AN: Thank you all for the support! Fav's, and follows and whatnot! I thought I'd be nice and update two in a row (: so here you are! Also, apparently I've been nominated here (www*energizewipawards*blogspot* /2011/09/nominees*html)~(change *'s for dots!) – which is a first, for me! Unknown territory haha. But I'm glad you're enjoying the fic (though I seem to have a habit of writing really long fics, so I'm sorry for that), and I hope you're not getting too bored! On the flip side, I apologise for what follows – but oddly enough, it was one of the first sort of plot bunnies that I had when writing this fic.
Thanks again!
Magnus.
I hear Camille scream 'fuck off' and turn to the sound. They have her clutched in Haig's strong hold, her hair being tugged upwards and held there. She protests and struggles, but she can't see Sebastian moving closer with a pair of scissors. All I see is her blonde locks, beautiful and shiny, tangled in a pair of meaty, vicious hands.
"Stop it" I beg Jace. "Please! Leave her—" Jem's voice tears me to his face; they've bound him up with rope, keeping him on the floor but making sure he's conscious enough, making sure he's able to face watching the other two strong football players take turns in kissing Tessa. "Tess" I breathe, barely able to watch her tortured face at every touch they place on her innocent self. "Stop it! Stop it, stop it now!"
"Are we annoying you, Bane?" Sebastian asks, calmly, glancing over at Camille. I catch her falling to the floor, her heartbreaking cry as she sees all her hair, her luscious locks, coiled in pieces around her. "Maybe next time you'll listen"
"Why are you doing this?" I breathe, turning to Jace. If anyone is going to get them all to stop it has to be him. "They've done nothing, What have I done to annoy you so much?" Something passes over Jace's eyes, but it's not enough for him to tell me. He turns his gaze over to Jem – I realise – and follow to see why he's looking. They're lathering something up on their hands, jeering as they pin him down. Within seconds they've attacked his head, not caring that his face is smashing into the tiles. I frown in confusion, but ultimately turn back to Jace; he lets a light laugh go and I assume this all some sort of sick joke to him. At the very least, he's finding all of this quite funny.
"You're twisted" I tell him. "You don't give a shit about anyone else but yourself" I couldn't believe how stupid I'd been when I saw them all, all those months ago in the pet shop. I was glad I'd realised that they weren't all they portrayed themselves to be. He doesn't say anything, his face unreadable. "I hope you're happy in the future; I really do" I say, almost snidely. "Spending a life being someone else's lap dog, being who everyone expects you to be, being this dick in front of me-" He glares at me and promptly punches me to the ground. "—it can't make you happy" I finish. "It can't"
"You have no idea-" He growls lowly and I frown at him as he stops.
"If you spend your life like this, you're going to be miserable. For your sake, and every one elses, I hope to the high heavens that you find some sort of bloody stability and something to be happy for, that doesn't mean putting other people down" Jace is too busy staring at me to make a move; I know it isn't him when I receive a blow to the head from behind, and most likely Sebastian, asking him if I'll be getting away with what I'd just said. The hand is placed threateningly on my shoulder. Jace still doesn't do anything but stand there looking Jace-like. Something passes over his face, an odd look of regret, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides. I suddenly realise that he's inexplicably torn. He's stuck in the image that Sebastian has helped him to create. He can't help without risking that – and something tells me he's not just going to change his mind. Alec didn't, Izzy wouldn't, and neither would Jace. This family is going to kill me.
"Pipe down, Sebby-kins" I turn to the other. "If you want to put your hands all over me, just ask" Jace sucks in a breath as Sebastian's face turns angry.
"I've had it with your fucking mouth" Sebastian hauls me up, barely inches off the floor for all his might, and drags me along behind him. "'Wha't's best for Alec', be damned" He mutters, but I catch it.
"What are you doing?" Jace asks, surprising not only me – but Sebastian.
"What the fuck do you think? He's not gonna' get away with any of this" Sebastian is apparently making his own rules now; Jace tells him to stop but Sebastian won't listen. Haig and the others look on in confusion. Who to follow? The two guys with Tessa laugh and release her slight frame, racing towards me and Sebastian and running ahead. Apparently, they know where we're going. I bend my leg to support myself from the awkward half-up-half-down position Sebastian has me in. The others stop messing with Camille and Jem and turn to Jace. He doesn't give them any indication of what to do. He looks worn.
"Jace, dude, you're either with us or not. Don't go backing out now"
"We've done enough" Jace says carefully. "We don't need to-"
"It's his own fault anyway" Haig chimes in, stepping over to Sebastian and giving me a nudge and a suspicious grin. "I think he'll like it" I didn't know what I'm supposed to like – but I'm determined not to simply because he said I would. Though, anything with these two is most likely not going to be any good. "Besides, we have to do what's best for Alec". What did that actually mean?
I glance at Camille, her choppy, shoulder-length, freshly sliced hair barely touching her neck. She's comforting Tessa as best she can with her hands still bound, and despite the tears down her own face. Tessa is shaking with sobs into Camille's shoulder – there's bruises everywhere. I glance at Jem, alarmed to find he's on the floor, not moving, and his hair is changing colour. Hair Dye.
I'm wrenched away, Camille unable to do anything but look horrified and Tessa too shocked to do anything but cry. It's probably for the best. They couldn't do anything anyway; and in some stupid part of my brain, I'm glad Jem is unconscious. He won't try anything rash.
They tug me around the corner and into the corridor, where the smell of chlorine hits my senses and I'm instantly filled with panic. Sebastian laughs and tugs me harder, despite my heels digging into the floor, my wriggling protests and my amazing display of upper-body strength. But I'm not as strong as they are. And I won't give them the satisfaction of asking them to please not take me to the pool, thank-you.
They dump me by the edge of the swimming pool, closer to the deep water than I had ever been since I was a child. I can only stare at it and hope it gets shallow very, very quickly. But the more I do that, the more my depth perception throws me off and makes me dizzy. My chest clenches and I feel the beginnings of a panic attack.
"Don't" I whisper. "Please" My hands are still bound behind me and the flashes start to take over my thoughts. I slam my eyes shut.
"He looks scared – are you scared?" The voices zone in and out and I'm not sure if I'm moving, or if they're moving, or if nobody is moving and my hearing is playing up. Just go away. They jeer at me for what seems like hours. Some of the others decide to leave, giving me a few final hits before leaving me alone ultimately with Sebastian and Haig at the side of the pool.
"It's just you and us" Haig grins. Something sarcastic comes to mind about a threesome, but I can't form the words. I feel my hands loosen and I realise they've been unbound. Sebastian is right behind me, Haig to the side.
"You should stay away from Alec – we know. And you're not that good for him. You're no good for him – so why don't you do us all a favour and stay away" He hisses. "I hope you can swim"
The water envelopes me too quickly.
My clothes soak it up, dragging me down. I don't have the rationality to start taking off the layers, kicking off my shoes. I feel a pressure on my head, something holding me under. I'm not sure if it's my imagination, something my brain has linked with being under water, but I quickly realise I'm not rising to the surface and panic fills my chest. They're holding me under.
I can hear them laughing, muffled and slightly disjointed, but they're enjoying this. Then, I float up, breaking the surface.
I gasp in the air and splutter, my hands flailing. I flick the hair from my face and find their direction. They're grinning. I'm too stunned to do anything but float where I am. I'm too disorientated to know that I'm still within arms reach, and I curse at my stupidity when they duck me under again. I had no warning and my breath bursts free in bubbles. My lungs ache with the need for oxygen and my head screams to retaliate; I reach for the hands holding me down, I try to pry them free but they're stronger than I am. The flashes come back, first in small seconds –
The pool changes to the lake, the tiles becoming reeds and small pebbles.
Then longer, almost ten seconds, where the clear pool water turns murky and the hands holding my head are rougher, older, manlier. Trying to fumble for a grasp on my neck. Their faces merge into one and I'm staring, through a wall of water as I look up, at the man I've hated ever since. I can't find the air; my vision fades, but I feel the pressure leave and I scramble with the last of my energy to the surface. When I reach it, after I've grasped whatever I can to hold onto, after I've wrenched myself from the pool and laid face down, sodden and broken on the side tiles of the pool and just breathed, I realise I'm alone.
It was probably the adrenaline. I don't dwell on the onslaught of flashbacks, I don't think about almost being drowned and I don't think that it was people my own age that had the ability to do it as a freakin' joke. Instead, I scramble for the way they brought me and race back to the others. Jem's awake and he's managed to shuffle towards the others.
"Magnus!" Camille cries. "Oh God – you're – …all wet!" She sobs and shakes her head. "They didn't-" She starts, realising what she's going to say and stops. Her face pales. "They didn't-"
"The pool" Jem looks at me with his beautiful eyes and I do all I can not to fall apart. "Mag…"
"Don't" I tell him, untying his bound wrists first so I simply don't have to look at him. If anyone can make me spill my guts on the floor so I'm nothing but a shell by the end of it – it's him. Camille is still shaking her head, pity and horror on her face. "Cheer up dear" I whisper, kissing her cheek lightly, my lips trembling, before unbinding her hands too.
"But Magnus" She breathes, seconds before she bursts into tears. Now able to cover her face with her hands, she proceeds to do so.
"Tess" I whisper, stroking away her hair from her face. She's pale, cold and in shock. I doubt anybody has ever been this …. This hateful towards her. "We're going home, ok?" I tell her, unable to think or do anything else. She gives me a nod, but I'm worried for her. I turn back to Camille and help her up. Jem scoops an arm around Tessa but she shies away and bravely makes the walk on her own, sticking herself to the walls as she goes.
"You should stay away from Alec" Sebastian had said. "We know. And you're not that good for him. So why don't you do us all a favour and stay away" and "We have to do what's best for Alec".
All this had happened because of my association with Alec, because they knew – they knew something. Whether that was about our secret meetings here and there – or maybe they were just bluffing – I can't take the risk. Alec had been certain that Jace doesn't know – that nobody knows. Could he have been wrong? I'd dragged my friends into this – they were so much more than collateral damage – they were the full-on-impact. I look over at Jem, staring ahead at the girls. His usual calm natured self is slipping, I notice, as his hands curl into fists, his eyes shine like a roaring fire and his mouth shifts into a grim line.
This is all my fault.