Chapter 7: Empty and Lifeless

'There is a terrible emptiness inside me, an indifference that hurts.'-Albert Camus

It was quiet.

Silence was the only thing Alec could hear once he had entered through the window. It was the fifth floor of the apartment. Alec managed to enter using the carelessly opened window. His feet landed on the soft velvet carpet softly. He raised his head, seeing a rather small living room with a velvet sofa and a small box-like television.

It may be a very silent room but the smell was very strong. Perfume wafted through the air very strongly making Alec growl in annoyance as he kicked an empty bottle. The bottle landed on the peach-colored wall making the green shards fall like rain.

Alec didn't really mind the painful shards landing on his skin, in fact, he actually enjoyed it. The pain gave him an excited jolt in his skin and his blood fell beautifully making his boring pale skin turn red. Excitement was the feeling within him when his head felt dizzy from his blood lost. It was just so boring right now for him.

'Pain is hilarious.' Alec thought biting his lip, because of his sharp teeth, his mouth soon started to bleed. The painful sparks on his lips made him smile, he can even taste the blonde entering his throat as he licked his bottom lip with his tongue.

He always did enjoy pain because he could never actually feel it.

Emotions were the key to a true pain and suffering. Alec could remember when he once had those sentimental emotions, and he felt disgusted at how weak and stupid he used to be because of those emotions. Physical pain on himself was pleasurable but mental pain on himself was disgusting.

And yet mental pain on others were the most pleasurable to the killer.

He stopped in front a small oak table beside the sofa. One small frame sat on the right of the table, two girls were posing in the picture. One was a beautiful woman with curly short blonde hair and blue eyes while the other was a similar-looking younger woman with glasses in a wheelchair. Another frame sat on the left and it showed two of the woman now standing together, and the younger woman, who use to be in a wheelchair, was wearing a graduation robe and hat with a diploma in her hand.

'The stupid things people do for love.' Alec thought.

His fingers tapped against the wood of the table. He knew Emily was the older one and Amelia was the younger woman. Two sisters that love each other so much.

So much that one of them had to make a dangerous deal.

Alec remembered the blue lily ,he found in a dumpster, thrown by Emily. That woman decided to escape from her payment with her sister to San Francisco.

'Master would like his payment, now, Emily.' Alec brought his hands over the frame with the picture of the two happy sisters and pushed it. The frame fell from the edge of the table leaving small shards of glass and wood on the ground. 'No one can escape from Master.'

Laughter erupted from his mouth when he saw the crumpled photo on the floor. It was just so stupid. Love is just so stupid. It made you weak and dumb. It gives you a weakness and a downfall.

A sound of a door bursting open suddenly came. Alec turned his head and saw Emily in a rather tight fitting red dress and her face caked with make-up. She could be any man's perfect woman with a perfect body and a perfect face, but her beauty didn't really affect Alec at all, in fact, he just found her physical appearance boring.

"You!"Her perfectly manicured finger pointed at him.

"Oh hello, Emily, did you have a good time sucking off rich men's cocks for money?" Alec said smirking. "I wonder how your dear sister feels about your 'job'."

The woman slightly flinched at his words. She felt a painful pang in her chest but she kept a strong face. "What have you done with Amelia?!"

"She's just at her university, right now, so relax." Alec smiled showing off his sharp teeth. He leaned on the side of the oak table, crossing his arms. "Unlike you, my master takes his deals very seriously."

"I want nothing to do with you or your master." Emily growled. She immediately took something from her purse.

It was a gun.

She pointed the pistol at him with slightly shaking fingers. Alec knew the woman wasn't going to shoot him just yet. First murders were always the hardest and this woman was still kind even if she was very sinful with her lustful ways.

Funny how sins and kindness could be the same thing, because kindness can be very cruel in its own way like how the woman sold her body and still enjoyed it for her sister's future.

"I see you brought yourself a gun even if you are a werewolf capable of protecting yourself. But since, you suspected I'm powerful, maybe you're not as dumb as I thought you are but still pretty dumb." Alec giggled. He brought his hand over the oak table, digging his sharp claws in the surface. "You could've talked with your sister first but no, you were so scared that you went here immediately, just because I told you I had her here. You are very stupid."

"Shut up and get out or I'll shoot you!" The beautiful woman's shaking finger almost shot him but hesitated.

"Why can't you just accept your payment like a honourable person?"Alec faked a disappointed sighed, lowering his shoulders. "I mean your sister wouldn't have had her legs and you wouldn't have had your beauty without my master. Besides you were the one who wanted the deal."

"Do you think I would let some monster like you deserve a fair contract? You are a sinful creature. Do you think you still deserve a fair deal? You are dirt, the lowest of the low." Emily shouted wickedly.

"You were the one who wanted the deal, not me." Alec said in a dark voice. Sounding serious unlike his usual playful one, making Emily flinch. His eyes narrowed and he brought his arms back down his sides. "I may be a lifeless monster who can't feel emotions anymore but at least I'm not a stubborn woman like you who can't accept herself and her sinful ways. You are a hypocrite."

Those words made Emily shake even more, her eyes were filled with tears but she still kept the gun pointed at him. Alec smirked at her sadness. He knew this was going to be fun.

The killer continued to speak. "Now accept your payment."

"I refuse to break in front of a cruel creature like you." The woman snarled.

"But you'll be beautiful to me when you break and fall." Alec said in a child-like way, teasing the fact that she cared about her looks too much, making the blonde woman almost cry because of her guilt. "Now how about you give me your eyes?"

The woman shook her head ready to fire the bullet.

Alec gave a tired sigh, still staying in place. "Man, you are stubborn."

A sound of the bullet being shot could be heard throughout the neighbourhood.

The sky was the color of gray when Magnus had woken up from his slumber. The familiar sound of raindrops patting against his window shot through his ears. His cat-like eyes gleamed through the grey dim of his bedroom. None of the lights were turned on, he tilted his head to his bedside table and saw his clock glowing the red numbers: 6:30 am.

He brought his tall back away from his cold sheets and brought a hand over his sweaty bangs. Usually he would wake up later than an early time ,like this, but an uneasiness couldn't make him sleep peacefully. For the whole night,his sleep was like death, there was no dreams or thoughts, just blackness. He couldn't make himself dwell in his thoughts or the horror and the sorrow would overtake his mind and make him break down crying.

The cat-eyed warlock twisted his head to his left, where he found an empty space of wrinkled sheets and messed up pillows. He was shocked, he expected to find his wife still sleeping beside him because, like him, Rose loved her sleep very much.

Aside from the soft tappings of rains, Magnus could hear soft murmurs throughout his loft. The singular voice sounded too far away to be heard properly, but he could still hear the slur of sounds and words. He scooped himself out of the tangle of blankets and stood up.

Grabbing a silky gold robe, he wrapped it around himself and exited the bedroom. Entering his brightly coloured hallway, he walked towards the soft murmurs. As he got closer, he realised that he had entered the kitchen. It was quite modern with it's large rectangular counters, but the white tiles and ivory curves made it a bit victorian.

Rose stood there, leaning on an edge of the counter. Her phone was against her ear as she spoke in soft whispers, so soft that Magnus couldn't hear her from a small distance. She still wore the lacy nightgown that complimented her curves and showed too much skin, but an untied blue robe covered her side making the nightgown only visible through the front.

Usually, Magnus would've been filled with happiness and passion by the sight of her, but now he just felt…..

Lifeless.

It was like the time before he met Alec, the time when he grew bored of immortality and felt like nothing was going to catch his breath, but the shadowhunter came along and changed his life. He grew happy and excited with his life again, but after he broke up with the blue-eyed he felt empty and lifeless again, till he met Rose.

But now even with Rose, he felt that same emptiness again like he had no reason to live and just saw the same old things.

Maybe it's because 'Alec' is back and still alive. Maybe to him, Rose was just a substitute to his shadowhunter. Rose was just his second.

By those thoughts, Magnus felt guilty but he knew it still was true.

"Magnus,what are you doing here?" A voice interrupted his thoughts.

The warlock brought his eyes back to his wife,where she put her phone back on the kitchen table. "Who were you calling?" He asked.

Rose's grey eyes dropped on the ground. Her voice was as soft as the wind. "Nobody important."

By her lying statement, Magnus knew that their marriage was breaking apart bit by bit.

A bleeding hole was on the killer's chest when Emily had fired the gun. The bloody hole was bright on the killer's sweater but Alec's head only slumped down. His neck felt broken as he felt his inner spine break. The bones cracking made him laugh, it was just so funny.

Blood started to spill out of his mouth making his throat feel nauseous and burning, but he continued to laugh.

Emily's eyes grew wide in horror at the grotesque image.

Alec ran in lightning speed, his claws drawn out. His nail hit one of the woman's eyes making the red ribbons spill out of her socket. Emily's mouth was wide open in shock and horror, forever stuck in the moment. His other hand took the gun away from her. He jumped back and threw the gun one the floor. He crush the pistol with his foot making the bits of metal and platinum burst on the floor.

Emily brought a hand over her bleeding socket as she gave painful and tired huffs from her blood lost. She gave an angry growl when Alec smirk at the blue eye in his hands, mocking her.

"Master would be pleased." He put the slimy ball in his pocket. "But I still need the other one, you promised him both."

In her free hand, Emily's claws grew. The claws were longer and thicker than Alec's but the killer had thinner and sharper ones.

Alec smiled. This fight wasn't going to be boring after all.

The werewolf charged towards him with both of it's claws drawn out, ignoring it's painful bleeding socket. Alec gave a small smirk, he knew the werewolf was still weak because it wasn't even in it's full form.

He quickly dodged the attack, making the woman fall painfully on the floor. Alec smiled with even more glee when the woman's struggled to bring her back away from ground.

Alec walked to the crippled woman and brought his foot over her spine. A painful scream came from Emily mouth when Alec gave a hard stomp over her back making her spine break in half. The killer lowered himself slowly reaching for the woman's beautiful curls. His hands pulled her hair hardly making the woman's head face away from the ground.

A hand slowly came to the woman's other eye.

"Please don't! I need to take care of Amelia!" Emily begged.

Most people would've felt guilty but Alec just felt….

nothing.

The hand pulled the eye out slowly making Emily scream in pain.

Once he was done, Alec placed the eye in his pocket.

"Oh yeah, you forgot this." Alec placed a blue lily beside her. Then he lowered himself near her ear and whispered.

"You lost. Make sure you finish this game with honour."

Then he turned his back leaving the guilt-filled woman to end her own life, and he didn't feel anything. Nothing, not even amusement.

He just felt so empty.

It was afternoon when the rain had ended, the sky was still grey but they were no longer drops of water falling from the clouds. Throughout the whole day, Magnus sat in front of his laptop researching about any recent murders that caught his eye.

His eyes stopped on a certain article about a blue lily and a pair of sisters. He remember reading about it in Downworlder Weekly before but he was interrupted by his clumsiness, before he got to finish the article. He clicked on that link and read the page that appeared on his screen. It turns out the article was the mundane version.

A Confusing Case

On Nov.24, Monday, 2:00 pm, Amelia Stone found her sister's dead body on their living room. The victim, Emily Stone, was a beautiful woman known by many rich business men as a prostitute. Apparently, her sister, Amelia Stone, knew nothing about the woman's job, claiming 'I knew nothing about my sister's job, in fact, if I did know anything about it, I would've discouraged it.'

Police are suspecting the killer to be one of her old clients, but the woman didn't seem to be sexual molested before she was murdered. However it was revealed that the woman was tortured before her murder, her eyes gouged out and left to bleed, and her spine appeared to be broken. Weirdly, a scarf was wrapped around her neck making her suffocate to death.

Experts find it weird that the victim was suffocated to death, when she could've died slowly from her blood lost and broken spine, instead the killer made the death faster by suffocating her. People suspect that she suffocated herself so she could die faster.

Amelia Stone responded angrily. "My sister would never kill herself to make her death faster. She is a strong woman who would do everything in her power to stay alive."

But the evidence-.

Slam!

Magnus stared at the green hand on top of his now closed laptop. He raised his eyes to Rose, who had a disapointed look on her face. She brought her hand away from the laptop and crossed her arms. Magnus decided to look at her in the eye and stay silent.

"You've been researching about that killer for the whole day." Rose scolded. She glared at him. Magnus could see the swirls of sadness, disappointment, and….jealousy? in her eyes. "It's not healthy."

"Well, you've been talking with your phone all day." Magnus countered back, keeping in voice in an icy calm.

Rose scowled. "I'm only worried about you."

"Rose…."Magnus started, but Rose's hand stopped him from speaking.

"Don't give me that bullshit, that you're just 'curious' ." She air quoted. Magnus was shocked, this was the first time, she cursed. "You've been so distant lately and all you could think about is a killer." She brought down her eyes in sadness. "I know it's cruel, but I feel like you don't care about me anymore."

The old Magnus would've been offended by her words, and say to her that she was more important than some psychotic murderer, but he knew she was partly right, he did care about Rose but he cared about psycho murderer even more than his sweet caring wife.

"I still care about you…" Magnus said honestly, but he averted his eyes in shame.

"Well it doesn't feel like it." Rose turned her face away from him in stubbornness.

The male warlock felt his fists tightened as he let out an angry growl. "Well, I'm not the only one being distant. You wouldn't talk to me all day."

"I felt hurt by your actions." Rose defended.

"Listen, I'm just really sad about my friend's death, that's all." Magnus attempted to make Rose feel bad.

"Magnus, don't give any more lies!" Rose screamed. "You're almost a thousand years old! You saw many deaths and you know how to move on! I know that you don't mope about a death for so long! You're used to it!"

Tears started to fall out of his eyes. Rose's words were like knives slicing through his skin. How could Rose remind him about his immortality? It was a very sensitive subject. Reminding about his immortality was the lowest of the low.

"Get out!" He said in a deep voice.

Rose realised her mistake and started to apologise. 'I'm sorry…"

"GET OUT!"

She got the message and ran out, leaving Magnus curled up in his own sadness.

It was because Rose's words were true, that it hurt even more to Magnus' heart.

Being immortal did make you not care about death. In the end, all you could do was wait for it. Magnus never really wanted to die but he didn't mind being alive either. Immortality just made you feel…

Lifeless…

It's like he didn't care anymore. He lived for so long that he didn't feel like living anymore.

He sighed and shook his head. He shouldn't be thinking about this things right now. He needed to concentrate. He took the blue lily from his drawer and analysed it. It still looked fresh since the very beginning even if he left in it an isolated place.

Knock. Knock.

Magnus quickly put back the lily in the drawer and stood up. He opened the door and saw Rose holding a long rectangular package covered in brown paper and tied with string.

"I see you're trying to bribe my forgiveness." Magnus said, crossing his arms, eyeing the package.

"I'm sorry." Rose said guiltily. "Anyway, I found this package on the door. I didn't buy it. It's for you."

Magnus took the package and closed the door, quickly. Ignoring Rose's sad sighs from the other side.

He quickly opened the package, throwing the brown paper on the floor. He first noticed Jem's cane and took it out. He felt guilty about forgetting it but he was glad to get it back.

The next one was a couple of sketches, it had drawings of the goblins, he and Alec fought, in different positions, sizes, colours, and eyes. Some had their normal onyx black eyes, and some had pentagrams for eyes. There were different runes on the pages and mismatched words.

The last one gave Magnus the shivers. It was an eye. A pentagram infused eye, to be exact. It was pitch black showing a bright red pentagram. Most people would've dropped it in disgust but Magnus had seen worse. He could imagine Alec pulling the eye out with his bare hands. Twisting and pulling it from the socket.

Magnus shook his head, ignoring that grotesque image and got another thing in the package.

It was an ivory small card. It had crimson words written on it saying:

Welcome to the Game. Let's have fun, shall we? I have so many plans for you, Magnus.

Love,Alec

Disclaimer: I do not own Mortal Instruments

Author's note: I finally finished the chapter. The dramatic parts were quite hard to write. Thanks for reading. The tensions are getting high. So who do think is Master? What do you think are Alec's plans? And does Master know about Alec's game with Magnus?

Please review on what you think. Thanks for reading. Also did you like the insane Alec parts? Those were also hard to write. Also tell me if I need to change the rating.