A/N: So, I was looking through my word documents, and realised I wrote this chapter last year, but never completed and posted it! So here it is, with the addition of the last two on the end (don't know what's happening with Aspen's, sorry), because why not?
~~ Felix~~
A letter was all the warning that Felix got about his family being taken.
He'd come home, only to find the old, yellowing paper resting there innocently on the table, signed in blood.
From that day forth, his life changed. He changed.
He did whatever they told him to. Some things he did were terrible, unredeemable even. Spy on someone here, kill someone there, and infiltrate a place somewhere else. It didn't matter what they ordered, he'd to it to save his family.
They were all he had left.
He took to dressing and acting differently, calling people 'doll,' just to annoy them, and hiding his true emotions behind a smirk. After all, he was a totally different person, and he was merely demonstrating that fact to the world. Announcing it, as if from a loud speaker.
Eventually there came a time where he started to enjoy some of the things he did. Even found some enjoyment out of it. It would have sickened his family, he knew, to see him this way. But it was his way of coping with it, and it didn't matter how far gone he was, just as long as they were safe. If they were alright, then nothing else mattered.
He
was
too
far
gone
anyway.
~~ Rose~~
Rose just wanted to be loved. Accepted, even.
Was that really so hard for everyone to understand?
She could be the ultimate gossip girl, innocently finding out all kinds of juicy secrets. In fact, she liked to study the language of people. Maybe it was all to fill the empty void in her own life. Maybe it was because she was just curious, or because people would actually listen to what she had to say.
She wasn't nearly as stupid as everyone seemed to think she was.
She kept her conversations only skin deep, because that's all she knew how to do, and it's what people expected from her. How was their day? What did they do last night? Have they heard the latest gossip? No? Well, let me tell you…
She knew how to flutter her eyelashes at someone, smile sweetly, and flirt perfectly. But it never seemed to draw anyone in. Everyone thought she was superficial, that she didn't really know what she was talking about. That she was just a silly, naïve girl.
But she just kept smiling.
Her hair done in perfect curls.
Her eyes a sparkling gold, carefully lined with black eyeliner.
Her teeth a glistening white.
She just kept on smiling.
A perfect picture, till the end.
~~ Park~~
Park's ability was both a blessing and a curse.
His mind was constantly bombarded with the future misery and suffering of others. It was hard to stay removed from it all. He knew he had to stay guarded, to keep up a barrier between them and him, because if he felt too strongly, it would all be too hard.
He had learned his lesson with Dylan, and had vowed never to make the same mistake again.
Crowded areas were overwhelming, he found. Everywhere he turned, there was a new person, with a new beginning and end to their life. Sometimes he just had to take a deep breath, and close his eyes for a minute.
His mind was always counting down.
So he skated, and skated, and skated. It was a simple and fun way to push his thoughts to the back of his mind, even if for only a little while. It was pure instinct, and he hardly had to think as his body manipulated the skateboard with skill.
When he skated, he didn't have to count the years until someone died, or until someone had an accident.
His mind was…
Free.
Quiet.
Released.
~~ Stefan~~
Some people merely called him a mundane.
Others called him an idiot for putting up with Grigor for so long.
But the words never really affected him. He brushed them off his shoulder carefully, politely.
He knew he wasn't worthy of the Shadowhunters, but Grigor had picked him, and wanted Stefan to help him. That in itself was a special thing. It made him feel more worthy, if only a little bit. They'd created an unbreakable bond, and were friends. Brothers, even.
So Stefan decided he wouldn't let other people put him off his job. He was there for a purpose, and no one could change that. He desperately hoped that Grigor would never get sick of him, or move on.
Stefan always been good at languages. He was good at many things, actually.
Being polite.
Being loyal.
Being patient.
He was good, but not amazing.
He was always watching the world around him with a reserved curiosity, but not actually participating in the activities himself. Always taking one step behind.
And he was perfectly content to keep it that way.
~~ Zylan~~
Most people seemed to think seeing ghosts and being able to talk to them was like something out of a cheesy movie. Where the ghosts were wandering, lost souls that needed to be set free.
But in reality, it was different. He learnt just as much from them, as they did from him.
The ghosts were his friends. Well, the pleasant ones, at least.
One thing he had learnt was that being a ghost was lonely. They all talked to him, because they needed some kind of human attention. They yearned to be acknowledged, to mean something.
The problem was that their loved ones eventually moved on, leaving them behind, to be wistful over something that no longer existed.
They whispered to him all the time. When he slept, when he ate, and when he went out. The whispers were strongest at the graveyard, where their bodies were buried.
He didn't mind listening, they were all very interesting. They moaned about their lives, or their deaths, or their loved ones. About anything and everything. Sometimes he'd reply, or sometimes he'd just listen.
Of course, some people thought he was crazy when he muttered things, seemingly to himself. Some people thought he was a loner, or just plain weird. But he didn't care too much. The ghosts were his friends.
He was a ghost whisperer.
~~Aspen~~
When do sparkling smiles turn into strained imitations?
When do kisses turn into a meaningless gesture?
When does it matter whether people mean their words, or whether they're just pretending?
When does your usual entertainment become boring and repetitive?
When does flirting turn into a chore?
Who is it that you see in the mirror?
~~Caspian~~
He'd always been influenced by his emotions more than others. Rage. Anger. Jealousy. Hunger.
But they were always predictable. He wore them around him like a cloak, shielding him from the others out there.
That's why he felt betrayed when things changed. When he could feel the other faerie's hot breath on his neck, or sometimes when they kissed, he was hungry and he wanted more. It felt like his own body was betraying him, because he'd always liked solitude in the past. And now sometimes, he craved something else. Something stupid and dangerous, which left him awfully vulnerable.
Because he knew he couldn't – shouldn't - depend on someone else.
But there were moments where he couldn't help it. Moments where he was vulnerable and he needed someone to pull him out of his stupid mess of a life. Because he couldn't always do that himself. It was like trying to drag yourself out of a pit that was too tall. It was possible to claw at the sides, trying to climb up, but it was a hopeless quest when you just fell back to the ground at the end anyway.
He still had the dirt stuck under his fingernails to prove it.