Alec looked up at the house, shielding his eyes from bright sunlight with his hand. He squinted his eyes and gasped silently at the sight in front of him. The house was small and a bit run down. The roofing was in bad condition and a few of the windows were shattered. Alec glanced over at his mum in utter confusion.
"Why are we here?" he asked.
Maryse parked the car and at the small building as they pulled into a shady looking driveway. Tall, mysterious oaks sighed in the wind.
"This is my where my physic lives—"
"You have a physic?" Alec asked. Even though his mother was a marvelous model, she was into some pretty weird stuff. Fortune tellers, voodoo, you name it.
"Yes, I do. Her name is Lady Snake and she's also a witch—"
"A witch?"
She looked down at her son. She stared at the red burn across his cheek, and the black marking across the other. The blue veins that ran across his neck and tangled down at his chest. His peircing red eyes and chapped lips.
"She's our only hope," she said quietly.
Alec just nodded slowly.
They got out of the car and walked up to Lady Snake's home. Alec got the chills as his mum knocked lightly on the door, waiting for her to answer.
Suddenly, the door opened, revealing a large woman with long, black hair and skin as pale as the moon. She had black liner drawn under her eyes and ruby red lipstick. Her black and red dress reached down to her ankles where it fell above her bare feet.
"Maryse! What a pleasure, it's so nice to see you," she said. She shook her hand and Maryse beamed. Alec just shifted awkwardly and pulled his hoodie further over his head. She hadn't noticed him yet.
"And this must be your son—" Lady Snake finally said, glancing over at the boy beside her. Lady Snake frowned and looked up and down the blemished boy. Alec looked up to meet her eyes and pursed his lips.
"Oh my . . . come in, please. I don't have any clients right now," Lady Snake generously offered.
She stepped aside, taking one last glance at Alec. She knew what was wrong with him. She knew what had happened. She had only seen it a handful of times in her forty years of living, but she recognized it well enough to tell that Alec had the curse of the beast.
Maryse and Alec sat in the living room on the couches in front of her crackling fire place. The walls were lined with human skulls and creepy ritual items. It gave Alec the creeps.
Alec pulled down his hood and swept his hair to the side. He fiddled with his thumbs when Lady Snake returned from the kitchen with tea. He declined, but Maryse accepted the kind offer.
The witch sat down across from them in an old rocking chair. She sipped her tea, glancing up and down Alec's body. After a few long moments of watching Alec's every move, she turned to Maryse.
"When did this happen?" she asked Maryse.
"This morning," Alec answered for his mother.
Lady Snake nodded. "I see. Now, have you had any weird encounters with anybody in the past couple of days? Did someone in particular act strange or a bit off? Think hard." she wondered.
Alec bit his lip. He thought about Jace and instantly felt angry. This was all his fault and he wanted to beat his stupid head to a pulp.
"Well, yesterday this clumsy kid named Jace Herondale dumped his lunch on me. I yelled at him, but then this morning he showed up in my room and . . . well, you get the idea."
The name Herondale rung in Lady Snake's ears. Yes, the Herondale family was well known to her. They were a blood line family of wizards and witches. Very successful and powerful ones, at that.
"Did Jace say anything to you?"
"Sorta'. He said something about 365 days to find love or something. I wasn't really paying attention. I was in shock," he admitted.
"Enough of this magic stuff, okay? How do we fix Alec? A potion? A reverse spell? Anything, please," Maryse begged. She wanted her beautiful son back, not this beast.
"Unfortunately, Ms. Lightwood, it's not that simple. You see, this curse was done by a blood line wizard— which I am not. I can't reverse the spell, and nobody can, for that matter. A wizard's magic and spells is like a person's DNA, it can't be replicated. Nobody has the same kind. I'm afraid there is nothing I can do,"she said solemnly.
Lady Snake really wanted to help Maryse and her son, she really did, and Ms. Lightwood was one of her most loyal customers. There was nothing she could do to help Alec, though.
"So what do you suggest we do?" Maryse said, raising her voice.
Lady Snake shrugged. "Let him continue his normal life. Allow him to go to school and—"
"Are you kidding me? Listen to yourself! He can't go out in public like this! I'm a model, Lady Snake, and I can't have my son looking like that!" she raged. Alec shifted uncomfortably in his seat, listening to his mum's harsh words.
Lady Snake twirled her spoon around her tea and sighed deeply. She mixed in a sugar cube and watched it dissolve slowly into her cup.
"I have a suggestion," she said cautiously. She didn't know what Ms. Lightwood would think of it, but it was worth a try.
The next day, Alec had his things packed and was being shipped to live on his own. Lady Snake suggested that Alec should stay isolated for a while until they figured things out.
Maryse, of course, would check in on Alec every day and see how he was doing. In the mean time, Alec would stay by himself in an apartment, secluded from society. Maryse would try to find doctors and she do research until she found one with a solution. Surely somebody in the world's population would be able to fix it, right?
Alec's mum reminded him to pull up his hood as they walked towards Alec's new apartment complex. He groaned but didn't protest. One by one, they unloaded boxes from the van into Alec's new apartment. The Lightwood's house was too public and in the city, and it was far too risky for him to live out there, especially with the paparazzi around watching Ms. Lightwood's every move.
Alec agreed to the idea, too. He wanted to be safe and move away from the city. As Alec unloaded the last box into the empty apartment, a thought occurred to him. He turned to his mum and asked; "What about school?"
Maryse sighed, glancing around the apartment. "You're going to have a teacher for home schooling," she said.
"Oh great, home schooling," he sighed.
"It's alright. Things will lighten up soon, I promise," she said hopefully, combing her fingers through his hair lightly.
Alec nodded and started unpacking a box in the small kitchen. He placed the spoons and forks into a drawer. "What'd you tell my old school?" he wondered.
"I just told them that you were transferring schools. They didn't question it," she said, helping Alec place the silverware in order.
"They probably won't miss me. I bet they're glad that I'm gone," Alec chuckled.
"Mhm," Maryse muttered. She watched Alec has he placed pots and pans under the cabinets. "What about your girlfriend?" she suddenly asked. She remembered him mentioning a girlfriend a few times.
Alec poked his head up. "What? Cara? I'll break up with her. No big deal." He didn't really care about Cara. She was the most popular cheerleader and he sort of had to date her. He didn't find her interesting or important, not at all. In fact, he kind of hated her.
He sent her a quick text, saying only We should break up and that was it. No argument, nothing. She just replied immediately, saying okay. Their relationship was never anything of great significance.
Alec tucked his phone back in his pocket and smiled at his mum. "I can finish unpacking the rest. It's okay," he said.
"You sure?"
"Yeah. It's fine. I'll see you tomorrow, alright?" he said.
"Of course. Bye sweety," she smiled. She pecked her son's scarred cheek carefully. The texture of his cheek was rough and hard, like a burn. She missed Alec's soft, flawless skin. With one last final goodbye, Maryse turned and left her son alone in his new apartment.
This place really was in the middle of nowhere. It was a good thirty minute drive from Alec's old home, but Maryse didn't mind the drive. As long as Alec was away from the public.
Alec's new apartment wasn't anything extravagant. It was pretty small, actually, but Alec didn't mind. Well, he did mind. In fact, he minded a lot. He missed his fancy shower, his vibrating bed, and his maids and butlers . . . but frankly, that wasn't the worst of his troubles at the moment, so those things had to go ignored until further notice.
He walked around, enjoying the silence. The past days consisted of nagging and complaining from his mother and the quiet was quite relieving. The kitchen was not big enough for the amount of cooking that he normally did, so he'd probably have to order take out a lot. Most of the apartment came furnished, but Alec still had to add a few things to make this house a home.
After several hours of unpacking knickknacks and trinkets, Alec went into his small bedroom and fell asleep. It didn't come easy. He was worried about his school, and how he would miss his friends. He was worried about his mother and her emotional state. But most of all, he was worried about himself.
After all, that's all that mattered to him.
Alec awoke to the sound of a light knocking. He ignored it and flipped over onto his stomach, digging his head into his one thousand dollar pillow. Alec's expensive items from his old home didn't fit in with his new cheap apartment.
The knocking soon became louder and Alec started to get annoyed. He swore under his breath and kicked his covers off of himself. He stood up uneasy and rubbed his tired eyes.
He trudged through the living room and to the front door. He looked through the peek hole. There stood a young man with feathery black hair and light golden eyes. He looked up eagerly and held countless folders and files underneath his arm.
"What do you want?" Alec growled. What did this man possibly need at seven o'clock in the morning?
"Uh, sorry if I woke you but . . . I'm Magnus. Magnus Bane? Er, you can call me Mr. Bane. I'm your teacher," he said.
Alec didn't say anything. He just crossed his arms over his chest.
"Um, you are Alec, aren't you?" the man's voice spoke through the door again.
"Yes, I am," Alec confirmed.
The man paused before speaking. "So why don't you open the door then?"
Alec sighed. "It's Saturday." he stated. He knew it was Monday but he really didn't feel like learning today. He wasn't in the mood.
"No, it's Monday," Magnus retorted.
Alec rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine Just wait a minute," he muttered.
Alec had thought that home schooling would be easy. Y'know, slacking off, sleeping in, watching TV all day, but apparently it was nothing like how he imagined.
He stumbled into his bathroom and washed his face gently. He put the blue coloured contacts over his red ones, turning them temporarily back to their original colour. He then pulled a black ski mask over his head to cover his face.
It wasn't very comfortable. The scratchy wool bothered his skin but he really had no choice. It was the only way to cover up his face. He made sure that his chest and arms were fully covered, as well as his legs. Not a single tattoo, blemish, or burn was revealed. He appeared normal . . . well, not normal per say. After all, he was an eighteen year old boy wearing a ski mask, sweat pants, and long sleeved shirt in the middle of dead summer, but he didn't look like a beast. Just simply a crazy teenager with a mental disorder.
Alec shook his head of messy hair and walked back into the living room. He looked through the peep hole silently again. The man was still there, patiently waiting like a puppy.
He opened up the door slowly. "Er . . . come in," he said. The man—Mr. Bane—paused when the door was opened. He just stared up at Alec. His eyes went blank, like watching an empty canvas. It was odd. Alec wondered what was the matter.
The man's eyes were like a bottomless hole. They held no emotion, and he didn't react to Alec's odd clothing in any way. Alec didn't know what to think of it.
"Are you just going to stand there?" Alec growled.
Magnus nervously shook his head and stepped inside, looking down at the ground. Alec huffed and watched Mr. Bane take a seat in his living room.
He just met Magnus, and Alec already knew that he didn't like him. Not one bit.