Hi and I'm back.
I had written this story a while ago, before Silver Angel's Sister started. I was thinking of doing the prequel first, but obviously it failed. This is actually the story of Julie going to New York in 2008 and meets the characters in the Mortal Instruments. I hope you guys enjoy it :)
The title of the story, "Everything Has Changed" is inspired by Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran's song, which I obviously do not own :/ I also do not owns the characters except for Julie and my OC.
Enjoy!
Prologue
Julie Carstairs-Townsend sits cross legged on the bench next to the Hudson River. It's a chilly September evening, and with the large amount of body of water next to her, the wind is rather a chill down the spine. She stands up with a sigh, pulling her light tan color cashmere sweater around herself tighter and smooth down her light-wash denim jeans, which are tugged inside her riding boots. She walks in to the nearest coffee shop, and decided to order a cappuccino with extra milk and some caramel drizzle. After her order is delivered into her hands, she hails a cab towards Brooklyn. She knows she can easily create a Portal, which will probably takes one-fourth of the time inside the foul-smell vehicle, but she is simply not in the mood to do so.
She knows she shouldn't be here, but a sudden urge had pulled her home. Not to Taipei, where the weather is still warm and toasty, nor her birthplace in China, or London, where she grew up. It's not the place or one specific location she felt home to, it's the person, and some certain warlock is all she can go to that reminds her of home. Jem's somewhere in the Bone City, and all her- what she consider "family" are long dead. Actually, the only person other than Magnus that's actually alive, or rather wanting to communicate with her- is coincidentally her older brother's former fiancée, whom she hasn't spoken to in about half a decade.
She sips her coffee quietly and stares out at the busy Manhattan street as she remembers the day that had split the traveling partners apart:
"Going to see Jem?"
She can still remember her bed at the London loft, decorated in black and brilliant gold, where she and Tessa had been staying on their apparent "world tour".The older woman nodded and grabbed her keys and pea coat.
"I'll be back sometime around afternoon." Her accent never faded- it may sound British, but the hint of American is still clearly audible.
Julie had not been in a very good mood that morning and she blurted out the question she had been wondering for the past century.
"Don't you think it's strange that you have a meeting with Jem for the past 130 some years and I never had one?"
She can see and feel Tessa freeze, her slender finger on the doorknob, hesitate to turn it.She slowly turns back, and fixes her gaze on Julie.
"You were never there." She tries to keep her tone nonchalant and carefree, but Julie, knowing her so well, she notices the effort she puts into that statement.
She grits her teeth and reply back, this time with a more challenging attitude.
"I was with you every single year on your "yearly meeting", except for that fire and my aunt's funeral." she put up her hands and air quote the phrases that both Will and Tessa use.
Tessa had let go of the doorknob, and now leaning on the front door with her arms cross stiffly across her chest and looks at her-practically-little-sister as Julie goes on, babbling of all the things she wanted to say for a really long time.
"He had meetings with you when Will got stung; he was there when you woke up and screamed his name or what I would rather say, "to cut all the bonds before he became a Silent Brother" he had meetings with you at your pregnancy. He wasn't even there when my children were born! Then there's the yearly meeting on his favorite places in the whole world. I always thought he is better than that, and that he loves us the same, that he might think of me once and tries to come back to talk to me. But he never did. And you never tell me what goes on in your meeting, what you guys did, what you guys talk about, or was I even mention at all. It was all Jem and I, me and Jem, and I was never included!"
She was close to hysteria, and she didn't realize her voice was raised to nearly a scream. She can feel tears stinging her eyes, begging to be release, but her stubborn nature that hates to show other her weakness and vulnerability, just turns the threatening sobs as an attempt to catch her breath.
Having listening to her confession, she can see and feel Tessa's faces and emotion changes from pure irritation to cold rage. She had never understood why Jem is such a sensitive subject for her, and why she never speaks of him.
She snapped: "I would've, but you never asked, Jewel. For nearly one and a quarter century, you have an opportunity to ask to come to the meeting with me. Why? I think we both know why? Because you are scared!"
She spits the last part of her sentence out, as if it's venom and poisonous. She had used her nickname- the one that she and Magnus barely uses after the early 20th looks at Julie's face, which barely conceal the shock and hurt. Quietly, she slipped out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her.
Julie packed everything in less than half an hour with magic's help. She dragged her black suitcases- even with her gloomy mood, she is proud of its Swarovski crystal embroiders, where she and Magnus had placed and glue there one evening, both insisting not to let magic get in the way.
She got to the airport, and with the fast ticket providing machine, got the first ticket that is available.
The plane took her to LAX, and her argument with Tessa is soon forgotten. Cordelia Townsend's here- one of her grand- to the few exponents- granddaughter. She always finds it ironic and funny. The last Cordelia she knew- her last name was Carstairs, making her Julie's cousin. Apparently the name Cordelia is bond to her, and that the Shadownhunters these days enjoy naming their children after their ancestors. She wonders if there's a Theresa or Julie somewhere.
She spends the next four years wondering around the state of California. Going to the site of the 49 Gold Rush, visiting all the historical places that are younger than she is. But mostly she is just around the Los Angeles Institute, watching Will and Tessa's descends, who has Tessa's brown hair and Lucie's blue green eyes, the Blackthorns.
For god's sake, there are eight of them: the father, Andrew Blackthorn, with his seven children. The oldest one is turning 17, and he struck Julie oddly- siblings' resemblance is one of the subjects she had focused on in her long lifetime, and he looks exactly just like the male version of his sister, Helen. They are both blond, unlike the rest of the Blackthorn children with their soft brown locks. There's also a gene mutant, Tiberius- with black eyes and black hair.
She also watches Emma. Emma Carstairs has a head of blond hair and warm brown eyes. Perfect combination of Carstairs and Townsend she is, with the beautiful golden hair of Carstairs- which is possessed in most of the Townsend due to her blond gene and Connor's locks. She cheered when she saw her brown eyes, the same shade of molten chocolate as her own. She just turned 12- and Julie can see herself in the girl. Brave, almost reckless- and protective.
And now she's back in New York, where she knows Magnus is resident. She heard rumors that he had found himself a partner in life, and she is ready to make his life hell by making fun of it.
Now they had gone into Brooklyn, Julie sips the last bits of her coffee and fiddle with her bracelet. It had been an engagement gift from Connor. Her throat tightens at the thought of her deceased husband. He was- is- the love of her life, and unlike Tessa, whom had two great loves in his life, she only have one- but she isn't going to complain. She loved him more than anything.
She gave her the bracelet on her 16th birthday, the day he proposes to her. He had also given her his family ring, which is hung on a silver chain around her neck, neither of them ever taken apart from her waist and neck along with her Carstairs ring.
The bracelet is nothing like Tessa's. It's a bangle, rather. It has a circular ruby hanging from it- her birthstone. There's also a golden tag next to it, which makes the musical sound of medal meets stone whenever she moves. On the pendent is one simple word: lumière. She knows it by heart the meaning: light in French, Connor's first language, and beneath it is her initial: J.T. in scripted. Julie Townsend.
Magnus had offered to charm it with protection spell and magic - the same way he did to Camille, or rather Cecily's necklace- to act as a Sensor. She had refused. It's a reminder of her love. A reminder of what her life should be without the demon blood. The way if Yanluo hasn't slanged her parents and she is just another Shadowhunter: mortal.
Suddenly the taxi screeched to a stop. A familiar building came into view: Magnus's apartment. Julie paid the driver his pay and a considerable amount of tips, then climbs out of the car with her empty coffee cup.
She gets into the lobby; where you are suppose to ring the doorbell to the desired house. She stands there for two seconds, hesitating on ringing the doorbell. She doubts he knows she's here. Yes, she had send her luggage to the New York Institute, but she doubt he has any idea whose is it, even if he had coincidentally "swing" by.
Her mischief ran over her moral, and she takes out her stele - slim and warm in her hand, and begins to draw.
So here is the Prologue! Loved it? Hated it? Please let me know!
I promise I will update quickly because I will be getting my new computer tomorrow *spin with flowers*
Until then!
xoxo, Flora