Okay, so this started off as a one-shot that I was going to post on Halloween, however I did not get around to it obviously; I have six kids and a life, so sue me. I also decided that it will not be just a one-shot, so I split it in half and there will be more to come. The rating may change later on due to that. We'll see.
Now with that said, I'd just like to say:
1. I do not own The Mortal Instruments, but I do own this story.
2. I hope you enjoy!
My best friend, Isabelle Lightwood, is one of the most beautiful creatures I've ever known; with her long, jet black hair, her beautiful chocolate brown eyes, her full figured curves, and her long, slender yet muscular body, she's a total knock out. She has always loved things that match her beauty, so I don't understand this obsession she has with Halloween. I, personally, can't stand the holiday any longer.
"Hurry up, Clary!" She calls from down the hall of our shared apartment. "I told mom that we'd pick Max up at seven."
I slide on the skirt that she insisted I wear tonight and zip up the back. "I'm hurrying," I say exasperatedly from my room. "Keep your pants on."
I knew we should've started getting ready sooner, instead of last minute 'costume' shopping. But Izzy would just not accept the fact that I was going to wear jeans and a t-shirt this year.
I pull on the black, open-toed ankle boots, and walk out into the hall, making my way to our living room.
"Look at you," Izzy gushes, getting my attention. She's wearing a red, leather mini dress, red heels, and a devil horns headband. "Sexy momma! You're definitely, definitely going to be turning heads tonight."
I can feel the heat rise up in my cheeks, as I blush and open the coat closet door. I give myself a once over in the full-length mirror that hangs on the door. To me, I don't even look like me. My long, red hair that is usually curly is pulled back in waterfall braids, my green eyes stand out even more with the black, smokey eye look, my lips are a crimson red, and my freckled body now has sparkles all over it. All of which Izzy did. The curves that I have very minimal of stand out in the red satin with black lace boned gothic corset and the black, leather mini-skirt. My legs give the illusion that they are longer than what they really are between the boots and skirt.
I turn to look at Izzy. "I look like... like a prostitute."
She laughs. "No, you don't."
"Yes, I do." I spread my arms out wide, "I mean, seriously, look at me."
"I am looking at you," she says, and I roll my eyes dramatically at her. She smiles. "Fine, then you look like a classy prostitute." She teases while handing me the vampire teeth that I'm supposed to wear, and I laugh. "Can we go now?"
"Sure, why not."
Before we could make it to the Lightwood's house to get Max, Maryse called. She said she had an overly anxious trick-or-treater, so she had Alec take him to get started. Izzy then called him to find out where they were so that we could relieve him and he could do whatever it was he had planned for tonight.
Knowing him though, it is probably watching the scare-fest marathon. He's always been like that. But back in the day, Izzy and I use to get him to go out to Halloween parties with us. However, that was before I changed and became pretty much a loner so there will be no partying this year, at least not for me. I mean, I really hate Halloween, so why should I celebrate it.
Izzy says that I shouldn't blame the holiday, but I can't help it. Last Halloween, when Izzy, Alec, and I made it to Aline's party, I caught my boyfriend - at the time - Sebastian, cheating on me with one of our supposed friends, Seelie. And when I say cheating, I don't mean making out. Oh no, they were full-fledged fucking. The next thing I knew, I was being pulled off of a naked Seelie, and my hands and her face were bloody. I never bothered to look back and see by who, I just wanted to get my hands around the bitch's neck and choke the life out of her, but they wouldn't let me as they dragged me out the room and took me directly to Izzy. And to this day, I still don't know who it was. But all that is what changed me, and caused me to retreat into myself.
I use to be confident and dressed in a way that showed it. - Izzy always said I was dressed to kill. - I use to have a large group of friends, now I only have Izzy and Alec. Everybody else became people that I would associate with, and even that is rarely ever. I just can't bring myself to trust people anymore. But who could really blame me. Right?.
Sebastian, my boyfriend of a year, cheated on me; and it turned out that it had been happening for the last four months that we were together. His cousin and my 'friend,' Aline, knew what was going on and helped him hide it. And Seelie - ew, just the thought of her makes my blood boil - was suppose to be my friend, and yet look what she did. Then it turned out that a few others of our group knew what was going on and never said a word, not even to Izzy. I swear, with friends like that, who needs enemies.
I sit back in the passenger seat of Izzy's black, 2005 Malibu, close my eyes, and take a deep breath. Think happy thoughts, I tell myself. And an image of Max flashes behind my eyelids.
"We're here," Izzy says, bringing the car to a stop.
I open my eyes and see that we're at the park, that's five blocks down the road from the Lightwood house, where they are having a little carnival type of thing. I start to scan the area from right to left. There is a pumpkin patch by the merry-go-round, a face painting booth by the swings, a haunted house by the ball field, a kissing booth, a dunking booth - Really?! - a table with costume jewelry, a-
Pecking on my window draws my attention away from the scene.
It's Max. He's got a big smile on his face, that is painted white, his black hair is slicked back, and his blue eyes are sparkling with joy. He has fangs in his mouth, and fake blood running down from the corners of his mouth.
"Clary," he says excitedly, and I start to open my door slowly so that he can move without me hitting him. "I'm a vampire."
"I see," I chuckle. I step out of the car and shut the door. "Do you know what I am?"
"A witch?" He asks as he hugs me.
"No, I'm a vampire," I say hugging him back.
He pulls back, looking up at me with an ear to ear grin. "Just like me!"
"Yep. Just like-"
"MAX! MAX!" I hear a voice yelling, sounding somewhat worried, and I look up.
"He's over here," Izzy shouts back.
A guy with slicked back golden hair comes running up to us from our right. He's wearing a long-sleeved, black, gothic mesh shirt that allows his very chiseled body to show, and a pair of black, leather pants that have chains hanging from all over them.
He scoops up Max in his arms and hugs him tight. "Don't ever do that to me again," he says slightly out of breath. "I thought somebody had run off with you."
"I would've bit them if they tried," Max says, and shows off his fangs with a hiss.
"Alright, there killer," the blonde laughs, just as Alec comes running up from the left.
Alec is wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of camouflage cargo pants. His black hair is slicked back, his blue eyes full of worry, and he has a red blob of what looks like lipstick at his left temple.
"Max, I could kill you." He says as he breathes out a sigh of relief. "Don't ever run off like that again."
"But," Max protests. "I seen Izzy and-"
"I don't care who you saw, you don't run off like that." Alec reprimands, cutting off Max's explanation.
"Oh, take it easy on him, Alec," Izzy says sternly. "Gesh, you sound like mom. And if you haven't noticed, he's perfectly fine. It's not like Clary, and I were gonna let something happen to him."
"How were we suppose to know that, that's where he went?" Alec rebuttals furiously. "He didn't say anything to Jace. He didn't say anything to me. He just took off."
I look over at Max, who's still in the arms of the guy that I now gather as Jace, and he seems like he is about to cry.
I take a side step over to them and place my hand on Max's cheek while noticing that this guy, Jace, has golden skin. It must be the lighting, I tell myself before opening my mouth to speak.
"Alright you two, knock it off," I demandingly say as I turn around to look back over in Izzy and Alec's direction. "It's all over with now, and I'm sure that Max isn't going to do it again." I look at Max, and sweetly ask, "Are you?"
Max shakes his head as he says, "No."
"See," I say looking back at the siblings, that look like they are in shock. "Now Alec, if you want to go do whatever it is you planned on doing tonight, go for it. Izzy and I can take it from here."
I turn back to Max and reach out my hand. He and Jace share a quick hug, and then Jace sets him down while whispering something into his ear and Max nods with a smile.
"Come on," I say as Max takes my hand, and we start to walk towards the little carnival. "Show me what you haven't done yet."
Max and I are painting pumpkins when somebody runs up behind us and grabs me by the shoulders, causing my paintbrush to go across my pumpkin's face.
"Hey," I yell as I turn around with my fists balled up, ready to fight. I see Izzy as she takes a step back with her hands up in surrender, and I release my fist. "What on earth were you thinking? I could've hit you, you know?"
"I want to talk to you about something," she glances at Max, "in private."
"Okay," I drawl out with my eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. I lean over and whisper in Max's ear that, I'm not going anywhere, but I'm going to talk to his sister from right there and point at her. He nods, and I stand up. Taking a step to close the gap between Izzy and myself I ask, "What's up?"
She smiles at me, and quietly asks, "Where did all that come from earlier?"
"What do you mean?" I ask slightly confused with my eyebrows furrowed together and my nose scrunched up. I know what she's asking about, but I'm not sure what she's getting at with it.
"You were, well... you!" She says, with excitement and hope in her eyes. "Does it mean my real Clary is coming back?"
"Your real Clary, huh?" I ask with an awkward laugh. I know, that she knows, that I've changed, she's only mentioned it about a million times, but what she thinks her real Clary is like puts me at a little unease.
"Yes," she says with certainty and then sighs. "You know, the one that doesn't live inside a shell, that speaks her mind, and is a shooting star."
"I still speak my mind," I argue. I turn my body to look over at Max so that I can keep a better eye on him. I really don't want him to walk up on our conversation, and overhear us. "And, I was trying to get you two to stop, because Max was on the verge of crying."
"I know," she says dropping her head in shame. She looks back up and smiles knowingly. "Jace said, he thought you were a firecracker."
"Oh, is that so?" I ask completely emotionless. I don't really care what somebody that I don't know, and doesn't even know me, thinks about me.
"Yes, it is. And I think that you should talk to him. He's over by the car."
"Iz, I really don't have the time right now," I say, and she raises her eyebrows at me, the disbelief of my reason apparent on her face. "I promised Max that when we were done painting pumpkins, that we'd go trick-or-treating for a little while."
"I'm sure that's the only reason," she says with her lips pooched out and her right hand on her hip.
"I'm done," Max says excitedly, lifting his pumpkin up and over his head. He painted spirals for the eyes like they are trying to put you in a trance he told me earlier, red circles for the cheeks, and fangs with blood dripping from them as well as the mouth. "Do you like it?"
"I sure do," Izzy and I say simultaneously.
"It's so scary," Izzy adds. She walks over to him and squats down. "Will it bite me, and suck my blood?"
He laughs and says, "No silly, Izzy. It's a pumpkin vampire, he only sucks pumpkin blood."
"Whew," she says sliding the back of her right hand across her forehead. "I was worried for a minute there. Are you ready to go see what kind of goodies we can get?" He shakes his head yes. "Well, come on then."
"YAY!" He shouts as he jumps up out of the chair, and I walk over and grab my pumpkin. It has golden, olive-shaped eyes, a little white smeared thinly to make its cheeks, and what would've been perfect, pink lips is now a smear that goes up to where the nose once was.
"Can Alec and Jace come with us?" He asks as we make our way back over to the car.
I look to my left at Izzy, and she winks at me as she says, "You'll have to ask them."
We near the car and find Alec leaned against the passenger fender with arms crossed in front of his chest and his right leg crossed over his left, and Jace sitting on the hood with his feet on the bumper, his elbows resting on his knees with his forearms extended out in front of him and his hands folded together. The two are talking about something and from the looks of Alec's posture, I know it's something on the severe side, but I can't hear what.
When Alec notices us, he reaches over and backhands Jace in the bicep with his left hand, and Jace looks up and directly into my eyes. He stands, never breaking eye contact with me, and once we're approximately two feet away from each other, I notice something about his eyes that I hadn't earlier and stop. They're gold! Contacts, duh. I say to myself. There's no way that he has gold eyes for real. However, there's something more to his eyes than just the color that keeps my attention.
I can see a fire burning in them, but since I don't know him, I'm not sure of what. It could be hate, or it could be lust or something else altogether. Regardless of what type it is, I can feel the heat rise to my cheeks from it. I really hate blushing, it seems so childish.
His gaze lowers down to my feet and back up my body slowly, and it's as if he is devouring me with just his eyes now. His eyes meet mine again, and a charming smile appears on his face. I wonder how many females he's managed to win over with that look, cause if he thinks it's going to work on me, he's so very wrong.
"Will you guys go trick-or-treating with us?" Max asks, and I break eye contact with Jace to look at him. "Izzy said I had to ask y'all."
"I don't know, Max," Alec says, the unsureness clear in his voice. "I was just sticking around to apologize to you about earlier, and then I was going to go home."
"Oh, please, Alec, come with us," Max pleads with him, in a typical ten years old's voice.
"Look at this face, Alec," Jace says kneeling down in front of Max on one knee. He puts his hands on each side of Max's face, squishing his cheeks together. "How can you say no to this?"
Alec chuckles and says, "Okay, fine, I'm in."
"Yay!" Max squeals as Jace says, "Yes!" Then they high five each other and Jace has a huge smile plastered on his face.
"Well, I don't care what we're riding in, I've got shotgun." Alec states. I wonder why Alec didn't drive.
"Well, I'm driving, cause we're taking my car," Izzy says decisively.
I'm starting to get the feeling that she's set this whole thing up. I mean, maybe not at first; but since we got here, yes. Then again, perhaps she knew that this Jace guy was with Alec from the start, and had it planned to go the same way from there.
"You'll have to sit behind Alec," Jace says standing back up, and winks at me as he continues, "or in the middle." I raise both my eyebrows at him. Is this dude serious? "My legs are too long."
"You could always ride in the trunk," I retort sarcastically. "I'm sure there's enough leg room for you back there."
He laughs. "Only if you'll ride back there with me."
I roll my eyes at him and walk off. This guy is really something else.
"Izzy," I say walking up behind her as she is closing the trunk. "Is there something you need to tell me?"
She turns around and looks at me; her eyebrows furrowed together and a confused smile on her face, yet her eyes are full of amusement. "Not that I know of. Why?"
"Oh, I don't know, you tell me. Did you, or are you trying to-"
"We need to stop by my car," Jace says cutting me off, as he walks up behind me. "I need to grab my jacket."
I roll my eyes, again, and Izzy smiles a half smile. I know the answers now, I'm sure of it. I groan and walk off, going over to the passenger side of the car and climbing into the backseat. The sooner we get going, the sooner I can get rid of him! Plus, I need to have a serious talk with Miss Isabelle Lightwood, about all of this. I wonder... Does Alec have something to do with this? When Izzy and I try talking him into things, he puts up a fight, but he sure did give up awfully easy when Max and Jace were 'talking him into it.' I guess I'll just have to find out when I have my talk with Izzy.
Just then Alec opens the front passenger door and climbs in, or I can just ask him right now. I open my mouth to ask, and Max opens the door to my left. Well, there goes that idea!
"Clary!" Max says excitedly as he crawls into the middle of the back seat. He points behind him, and Jace is climbing in right behind him. "Jace said that he's going to take me for ice cream tomorrow."
"That's great, Max," I say with as real of a smile as I can muster up. I can't take out my frustration on Max, he's innocent, but I can't find it in myself to be thrilled about the situation I'm currently stuck in either. Suddenly the car starts, and I look up to find that Izzy has already climbed in the car without me noticing.
"You guys ready to get this show on the road?" She asks, looking in the review mirror at me. I nod, and see out the corner of my eye, that so does Max and Jace. She drops the car in reverse, backing out of our parking space, and then in drive, and takes off slowly. "Where'd you guys park at?"
Jace leans up between the seats and points towards the empty field to the left of the park. "We're towards the far back, by the ball field."
"Okay," Izzy merely says, and heads in the direction he pointed in.
On the way to Jace's car, I feel eyes on me. I look around at everybody inside of the vehicle, but no one is looking directly at me. I look in the mirror and meet Jace's eyes. He doesn't bother to look away when I give him an unamused 'problem?' look. Instead, he smiles slightly and looks amused, so I look away; my face turning red once again tonight, but more out of frustration than anything else. What is this guy's problem?
"Make it quick," Izzy says as we come to a stop beside what looks like a 2014 Equinox; it's too dark to make out the color, but it looks as if it could be black.
Jace gets out of the car, and while he's gone I decide to strike up a casual conversation; since Max is sitting beside me, and I don't want to involve him in a grown folk conversation.
"So, Alec, what are you suppose to be?"
He turns his head to the left, side-eyeing me. "Well, I wasn't dressed as anything until mom decided that she was going to put lipstick on my temple. She said I was a dead soldier since I was already dressed like one."
"Sounds like her," I say as Max, Izzy, and I chuckle at him. "At least you didn't have to get all dressed up."
"Yeah," he says sounding confused as he turns to face me better, his face scrunched up. "I thought you weren't dressing up this year."
"Your sister," I sigh exasperatedly.
"Enough said," he laughs, as Jace climbs back in and shuts the door behind him.
"What is?" Jace asks.
"Oh, nothing," Alec replies and turns back around. "So, where are we going to start at?"
"The street with the haunted house, where the man jumps out of the coffin," Max says eagerly, hopping up and down in his seat. "Jace, you're going to be scared."
"Well, will you protect me?" Jace asks in what sounds to me like mock worry, and I see Max nod from my peripheral. "Then I'll be alright."
I hope you have enjoyed!
Let me know with a review! And don't forget to follow so that you get notified of updates. Mwah!
I'd also like to give a special shout out to Mrs Jace Wayland-Herondale. Girl, I can always count on you to give it to me straight! Thank you!
