Hey! So, sorry this took so long. I've been pretty busy. I just want you guys to know that weekends are mainly my updating time.

Thank you to my reviewers. I love you all! Please keep reviewing if you like the story!

DisClaimer: Don't own Characters.


One Month Earlier

"Would you guys shut up?" Alec yelled, causing silence to fall on the two arguing siblings. He could see their thoughts on their faces. Alec never yelled. Their sweet, shy, quiet nineteen-year-old brother would never raise his voice to them. He let out a breath and continued to focus on the road ahead. "Iz, he ate your oatmeal this morning. That was five hours ago. Get over it."

Isabelle huffed and crossed her arms. In the passenger seat, Jace let out a whoop of victory. "Face it Izzy," he said, satisfaction written all over his face. "I will always win."

"As for you," Alec continued, and Jace's face fell, "you need to stop taking her food. Until I can get a job and we have regular money coming in, we can't afford to eat like we used to."

Jace snorted. "That was a long time ago," he mumbled, looking out the window. Alec pretended he didn't hear it. They'd been on the road for a while, so Alec couldn't blame his younger sister and adopted brother for being cranky. Right now, he was very grateful for the silence.

Soon Alec turned off at their exit, and Isabelle started talking again. "So, do you think we'll be okay here? I mean – "

"We'll be fine, Iz," Alec said. "We'll make it, I promise." He heard her gasp, and saw Jace look at him out of the corner of his eye. He knew why they reacted that way. Alec never made a promise unless he knew he could keep it. Jace leaned back in his seat and blew out a breath, and Alec relaxed a little, too. He was a little excited to be moving. A new neighborhood where no one knew them, and they could start over.

Alec will start his sophomore year at NYU in a few days. He'd saved his money up for a year so he could afford a house for him and his siblings; so he could get them out of the fate he'd avoided – with the help of the inheritance his grandparents had left him.

Jace will also attend NYU, but as a freshman. He got a four-year scholarship for basketball, he's that good. Isabelle will be a senior in high school, and is excited to be starting a new one. She says she was getting bored with the guys, and a fresh pick will do her good. Alec rolled his eyes when she said that.

Alec turned down a road marked Wayland Drive. He hoped Jace wouldn't see it, but no such luck. Jace made a face displaying disgust and shuttered.

The Lightwoods' parents weren't really the best. Alec was his father's punching bag for nine years. When he went to college, Robert turned on Jace and Izzy. Maryse, Alec's mother, was too afraid to stop him. He wouldn't do as much to Isabelle, and he only hit Jace every other day. But one night, he "accidently" hit their little brother, Max, and that was the last straw for Jace. Alec doesn't know the whole story, but he does know the police were called, and his siblings were taken away from their parents and put into separate foster homes. Jace was put with the Waylands, who weren't much better than the Lightwoods. Isabelle was put with the Carstairs, and she said they were pretty nice.

But it all turned out okay. Once Alec turned nineteen, he filed for custody of his siblings and won. They were moving to their new house and everything will be just fine.

"When are we getting Max?" Jace asked, cutting through Alec's thoughts.

"Tomorrow," he answered, "so save him a nice room."

"I get first pick!" Jace and Isabelle yelled in unison. "No, I do!" They yelled again.

Alec sighed and tried to tune them out. After a few minutes of driving down the neighborhood, he spotted an old gravel road that led up a hill. At the foot of the road, a girl and a boy were walking side-by-side, talking. The boy had brown hair and glasses, and was making wild hand gestures as he explained something to the girl beside him, a short redheaded girl, who didn't really seem interested in whatever story he was telling. She was staring at the car that was currently going up the gravel road, her expression was curious.

Jace must've noticed too, because he jerked up and looked at her with awe. Alec glanced at him as they progressed up the hill. "Don't even, Jace."

"What?" Jace asked, not even looking at Alec, but was turned around in his seat, looking through the back window. Isabelle stuck her tongue out at him.

They pulled up in front of the house. It was a big two-story house, almost like the ones you see in scary movies. It had been painted white – once. Now it just looked like it decided to go jump in a mud puddle and then sprinkle dirt all over itself. Moss and vines were growing up the side and all along the roof. There was a sense of foreboding about the place, so much so that Alec was almost afraid to get out of the car. Jace leaned toward the windshield and stared up at the house. "You're taste in houses is even worse than your taste in clothes," he stated. Jumping out of the car, he looked up towards the sky, which had taken on an ominous grey color during their traveling. His nose wrinkled in distaste. "Seriously. This is just creepy."

Alec opened his door and stepped out. The wind picked up then, and he shivered, pulling the black jacket he was wearing tightly around himself. Isabelle had gotten out with him, and looked at the house with narrow eyes. "Did you even look at the house when you bought it?" she asked.

"Well…" Alec looked down and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.

"Alec!" Jace and Isabelle yelled in unison for the third time that day. They used to do it a lot as kids. Alec had always figured it was because they had the same thought process.

"I'm sorry!" Alec said. "But, in all honesty, I didn't think it would be this bad." He gestured to the house. The wind started to blow again, as if it had heard his comment and didn't like it. "It was the only house that I could get cheap – "

"I can see why!" Jace held out his arm and turned in circle, gesturing to the entire area.

"I'm sure we can make it work," Isabelle said, surprising everyone. "I mean, it will take some major elbow grease…" she trailed off and eyed the house. She smiled. "Let's go check it out!"

They started toward the house, and the sense of foreboding grew stronger. Alec stopped on the porch before going in. There was an old porch swing with rusted chains on the edge, and on the other side was a various amount of flowerpots, minus the flowers. Most of them were chipped or cracked, not really useful. He looked around the yard.

The house was surrounded by trees, which made it even creepier. Most of them looked dead, and were void of any leaves, which was odd, seeing as how it was September. There was one tree that caught Alec's eye. It was bigger than the rest, and a blackish color. The trunk was warped, and the branches were twisted in odd angles. Dead leaves were sprinkled haphazardly around the base, and they chased each other in circles when the wind blew. The whole thing looked rather…weird, but it definitely fit the setting.

But Alec couldn't go back on his decision now. He had moved here for a better life, and a better life was what he was going to have, damn it. As Isabelle said, they would just have to make it work. "Alec!" a voice called for him. "Get your ass in here!"

He turned and walked through the door. The first thing he saw was the stairs, leading up to the second story of the house, donned in red carpet. The walls were painted white, but had yellowed with time. He walked down a small hallway leading into the kitchen. To his left was a doorway to what he assumed was the living room. It was the biggest room in the house, and it was empty, save a few cobwebs. There were three windows in the room. He tried one of them, but it wouldn't budge. "Alec!" the voice called again, sounding as though it were in the kitchen.

The kitchen walls were white as well, but had blue flowers painted on them. There were cupboards attached to the wall, and a sink and an oven, all white, but with spots of brown. Jace had the oven door open, and was poking his head in. Isabelle was leaning against the sink, watching him with mild interest. "Have any of you noticed – " Alec started.

"You will not believe the amount of dead rats we found in here," Isabelle said, and shuttered. "Ew."

"What exactly were the facts that you got on this place?" Jace asked, taking his head out of the oven and opening the cabinets above him.

"Um…" Alec thought a moment. "It was built in the 1800s… and you have to jiggle the knob on the back door or it won't open." He pointed to the white door directly adjacent to the doorway he was standing, with blue (and brown) curtains.

"Is that it?" Isabelle asked. Alec nodded. She rolled her eyes. "Geez, Alec."

"Don't give me that look. You know I'm not good with people, and to be frank, that sales lady scared the hell out of me."

"Yes, well, this house scares the hell out of me!" Jace said. "Did it even occur to you that if the lady was creepy, the house was probably creepy too? What was going through your head at that time?"

"I was thinking about Max," Alec muttered, and they all fell silent. Alec didn't know what kind of foster home he was in; he was only given the address and the time to pick him up, which was tomorrow at 11:00. Alec was scared that they were mean to him, or that they didn't notice he was even there and didn't give him the proper care that he needed. Max was a bit like Alec: he blended in and was never noticed. "Speaking of which," Alec picked back up, to brighten the mood, "I hope you saved him good room."

"We haven't been up there yet," Isabelle answered. "We were waiting on –" Without warning, Jace shot past Alec – almost knocking him down – and ran up the stairs. Once Isabelle had gotten over her initial shock at seeing Jace move so fast, she raced after him, yelling "No fair, Herondale!"

Jace was born a Herondale, but when he was about ten, his family died in a fire. Alec's parents were his godparents, so the Lightwood family took him in. He was always so proud of Jace, Robert was. Jace was easily his favorite, the star basketball player who got all the girls. Alec was always on the sidelines, the quiet one who was into art instead of sports. Robert had never really liked Alec. The beatings started when Alec was around nine, and didn't stop until he went to college. On the day Alec left, he finally told his parents he was gay. It was sort of an act of rebellion on his part, to see his parents shocked faces – and his siblings' happy ones – in his rearview mirror as he drove off.

Alec decided, instead of going upstairs, he was going to see the backyard. Just as the sales woman said, he had to jiggle the knob (a lot) to finally get the door open.

The trees were thicker on this side of the house, and they trailed all the way down the hill. There was a small dirt pathway that went down the hill, and Alec's adventurous side took over. He walked down the path; he slid a few times on wet leaves and loose dirt.

At the base of the hill, the trees started to clear, revealing a pond with a small wooden dock. Alec shoved his hands in his jacket pockets and walked the length of the dock. He peered over the edge.

The water was murky; you could barely see two feet under. It didn't really look safe to swim in, like he knew Max would want to do as soon as he saw it. The surface bubbled slightly, and Alec wondered what kind of fish could actually live in that kind of water. The wind blew again and he felt the need to be inside, where at least he wasn't alone.


Alec came to the back door again and tried the knob; it wouldn't budge. He banged on it a few times, yelling for Izzy, Jace, anyone. After a few minutes, he decided to go around to the front door, where he knew he could get someone to let him in.

As he walked around, he saw that two figures were making their way up the hill, muttering to each other. He caught snatches of their conversation as they got within earshot. They didn't seem to notice him as he climbed the sidesteps next to the porch swing.

"…just don't know, Clary, I mean who knows what kind of people would buy this house – "

"Excuse me," Alec spoke up. The figures looked toward him, and he recognized them as the two kids he'd seen when driving up. They seemed nervous, as if they didn't quite want to be in the vicinity of Alec or this house or anything near here. The small redheaded girl was carrying something. "Can I help you?"

"Um," said the girl, approaching Alec uncertainly. "Hi, I'm Clary Fray, and this is Simon Lewis." She gestured vaguely toward the taller boy with glasses behind her. "We live down the street. We saw that you were new to the neighborhood and we brought you a housewarming gift." She thrust a pie into Alec's arms and then backed away from the porch.

"You forgot the part where our moms made us," Simon muttered. Clary dug her elbow into his ribs.

"Alec!" Jace came tumbling down the stairs and out the door in front of Alec. "You'll never believe what Iz and I – " He cut off when he saw their guests, and for a split second his jaw dropped. He quickly composed himself and leaned against the doorway, arms folded. "Hey." Alec almost snorted a laugh.

The girl called Clary raised an eyebrow. "Hi." Simon folded his arms across his chest as well, clearly not liking Jace's first impression.

"Clary, Simon, this is my brother Jace." He looked at Jace, who was staring at Clary. He rolled his eyes before speaking. "Where's Izzy?"

"Right here," said Isabelle, leaning on the other side of the doorway. She made her way to the newcomers, arm outstretched. "Isabelle Lightwood, pleasure to meet you."

Clary shook her hand gingerly. "Clary."

Isabelle winked at Simon before disappearing back into the house. Jace nodded to them before following, muttering to Alec, "Come upstairs when you're done."

"Can I ask you a question?" Alec asked. "Why are you so afraid of the house?"

Simon stared at him, wide-eyed. "Because this place is friggin' haunted!" That earned him another elbow in the ribs. That must hurt after a while.

"It's just…we've heard stories," Clary explained, looking down and wrapping her arms around herself. They turned around to leave.

"Wait, I – " Alec started to chase after them.

"Nice to meet you!" Clary called after her as the practically ran down the hill.

From the sales lady's bad description, to the creepy-looking tree, to neighbors breaking their necks to keep away, Alec started to wonder what was really going on with this house, and if they might actually live to see tomorrow.


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