(READ!) Author's Note:

So, I'm going to explain this later on in the story but I feel the need to mention this beforehand, so I don't offend anyone unintentionally. In this there is no "God" and there is no "Devil," and basically take the mentions of either one of them as symbolism. I know very little about religion (there's so much to learn) but I like to create caricatures of religion and throw my own twist on it. If it's insulting to anyone, I guess I'm sorry, but it's fanfiction and my writing, and if you can look past my bullshit, please continue on. Thank you.

Warnings (for whole story): Violence, Language, Themes, Adult Situations, Sex later on

Disclaimer (I never remember to do these): I own the poetry and plot, the characters all belong to Cassandra Clare.

World lost in flesh and blood

It'll end in either fire or ice

I'll melt your hears

Time has come to sacrifice

Broken blood and bone

Comes down to a choice

And break your heart

Who will raise their voice

Water, wind, ashes and blood

Loved the earth, devour desire

Trust in your heart

Watch life consumed in fire

Full of broken bone and sorrow

Ride the ride, feed the ice

Do you know your heart

It's time to choose and sacrifice

-We're all of Flesh and Blood

September Ends

Screams shattered into the midnight sky, painted red with blood-smog. Mother's ran with children secured tightly with their hands. Tears fell down the faces of the innocent as men lay dying, more crying, pleading for the world to end it all. They all ran, some hid, from an invisible god that struck fury down upon them with an unholy hand. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, but they pleas came loud and pitiful to deaf ears.

Fires erupted through buildings, setting the city on fire. Paved roads with scars etched cynically into their skin lay covered in debris of fallen buildings, apartments, homes. Everywhere there was falling, blood splatting against pavement and skin.

A man haloed in shining white dissented from the bleeding skies above, eyes malicious and flaming red. Wings punctured from his back, white and immaculate as he soared down to earth.

Up rose another figure, crawling his way from Earth's crater, hands running blood, eyes shining like the golden rays of sun. Lifting from the earth he stood, great leather wings standing proudly behind him. Although torn and ragged they brought him to the skies to face a battle of ages.

The Earth's water boiled, fires grew, and the smell of burning flesh filled the air as the night grew bright with blood of the fallen and the victor rose above the rest. Blood gurgled from the throats of the people below, trapped in heaven's war.

Faces flashed, familiar and achingly painful as each one was condemned to be one of the chosen sacrifices. Even the faces of those unknown and yet seen before were flashing before his eyes, chocking his voice and burning his eyes.

They were burning, burning. He was suffocating, suffocating.

Burning, burning, burning,

Chocking, choking, chocking.

Burning, burning.

Suffocating, suffocating.

Burning.

Chocking.

Dying.

Blue eyes shot open, searching frantically in the dark, hands grasping the sheets soaked in sweat, trying to crawl back into reality. Alec sat up, hands running through his tangled mess of black hair, glancing at the clock on his nightstand. The numbers glowed red, signaling that it was only one in the morning. He let out a deep exhale, falling back against the bed, eyes trained on his ceiling as if somehow it would lull him back to sleep.

/page break/

Alec woke up with a start, for the second time that night, to a banging on his door and his adoptive brother's voice yelling at him to, "Wake your ass up, unless you want to be late for class," which followed with his bedroom door being slammed open unceremoniously.

He sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, only vaguely aware that he had fifteen minutes before he had to be walking out the front door.

Jace stood in the plain room, looking Alec up and down as he stiffly made his way out of his bed, t-shirt hanging loosely off his shoulders, "You look like hell," he said when he noticed the dark purple ring's surrounding his brother's eyes and the sickly pale hue of his skin.

"Fuck off," Alec mumbled, blindly putting on a pair of black jeans.

"Don't get all pissed with me, you're lucky I woke up in time to realize that you weren't up before me."

Alec sighed and zipped up his hoodie, "I'm sorry, I'm just really tired."

Jace smirked, "Finally decided to take advantage of college life and party it out?"

"Haha," he muttered dryly, pushing past Jace so he could get to the kitchen, where he could smell coffee, "Unlike you, I actually care about my classes; I don't have time to 'party it out' as you so eloquently put it."

Alec poured his coffee into a mug so he could stay awake for his first two classes, afterwards he could stop at the coffee shop and get another cup so he could survive his last class of the day.

"Do you know you're really bitchy when you're sleep deprived?"

Alec ignored Jace and grabbed his bag, "Let's just get going before we're both late."

/page break/

Alec took his seat in the middle row, closest to the wall, he made it earlier than he had expected and people were just filing into the rest of the seats. In the corner of his eye he watched as each person walked through the double doors. He saw the usual people that always came to class, but as the last group of students walked into the room a new arrival walked, more like strutted, behind them.

He didn't look familiar, Alec certainty had never seen him before, and he was sure he would have remembered someone who stood out so much. The new student, Alec assumed he was new, was like a walking rainbow, with his bright skinny jeans, V-neck shirt, boots, and glitter make-up that surrounded his eyes that gleamed gold and green, like a cat's. His features revealed that he had Asian blood.

The boy looked up and seemed to immediately catch Alec's eyes. Alec face flamed as he turned away, cursing himself for being caught staring. He smirked and took a seat two rows behind Alec who was now training his eyes determinedly at the board, grateful that the professor began the lesson.

/page break/

During class Alec had never felt so hyper-aware. He felt eyes watching his every move during the entire lesson and it made him uncomfortable and he didn't dare look to see who was staring at him. He had a pretty good idea who it was to begin with, but it didn't make any sense to him, so he tried to continue with concentrating on his note taking.

It wasn't much use, at the end of class he felt like he might as have slept through the entire thing.

He stood up quickly, taking a nervous drink of his coffee; it was still warm, he was thankful for that at least and hurriedly made his exit, successfully avoiding the eyes that had freaked him out before.

His second class was in another lecture hall, so it was close by and once again he found himself as one of the first people to walk into the room. This time though the boy from before was sitting down, two rows back from where Alec normally took his seat, in the middle, closest to the wall. His breath caught in his throat for a moment and he had to take a deep breath before he continued to his regular seat. Once again Alec shifted his gaze anywhere but where the boy was sitting, although, once again, he felt the steady gaze following him as he took his seat.

Another drink of coffee, larger than the last as Alec felt the repercussions of another fitful night's sleep.

He found it even harder to concentrate than before. He was still on high-alert, even though he reassured himself multiple times that it was his overactive imagination and that he was just exhausted from lack of actual sleep.

Alec must have dozed off at some point because he instinctively flinched awake at the end of class. He sighed, and looked around the room in a light daze. Everyone was walking out, and even though he didn't mean to, Alec noticed that the boy that had been creeping him out wasn't to be seen. Another glance to the doors and he saw Jace standing outside, waiting for him to hurry so they could go and get something for lunch, as they did every day.

/page break/

"Hey, earth to Alec," Jace snapped his fingers in front of Alec's face, giving him a look Alec couldn't quite place at the moment when he jumped.

"Dude, you keep spacing out on me."

"Oh, sorry, I just- I'm just tired," he fiddled with his drink, "You were saying something about that girl…um…"

"Clary," Jace filled in.

"Right, right," Alec nodded absent mindedly, searching around the coffee shop, his mind too distracted to really pay any attention to another one of Jace's girl rants.

There was a ding, ding, alerting that there was someone walking into the shop, Alec took a look to see how was walking in and froze for a moment.

Was there anywhere he could go that the boy wouldn't be? Alec knew that he was just being paranoid again, but now it was just getting frustrating.

"Now what's wrong?" Jace demanded a little shortly.

"Nothing, nothing, just- it's nothing," he replied quickly.

Jace turned around and saw who Alec was looking at.

"Who's that?"

Alec shrugged, "Nobody, just some new guy in my classes."

"Hm," Jace looked thoughtful for a minute, like something was bothering him all of a sudden.

Alec felt a little lost, "Anything wrong with you?"

Jace shook his head, "So, about Clary."

/page break/

Alec's afternoon class was the only one he actually looked forward to each day he had to go to school. It was his art class, where he was able to concentrate on his major and not the supplementary classes he had to take as well. It was his most taxing class because of the extensive amount of projects they were required to turn in. Usually the art classes are even harder because there's always the chance of getting a professor that only likes specific art, and in the class he got, his professor was very much open to all forms and styles of art, as long as it was executed well and was obvious that they put a lot of time and energy into it.

Again he settled into his routine seat, uncovering his canvas. He was working with charcoal, something he didn't use too often; he preferred paper and ink or oils. They were asked to try something different, and that's what he was trying to do.

He rolled up his sleeves so that they were bunched up at his elbows and took a piece of charcoal into his right hand and delicately began to continue with the basic details of his piece.

He knew what he wanted as soon as he decided on charcoal for his medium. The canvas would hold everything that had been disturbing his dreams. It would hold the city burning, a broken figure rising from a crater, wings torn and frayed, and the angel from above would be looking down on the creature with contempt in his eyes. Alec thought that the black and white with the shading through it would do the image in his head justice.

"- alright then, you've arrived in the middle of a project, but I still expect it turned in on the exact deadline," Alec caught Hodge's, his professor's, gruff voice, sounding on edge of being extremely annoyed.

He looked up from his work, pushed back into reality once more and again, he was caught looking at this new guy, who was now in his art class, and now taking the seat next to him, the only one available, just his luck.

Shifting his focus back on his canvas he meticulously etched in the image, smudging the coal every now and then to get the right effect. Every now and then he would have to stop and wipe his hands on the rag he always kept around to make sure he didn't accidently touch the canvas and ruin the drawing.

"You're really good with this; do you use charcoal as your main medium?"

Alec subconsciously jumped, dropping the rag in his hands, watching as a tanned hand picked it from the floor, handing it back to him. Alec looked up to the face that he wasn't used to seeing, and willed himself not to freak out.

"I…um," he glanced at his unfinished work for a moment before turning back to meet gold-green eyes, "Not really," he shrugged, "This is the first time I've used charcoal."

"Really now, we'll then you're a natural," Alec didn't know what to say, so he just tried to continue on with his work.

"What's your name?"

"What?" Alec turned his attention back to him.

He smirked, "You're name, I kind of would like to know it so I don't keep mentally calling you blue-eyes."

Alec blushed crimson red, "Alexander…Alec, I'm Alec."

"Well Alexander, I'm Magnus, Magnus-"

"Bane, quit your chat-chat, you've got work to do and I don't need you distracting any of my students."

"I see someone didn't wake up on the right side of the bed," Magnus commented, attention not swayed from Alec.

"He's not usually like this."

"Maybe it's just me."

Magnus' eyes sparkled with something that looked like mischief, the kind Alec always say when Izzy or Jace were laughing at a secret joke in front of their parents.

/page break/

After class Hodge called Alec to his desk, glaring as Magnus walked out of the doors with the rest of the students.

"Is there something wrong?" Alec asked nervously. He was fiddling with the sleeve of his jacket, a tick of his.

"Not at all, I just wanted to say that I want you to be careful is all."

Alec was confused; he didn't see any reason why Hodge would be worried for him, "Pardon? I don't think I understand."

"Just some friendly advice, I don't want to see you getting hurt, so I'm just asking you to be cautious is all. Stick close to your friends is all I'm saying."

Alec nodded, only half really understanding what was being said.

"Good, now be off with you, get some sleep," Hodge waved him off and went to his paperwork.

"What was that?" Jace asked, noticing how Alec was talking with Professor Starkweather.

"Nothing, he just wanted to talk about an assignment is all."

Jace nodded distractedly, but quickly recovered, and began to talk about his escapades in class that afternoon.

Alec was left more confused than ever, mulling everything that had happened that day in his thoughts, making sure to nod or smile whenever Jace said something that required acknowledgement.

Author's Note: Okay, so kind of an awkward place to end the chapter, but this was getting longer than I expected (really proud about it but I felt like I was beginning to ramble). Tell me what you think about it so far. I'm really excited about this. And I'm going to actually try with constant up-dates. School is settling down, and spring break is in two weeks so that means I'll have a week where I can stay up late to write (I always seem to write better in the am than anything during the day).

Reviews are what keeps me motivated, I like to know what people are thinking about my writing.

Lots Of Love