Chapter 2:
"Perfect." Said Alaska as Isabelle pulled Jace towards her forcefully using Alaska's whip. Jace winced. "Ah, that hurts." Isabelle loosened her grip and dropped Jace to the ground. "Are you alright?" asked Alaska as she neared him. "Yeah, just a little sore."
"Let me see." She started to raise them hem of his shirt, but he slapped her hand away. "I'm fine." He insisted. "No you're not." Jace reluctantly allowed Alaska to raise his shirt up a bit to reveal some bloody lines running across his waist.
Alaska sucked in some air through her teeth. "Ouch." Isabelle watched curiously as Alaska pulled out her stele and drew the healing rune across his bare skin. Jace gritted his teeth as she drew it. "Sorry." She muttered. "It's alright."
"There, good as new." Said Alaska admiring her work. There were no more red cuts; in their place was a large rune that was slowly fading. "Thanks." Said Jace.
"No problem." Alaska lifted her gaze from the dirty grass to see Jace looking at her intently. Now that she had looked at Jace's eyes properly, she realized that they weren't brown. More like a light gold with brown flecks. His hair wasn't just blonde, it was gold too. His skin appeared to be gold as well due to the way the setting sun's light hit him.
"We should probably start going inside." She said, interrupting the silence. Jace nodded and motioned for Isabelle and Alaska to follow him into the house. Isabelle was giving her looks, and Alaska had no idea why.
"What does this say?" asked a little boy. He was sitting on Alec's lap on the couch, holding a small book in his hand. "It says alligator."
"Why is it spelled like that?" asked the boy. Alec shrugged. "Because English is a weird language, my friend."
"Oh, hi guys." He said as Jace, Isabelle, and Alaska walked into the house. "Who's this?" asked Alaska with a huge smile on her face. She loved kids. Like, really really loved kids.
"This is Max. Our brother." Alaska mentally 'awwed' as Max dug his face into Alec's chest. He had small glasses on the bridge of his nose that kept sliding down. "Hi," said Alaska kneeling down in front of Max. "I'm Alaska."
"Like the country?" he asked. "It's a state actually." Interrupted Jace, but they both ignored him. "Yeah."
"Have you ever been to Alaska?" She shook her head. "There are penguins there. I read it in a book."
"Do you still have the book?" she asked. Max nodded. "Can you show me?" He jumped off Alec's lap and grabbed Alaska's hand, dragging her up the stairs. "Jace?" said Isabelle.
"Mhh."
"I think Max just stole your girlfriend."
"You guys are leaving tonight?" asked Alaska. Isabelle nodded. "Well, stop by my house next time you visit." Max came to hug her, but reached only her legs. Alaska chuckled and picked him up. "Til next time?" he asked. Alaska nodded. "Til next time."
Alaska set him down on the floor and hugged Isabelle. "Here." Said Isabelle, handing Alaska the whip. Alaska shook her head. "Keep it. I have enough at home." A huge smile formed on Isabelle's face. "Really?" Alaska nodded. "Thank you."
Alaska could tell Alec didn't like her much, but he hugged her gladly. Maybe because they probably won't see each other for a while. Jace waved to her from the top of the stairs. She waved back awkwardly and bid Maryse goodbye.
Alaska pulled the hood on her leather jacket as she walked home, something was different she thought as she neared her home. She smelled- smoke? A lot of it. Her eyes widened as she thought of a possibility.
"MUM?" she yelled as she saw the house. From the back, it looked fine. But once one saw it from the front, they would know that whoever was in there was long dead. Fire roared along the house, the light nearly blinded Alaska and the smoke caused her to cough.
She didn't even notice she was crying until the tears blurred her vision. And without thinking, Alaska ran in. She ducked and crawled on the floor until she reached the kitchen. She gasped, even more tears falling from her eyes.
Her mum was dead. She knew it, half of her skin was burned off. She had to get her out. Dead or Alive. She deserved to die like a proper shadowhunter. Alaska sucked in a breath through her teeth and grabbed her dead mum's hand. It was so cold. So lifeless.
She kissed it and pulled. She managed to get her mum's cold dead body out before she dropped on the floor. Alaska was in a state of disbelief. Her mum wasn't dead, this wasn't her mum. It could've easily been true; Elizabeth's face was unrecognizable. But Alaska knew it wasn't, she was wearing her wedding ring. The ring she hadn't taken off since the day she wed, even once her husband had passed on.
That's when it sunk in. She was an orphan. Alone in this world with no one to care for her, with no one to look to at a time like this. She let out a shaky sob, her shivering fingers pushed her mothers hair back. Or whatever was left of the hair. "Ve Atque Vale." She whispered. Alaska was taught to say this whenever a shadowhunter died in school, but she would have never, ever have guessed that she would someday have to use it on her mother.
She knew she should probably get help, but she couldn't move. "ALASKA?" Alaska didn't even move. She wanted to, but she couldn't. "Alaska, look at me." She shook her head, that's as much as she could muster.
She felt someone hug her; she didn't even look to see who it was when she buried her head into their chest. "It's alright." They comforted, but she shook her head. "No, it's not alright. This fucking sucks." She said in between sobs.
"I know." She finally noticed it was Jace. The same Jace that waved from her from the stairs while everyone else hugged her goodbye. "What the fuck am I gonna do?" she muttered to herself.
"What?" asked Jace, he couldn't really hear her over the roaring of the fire. "Nothing." Alaska slipped from Jace's grasp and moved to the other side of her mother. She let out another sob and she kissed her mum's forehead. It was so cold. She was used to her mother's warm hands that would braid her hair when she was younger or warm forehead that she would compare the heat of with Alaska's when she was sick.
"Alec went for help. With Izzy." she nodded. "How did you know? To come, I mean." Jace shook his head. "What?"
"You're mother just died and you want to know why we knew to come." Alaska shrugged. "I'm not particularly fond of crying." She said wiping the tears away. "It's alright to cry when your mum just died."
"Can you turn around?" she asked. Regardless of the situation, Jace chuckled. "Alright." He turned around and sat crisscross on the floor. "Oh my god." Jace and Alaska's heads turned to face the voices. It was just Isabelle and Alec with concerned looks on their faces.
"Are you alright?" asked Izzy. "Yeah. I am." Isabelle's eyes looked at her confused. "Did you get your mother out of the building?" Alaska nodded. "YOU IDIOT! You could've gotten yourself killed."
"But I didn't." she said quietly. Alaska wasn't in the mood for arguing. She much preferred crawling into a hole and crying. "Some people are on their way." Said Alec.
Some people? Right. No firefighters in Idris. Just shadowhunters. They came in dozens, with buckets of water and hoses. I was too busy mourning over my mum to notice that not only have I lost her, but also I've lost anything to remind myself of her.
Anything she's ever owned was in there. My gaze flickered to the engagement ring she wore on her left hand where her fourth finger met her knuckle. Her mother wore it, despite the fact that her husband had died years prior. I wiped another tear away and crawled on my knees to her numb body.
I slowly slid the ring off her finger and held it to my chest. "I love you." I muttered to myself. I also removed her stele and dagger from her pockets. Some shadowhunters took my mum's corpse making even more tears form in my eyes. "Shh, you can stay with us tonight." Said Izzy. She nodded shakily and followed them to their home. It wasn't too long a walk, but everything around Alaska was going in slow motion.
She didn't see pretty trees anymore; she saw wastes of space. I didn't see rainbows; I saw frowns in the sky. And most of all, she had lost the sassy spark in her eyes. Her bright blue orbs weren't bright anymore. They were dull and almost seemed grey.
"Oh honey." Cried Maryse as they walked into her home. Her arms draped around Alaska's shoulders as she pulled her close. She cried into her shoulder. Her maternal hugs were what Alaska needed at a time like this.
"Why is Ally sad?" asked Max as he tugged on Alec's pants. "Something sad happened."
"What?" asked the young boy. Alaska nodded as she pulled apart from Maryse, "You can tell him."
"Her mum is up there now." Said Alec, crouching down and pointing towards the sky. "Upstairs?" Alec shook his head. "She's in heaven now." Max's head tilted to the side. "Oh."
Little Max ran to Alaska and hugged her legs. "Its okay, Ally. We'll take care of you." Jace, Alec, Isabelle, and Maryse nodded. Another tear escaped her eyes. "Thank you." She muttered, not capable of talking any louder.
"Anytime."