The Stelter City Saga: Ultranatural

by Stefany Valentine Ramirez

  “You know you can’t run from me.” August called and Lee cringed at the sound of his foot on the first step of the staircase. “You know you can’t hide. So my question to you, little Stelter, is what do you plan on doing?”

  Lee kept her lips tight. He was right. It was hopeless to even consider trying but she couldn’t just sit there and wait for the bullet’s sting. Lotus’s bedroom was facing the stairs and from where Lee rested, she knew she could reach it in a few short strides if she stayed low to the ground. Ignoring the bruises forming on her torso, Lee crouched down in a crawling position. But before she made a rush for her sister’s room, Lee dared herself to peer down the stairs.

  There, August stood calmly leaning against the railing with his gun not even pointed at her.

  That was all Lee could make out before she ducked back beside the wall. “What do you want from me?” Lee called hearing the rattle in her own voice. Knowing her sister’s room was the wrong way to go, Lee waited until she heard August speak up before quietly crawling towards her own bedroom at the end of the hall.

  “I’m following orders.” Replied August then he paused as Lee was in mid crawl. “Are try trying to run from me?” he asked and Lee could hear the excided tone beneath his voice as his footsteps climbed the last of the steps.

  Panicked at his sudden advance Lee climbed to her feet and made to sprint for her room. But before she could even scramble to her feet, August had snatched onto her ankle. Reflexively Lee rolled to her back kicked with all her might with her free leg. The blood was boiling in her veins and she could hear a screeching in her ears as her emotions changed from fear to rage. It was one thing to taunt her and make her fear for her life, but it was another thing to touch her; to hold her down in that way. For a split second her focus shifted from her feet to his face and when she saw August’s smug smile at his work, Lee lost it.

  She had felt this feeling before and she knew what was coming. An electrical charge was building in her core waiting for her to release it. Instead of fighting him, Lee set her free foot down and shut her eyes to focus the charge. At her resist to struggle, all August could do was tilt his head curiously before an explosion of hot thunder shot up his arm with so much force he went sailing to the wall. Midflight, his sight was washed out from the sheer brilliant white light produced by Lee's electrical charge. Every inch of his skin burned and tingled, even his eyes and his teeth. He hadn't fought in a while and the sensation was the most painful way he had felt in a long time as if a million white hot needles were jabbing at his skin. When his head finally collided against the cement, it felt like hitting a pillow when compared to the sensation still burring at his flesh. An anguished scream ripped through his throat at the retaliation that the pain wasn’t going away and Lee had already climbed to her feet and was sprinting to her room.

  For a moment August forgot he was supposed to keep her alive. Through blinded rage, he shot four bullets at the door just as she shut it. The only thing keeping him from unloading his gun on the door was knowing that he didn’t have and unlimited supply of ammunition and at this point, Lee was ahead of the game. Instead he dropped the gun partly to keep him from unloading and the other part was because holding the weapon with his flesh still raging was making the pain worse.

  “What did you do to me?” August bellowed as he forced his mind to ignore the pain and climb to his feet. With the jolts of electricity still coursing through every ounce of his being, August had to force his body to regain control. Finally with the help of the wall he was able to make it to a standing position. By that point Lee’s surprise attack had died down some. Just enough for August to clench his fingers around the gun handle and realize the back of his head was bleeding.

  As he commanded his feet to carry him to the door Lee had just ducked into, the sores of his body were beginning to register the pain of colliding against the wall. August didn’t worry too much. In only a few minutes his body would have healed itself and here would be a hole in Lee’s. The question in August’s mind was would she heal like him or was she playing a game of charades with him? Who was Hailey Stelter really?

  “Congrats, lass.” August called making his way slowly. “I didn’t see that one coming at all. Who knew the Stelters were a supernatural family?”

  He was only a couple yards away from the bullet holes in the wooden door. Even as he glanced through them, he couldn’t make out where in the room she had gone. “But see,” he began again approaching cautiously and ready to dodge another surprise attack. “it doesn’t make sense. If you were super, why did Mason have to save you when we sent our spinney assassin after you in the first place? And there’s nothing you’ve done in the past few days that would cause a natural to turn super.”

  August waited for a reply. When none came he listened intently for a heartbeat. And there was one. Tucked away in the farthest corer of the room. “You must have been a half-natural all along.” August pieced together. “Who would have guessed that something so rare could have been living in such plain view?”

  Without another moment of hesitation, August kicked open the door with so much force the wood shattered on impact. Pieces of wood the size of a computer screen sailed across the room and Lee’s queen sized bed offered little protection. She had been storing a ball of energy to shoot at August after he entered the room. But the shrapnel from the door had caught her so off guard, she let the stored energy flow from her body. Snakes of lightning lashed out from her extended arms and zapped every splinter from the air before sending them crashing around her as singed bark.

  Bang! Before she could take a look at her work, August had fired into her room and once more Lee screamed. But not from the sound of the gunshot. Hot blood oozed from her shoulder where the bullet had just skimmed her caller bone and the pain was sweltering. Instantly she lost all feeling in her right arm and wave of mental pain wiped over her for fear she would never be able to use it again. She glanced down at her jacket just in time to see a crimson river flowing down her chest from the bullet that had ripped a clean hole beside her neck. She had been too mesmerized by the sight she hadn’t noticed August walking in even as she slumped down to the floor in agony.

  Lee kept her eyes glued to the carpet covered in singed door fragments even as August walked into her line of sight, she didn't raise her eyes from his worn sneakers. “Do it,” she groaned biting her quivering lip to keep the pain and terror at bay.

  “I’d love to.” August replied eyeing her drenched jacket. “Especially after that little stunt you pulled back in the hallway. But I’m not calling the shots today.”

  Lee balled up as much fabric as she could from the cuff of her left sleeve before pressing it against the wound in her shoulder. The instant she applied pressure, pain jolted up her neck and for a moment she saw stars. Involuntary whimpers escaped her lips as she pressed harder against the wound and she hated the fact that the man that damaged her was just standing there.

  “So then what are you supposed to be doing?” asked Lee gritting her teeth to cover up the pain.

  August leaned down so that the smell of blood burned his nose yet his eyes were only inches from Lee’s. “Look at me.” He commanded.

  Reflexively, Lee obeyed. She was looking at August whom she had met for the first time on a plane by accident. At that time, he seemed quiet and shy as if he enjoyed listening to other people’s problems. Now looking back, after knowing what he was capable of and all the darkness attached to it, he wasn't shy at all. Quiet maybe; in the sense that he had to hide his murderous capabilities until the moment was right. And today let that moment show.

  Lee continued to hold eyes with him. The last thing she remembered seeing was August tucking the gun back in his pocket. The instant August willed her to sleep, Lee obliged by plummeting into the deepest realm of unconsciousness. Pain fled from her body until there was numbness. Her sight collapsed into darkness and the hand covering the wound flopped down to her lap as if gravity had kicked it. Once her head sl
umped to her chest, she began snoring with her chest rising and falling in deep rhythmic gulps of air. August smiled.

  "Get up." he commanded and Lee lifted from the ground like a hypnotized rag doll. "Dip your finger in your blood and write the address of Dylan Dade's studio on the wall."

  Before August had even finished giving out his command, Lee's sleeping body was doing as he asked. Her finger dapped onto the thickest pool of blood just above her chest then she turned around and began writing on the wall.

  August watched pleasantly as his little pet did exactly what he asked. Personally, he didn't know the location of the filming studios off the top of his head. But with his experience of ordering sleepwalkers, he had discovered that a sleeping mind remembered things an alert mind didn't.

  Once Lee had scribbled out the address, August commanded her to throw on a darker jacket so the blood stains could be hidden. Then he walked out onto the banister overlooking the living room. The gun in his jacket still had half a carton of ammunition and he decided to unload it in the living room. He broke vases, shattered the coffee table and even left dents in the cement wall. Once Lotus returned, she would see the mess, find the address and without question, rescue her sister.

  When August had had his fun, he turned around to see the sleeping Lee slumping from the bedroom in a black jacket. It covered up the blood well enough that the only way to tell she was bleeding was to look at the crimson dots on the waistband of her jeans. August knew he would have to tend to her wound eventually if he wanted her alive. But that would just have to wait until he got back to the car. After all, Lee wasn't the only sleepwalker he had made that hour.

  ~Ithaca had always enjoyed dressing up and putting on a show and in the cluttered costume closet behind the Dylan Dade Show; that was exactly what she did. A smile from ear to ear stretched across her villainous face as she gazed at her performance ready attire. With the help of some solid black stilettos, a firm line of muscle raced up her calves just noticeable beneath lacy black tights that disappeared underneath her inky black leotard. The leotard would have looked like a one-piece bathing suit if she hadn’t found a red belt to wrap around her waist and a matching jacket that didn’t cover much beneath the shoulders. With her long hair held back in a ponytail, Ithaca looked simple enough. That was until she picked up a lions whip and held it loosely at her side. In the full length mirror, Ithaca looked like the perfect performer. She was a ringleader and in just a few moments, she would step on stage to give her audience a show they would never forget.

  Two seconds into admiring her own reflection, a knock came at the door. Before she could command the intruder to leave, August had leaned in with words on his tongue. But the moment he caught sight of Ithaca, his eyes went wide and suddenly there was nothing to say.

  “Darling August,” Ithaca giggled as she turned around to face him, “Do I not look ravishingly wicked?”

  August cleared his throat before straightening up and stepping into the costume closet. “You do look ravishingly wicked.”

  Ithaca sighed dreamily as she faced the mirror once more and glanced at the gap between her legs. “Tell me then darling,” Ithaca began as she gently whipped the floor with her stage prop. “How is it that the last time I had a boyfriend was in high school?”

  August stopped a few strides behind her and glanced anxiously at the way the whip rolled before slapping the ground. “Because love, you are terrifying.”

  Ithaca made no response to August’s remark, though she always knew it was true. But she would rather have a man be terrified of her than madly in love with her. “I hope you have good news.” She finally remarked.

  “Of course,” replied August as Ithaca caught the victorious gleam in his minty eyes. “Just outside that door, I have Haileigh Grace slowly bleeding to death. Do you want me to tie her down and wake her? Or leave her be until she loses all the blood in her body?”

  Ithaca shrugged, “Tie her down.” She remarked carelessly, “I want her alive when Pele burns this place to the ground.”

  “As you wish.” August nodded with a slight bow, “But before I leave, I have one more question. Where is Michael Caster?”

  “Don’t worry about that fool.” Ithaca replied, “I’m going to fetch him now. When you’re done tying up baby Stelter hurry up and join the others. I’ll have Michael in no time and when I do, the show will begin. I saved a seat for you in the front. I hope it doesn’t go to waste.”

  August scoffed as he took a step back, “Do you really think it’s going to be that hard to tie up my own sleepwalker?”

  Ithaca shrugged, “I just really want her to die today, alright?”

  “Of course,” August replied, “Before you leave to bring back Caster, there is one thing you should know.”

  “And what is that?” she inquired with her brow raised.

  “You truly are ravishingly wicked.”

  Ithaca grinned once more in the evil smile that usually sent chills down spines. “That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever told me.” And with that remark, Ithaca blew a kiss and vanished from sight.

  ~None of Michael’s favorite bars were open in Sydney Australia at eight o’clock in the morning but that didn’t stop him from breaking into a bottle of something hard and heavy. It was almost always a challenge for him to get completely hammered considering that he was a supernatural and his body was always fighting to keep him sober. But as he sprawled out over the bar top with two empty bottles surrounding him, he was pretty confident this was the most drunk he had been in a long time.

  “This heart’s ben done broken’ too many times…” he sang as his voice slurred over the spittle of alcohol flinging from his lips, “… an’ it still hurts mos’ thah yer doin’ fiiiiiiine wiffout me… Lozey!”

  He wasn’t sure if those were lyrics to a song he had already published or if he had written then recently on the back of one of the napkins littering the floor. Either way, it was time for another swig of alcohol. The moment he lifted the bottle to his lips, it shattered sending shards of glass cutting into his fingers and lips.

  At first, Michael had figured that in his drunken state, he had clenched onto the bottle so firmly that it shattered. But that assumption left him the moment he heard stilettoes stepping across the bar’s tile floor.

  “Well, well, well,” Michael sputtered, sitting up on the bar top as Ithaca’s figure emerged from the darkness. “It’s quite remarkable wha’ chuve don wiff yur legs.”

  Ithaca didn’t stop to make a single remark. In one swift stride, her long fingers were around his throat. Before he even knew what was going on, the back of his head was slammed down on the hard wooden table. Again, and again. In his drunken state, the pain was the last thing he recognized. All that existed was the blurry image of Ithaca’s violent snicker as she slammed his head down repeatedly. Then there was blood. Blood seeping from the back of his head where his white skull was now showing. Blood escaping in rivers from his nose and seeping down to the back of his throat.

  She slammed his head once more against the wood then stopped for a second. Michael gazed dizzily up at her as the immense pain was beginning to seep above through his alcoholic fog. The idea of fighting back had just begun to form in his mind.

  “Goodnight Highness.” Ithaca beamed down at him with her fingernails still digging into sides of his throat. “You’re going to take a nap… and never wake up.”

  Before Michael could make sense of what she was saying, the butt of a pistol slammed down onto his forehead with supernatural power and speed. Upon impact, Ithaca felt the bone beneath his flesh crack and instantly Michael’s eyes rolled into the back of his head. He was dead, and there was no way his body could regenerate the damage Ithaca had done.

  There was no time to glory in another one of her effortless murders. Back in Hawaii was an audience full of the most ruthless and powerful gang leaders in the world. It was time for them to see the show they had been promised. It was time to make it known to the world that
there was no Legend to regulate the power that should be rightfully given to the leaders of gangs. Now was the era of Ithaca and the Supremacy. A time for the powerful to pledge allegiance and the weak to be destroyed.

  Effortlessly, Ithaca flung Michael’s dead body over her shoulder and vanished from Sydney, Australia.

  ~“What is that?” Lotus muttered to herself just before pressing a glass of cool water to her lips. As Lotus swallowed, her eyes never moved from the dark spots along the living room’s cement wall. Had Lee gotten into the computer and messed with the computer decorations? Perhaps the projection was glitching and the dark spots against the cement wall were just cast by the projector.

  Lotus took another sip of water before setting her surfboard down over the stone island. “Hey, Haills. I just got home.” She called again, her voice echoing in the empty space above her. “Were you messing with the projector?”

  When no response came, Lotus finished her glass of water and set it down beside her surfboard. Not once did she look away from the strange spots along the wall. Even as she approached them, she didn’t look away. That is, until she stepped on a broken vase.

  “What happened here?” Lotus muttered bending down to examine the fine shattering of china.

  As she picked up one of the larger pieces of glass, a single word seemed to be whispered into her mind. Bullets.

  There was no way… Even as Lotus ruled out the possibility she didn’t remember sprinting over to the wall to examine the spot. Suddenly her heart was banging against her throat as she tried to reason with what she was seeing. It was impossible… and yet as she stood inches from the wall, something shiny caught her eye.