Let the Curtains Fall
They landed in an infirmary, Alec sitting in a chair between two beds.
Annemette in one, the dark haired girl Alec had saved in battle in the other.
Annemette slowly faded away before reappearing curled up on Alec’s lap, watching over the other girl.
“I don’t know how Alex is ever going to look me in the eye again. I almost got their sister killed. I almost got my pariabiti’s sister killed. They must be so angry right now...”
“They aren’t angry with you. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I should have stood up to my mom. I knew something was off about this mission.”
“I could have stood up to my mom too, but I didn’t, because they’re the adults. They’re suppose to know best but they didn’t and we’re the ones who paid for their mistakes.”
“When did you get so smart?”
“It’s a side effect from being friends with all you nerds.” Alec snarked at her.
Annemette giggled, “Oh like you aren’t a literary nerd yourself!”
“I neither confirm nor deny that accusation.” Alec replied with a smile.
Annemette snorted.
The dark haired girl groaned.
Annemette and Alec jumped up and went to the girl's bedside.
She opened her eyes and blinked heavily.
“Hey...” she said slowly,
Annemette cried out in delight and buried her face in the girl’s stomach, hiccuping, laughing, and sobbing all at once.
Alec smoothed back her hair and smiled down at the girl.
“I’m glad you’re awake, Genevieve.”
The girl smiled softly up at him and fell back asleep.
The walls began to spin and suddenly they were standing in a large hall.
There were bodies lying under white sheets as is the Shadowhunter way. Out of the fifteen not including Alec, Annemette, and Mabuz who had gone on this mission only six returned to their families.
That meant ten children had died needlessly, Magnus thought.
Alec was dressed all in white, not for the first or last time. Annemette stood next to him, defying tradition. On her white dress was a thick black line curled around her from the sleeveless top to the flowing skirt that fell just past her knees. In the light it shone with all different colors. If you stared long enough you could see that Alec’s bowtie was made of the same material but if you blinked it went back to being white.
By every body stood a person who would name the deceased. They had each been given a white flower and each of them placed it on the sheet covering their loved one as they said their name. A basket of white flowers laid between Alec’s and Annemette’s feet
Annemette choked out her brother’s name and Alec placed his hand on her elbow giving her the support needed to keep her standing. As the last name was spoken the flowers all turned the same dark color that decorated Annemette’s dress and the glittery color spread to the sheet.
Only a few noticed and bitter sweet smiles graced their faces as they watched the vessels that once held their loved ones burn.
The entire Institution faded away and all that was left was Alec holding a shimmering ebony flower.
“I still miss him… but I decided after his death that love, even the prospect of it, wasn’t worth it. Of course Magnus went and proved me wrong-”
Alec’s smile was sweet but his eyes were pained.
“-but I kept this part of myself closed off for a long time to protect myself from anymore pain.”
He left the flower fall to the floor and suddenly the ground was covered in them.
“It’s been six years and Annemette still turns to talk to him sometimes.”
Magnus bent down and picked up a flower. He tucked it into his secret inside pocket on his vest.
Alec looked at the flowers at his feet and spoke quietly, as if to himself.
“Annemette use to leave colors on everything she touched… I remember laughing more before that night… Mabuz had a beautiful smile… Jessica was a fierce warrior...”
Alec continued to list names and something unique about each of them. 18 names, all those who had fought in that wore down, abandoned warehouse. Those who were too young to already be gone from this world, those too young to be haunted by the battlefield.
Alec looked at his mother.
“Why didn’t you listen to me?”
Maryse opened her mouth but found herself with nothing to say.
“My friends wouldn’t be dead if you had listened, if either of you had ever listen to us for once in your lives!”
The white walls were steadily doused in the sparkly inky black color as it fell down from the ceiling and the light faded from the room until all that was a soft glow.
“A part of me died with them, Mom… Why did you let us die?”
Tears fell one after the other onto the flowers. While Alec’s glimmered as they slid down the petals causing them to glow...
Maryse’s were like acid and burned every petal they touched until they all went up in smoke.
“Of course, Annemette’s mom forbid of from talking about what happened with anyone who didn’t already know. I couldn’t even find comfort from my sister or parabatai and I certainly wasn’t going to find any comfort from you.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry...”
“You’re always sorry, It’s always too late...”
Maryse began to sob, slightly bent over, unable to stand proud with the weight of her actions catching up to her all at once.
She placed her hand over her mouth, knuckles white, like she could hide her weakness if she could only keep it trapped within herself.
A velvety glittery vine began to slowly climbed up Alec leg.
Vines began to grow from the floor and they twisted themselves into doors, flowers with petals folded in on one another made the knobs.
“It’s time for the curtains to fall, the show has ended... Jocelyn pick someone.”
Jocelyn looked between her lover and her daughter.
“Luke.”
Luke, who had silently noticed a pattern, chose his door carefully. He looked at the runes on four different doors before choosing the fifth. The rune on it was Sharing.
Alec’s left brow rose.
Luke hesitated but no one noticed as he pulled open the door with an assured expression.
The vines making up the other doors fell apart blending in with the floral canvas beneath their feet.
Alec let out a soft laugh that echoed throughout the room and turned to smile at Magnus.
“I’m sure people assume you to be the dramatic one in our relationship… but my family has always had a flare for theatrics.”
He winked at his siblings.
“And so it would stand to reason, it flows through my blood as well… So good luck with the next one!”
With those final words, the vine had wrapped itself around Alec completely. He turned slightly away from them and lifted his arm which the vine had also draped itself upon, and at its tip, resting in his palm, was a single flower.
His entire being faded into that reflective coal colored essence, glitter and colors painting him out to be like a galaxy.
He froze like a statue, eyes closed, face turned upwards towards the the flower in his palm. From his other hand, down at his side, hung an open locket. It was the only thing outside than the group that held any fixed color. It was gold with a picture of Alec, Annemette, and Mabuz all smiling inside.
Michelangelo would have stood in awe of the details, how expressive Alec was frozen as a sculpture.
The heartbreak on his face bleed through the glossy stars and planets adorning his skin.
“Dramatic indeed,” muttered Raphael as he went through the door after Luke and Jocelyn.
Izzy, Jace, and Max glared at his back as they followed.
Lydia, Clary, and Simon were next. Then Maryse and Robert.
Magnus paused and looked at the piece of his boyfriend that had formed into a painted marble statue, trapped in a garden of flowers resembling space and the wonders within it.
“One day I’ll free you,” he whispered then step through the door to join the others.
A single tear ran down Alec’s immobilize face and off his chin. It fell to the floor.
When it hit the ground it exploded into a supernova of colors, though no one was there to see it.