Magnus took quick, urgent steps in the group's direction. There was a pool of blood at the feet of the teens, and a body lay motionless in the middle of it. It was when he saw the short, dark hair of the figure in the middle did he increase his pace. No. Don't let it be him. The warlock pushed past the Isabelle from one side, pushing Jace from the other. He froze momentarily, glancing down at the motionless figure of Alec.
Too much blood. No, he couldn't give up on the boy. He didn't know what he would do if- Don't think like that! There had to be a way. The pool of blood was increasing rapidly and the short, shallow breaths coming from the boy were becoming more shallow as the blood drained from him.
Magnus knelt down over the boy. He knew it would be much easier if he knew what happened, but nobody did. The boy had gone off wandering alone, leaving his friends behind. Magnus set to work, trying everything he knew as his breaths became more ragged and shallow by the minute. Don't die on me.
Magnus kept working, getting more desperate by the second. It took him several moments before he noticed the boy had silenced completely. No! Magnus collapsed over the boy. A strangled sound came from his throat, but there was no one else around, except for Jace and Isabelle, who didn't think odd of Magnus's reaction. Silent tears fell down Isabelle's face and Jace had his face away from them, devastated.
Nobody said a word, not even when the Robert and Maryse returned back to the institute where the group was. Jace had one of Alec's hands in a tight grip, Isabelle stroking his hair with an arm around him while silent tears dripped down her face. Magnus remained silent, not moving as his head lay on Alec's chest.
Magnus had been sure Alec had been the one, the one he would go to any lengths to please. He would change the world for the nephilim boy, but now the world had been changed. It seemed darker, lifeless, without him. Magnus would do anything, anything, to bring back the boy.
Magnus finally separated himself from the boy and moved over to Jace. They'd cared about Alec as much as the other, even if it was in different ways. But The younger boy pushed him away. "Jace," Isabelle hissed half-heartedly.
"It's his fault," Jace snapped quietly. "That's where Alec was going. He told me not to go with him." He then stood and walked hastily out of the room, clearly unable to take it anymore. The door slammed behind him.
Magnus stood frozen where Jace had shoved him away. Was it really his fault? Was the reason the boy now lay lifeless in front of the warlock his fault? Magnus didn't acknowledge anyone calling his name, only hearing the meaningless repetition of words from the Lightwoods.
He turned and left the room without a word, the image of his battered and broken Nephilim burned into his brain. It tortured him, how he couldn't do anything but watch as the life drained from Alec. The door closed behind him as he exited the institute.
It was too bright and happy outside. It sickened him how the birds could be singing so happily and the sky could be the clearest blue; like his Angel's eyes. He wished he could bring the sky down, or punish it for what it was doing to him.
He stuffed his hands in his pockets and made his way back to his apartment, eyes downcast. He shut the door gently behind him. Chairman Meow came racing down the hallway, but, instead of receiving the usual scratch behind the ears, the cat was all but ignored.
Magnus collapsed on a couch and pulled out his phone. He dialed the all too familiar phone number and held it to his ear. It rung for a few moments before going to voice mail. He held the phone to his ear as the smooth voice of Alec came from the speaker. He hung up the phone when the voice mail was finished its part, and restarted.
After a few minutes, a voice that wasn't of his nephilim boy spoke. He hung up the phone quickly, before Jace could say anymore than a hello. His phone found its way back to its stand.
So this was his punishment, going through the rest of his immortal life knowing, as Jace said, that it was his fault Alec had died. He'd all but killed the boy himself. He stood and began getting together several items.
"Jace, you shouldn't have been so hard on him." It was Isabelle, who had forced her way into Jace's room and sat herself at the small desk, sitting to face him.
"Why not? It's true. That's where Alec was going-"
"Doesn't mean it was Magnus's fault. Why did you have to say that?" She tossed a pillow at his head, hard.
"I'm sorry, all right?" Even Jace knew better than to irritate Isabelle too much.
"It's not me you have to apologize to." She tossed her mobile to him.
"He's been calling Alec's phone all day. I answered and he hung up straight away."
"You know where he lives. Go apologize in person then," she said, not letting him get out of it.
"Fine," he groaned, standing. He didn't want to get on Isabelle's bad side, so made his way to Magnus's house. He didn't know what he was going to say, deciding to wing it.
He hadn't even reached Magnus's apartment before something small, gray and fluffy zipped down the road and hid behind his legs. Jace grabbed it and held it up. "You're Magnus's cat, aren't you," he said, scratching it behind the ear slightly.
It was then there was a loud bang from the direction of the apartment. Jace tucked the kitten into the hood of his jacket and ran in the direction of the sound, not stopping to look for pedestrians, though there were none.
What had once been the High Warlock's apartment was now rubble. In what remained of the living area, a pentagram was clearly etched onto the ground, but it was empty. There was no sign of the warlock, the only thing left being a single lock of hard, sprayed hair. A small scrap of paper sat just outside the pentagram.
I promised him forever.
Let forever come
~M. Bane