A/N: I don't even remember where this idea came from. But this fic is going to be creepy and weird and bloody and contain incest. The fainthearted should turn back now.
Disclaimer: I think that the fact I even wrote this proves I don't own WoWP.
The day entropy begins is an ordinary day. Your parents are in the shop, making subs and dealing with rude customers. Max is off doing whatever Max does, which today is most likely goofing off in a park somewhere. You walk from the shop, bickering with Alex. Mason is on Alex's arm (there's never any doubt, with the boys Alex dates, who is really in control) and listening with amusement.
So it's totally unexpected when Mason keels over, his eyes wide with shock, and a hole in his chest. Alex catches him and lowers him to the ground, presses her hands over his heart trying to staunch the stream of blood.
You stand frozen as your little sister cradles the boy she loves in her arms, and see the warlock. He's not at all ordinary looking, with scars criss crossing his face and a silver wand pointed at Mason, red eyes full of cruel laughter.
Mason's blood soaks Alex's jeans and the pretty white blouse she was wearing, and he tries to speak. All that comes from his mouth is a gurgling sound, and blood burbles from his lips.
You still cannot move. Alex is good in crisis situations, Alex is creative and smarter than anyone gives her credit for, but she isn't flinging herself into action with an improvised spell, she's holding her dying boyfriend, and you're the one who should be doing something but you can't, you are comfortable with the books and the textbook spells that work not Alex's crazy interpretations and no teacher has told you what to do in this situation.
Everything is moving in slow motion, and it echoes in your ears. The bang of the door as a crowd rushes to the scene (for once it would be better if there were no customers), the cry of a policeman on the corner who has been useless, Alex's shuddering pleas for Mason to hold on, Mason's wet breathing, and then the absence of any breath at all from Mason.
The warlock meets your eyes and smiles. He disappears then, in a whirl of smoke, and Mason is dead and Alex's hands are coated with blood because she was probably trying to do some sort of healing magic except that neither of you have been taught healing magic, and you failed to do anything.
Normal time returns. You fall to your knees next to Alex and put an arm around her shoulders. She pushes you away and two bright red handprints will forever mark this shirt, you can't wash off deathblood.
"What happened?"
"Call 911!"
"Oh my god he's dead!"
The crowd pulses and grows around you. You, squatting next to Alex unsure if touching her is okay, do nothing. Alex wraps her arms around Mason and clings to his lifeless body as if she can bring him back with the force of her love, but you both know that the dead cannot be revived. That's a fundamental law, and maybe if someone had acted while he was dying there would be hope, but the only one who moved was Alex and she was never trained for this.
"Oh my god, Mason!" Dad pushes through the crowd and sees it, his bloodstained daughter and his shellshocked son. There's noise, an ambulance, and the policeman is trying to get Alex to release the body.
Don't. You want to tell him. Alex won't let go.
You're right. She snarls at the policeman, and he stumbles back gripping his heart. Your mother is here now and she stumbles up to you, her face so bewildered, but you are the child who isn't behaving like a wild animal so you are the one she goes to.
"Justin, what happened?" She flings herself down next to you and embraces you, hands fluttering over the handprints on your shirt. Dad is warily trying to approach Alex.
"A warlock." Dad changes his tactics and goes to you. "He came out of nowhere and suddenly Mason was spurting blood…Dad, you need to call the wizard council, tell them that a dark wizard is running around…"
Your mouth is on autopilot. The rest of you is focused on Alex, as she tenderly closes Mason's eyes. The EMTs have showed up, and she steps away from the body. When one asks if she was hurt, she says "no" in a voice that is steady, but hollow.
"Alex?" You get to your feet. Your parents move back, you are better at dealing with Alex and her moods. You've never really had to deal with grief before. "Alex?"
"The policeman was right there. He was useless. No one in the street even reacted, no one came to help. There's supposed to be a doctor in the sub shop who appears just in time to save him, and then gets an article on the internet and free food here for the rest of his life." Alex says. She steps back, away from you. "Get Mason away from them. They can't get samples of his blood or examine him properly."
You recognize truth and hurry to cover up, because you always cover up when Alex does something impulsive and almost exposes magic, and you'll cover up the secret of the magical world now too.
Mom tries to put an arm around Alex's shoulders. Alex shakes her off.
You place a call to emergency wizards, and then you are all somehow sitting in the sub shop with Mason's body on a table and the phone ringing with questions from reporters about the boy who was "shot", and Alex hasn't bothered to change out of her bloody clothes.
"Guys, what happened there are a bunch of people outside and-" Max, coming in the door with Harper in tow, stops dead. His eyes widen as he sees Mason's body and the blood on you and Alex. Harper screams.
It ends up with you at a table, an arm around your mother who for some reason you are consoling, Max slumped over with a dazed look on his face as if he cannot believe that this has happened, and Alex in her own bubble of space. Harper sits aside, eyes wide and frightened. Dad waits for the emergency wizards.
The second they learn it was a death by magic-the protocol for that is so outdated, not even you know it because no one is killed by magic, no one would do that-you are all whisked away to the offices of the high wizards.
Mason's body is taken by a grey haired wizard, who clearly doesn't care a whit that this was Mason, Alex's boyfriend, only that this is a boy killed by a dark wizard. Alex doesn't object, because maybe she's smarter than to challenge anyone in this place. You don't even know where this is. It's dark and lit by torches and not in any plans or records.
All of you are brought there except Harper. She isn't a part of this world. Neither is Mom, really, but Mom was sort of a witness. Besides, Max clings to her like he did as a child and she must be a helpful bargaining tool.
The wizard you are brought to doesn't greet you. You can feel weird power in this place, this tower (you think it's a tower, though there are no windows), and the wizard doesn't volunteer information. He has cold blue eyes and power radiates from him like it does from all the super powerful wizards you've met.
These aren't monster hunters. "Identify."
He slides a file across a table to you. You, as the only one who seems to be coherent, take it and flip through. His picture isn't in it. You shake your head.
"He isn't in here." You describe the warlock as best you can. "He had scars all over his face, taller than I am. And red eyes." Something ugly flashes over the wizard's face.
"Hengist." A letter appears in the air next to him, and he reads the yellowed parchment quickly. "Killed the werewolf with a spell that ripped apart the arteries around his heart, no traceable magic left, healing magic was applied but failed."
So Alex was trying to save him. Of course she was trying to do something.
"Who is Hengist?" Max asks. The wizard looks at you all, bloody Alex and terrified Mom and pale Dad, and you who aren't sure what to do, and tells you. He makes it sound like this is more than you have a right to know, and he's doing you an incredible kindness by giving you the information.
"A dark wizard. He's one of the Entropy Order, a group dedicated to destroying all creation and throwing the world into chaos."
"I've never heard of this Order!" You say, somewhat indignantly. It's ridiculous, Alex's boyfriend died and you're annoyed that there was a gap in your learning, but you are who you are.
"It's shrouded in secrecy, and the warlocks within have more power than you can possibly imagine." The wizard responds. He gazes at you pitilessly. "The wizards who fight them are the only ones who truly understand."
The master wizards, you think. The ones who can make the earth shake, who are the ones which manage the actual competition from on high, so high that you don't even know they're there, the ones who can come and take your magic away. Or maybe not, maybe there are others, you don't know.
"So where were you?" Alex hasn't spoken since she told the EMTs she was unharmed. Now she stares at this wizard, and her eyes are very, very, strange. "If you're fighting it, where were you when he was dying?"
"Hengist is one of the most powerful people in the world." Snaps the wizard. "We lost track of him after he arranged World War 1."
"So you did nothing." Alex is looking at him, and the wizard is clearly not liking her eyes. It must not be common for a warlock so powerful and so secret that you don't even know who he is to be so scrutinized. "For all your supposed power, you did nothing."
"We cannot keep track of everything." The wizard puts the file into a drawer. You watch it go mournfully, because what knowledge you could have gained reading it! "The werewolf's death has given us a starting point. You should be grateful he died for such a cause."
Alex's eyes simmer, and she says nothing.
You hesitantly knock on Alex's door. Harper is at Zeke's house, she doesn't want to stay here and you don't blame her. Zeke is blissfully unaware that anything happened, probably still chattering on about nothing as Harper cuddles up to him. Max has retreated to his room, Mom is in the kitchen, Dad is fielding reporters. You've brought food to your sister.
"Alex? Can I come in?" There is no answer. You push the door open and stop short.
Her room has been destroyed. Artwork broken, paints smashed everywhere, wallpaper ripped off the walls and scratches scored into the plaster beneath. Alex's bed is overturned, the slats broken, the mattress torn apart and resting in bits all over the scorched remains of her carpeting.
For a second you wonder how your tiny little sister did this. Then you look for Alex.
She sits in a corner. Alex has changed from her bloodstained clothing to a tank top and shorts. Her pale legs, so pretty and perfect and you've always compared the legs of your girlfriends to those legs, are folded under her. Her arms are folded so her breasts are high and it's hard not to look at them. Her hair is unkempt and the tips are still rusty red.
"I brought food." You say weakly. Alex shrugs. "Alex…this isn't um, healthy."
"Why, you don't say?" She gets to her feet a one smooth motion and strides across the room to take the plate from you. Her dark eyes flash at you. "I'm healthier than some in this family."
"Um?" She slams the door in your face. You stare at it, and hear what sounds like a plate smashing. You back away and go to the kitchen where Mom is baking and trying desperately not to think of her daughter. This is just a stage of grief. Even if that room and Alex in the corner scared you.
You don't see much of Alex for about a week. Dad tries to talk to her, and finds that she locked the door to her room. It's a very impressive spell. Mom doesn't even attempt to talk, but she makes all of Alex's favorite foods for you to leave outside the door. Harper doesn't talk to her either. Max mourns Mason in his own way, and he'll speak to the family rather than locking himself away.
Come two weeks, and you're worried. Alex needs to be back in school, where you and Max have both been asked about your poor sister and sympathies been expressed. No one asks you about what it was like being at the shooting, so you can go to Alex and assure her privacy.
To your surprise, when you knock on the door, it opens. Alex is wearing skinny jeans and leather boots, with a tight shirt that makes it hard not to look at her in a not brotherly manner, and her backpack is slung over her shoulder.
"Ready for school? Let's go." She trots downstairs, taking a piece of toast of Dad's plate, and you shrug in response to the confused looks from the family. You all walk to school the normal way, no protests from Alex about why you can't just zap there.
Maybe this has taught her that magic won't fix everything, and she can't rely on it that way. You go to school and Alex walks in a bubble of self possession, ignoring all other students. Harper is outside that bubble, always walking a foot away with rabbit like fear in her eyes.
You check up on her. She's your little sister, you have to. You look into her classrooms and see her writing down notes, black pen speeding over the page and leaving behind black squiggles. You keep checking every day, but she keeps up her work, and you relax a little bit.
A few weeks pass. Alex is still quiet, and she has stopped doing impulsive, entertaining (though you'd never admit it) fun, things. She replies to Dad's questions about school with answers that are all fact and none of the mockery you're used to. You cover for her at the shop constantly, but she's not hanging out with Harper.
Harper, you know, is still laughing with Zeke and liking life as long as she isn't around Alex. That's most of the time, now. Max has grieved Mason, and should be recovering, but he can't get up to his old activities because Alex isn't there to encourage him like she should.
You never thought you be sad when Alex stopped helping cause chaos. Alex spends her time in her room, and you don't know how to approach her and ask if she's okay. She isn't eating much, but she never has, and she's still healthy. Still beautiful.
When you relay concerns to Dad, he just shrugs. "You know how Alex felt about Mason. We can't exactly lecture her for being studious."
Yes, you knew how passionate Alex was with Mason. This little sister who doesn't constantly belittle you isn't like that, but you cannot imagine Alex without passion. That night, during dinner, you study her.
Her hair has grown longer, and curled somewhat. She eats about half of what's on the plate. Then she looks up, directly at you, and her mouth curves up in a mocking smile.
"You know Justin, you've got something on your face." You automatically raise a hand to wipe it away, and end up with a smear of spaghetti sauce on your cheek and Max laughing at you. Alex watches from hooded lids, and then speaks to the entire table. "I want to hold a vigil for Mason."
Your father freezes with fork halfway to his mouth, your mother blinks, Max frowns, Harper squeaks. You look at Alex and wonder what she's up to.
"Honey, that's a wonderful idea!" Mom says. You know she wants Alex to put Mason to rest. Alex nods.
"I want to do it alone, on the terrace." You squint at her, in suspicion. "Please, just because he was Mason and I don't want anyone to see me…" She raises a hand to wipe her eyes. Your stomach curdles as you think that Alex just wants a private goodbye to her boyfriend, and here you are suspecting her of whatever the hell you suspect her of.
"Oh, honey, of course." Dad gets up and hugs her. Alex melts into his embrace, and soon both parents are embracing her. You and Max look at each other. Max shrugs and gets up to pat her shoulder over Mom's back, and Harper folds her in on another side. You rise with reluctance and involve yourself in the family hug.
Alex has her vigil on Saturday night. Harper vacates the premises. Mom and Dad nod understandingly, and say that they'll hang out in the sub shop. Max declares that he's going to marathon Star Wars, to the glare of your mother. Alex isn't offended at all, if anything she's pleased that Max won't be making an enormous deal out of her private goodbye. You have a term paper to write, and go over to Zeke's.
You still poke your head out onto the terrace to make sure Alex will be okay. She's setting up candles, and tells you with pain in her voice to please go. You scram because Alex has those eyes and that soft voice and you can never say no to her, never go against her wishes.
At Zeke's, he yammers and you open your laptop and write about the French-Indian wars. You're still worried about Alex, but Zeke is about as far from Alex and her grief as you can get. Zeke whoops, and grabs you.
"Hey, Justin! A UFO!" You scurry over to the window in excitement. It's not that, just a bit of what looks like the northern lights. You tip your head and it's gone, but it was there. Huh. You switch from early colonies of America to an extra credit on weather patterns.
The next morning, Alex is looking clean and accepting, and insults you about how you spend your Saturday nights when you walk into the kitchen. She's chowing down on French Toast, and Mom looks overjoyed at how much Alex is devouring.
"Did you see those lights last night?" Dad says from where he sits on the couch in his bathrobe. It's insensitive, but he doesn't realize it until Alex looks over at him. "I-I mean ah…"
"Yes, I did." Alex gulps down her orange juice and refills her glass. "I think it was nice. Sort of like nature was remembering Mason and who he was too."
"That's wonderful honey." Mom plops a pancake on Alex's plate for her to devour. Max hasn't come downstairs, the marathon probably isn't over yet. "I think that too."
"They were beautiful." Alex says quietly. She isn't rising up at the overly cheerful voice of her mother with a deadpan comment or mood killing quip. Alex looks tired actually, and stiff. You think that she must have stayed up all night.
"Yes, the jet stream dipped and brought in an extreme cold front, which coupled with cumulous clouds…" You trail off when she shoots you an old look, a look that says "why are you so stupid?". "What?"
"You really need a girlfriend. One day Harper is going to find somewhere fun and require her boyfriend on Saturday nights." You glare at her, Alex smirks and returns to her food. "How is Zeke anyway, he hasn't been around in ages."
"He thought the aurora borealis was a ufo." Alex laughs. You think that this has been so good for her, this night of being outside and remembering Mason, and it isn't until later that you wonder why her candles were the wrong color.
Everyone thinks Alex is getting better. She walks with confidence, you don't need to check in on her classes, Harper is talking to her again. If Alex is more removed, if she wildly casts magic with a colder glint in her eyes, you don't really notice.
It's Alex. Wonderful Alex, who you do so desperately need, because if you aren't covering up for Alex you've discovered that you life really isn't much. You drink in her new laughter, and like a dying man who comes across an oasis, whether it's all a mirage doesn't occur to you.
Of course, eventually you get a letter that says Alex isn't attending school.
"How can you not be going to school! Harper sees you every day!" Dad yells, brandishing the letter. Alex sits calmly on the couch, and tilts her head up to glare at him.
"I do go to school. Harper just doesn't have any classes with me." True. At this point, Harper is in her smart classes and Alex is in art and remedial, but you see them off to homeroom each day! You step forward and flick your wand at her.
She looks at you derisively, but the truth spell is there. Alex stands, crosses her arms, and says "I do go to school. Just not the one you're thinking of."
A halo lights over her head. You stare incredulously.
"Wizard classes don't count!" Mom snaps. The light remains true. She looks confused. So do you, and so does Max, who is sitting on the sidelines watching with interest. Harper is with your parents and you, telling Alex that she needs to go to school.
One thing you're sure of, and that's that Alex cannot get around the truth spell. It's tried and true, and not even Alex and her inventiveness can cancel it. "But Alex…"
"If she flunks high school she could still become a magic cop." Max offers. Alex whirls and turns her dark eyes on him in anger.
"No." The word is thrown at him with steel behind it, and makes Max stumble back. "The wizards, the enforcers of those useless laws, they're nothing. They do nothing."
You sort of agree with her. They after all, were not there when it counted, but Alex speaks with hatred in her voice. You've never heard hatred from her before, and it sounds natural on her tongue.
"Yes Alex." Max says quickly. He raises in hands in supplication, always ready to give into her stronger will. Alex nods at him and turns her burning gaze to you, to Dad, to Mom.
"You can't talk about them like that, Alex." Dad says firmly. He steps forward. "The wizard law enforcers are a great team, and without them, the world wouldn't be in such good shape."
"Good shape?" Alex tosses her head, and laughs. "So, this is what you call a good shape? Do you even know half of what the high wizards do?"
The answer, of course, is no. You tried to probe further into the wizard database than the libraries, and in response the wiznet crashed. Of course, the powerful wizards brought it back online, to the relief of the community, and you got the warning.
You wonder if Alex got around that barrier somehow. Looking at her now, in her black jeans that cup her legs and make even a brother think the wrong thing, her tight shirt and her long hair, you realize that she doesn't look recovered from Mason at all. She looks like your little sister alright, but a little sister turned dangerous.
"Alex!" Mom says sharply. "It's not your place to question your father!"
"Then he should stop being blind." Alex says icily.
"Where have you been going to school then?" You ask, sharply. She turns her head to you. You might be a bit jealous that Alex, who needs their old high school, has found alternate means where you, who are leaps above, are constrained to it. "Got Uncle Kelso to tutor you in magic?"
"Of course not." Alex shrugs. "He couldn't teach me anything."
"He's a wizard!" A poor example of one, but a wizard nonetheless. Uncle Kelso gets your respect for that, and since when does Alex talk about her favorite uncle with that look of condescension in her eyes? Alex loves Uncle Kelso.
"Yes, I'd noticed that. And they call you a genius." Alex turns. "I'm done listening to you."
"Oh no you don't!" Mom splutters. She gestures wildly. "Go to your room!"
Alex disappears down the steps to her abode, and leaves the family in silence.
You're the one who goes after her. Alex might be in danger, might be in trouble, and you're one who always saves her, it's written in your DNA that you go after her and lecture her, and maybe make sure she's okay.
The door to her room isn't locked. Alex is sitting on her bed, pouring over the forbidden book of spells. But she doesn't have the family wand-you're sure, because you might have sorta set up a spell to watch it because you're paranoid.
So how the hell did she end up with the forbidden book? There was a spell on that too.
Alex looks up at you and nods, then goes back to the book.
"How did you get that?"
"I walked in and took it." Not helpful. You step into the room and shut the door behind you. She flicks her eyes up at you from under thick lashes, and its hard to think straight. "Was there something you wanted?"
"You said you were still going to school."
"Of sorts." Alex traces a finger down a column of writing. "Did you really believe those were the Northern Lights? In New York?"
Yes, you did. You might be the genius, but you can be an utter fool sometimes. Alex must have done something, something inventive and wizardly and daring and how did you not figure out that Alex was plotting?
"What are you doing?" Because you really have no idea. The corners of Alex's mouth turn up.
"Don't you know?" You feel like an idiot. Alex is the only person in the world who can make you feel that way, after all your studying.
"It's about Mason. Alex, he's dead. You know you can't get him back." Alex sits up and puts down the book, her eyes dark and dangerous. You step back, even though it's ridiculous for the to be afraid of Alex.
"Do you think I don't know that?" She snarls and moved across the bed in a fluid motion. You stumble back again as Alex lunges toward you. "Do you think I don't know? No one did anything to stop it! Not one of those so called powerful high wizards, not mortal authorities, no one, and no one moved to help!"
That no one includes you.
"You…" You just don't know what to say to her. Alex has always been high spirited and determined and willing to go to any lengths to get what she wants, and you've always been powerless to do any more than minimize collateral damage. Your mouth is dry.
Alex turns from you and picks up the book. "Get out of my room."
"Give me the book." Alex cocks her head and looks at you. A slow smile works its way over her face.
"No." There's sort of not much you can say to that. "I'll be done with it soon."
That's disturbing. The forbidden book is full of spells and a couple potions and possibly a curse or two. No one should be able to process it in the months it's been since Mason's death. It's easy to forget in normal life, that Alex is brilliant. It's scary to think that she's been seriously applying herself.
You leave the room.
Alex doesn't leave her room for two days. The food you leave outside remains untouched. Finally, you and Dad force your way in. Alex didn't lock it with that spell that she probably got from the book, she just put a chair under the knob.
And Alex isn't there. The forbidden book of spells lies on her bedspread. Every page has been blackened, scribbled over with tiny writing that you barely recognize as Alex's.
Next to it is her wand.
A/N: I was in a mood, alright? Regular updates are promised, reviews are loved, and people who flame will be laughed at.