"WHERE THE HELL DID YOU COME FROM? You can't be in here!"
Alex sits up, rubbing her eyes. Funny, that doesn't sound like her alarm clock. She aches all over, her face and hands feel grimy... must have been a hell of a party, because she's not even sure who's she's next t- Justin? Wait, WHAT?
Oh, right. Right! It all comes back in a hurry, and she sits up, shaking Justin awake… disoriented, they're staring into the face of rat-man, and by the looks of it, he's one pissed-off rodent. Hunched in the door of Hansel and Gretel's bouncy house, fingers looped around the multi-colored swirlypop acting as a door handle, the little man glares at them. And wow, if looks could kill! It's as though he believes that his stare alone will be enough to send them back to wherever they came from.
"Well, you see," Alex begins as she blinks through the fog in her eyes, rubbing her hands on her jeans and trying push her hair into place. "There's a perfectly logicable reason that-" An excuse is already formulating itself in her mind.
"You kids just can't sneak in here like this," Rat-man howls, cutting her off, and she pushes Justin between her and ratty. "Look, I don't know who you are, but this is simply unacceptable!"
Pinning them in place with his glare, reaches into one of his pant pockets, straining within the voluminous pouch until he finally pulls out a bulky phone. Flipping it open furiously, the store owner begins to press buttons. "When the police get here, you'll just have to explain yourself, now-"
Justin, bless him, begins to sputter some kind of grownup explanation, but Alex is having none of it. The words "police" and "explain yourselves" usually never foreshadow anything pleasant, in experience. (And she's had a little experience.)
Fumbling about her, Alex quickly gathers their stuff and, at the last second, stuffs one of the abandoned masks into her jacket.
"Great customer service," she snaps, rolling her eyes and grabbing her brother's arm. "You know, we were really considering buying that bouncy house, but not anymore. C'mon, Justin, we're leaving!" Tugging on Justin's arm, she pulls them back toward the entrance.
Rat-man follows, shouting something about "insubordination" and "incarceration" but Alex blocks it out. With a last smirk at the store owner, she lets go of Justin and runs.
It's raining, but that hardly seems to matter. Alex and Justin are aching with sleep, sticky caramel and chocolate, rumpled and bleary-eyed, and wildly, recklessly happy. It's They're kids again, running from one of their (okay, usually Alex's) magical shenanigans.
Turning to look at Justin, with rain is plastering his hair to his forehead and slowly washing off the five o'clock shadow of dark chocolate coating his lips and chin, Alex breaks into laughter, slowing to a walk. It's not her usually chilly laugh at someone else's expense but another kind of sound altogether, high and sweet. For a second, Justin glares at her, but it is an affectionate look. It's his "I-like-you-but-family-hate-you" look. After a moment, his lips twitch, then he's smiling too.
"Let's go, dork," Alex murmurs with a tiny smile, reaching for his hand. His fingers latch onto hers and they run.
They run almost blindly, hand in hand, through what has become a punishing downpour. Before either one of them thinks to ask where they're going, they both find out.
Rounding a corner, Alex and Justin don't see the two people walking toward them until it is almost too late. The siblings screech to a halt, panting.
"Sweetheart?" Justin's voice is odd, and she elbows him in the side and turns to tell him not to call her that, and almost too late she realizes who he's talking to. Oh, no. No. "What are you... doing here?" he asks Juliet his voice filled with disbelief as he glances between his girlfriend and her companion, whom they'd very nearly collided with.
Alex drops his hand, balling it into a cold fist behind her back.
"Mmm," Juliet hums coldly, brushing him off, "Out for a walk." Ignoring poor Justin almost entirely, the blonde stares at Alex with a viciousness that cannot possibly be anything other than completely intentional and utterly heartfelt.
"Good to see you too," Alex remarks sarcastically, glancing briefly over at Juliet's dog. Oh, sorry, her companion. Mason looks just as stunned as Justin, only guiltier. His hand, which had snaked away from Juliet's a moment before, plays compulsively with his hair.
Alex and Juliet share a single, warlike glance: before she can protect herself from her own memory, Alex spinning backward in time, into a darkness she'd rather forget. Into everything she's tried so hard to shield Justin from, to put behind her in the form of one boyfriend after another, everything she's worked so hard to forget rises up, weighing her down with bitter memories, and she's drowning in them. She remembers.
It's the night of the Wizard Competition.
The after-party is loud and raucous, and Dad even lets them have a little of the Good Stuff from the locked liquor cabinet that he thinks they don't know about. Mason is there, of course, to celebrate Alex's victory with the family, along with their friends from Wiz-Tec, Zeke and Harper, and most of Justin's delinquents.
And, of course, Pollyanna's there. Justin's never liked it when Alex calls Juliet that, after the goody two-shoes in that stupid movie, but seriously, it just fits. As soon as she saw how much it drove him nuts, she referred to his girlfriend as Polly whenever she wasn't around. Well, she's around tonight, and she's clinging to Justin like some sort of vine. Not the flowering kind, Alex thinks privately, more like something poisonous. (But where, Alex wonders, did such a mean thought come from? She's always harbored a little animosity toward Justin's girlfriends, but Juliet is probably the best one he's brought home so far… no, Alex has no mean feelings toward the girl, not really, not anything special. She shakes the thought off. She blames the booze.)
The evening's more than half over when Alex notices she hasn't seen Mason for… well, a long time. It's not like she keeps tabs on him every minute, after all. Honestly, Alex hadn't even noticed that her boyfriend had disappeared. It's only when the subject of canine wizardry comes up that she turns to say something that will keep Mason from getting overexcited-she can do without a repeat of the rolling-on-the-floor-incident that came around during the televised dog-grooming marathon, thanks very much- that Alex notices that Mason isn't standing beside her, or anywhere else in the room, for that matter. Everyone else is accounted for - (Hugh is showing off his tiny diploma, Olaf hoarding cheese dip while Felix tries to get a couple of pretty elves interested in his wand...) - so where's Mason?
Alex turns to see if perhaps Justin knows where Mason has disappeared to, then notices that Justin's date seems to have vacated the premises as well. That's odd (considering she's the clinging-vine type).
But perhaps…
Oh, no…Mason wouldn't go off with Pollyanna. No, no way. Not after he hurt Alex so horribly during the whole Transylvania incident... and after she took him back. She's overreacting. Booze. It has to be the booze. What did her dad put in these drinks?
Still, Alex excuses herself to go to the bathroom, telling herself she's being silly (and she's had too much to drink), while her heart beats fast and her mouth feels funny and dry. After a quick check of the most obvious hiding places yields nothing, she heads for the Lair. Reaching for the handle of the walk-in freezer, she feels a wrench of anxiety in her stomach, as if her stomach knows something she doesn't. But even they wouldn't be that stupid… would they?
(She won't realize until much, much later that she'd already relegated Mason to the ranks of Cheater and Dummy, before she ever opened the door.)
Alex reaches for her wand… and pauses. Gingerly, she tries the handle, and sure enough… someone… Justin, most likely… has charmed it to stay open, and to stay a portal to the Lair, so that their magical guests can come and go as they please. It's a good idea, too. Unless some of their magical guests are using it for illicit… No. Stop it, Alex, she chides herself. This is, after all, the love of her life she's talking about. And the love of Justin's life, while she's at it.
With fingers that are hardly trembling at all, Alex grasps the door-handle, takes a breath, and walks in.
The scene that greets her fills her with… relief. The Lair is, well, empty. Nothing is out of place (so far as she can tell - it's not like she takes inventory.) Nothing appears to be unusual, either. There are no monsters hidden in the dark corners, no telltale glimmers of amateur cloaking devices. And there are definitely no cheating werewolf-vampire combinations tangled on the dusty furniture.
Alex sags with relief, lets out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding, and goes back to the party.
Well, she would have.
Just as she turns to leave, something catches her eye. There's something off here after all, but it's a small thing, something so tiny that she'd missed it when she came in. The Lair's other door, the one that leads to the Wizard World, is open, just enough to cast a shimmer of light over the carpet.
Well, that's weird, but hardly cause for alarm. Someone must have left it open when they came back from the competition. Or one of the many guests they're entertaining tonight forgot to close it when they arrived. Alex crosses the room to close the door, letting out a strangled breath as she nearly collides with a half-wasted Mason just as he comes stumbling through the portal. And he's not alone. Of course.
Mason begins to stammer out what is, undoubtedly, a lame-ass excuse, "S-sweetheart, wh-what are you doing here, I was just, I went to out to get a, that is-"
The poor dope has never been good at thinking on his feet, and Alex Russo doesn't even hesitate. She draws back her right arm (the arm she uses to beat people), and slaps him, hard right in the face.
Mason's wounded look hurts her, but not as much as the rumpled appearance of his clothes, the flush she's all too used to seeing coloring his usually pale British hide, or the Sour Cherry lipstick smeared across his mouth, as if he'd been trying to put it on without a mirror.
After regaining her composure, Juliet just stands back, smirking, arms folded across her middle, looking entertained.
"But Darling!" Mason splutters, sloppy drunk. Even now, he's so cute and so familiar that it tears Alex apart to look at him.
Alex spins toward, tears and hot anger making her eyes shine. She leans in, intimately close, as if for a kiss. The werewolf stumbles back, away from the fire in her eyes.
"You smell like vanilla and death," she hisses, her voice low and dangerous. They will be the last words she ever says to him. It seems pretty obvious that she wants them to get the hell out of her home. Gulping, Mason leaves the room at a high trot, a lope that's not quite a run but badly wants to be, proving that he's not quite as stupid as he looks. Juliet, on the other hand, leans against the now-closed door with her arms crossed, grinning. It's just the two of them, now. Her fangs glint in the light.
"I thought you had a soul," Alex snarls, not wasting words, or time. Her tongue feels like lead, and suddenly, she's quite tired.
The blonde shrugs and licks her mouth (now naked of lipstick) with the tip of her tongue. Alex thinks of the tongues of snakes.
"Guess it didn't take," Juliet purrs. "It happens."
The memory is so clear, so present and cutting, that for a moment she wonders if Juliet is doing it on purpose somehow, if that's the kind of thing the toothy bitch might have it in her power to project into her head. But more likely it's just Alex's own guilty conscience, sharpened by her months of agony. She reels back, away from the vampire and from the memory, and doesn't stop until she comes up against something warm and solid, unyielding. She suddenly feels the cold rain that's been running down the back of her neck since they fled HALLOWEENTOWN, and starts to shiver.
"Alex," Justin murmurs, "What's wrong?" Even in the confusion (and hurt) of the moment, he has the presence of mind to wrap a steadying arm around Alex, who really does feel as if she might fall over. "Alex? Are you okay?"
Alex shudders, with more than the rain. The question slides into her mind, pulling her back into that other night, the night of the Wizard Competition.
"Alex, what's wrong?"
After she'd fled the Lair, dazed with hurt and confusion, Alex hadn't been able to return to the party (understandably). She'd torn through the chaos of revelry in the substation, up the stairs, and would have escaped into her bedroom- Except that Zeke and harper are already making out in there (uh, gross?), and she's so twisted by what's just happened that she doesn't even have the presence of mind to throw them out, or the heart to punish them for what they're doing in her personal space. Instead she turns and heads for the terrace, which turns out to be the last private and unviolated place left in the restaurant or the loft.
Well, it would have been.
As she goes to pull the sliding door shut behind her, it won't move because...
"Alex?"
...because there's someone in the way, some busybody who followed her flight from the Lair and then the Substation, which not even her parents could be bothered to noticed amidst the noise and the fun. Somebody who ought to mind his own goddamned business for once!
"Alex, what happened? What's wrong?" Justin's kind face is so troubled, worried for her, his troublesome baby sister.
"Leave me alone, Justin!" she snaps, putting as much spite into her words as she can. But as usual, Justin is too pigheaded to listen. He follows her onto the terrace, where a soft rain has begun to fall, and pulls the door shut behind them.
"No," he says, quietly and not unkindly. "Now what's this about?"
"Just leave me alone!" she howls again, the tears she's been fighting now teeming out her eyes, getting mixed up with the guilt and the anger and the rain. And suddenly she's in his arms, not sure and not caring if he grabbed her or she reached for him. She's in her brother Justin's arms and he's holding her tight, a shield against all the horrible things that she's learning the world can do to her, and it's like the best, safest place in the. He is. Justin is the best place in the world.
She can't talk, at first. The sobs get worse and worse until they're hurting her, causing her actual physical pain, - her face is a mess of tears and rain and slimy stuff, her heartbreak streaming down her face and onto the front of Justin's clean plaid button-down. She's getting drenched. They both are.
Justin holds her with a patience she wouldn't have suspected him of, stroking her hair and her back, making soothing noises. When her breath isn't hitching and she can talk again, Alex wipes her nose on her sleeve (she'll change later), looks up into her brother face, and stammers half the truth: "I-it's Mason."
The way Justin's holding her doesn't change, but she feels him tense up agianst her - and she hears the dangerous undercurrent running through his voice when he speaks. "What'd he do, Alex? If he hurt you, so help me, I'll-"
"He didn't hurt me!" she says quickly. "He just, there's just..." she hesitates, and it's as if an entire world hangs in the balance. Alex's world.
"...there's just someone else," she whispers, unable to come right out with it, unable to admit who she'd caught him with.
"That.. that bastard," Justin hisses, and Alex is impressed, even through her pain, because she can count on one hand the number of times she's heard him cuss, with fingers left over. " I can only imagine what I'd do, how I'd feel, if Juliet ever…" Justin can't even finish the sentence. He closes his eyes for a second, and Alex knows him too well to not know that he's fighting against the tears that come at the very thought of his vampire-girlfriend's betrayal. And in that moment, Alex understands that she can never, ever tell him. So he holds her and she cries and he doesn't, and she never tells him. Not ever. She can't.
He must have felt her tense, because arms stiffen around her as his face reddens. "That stupid ugly mutt... I'll tear him apart. He'll never show his face around here again, honey... I swear it." He strokes the wet tendrils of hair away from his sister's face, framing it in his long-fingered hands as he looks into her eyes, and... and something happens to Alex.
Right in the middle of the rain and the heartbreak and the secrets, something changes inside her forever. Time stops.
"It's okay," she says, only it comes out in a whisper. "...Mason's not worth it." As she says it, she realizes it's true. Despite his cute accept and his (previously) devoted ways, she's never felt for Mason one-tenth of what she feels right now, a thing that's bright and sparkling like Christmas and Birthdays and getting out of a math test, all in one. In fact... she's never felt it before, period.
Justin watches her face soften, and maybe misunderstanding her meaning, says gently, "You're right. He isn't. But you are. Nobody's gonna hurt you and get away with it, Alex. Not while I'm around."
Alex slides her hands up his arms (sodden shirt-sleeves on top, firm strength beneath) and laces her fingers at the nape of his neck. "Really?"
Justin doesn't peel her hands away, or make a goofy joke to defect the tension of the moment. He holds her against him, water dripping from and between them, and Alex becomes aware of the damp heat where their bodies touch. And elsewhere. She wonders, distantly, if this feeling might kill her, because it seems to be expanding and expanding, and already it's nearly too much to take.
Justin says, "Really... I promise. It's kind of my job to take care of you."
But they're still looking at each other, as if there's nothing else in the world worht looking at. Maybe there's not. Justin leans toward Alex (does he? did he? In the days and months to come, Alex will torture herself, trying to decide if she made that part up)...
And there's a tapping, on the glass door. They pull away from one another as if sharing a single, guilty thought...
It's Juliet.
Shivering, Alex comes back to the present. She's backed away from the vampire-bitch as far as she can go, her back pressed against her brother.
"Alex? Are you okay?"
"Huh? Yeah. Yeah. I'm okay."
After a few more minutes of obligatory humiliation, Justin leaves with Juliet. All the way down the street, Alex can hear snatches of their argument. But that's nothing special. Probably half of New York can, at their decibel.
"What were you doing with-"
"Well I could ask you the same-"
"Sneaking around!"
"You never even..."
"Your own sister, Justin!"
Together by accident, Alex and Mason watch them go. Next to her, Mason shivers like a wet dog; Juliet took the umbrella they were sharing, just as she'd taken Justin. Alex almost feels sorry for him. Almost.
"I guess, umm...?" he fumbles, trying to tag along at her heel. Alex gives him a black look, a look that's hard enough to make him stumble back several paces. She turns her back on him, and walks away alone.