair. She had her small nose, her big lips, and even her
firm cheekbones. But her eyes were not the same. To make sure she
wasn’t just imagining things, Larissa blinked as she leaned in.
Those were her lashes, her thick long lashes. And the almond shape
of her eyes was still the same. Even the rust color of her iris was
near identical to the color of her hair. Yet this time there was
something… more.

A fine white circle about as thick as a
strand of hair wrapped itself around the center if her iris. At
first Larissa thought it was a glare from the light or a smudge on
the dirty window, but regardless of whatever angle she looked at
herself, it was there.

“
What, Larissa?” Ithaca
barked from the other end of the phone, “How do you know
what?”

“
I…” was all Larissa could
muster in astonishment. She suffered the pain of spears sinking
into her eyes for a white ring in each of her eyes? This wasn’t
even a phenomenal ability, it was a decoration! Perhaps Ithaca
would know something about it that Larissa didn’t know. After all,
she did offer to assist Larissa in containing her outbreaks. “I
need your help.” She spat before she remembered that Ithaca was
beneath the scum of the earth.

The other end of the line went silent.
Larissa bit her lip as she waited for Ithaca to reply. She already
spoke and now there was no way of taking it back.

“
What… happened?” Ithaca
finally choked out as if helping Larissa were the last thing she
wanted to do at the moment.

Larissa sighed as she sucked in a big breath
and gazed once more at the newest addition to her appearance. “I
changed… again. Something happened.”

“
Who did you kill?” Ithaca
asked.

“
No one. I…” Larissa froze.
What was she doing? She had always hated Ithaca and now she was
groveling at her feet for answers. “I can’t explain. Where are
you?”

“
You need to show me?”
Ithaca asked skeptically.

Larissa replied confidently, “Yes. I don’t
know what happened. I need to know what’s wrong with me. I’ll meet
you right away. Wherever you’re at.”

Another moment of silence ticked past. Ithaca
had gone so long without a sound that Larissa’s eyes finally found
time to look at something other than her reflection. Scattered
across the bathroom tile were the photos that had brought on the
change. As she waited for Ithaca to respond, Larissa figured it
would seem suspicious if Cassie were to return to the mess. By the
time a nice pile of pictures was collected in her hands, Larissa
finally heard Ithaca sigh deeply. “Alright, fine. But this had
better be good. Remember those mountains where I found you? There’s
a filming studio by the riverbed.”

“
Yes!” Larissa exclaimed
nudging the bathroom door open with her toe and crossing over to
the corner where she had first encountered the pictures. “What are
you doing there?”

“
Oh, you know, I’m just
starting a revolution.” Ithaca replied casually.

“
Which filming studio are
you going to be in?” Larissa asked as she tucked the images back
into the envelope.

“
The first one you see when
you cross the bridge.” Ithaca replied.

Larissa nodded, “That’s where they film the
Dylan Dade Show?”

“
Yup.”

“
That’s a weird place to
start a revolution.” Larissa admitted.

For the first time in all of Larissa’s
memory, Ithaca laughed as if something were actually funny.
“Whatever. Come quick, I’m on a tight schedule.” Then she hung
up.

Larissa let the soft white noise of an empty
phone line buzz in her ear for a moment as she gazed down at her
name written in bold letters on the white envelope. This really was
it. Once she set the envelope back down on the dresser, she would
leave and never come back. Suddenly the shock of reality bolted
through her. This wasn’t a game and her affiliation with Ithaca
wasn’t temporary. Once she set down the pictures that would be her
final good bye. As she stood there frozen in her gaze, she realized
that she wasn’t ready to let go.

Getting out of the orphanage had been a dream
come true. Riding rollercoasters, working undercover for the
police, and being kissed by Ammon had been the greatest things to
happen to her. Setting down the pictures was like saying she had
never come to Hawaii or she had never even left Tarrillian City.
Holding on to her memories and knowing that she could have had a
different life would haunt her until the day she died. But saying
that none of this had ever happened and that it meant nothing to
her would rake her heart with every breath she took from that day
on and she was not ready for that.

Still, Ithaca’s words rang in her ear. She
had to leave now or face the wrath of her impatient cousin. With
that thought in mind, Larissa tucked the photos in her back pocket.
There was just enough time to hide the envelope over her shirt
before the mahogany door rattled. That was the door that had led to
Ammon’s room and as the door was pulled open, Larissa swore she
watched it unveil the person on the other side in slow motion.

When Ammon’s body finally emerged through the
doorway, Larissa could feel the color of her skin wash from her
face to her toes as he gazed at her through the doorway. But if
Ammon could make a face more surprised than Larissa’s, he was doing
it right at that moment.

“
I thought I was just
hearing things.” Ammon muttered dazed as if he wasn’t sure he was
dreaming.

Larissa said nothing. Seeing his strong
features and thick brows pulled up in astonishment was nearly too
much for her. Quickly she turned around and bolted for the
door.

“
Larissa!” Ammon called out
for her. But she was already gone. Impulsively he ran for the door.
She was nowhere to be seen.

If his mind was playing tricks on him, this
was the sickest one yet. He had been missing her for days now and
in all honesty, he was a very angered by the fact that she took off
on him so quickly. By the time he came back into his room, Cassie
and Josh were sitting up from their midday slumber on his bed.

“
What’s going on man?” Josh
asked as Ammon snatched up his charging phone and called Larissa’s
number again.