CHAPTER VIII

Shadowhunter

I hadn't realised that I had said that aloud for a few minutes, as Alexander waited until the sound of the door slamming shut behind Julian echoed through the room to our ears to reply.

"Quite easily actually, hadn't you heard? All of the stories are true..." his voice took a light tone of triviality but in his eyes I could see that he was serious. All I could reply with was a faint scoff overtaken but a choke of tears and then I remained silent. When I said nothing, Alexander moved cautiously towards where I sat on the bed, and after careful deliberation, sat beside me, making sure to leave a good 5 inch gap between us. Silence reigned for the next couple minutes as my mind whirled, fighting a battle between what was fiction and what was reality.

"So..." Alexander began after a while, "How're you doing?"

"How am I doing?" I reply in astonishment. Was this guy completely stupid? What a question to ask me, "I've just been told, not only that a world that before now firmly belonged in fiction was all true but that I was actually not human or even normal, but that I belonged in said world. My entire sense of reality has been thrown off balance and my world turned upside down, and you're asking me how I'm doing" my irritation had spun into a full blown rant.

Alexander chuckled softly at my reaction, taking some form of amusement from my inner meltdown.

"Remind me. Why are you here again?" I press.

"Because, I can't leave you alone" Alexander finally answer, all tone of amusement of laughter gone, "Last night, as I watched you run off, I couldn't stop myself from wanting to run after you. But I was held back by Octavia and then Aiden. In the end I wasn't able to come after you until about half an hour later and then it took me a good ten minutes to find you. Did you know that you're extremely good at hiding November?"

Now it was my turn to laugh, though I didn't think I had it in me, which resulted in the half laugh, half sob that broke from my throat.

"Well, I've had my practice" I choked, in between restrained sobs. Thankfully, he overlooked my unsightly display of emotion.

"Have you had practice running too, because you ran a good distance from the party. I found you just in time to watch you collapse and uselessly call out to you"

"So that was you" I was too tired to remain outwardly angry at him and had too many other worries swelling my mind to spend a thought on what happened last night now. Though the image of him and Octavia locked in a kiss still hurt, a world of fiction come to life seemed to take more of a toll, funnily enough.

"Yes it was and I couldn't let Miss high and mighty out there kart you off to the institute alone, so I followed and made sure you were alright. The only time I left your side was when I briefly left, after we got you here, to tell all of your friends that I was taking you home. Oh, and Octavia gave me this" He fumbled around, digging for something in the depths of his pocket before presenting me with my phone. The sight of it made me tear up anew.

"Wha- what did she say?" I manage to choke out.

"She told me to give you this, and to tell you that she's sorry, though I sense that that's not going to be enough, is it?"

"N- no" tears stream down my face at the memory of my loss of a best friend. Silence hung in the air again, the only sound my muffled sobs as I pushed my head into my knees.

"About what you saw..." Alexander tentatively began again.

"You know what Alexander, I don't want to hear it"

"Please. Just hear me out" he begged. I was too exhausted to protest so remained silent, which Alexander took as his cue, "Last night, when we were upstairs talking with your friends, whether I was talking to you or not, half of my attention always remained latched to you..."

Oh God, where is this going?

"...so, when I heard you tell Darcy that you were tired, I couldn't stop myself from wanting to do something, to help. So, I decided to go and find Octavia, who I remembered you had come with, and get her to take you home. I thought I was doing a good thing. But, when I found her she was-"

"Drunk out of her senses" I finished for him.

"Yes. I was trying to reason with her, do something. I was angry with her for getting so drunk when she knew that she was your only way home. Then suddenly she was kissing me. And that's what you saw."

Seconds tolled between us in silence. Him, looking at me all apologies and concern. Me, looking upwards trying to decide what to do. Turns out, it wasn't hard.

"So... she kissed you?"

"Yes" he sighed, eyes lighting up with hope.

"You weren't taking advantage of my drunk best friend?"

"No" he started in alarm.

"Oh, then... that's okay"

"Really? Just like that?" he seemed doubtful, wary that this was some kind of trap.

"Yes. I know what Octavia's like when she's drunk. You're blameless. I thought you were just taking advantage of a girl who was too drunk to think properly." he began to protest determinedly, " And... to be honest I may have been taking out my anger and hurt for what Octavia did, on you... I'm sorry" I look up at him, brows knitted in regret and tears still glistening in my eyes.

"Hey," he nudged my knee with his playfully, " I don't blame you. What she did was terrible, I saw it all, and the look on your face afterwards..." I had too look away, up to the rafters again, to hide the pain and embarrassment that was clearly written all over my face, "And then there's all of this" he gestured to the room around us but I knew what he meant. This new world. What was previously a world of fiction.

"...How am I supposed you deal with all of it?" I ask, now in earnest.

"You will, trust me" he was look at me know. Watching as I moved my gaze to meet his.

"How can I trust you?" God, I'm such a stereotype. Teenage girl with trust issues is told she's different and then thrust into a whole new world. Though hopefully I'm not going to be entrusted with the fate of the world. That would surely end badly.

"You already have" he smiled now, at the memory of something I couldn't see. And I realised that I had already trusted him before, even in small amounts, when he took me to my friends a the party after Octavia left me and when he brought me here (though I wasn't really counting that, being unconscious and all). "You can take your time, I'm not going anywhere"

"Aren't you?" I retort, doubtful.

"Yep" he said matter-of-factly with an air of amusement. "You're stuck with me for now, especially through all of this" he casts a glance around him, eyes finally settling on me and I then a thought came to me.

"Yeah about that. You seem to be taking this...well" I thought back to when he first came in the room. Julian had said "It'll heal her, you know that" though I guessed his knowledge of that could be put down to his knowledge of the books. But why should Julian assume that he knows? The situation is getting curiouser and curiouser.

"Well... speaking of that. There's something I haven't told you..."

Great. What was it this time? Was Jeanine Matthews about to crash though the door and shoot me for being Divergent? No, I know I'm actually a long lost Princess and heir to the throne of Genovia.

"... you know when I said that I knew what your costume was because I'd read the books? Well... that's not entirely true"

"Really?! You're asking me to trust you and now you're telling me one of the first things you said to me was a lie?"

"It wasn't entirely a lie. I have read the books, but that's not why I know."

I now looked at him with his emerald eyes like he was about to tell me the sky is falling.

"I know because..." his words hang for a moment, unfinished in the air, "I am a Shadowhunter"

"Alexander..."

He smirks ruefully down at me, his face contorted in sorrow and his eyes swimming in regret.

"No... since you know the truth, there's no use hiding any more. I picked the name Alexander so my family couldn't find me. To make it easier to hide. My real name is Ekain Longford"

"What?" I half whisper, stunned at his revelation, "But, your runes. You have none."

"That's because I stripped them. I'm not really a Shadowhunter. I'm a runaway" Alexander. Ekain, answers, seeming unshirked by the truth.

"But... isn't that excruciatingly painful?"

"Yes... it was" he winces as he speaks the truth, I guess at the memory of the pain.

"...why?" was all I could manage to articulate at this new information. I mean, I shouldn't be surprised. Everything I've ever thought to be real and true up until now has be thrown backwards within the last twenty-four hours. But this news astonished me. Alexander. No, Ekain. A Shadowhunter?

How is this all possible? How is it that the one time I agree to go to a party -just so happening to dress up as a Shadowhunter- the first person I meet on arrival, is a runaway Shadowhunter and then, hours later, be attacked by a demon, be mistaken for a Shadowhunter myself and then go on to be given a rune which, miraculously, didn't turn me into a modern day zombie.

The improbability of it all now seemed laughable and I couldn't contain the snigger that was creeping up my throat.

Great, now I'm crazy. Maybe I didn't survive the rune after all.

To my surpise, Ekain began to laugh with me, and for a couple minutes we sat together, side by side. A runaway Shadowhunter and a not-so-Mundane. Thrown impossibly together, laughing at the crazy, stupid world that had just erupted around me.