Alex grabbed my hand, pulling me along. "Slow down!" I yelled, although my words were ignored, and he just sped up. "Are we almost there?" I asked. I itched to take off the blindfold, but I had promised Alex I wouldn't until we had gotten wherever we were headed. As a result, I kept on tripping on the uneven ground. It seemed to me like we were on dirt, although I couldn't figure out anything else about my surroundings.
Alex laughed. I couldn't see a thing, but I knew he was grinning, that same smile I had grown up with. "Chill, Vi, just a little farther!" He pulled me forward abruptly, accidentally making me trip over what felt like a tree root.
"Ah!" I shrieked as I fell, unable to steady myself in time. Alex tried to catch me, but he epically failed, and we both ended up with our limbs awkwardly tangled in a heap on the ground. I still couldn't see, and both of my arms were pinned, so I couldn't take off the blindfold. We awkwardly untangled ourselves from each other, giggling.
"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry!" Alex pulled me to my feet, spinning me around to face a certain direction. "Okay take off your blindfold in three, two…" I had already pulled it off before he reached one.
We were back to back, completely surrounded. Violet's whip flashed in her hand, and I held a seraph blade at the ready in each hand.
"Okay, then," Violet said quickly, as she turned to me with a grin. "I'll take the giant straight ahead, and you can make short work of that crocodile-looking thing."
"Aw, how come you get the big one?" I fake pouted.
"Because you just took down the other giant," Violet said, matter-of-factly. "Now, are we gonna kick some demon butt or what?" With that said, she leapt into battle, her whip flashing in her hand as she quickly defeated demon after demon, making her way towards the giant she had targeted. I grinned, and turned to my half of the demons, cutting them down quickly with my seraph blades and moving on to the next one right away. Soon, I had defeated most of the smaller demons, and I attacked one, then whirled around, only to find myself face to face with the crocodile.
I raised my eyebrows at Alex after taking off the blindfold. "A wall of vines and leaves and stuff. You dragged me here blind to show me a wall of vines and leaves and stuff."
"Ah, but that's just what you see on the surface," Alex said with a knowing grin. "But, Vi, you should know very well that everything is not as it seems." He stepped forward and pulled away the vines and leaves and stuff, revealing it to be more of a curtain. However, the most shocking realization of all was what lay behind it.
"Woah." I couldn't find words to describe what was in front of me. "This-this is… Woah." I stepped through the curtain as Alex held it open for me. I was in an incredible sort of grotto. Weeping willows' branches crisscrossed over my head, making a lovely roof that shielded this place from the harsh sun. On the other side was a waterfall that crashed into a small pond that took up the middle of the area. Where the waterfall came down, mist and a rainbow showed up. The whole place was shielded from the outside world by vines and leaves and stuff, so you could never guess it was there. Near the edge of the water was a small raft, ideal for holding two people.
"Shall we?" Alex asked with a smile, inclining his head toward the raft.
"We shall," I replied, letting him help me aboard, ever a gentleman. We pushed off, Alex using a long pole to steer us toward the waterfall. To my amazement, we went around it, into a shaded cave area set up with… a picnic? "Woah, what is this? Did you actually do all this?" I gestured to the whole arrangement in awe.
"As a matter of fact-yes. Yes I did." He smiled at me, and we sat down and began to eat.
My eyes widened upon seeing something strange about the crocodile. I slowly started walking backwards upon the shocking realization. The crocodile didn't move, though. Yet.
"An automaton," I breathed, my eyes wide. This was impossible. I had heard stories about these things, but I thought they had all been defeated along with Mortmain by Tessa and Ithuriel. Then again, I had heard rumors, about some automatons that had survived, due to being animated by greater demons' life forces, and some other factors that came into play. Violet and I had dismissed them as just that, rumors, but now, with one right there, we had no choice but to realize their truth. The automaton didn't have any skin, exposing its inner workings. It looked like clockwork or something on the inside. I smiled a little, imagining Captain Hook having a nervous breakdown over this thing.
"ALEX!" My reverie was broken upon hearing Violet scream my name. I looked over my shoulder, to see her pointing at the clockwork demon, the giant she had attacked defeated on the ground behind her. When I looked back at the automaton, it lunged at me. I leapt back, tripping and falling onto the ground, and I was barely able to roll over in time. I hit my head on the ground though, which momentarily stunned me. The automaton turned towards me and lunged again, and I wouldn't have been able to escape it that time if it weren't for Violet. Her whip coiled around my wrist, and she yanked me out of the way of the beast. I silently thanked Magnus for figuring out a way to make a version of Isabelle's whip that would not cut my hand off, and could only harm demons. Violet ran to my side and pulled me to my feet.
"Is-is that?" She stuttered, her eyes wide.
"Yeah," I finished. "Tessa told me about these things. They're almost impossible to defeat now, you need an angel's help. In other words, we're gonna die."
Violet looked down for a moment, thinking. "I got it!" she exclaimed. "Alex, you're a Herondale. Your parents are Clarissa Fairchild and Jonathan Herondale. Both of them have, like, angel blood or something. Meaning you do, too. Meaning we might have a chance if you go with my totally crazy idea. Give me your hand."
"Why?" I looked at her nervously. Usually, her ideas were pretty good, but sometimes, they'd leave us grounded for months, severely injured, or both.
"Just do it!" I reluctantly obliged. Violet grabbed one of my seraph blades out of my other hand, and-and cut my hand?
"Hey!" I tried to pull back my hand, but she held my wrist tightly. She pulled out her stele and drew an iratze on my wrist, and the wound healed itself immediately. "What the heck was that for?!" Violet simply handed me the knife with my blood on it after smearing some on my other knife and her whip.
"Here," she said. "Angelic blood, powers and stuff, possibly able to defeat a clockwork beastie." I stared at her. I didn't know whether to call her crazy or a genius. "Yes, yes, I know, I'm a crazy genius. Now, let's kick some clockwork-demon-thingy butt!" With that said, we sprang into battle.
We talked as we ate, reminiscing about our childhood and telling each other funny stories. Violet told me about when her dad had gotten himself turned into a rat, and I told her about the time I had gotten chased around my backyard by a duck.
"Those things are scary!" I argued upon Violet's hysterical laughter. "Their beady little eyes, their-"
"Don't worry," she interrupted, taking my hand. "I'll protect you from any murderous waterfowl." I rolled my eyes, but I still smiled.
"So, I'm scared of ducks," he said. "What about you? Tell me, Violet Tessa Lightwood, what are you afraid of?"
"Oh, um, well… I guess I would have to say..."
"Come on, spit it out!" I told her jokingly.
Violet sighed. "Okay," she said. "I'm scared of… I'm scared of time." She looked down, suddenly serious.
I tilted her chin up, so that we were looking at each other eye to eye. "Why?" I asked softly.
"Because, no matter what, time is the one thing that, ultimately, can and will kill you," she said nervously. "You can escape demons, snakes, spiders, the monsters under the bed, but no one can escape time. I'm scared of time running out." I froze, staring at her. Violet was usually fun and full of laughter, or tough and fierce. I had never seen this side of her before, had never seen her vulnerable and scared like this. I leaned in and pulled her close to me, into a hug.
"Well then," I told her, still holding her close. She sniffled into my shoulder, and I held her as tightly as I could. "That's all the reason to live for today, isn't it?"
Violet looked up at me gratefully. "Yeah," she said with a small smile. She then looked down, as if she was contemplating something.
"Vi?" I asked. "What is it? Is everything o-" I was cut off by Violet abruptly grabbing my shirt and pulling me into a kiss.
I ran towards the automaton's left side, while Alex came in from the right. I cracked my whip to get the beast's attention, while Alex lunged in and stabbed it. It turned around, much faster than I thought possible for something of it's size, and swung its tail towards him. I instinctively reached out with my whip, it wrapping around the automaton's tail. That slowed it down enough for Alex to get out of the way, but it somehow swung me over itself, me still holding on to my whip.
"CRAAAAAAAP!" I shrieked as I flew through the air and slammed into the ground. Immediately, Alex was at my side, helping me up.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," I replied shakily. I was a little bruised and scratched up, but it was nothing an iratze or two wouldn't fix. "Just… watch out for the tail, okay? It's all sharp and stuff, and I have a bad feeling about it."
Alex nodded. Whenever I got a bad feeling about something, I would tend to be right.
"So, shall we?" Alex asked.
"We shall," I replied, and we jumped back in, slashing and stabbing at the beast, the two of us a whirlwind of excitement and fury. We covered for each other, whenever it tried to focus on one of us, the other would swoop in and attack. We felt invincible. We were invincible.
We weren't invincible. Our main strategy thus far was to ensure that the automaton couldn't actually hit one of us, by having the other one capture its attention when it tried. But that technique couldn't work forever.
We were on opposite sides of the demonic thing. At the moment, it was focused on me. Alex came in to stab it, but its thrashing tail smacked into his chest, hitting him far away. He appeared fine, just stunned, with the wind knocked out of him. The beast turned to Alex, and began to make its way towards him. I ran his way as fast as I could, screaming his name.
"Alex! ALEX!" He tried to stand, clutching his chest, but he fell to the ground again. "Oh no," I said softly to myself, "he must be hurt worse than I thought!" I ran as fast as I could, but I didn't think I would make it in time.
No, I thought to myself. Alex is special, he's the golden Herondale boy. The world can't lose him. And he's important to me. And I am not going to lose him to some overgrown, metal, LIZARD! I thought about everything we had been through together, and how he couldn't go, and put in an extra burst of of speed. I knew Alex was powerful, but I was just like anyone else. I never thought I was special, or that I could actually amount to anything before. I decided, in that moment, that I was going to do something different. And so I leapt.
I jumped into the air, somehow soaring. I was impossibly high up for a jump, and I already figured out where I would land, right between Alex and the beast. The thing was getting closer and closer to him, but I knew I would make it there first. I saw the automaton's tail twitch, and I realized it was going to try to finish him off with the tail. I still held my whip, and I made my plan, right before I hit the ground in front of the beast, before my whip, still infused with angelic power, wrapped around the automaton's head, somehow making it steam and fall off, and before its tail went through my stomach.
My head was spinning, but I didn't pull away. I was actually kissing Alexander James Herondale, the boy who I had had a crush on since we were small children, the boy whose smile would invoke an army of butterflies in my stomach. My arms were resting on his shoulders, my fingers tangled up in his blonde hair. His arms were around me, pulling me closer. We kissed, and nothing else mattered, nothing else existed, just the two of us in our own little world, hidden away from demons and fears and anything that could ever go wrong. After what felt like an eternity, we finally pulled away from each other. We stared into each other's' eyes for a moment, neither one of us daring to break the silence.
"Woah," Alex murmured.
"Yeah," I replied. "Woah."
"You know," Alex said awkwardly, his hand on the back of his neck. "I was kind of planning to do that tonight, but you sort of beat me to it."
"Really? Wow, I don't even know what happened, a little voice in my head just told me what I've been wanting to do for the past few years," I said with a small smile. "I should've listened to it sooner!"
"It's okay," Alex said, taking my hand. "That same voice was in my head, too. Looks like we're both pretty ignorant."
"Yeah," I replied, looking down. The two of us awkwardly stood. "So, if you ever want to do something like this again, then that would be-"
This time, I was interrupted by Alex pulling me into a kiss again. It felt almost like something out of a story. Alex dipped me, like in a movie or something, and this time, we weren't afraid of anything. At last, we pulled apart.
"So, um, it's getting dark," Alex said awkwardly. "We should probably go or something."
"Yeah," I replied. We left the hideaway, and went back to the Institute in silence, although I took into account with great pleasure that we held hands the whole time.
"VIOLET!" I screamed as she fell to the ground. I tried to stand again, but I fell, a searing pain shooting through my chest. I gathered up all my energy, and shakily climbed to my feet, stumbling toward Violet. I finally made it to her, and collapsed at her side. "Vi," I said quietly, reaching out to her.
"Don't worry… about... me," she said, her voice quiet. I had to lean in close just to hear her.
"Don't worry!" I exclaimed. "You got stabbed, and you're telling me not to worry?! Oh, Vi, why did this have to happen to you?" I broke down, crying, holding her close to me.
"Because… if it didn't… it would..." She went into a coughing fit, choking up blood. "It would have… happened… to you."
"And if it had, you wouldn't be dying! It should have been me, Vi, it should have been me!" I sobbed, holding her in my arms.
"Don't.. say... that," Violet choked out. Her voice was extremely faint now. "The world… can't lose… you. You..." Violet started coughing again, and I cried even harder. "You're… special, and I'm… I'm nobody."
"No! You're important, you're important to me! I can't lose you, Vi!" I brushed her dark hair away from her face. Violet leaned in, which must have taken a lot of effort, and kissed me on the cheek, then on the lips. I held her close to me, shaking, tears streaming down my face. We finally pulled apart, and she spoke one last time.
"Promise me… promise me you'll… you'll live for today." Her hand dropped to the ground, and right before light left her eyes, I did promise.
"I will, Vi, I will." My heart broke as her eyes lost their brightness, as her hands lost their warmth, as the love of my life died in my arms. But I kept my promise. I came back to the hideaway once a year, on the anniversary of the day that we shared our first kiss, and sat at the spot where it happened. I still have a scar from where the crocodile's tail hit me, right over my heart, which seems appropriate. But most importantly, I kept my promise. I live for today.
Live for today.