"You seriously expect me to wear this?" Alec came out of his and Magnus's bedroom holding a fuzzy suit with a massive tail and a T-Rex mask in his hand.
Magnus turned around, dressed in a purple robe with silver embroideries and a purple wizard's hat. The long, grey beard that looked like it was magicked rather than glued on should've looked ridiculous on him, but somehow didn't. But then again, in Alec's eyes, Magnus looked good in just about anything. "Max really wanted one of us to dress up like a dinosaur, sunshine," Magnus said.
Alec gave him a disbelieving look. "Well, if that's the case, then why isn't that someone you? You're the one that's old enough to qualify as a dinosaur."
Magnus burst out laughing. "Because Max also wanted one of us to go as a Harry Potter-character and I seriously couldn't picture you in anything resembling a dress, even if it were Dumbledore's robes." He walked over to Alec and gave him a quick kiss, the hairs of his grey beard tickling Alec's chin. "And besides, I like you all warm and fuzzy, Alexander. Now can you get dressed, please? Izzy will be here any minute."
"Whatever," Alec muttered under his breath. "The things you do for your kids. And for your boyfriend... I could've just gone as Sirius Black, you know? Would've been a helluva lot easier. Where's Rafe by the way?"
"Thinks he's too old to go trick-or-treating," Magnus answered. "He's at the Institute, practicing his combat skills with Jace."
There was a knock on the door and little Max shot out of his bedroom like a lightning bolt. "That's Raven! Finally!" He looked adorable dressed up like Papa Smurf, which was quite a good choice considering Max's blue skin.
"Who is Raven?" Alec enquired. It wasn't a name he had heard before.
"Raven is my new friend, Dad." Max's words sounded muffled because of his white beard. 'She just moved here and she is a blue warlock, just like me! Papa said it was okay for her to come trick-or-treating with us."
Alec smiled, touched by his son's enthusiasm. Halloween was all his son had been talking about over the last couple of weeks and it was nice for him to have a friend that would come trick-or-treating with him, especially since Rafe didn't want to come along anymore. "Sure, why not? The more the merrier." Alec walked to the door and opened it.
Izzy stood there, dressed in a very revealing black witch-outfit that was bound to win Max and his new friend a lot of candy should the man of the house answer the doorbell. Next to Izzy stood a little blonde haired girl in a white dress. Her blue skin matched Max's exactly.
"Hey, sis." Alec gave Izzy a quick hug and dropped to his knee so he was at the same height as Max's new friend. "Hi, I'm Alec, Max's Daddy. And you must be Smurfette." It wasn't until then that he noticed that she was wearing her right hand in a cast.
The little girl gave him a shy smile. "Smurfette? No, I'm Raven."
"Raven. That's a beautiful name. What happened to your arm?"
Izzy cleared her throat. "Alec, what are _"
Max burst through and hugged his friend, nearly knocking Alec over. "Raven!" He bounced up and down like an overenthusiastic puppy. "We're both dressed up as Smurfs, awesome!" He pulled Alec's sleeve. "Can we go now? Can we go?"
Alec grinned, making a mental note to not let Max eat his entire candy-treasure tonight, considering how hyper his son was already. "Papa insists I wear this for the night." He held up his suit and T-Rex mask. "I'll change really quickly and then we can go, okay?"
"Okay! Hurry up, Dad." Max grabbed Raven's hand and pulled her with him. "Come, I'll show you my room, Raven. I got this really cool chemistry set for my birthday and Papa has been teaching me to make potions and..." The rest of Max's words faded away as he and Raven disappeared into Max's room.
Alec sighed, looking at the costume in his hand. "Time to descend into Jurassic Hell, I guess."
0-0-0-0-0-0
Twenty minutes later they were almost on their way.
Alec had managed to get into his dinosaur suit and already he was sweating as if he was fighting a horde of dragons in the sweltering heat of the desert. This was going to be a long, long night...
Unfortunately Raven had forgotten to bring something to put her candy in, but Max quickly resolved the situation by grabbing another bag from his room and pushing it into Izzy's hand. "Can you carry Ravens bag for her, auntie Izzy?" he asked with a pleading look in his big blue eyes. "Because poor Raven has broken her arm and she's in so much pain."
"I don't know..." Izzy gave Magnus an uncertain look.
"It's quite alright," Magnus said, winking at Izzy. "Don't worry, I'm sure your aunt Izzy will get Raven a ton of candy, Max."
"Yeah, in that dress she's bound to get a whole lot of sugar from the daddies that come to the door," Alec muttered under his breath.
Izzy pushed her wrist under his nose, showing him the bracelet that hid her whip. "Better watch that tongue of yours if you want to keep it, bro."
"Behave, you two," Magnus intervened. "Otherwise there will be no treats for you tonight." The pointed look on his face made it all too clear what treats Magnus intended to withhold from Alec if he didn't play nice with his sister.
Alec held his hands in the air in mock-surrender. "Fine!" He put on his mask and roared. "I smell kiddie-flesh!" he growled, sweeping both Max and Raven from the ground in one fluent move before running to the door. "This dinosaur is hungry and wants his treats now! Come on, let's go before I eat you!"
Outside the street was busy with dressed up people: vampires, witches, fairies... When Magnus had introduced him to the Halloween festivities a couple of years ago, it had struck Alec as odd that people were so eager to be scared by all sorts of monsters one night per year and yet remained blissfully unaware of the real monsters that were preying on them every day. Speaking of which... "What's the deal with Raven?" he asked Magnus when Izzy and the kids rang the bell from another house.
"I'm sorry, sunshine," Magnus answered. "Were you saying something? With the noise outside and your mask, it's almost impossible to hear."
Alec sighed. "Nevermind." It would just have to wait until they got home. But Raven's sudden appearance in Max's life didn't sit well with him for some reason. Sure, he was happy Max made a friend, but a warlock girl with blue skin that matched Max's to a T, moving into their apartment building? That was just too much of a coincidence and Alec didn't believe in coincidence. However, Magnus didn't seem all that bothered by it, so it was probably okay. And the girl looked innocent enough, clinging to Max's hand like he was her lifeline. But Alec knew that the real monsters out there usually didn't look like one... That was precisely what made them so dangerous because you didn't see them coming until it was too late.
Trick-or-treating was exhausting business. The fact that he was locked up in a boiling hot suit probably didn't help and because of the stupid mask, he couldn't even secretly indulge in some of Max's candy. But after having his dinosaur tail pulled for the gazillionth time, he just about had enough.
Alec felt someone pulling his sleeve and he was about to mouth of to the person poking him when he looked down and saw Raven looking at him.
"My feet hurt," she said in a little voice. Her face looked deathly pale all of a sudden, as if she was about to throw up. Which was strange, considering Alec hadn't seen her indulging inany candy, unlike Max.
"My feet are hurting as well, Daddy," Max complained. "Can you carry us back to the apartment?"
"Sure," Alec said, relieved that the kids were ready to go home. He lifted them from the ground and groaned. "By the Angel, did you eat your entire weight tonight in candy, Max?" Raven, on the other hand, was light as a feather. She was also shivering, even though it wasn't really that cold outside.
By the time they were back at the apartment Max was nearly asleep.
"Bedtime story, auntie Izzy," Max whispered.
"Sure," she said, a tender smile tugging at her lips.
Alec doubted that Max would stay awake long enough to hear the end of the story. He put Raven on the floor and pulled off his mask. "Fresh air, hallelujah!"
"There better be some chocolate left when I come back, Alexander Gideon Lightwood," Izzy said before disappearing into Max's bedroom.
"Don't worry, I'll bring Raven home first," Alec said. He felt a tug on his sleeve and he turned around. It was Raven and her hand was so cold that he could feel the chill through the fabric of his dinosaur suit.
"I really have to leave now," she said. All of a sudden tears were streaming down her deathly pale face. "Tell Max goodbye from me."
Alec nearly jumped when Magnus put a hand on his shoulder. "Alexander, Max can't hear us here from his bedroom. It was really sweet of you to play along, but you can drop the act now," Magnus said.
"Act? What act?" With each passing second, Alec felt more confused.
"With Raven," Magnus answered. "You know, Max's imaginary friend."
"His what?" Alec looked next to him, to the side where a moment ago a little blue-skinned girl had clutched to his hand like it was her lifeline.
But the space next to him was now empty.
Raven was gone.
THE END