City of Stars & Shadow | 4. Reconnecting

This is part four of the story. Read from the beginning here.

Lucas pulled up to Ara’s place. She’d told him to park and text her, so he did. As he was waiting, someone approached his truck.

“Excuse me?” They asked, knocking on his window. When he cracked it, they asked, “Lucas, would you please step out of the truck?”

His blood ran cold. This person looked like Ara, but not quite right, like it was wearing her face. It spoke with a voice that was not hers.

Lucas cranked his window back up, but the thing wearing Ara’s skin grabbed the glass and wrenched it, making the safety glass shatter. It reached for Lucas, and he reached for his gun in the glovebox.

He flipped off the safety, cocked the hammer back, and fired at it.

The thing shrieked and staggered back, maroon spreading from the gaping wound in its chest.

“What the fuck?!”

That was Ara.

Lucas felt a surge of relief as the real Ara ran to the creature, her hands out and ready to wield her power. “You okay?” she asked.

He nodded and shot the creature again.

Ara nodded and pushed her hands forward towards the creature, and blew it apart.

“You’ve gotten better,” Lucas called.

She smiled. Her smile was still as brilliant as the sun as she opened the door to his truck. He let himself be pulled out and onto his feet as she wrapped her arms around him. Lucas melted into her and breathed deeper. Her powers always left the scent of rosemary in her hair.

“You should get a new truck.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he grumbled good-naturedly.

“What was that thing?”

“Dunno,” he said. It bothered him that she didn’t know what it was. She should know. “It was wearing your face.”

“Ha, ha,” she deadpanned. “Was it a demon or something?”

“Demons don’t steal faces.”

“Noted.” Ara walked around and got in on the passenger side of the truck. “Dinner?”

“Are we gonna do something about the body?”

“We never used to.” Ara shrugged. “It’ll keep my rent from increasing.”