Chapter 4. Empusa (and Sleep)...
When reaching the bench, his coat was no longer where'd he'd left it. 'Maybe somebody pinched it?' Alec thought. He span round to get a full view of the room.
There! His coat was laying on the titled floor behind the red rope barriers in front of an oil painting called "The Nightmare." by Henry Fuseli. This horrifying image was of a women in white, draped over a bed, with what looked like a hairy gargoyle perched upon her chest and a mules head peering through a curtain.
"What an ugly painting." Alec said aloud.
He bent forward to scoop the black fabric from the ground, when a sudden sharp pain came to his arm, he glanced upwards only to be greeted with a demonic women's face inches from his own. Her eyes hollow, her cruel smile of razor teeth, her skin smelt rotten and hair was bloody and mattered.
Alec screamed, trying to force his arm free from the creatures grip. The beasts claws torn into his flesh, dragging him closer and closer to the picture.
"I've found you."
"Alec, Alec wake up!" Yelled Isabelle. The whole gang were swarmed over him, all filled with fear and confusion. "Alec what happened?" Isabelle was knelt down, his head lay on her lap. Alec gazed down at his arm expecting to see a ripped bloody mess but instead him arm was fine, not a scratch, not even a damaged sleeve. 'Was it it a dream?'
"I think so." He wasn't sure. Everyone stared bewildered. Magnus wrapped his arms around his fiancée.
"Alexander, don't ask me to marry you, then go off and die, please for heavens sake." Alec's cheek was wet from Magnus' tears.
"Please Magnus, don't cry, I'm alright, I must have passed out." His warlock fiancée, raised a questioning eyebrow. "Well okay I didn't have breakfast this morning, cause you wanted to take me out to that fancy restaurant after the art exhibition and I didn't want to waste anything, so I thought if I didn't eat, I wouldn't upset you for not eating everything." Magnus gave out a elongated sigh.
"I thought only women did stupid things like that." Commented Simon. The group all looked at Simon with a disapproving glare.
"Who cares, didn't you hear what Magnus said?" Isabelle lightened up. "You two are engaged?"
The shadowhunter still in an embrace blushed, sweeping his hand through his thick black hair.
"Yes we are." Alec answered. Isabelle was now standing, looking incredibly happy as if she was the one who had been proposed to.
"Oh man I can't wait to organise your wedding, it's going to be amazing, the wedding of the year, no! The wedding of the century." Isabelle ranted, not caring whether anyone was actually listening. Magnus heaved Alec to his feet and the gang all headed to the gallery exit...
"Wait! I don't get it, so did it actually happen or not?" Con interrupted. Alec went to speak but was cut off before the first word could leave his mouth.
"That's the point of stories young man, you have to be patient." Magnus wagged a long, painted nailed finger at the Herondale boy, warning him not to ask anymore questions.
"You guys, stop arguing." Dad huffed. "Maybe we should continue the story tomorrow, I mean it's almost midnight." Alison and Conner moaned childishly. "Come on you two, off to bed now, I promise I'll continue the story tomorrow." The two children were guided out of the dining room and told to go to bed, which they agreed. Tumbling through the dark, Conner bumped into a pair of long scrawny legs. It was Ebby, fully dressed and wearing shoes.
"Where are you off to?" Conner teased.
"Non of your business." Ebby went on the defensive. "Why are you out of bed at this hour?" Con looked at Alison for approval to tell him the truth, with a single nod, Con answered.
"We're learning about how Alison came into the world." Ebby raised an eyebrow, then sighed. "Have you ever seen or heard of a painting called 'The Nightmare' by Henry Fuseli?" Con quizzed his uncle.
"Yeah, what about it?" He yawned.
"It's part of the story." Alison spoke suddenly. Ebby hummed to himself for a moment before continuing.
"Empusa, I believe, the Greater Demon, a shape-shifter that feeds off the pure of heart and the innocent of mind." Ebby looked down at Alison, who was now trembling in fear. "But no need to worry about it, she hasn't been seen or heard from for centuries." Alison jumped at the thought of the description of the demon that attacked her dad in the gallery. Could it be possible that they were the same demon? A gentle buzzing woke Alison from her trance, it was Ebby's mobile. He held the small object to his ear and whispered.
"Hey... yeah... I'm coming out now... Okay... I'll see you in a minuet." He flipped the phone shut and stormed past the children leaving them alone in the dark hallway. The young boy tugged at his friends t-shirt and they both made their way to the nursery.
Darcie was beautiful, everyone could see that but no one could know she was more beautiful than Isabelle. She lay perfectly in her arms, cooing softly as her mother cradled her. Simon sat beside them, grateful for their existence.
"You know, you need to sleep Izzy." Simon said carefully. Izzy was tiered but was too terrified to put her baby down.
"What if I lose her?" Isabelle whimpered to her husband. Simon steadied her head with his hand, stroking down her long silky hair with the other.
"You won't lose her Izzy." Tears began to well up in her dark eyes, as she stared, pleading for help, for confidence that had been stolen away. Miscarriage after miscarriage, everyone so happy with their new born babies and there was Isabelle, the broken women who couldn't even successfully complete the task women were created to do, have a child. For the first couple of attempts, Simon blamed himself, being a vampire could have made him infertile, but then the good news came, pregnant, finally.
She could finally be like Clary, Maia and even Alec, have a family. Until the pain came, the pain that robbed her of her unborn child, the unforgettable hurt, that scarred worse than a stab wound to the chest, the pain that traumatized her, even now as she held her living, breathing child, the fear still lay within side her, the fear of lose.
Simon wrapped his arms in an unbreakable hold around his wife and daughter.
"Please Izzy, she needs you, I need you, how can you take care of us when you can barley stand? Sleep. I'm begging you, sleep."
It finally worked, Izzy was sound asleep, her arm reached over into the cot besides Darcie, their hands entwined.
"Sleep my beautiful girls, there will always be a morning to wake up to. I promise."
