Prologue
It had been over a week, but it still felt unreal to Alexander Gideon Lightwood.
As he prowled the empty apartment, Chairman Meow nowhere to be found, he felt this not-so-odd emptiness well up inside of him. The kind of hollowness that will never be filled.
He passively realised that all his senses seemed to have slowed down as well. He could hear the sound of his own breathing—deep and resigned. His eyes slowly shifted from one place to the other: the dining table, his chest of drawers, the ottoman where he'd sat the day he first kissed him, the bed. Eerily quiet. He wanted noise.
He wanted to see it all destroyed. But at the same time it felt like the only connection he had to him. The only proof that it all really happened.
On his desk, he saw the box of Woolsey Scott. He felt ashamed of himself right there and then, remembering the pang of jealousy that shot through him when he first noticed it. At that moment he suppressed a sheepish grin, the kind he always made when he felt embarrassed or too self-conscious. But there was no point. No one to be self conscious in front of now, isn't there?
Before he looked away, something caught his eye. The box was sitting on top of something… a white envelope. It looked like it had been hastily hidden from view, something he wouldn't have wanted him to see…a secret? He approached it warily, feeling scared and anticipation building up inside of him at the same time.
He opened the envelope, and inside it were a bunch of keys, held together by a glittery keyring. And…
…a real estate receipt. His eyes scanned the paper.
Magnus had bought a house? In Italy?
As far as he was concerned, mention of property had never creeped up in any of their conversations. He was feeling nothing and everything at the same time.
He felt betrayed.
He felt a little stupid.
But, undeniably, he felt intrigued. Intrigued enough that he already knew where he wanted to be that day.
Magnus bought a house for the two of them. It was too big of a concept to grasp.
He looked around the forlorn apartment, searching for an explanation, a validation, a reason…anything. But the house, just like the owner, gave away nothing. He had to find out for himself.
He looked at the paper once again. As an afterthought, he felt relieved that he was wearing decent enough clothes for a quick little trip to Italy.
He went to the bedroom, and thanking his Shadowhunter strength, pushed aside the closet that hid the portal Magnus had made during the War. He stood in front of it, looked one last time at the paper, closed his eyes, and plunged through its watery depths. The weird sensation, and then sunlight on his face. His body welcomed the warmth he had been yearning to feel for days. He opened his eyes.
He was standing in front of a two-storey Victorian house.
A/N: Since Cassie's been dropping all this hints about COHF, this grand idea just hit me and it was begging to be written. So the prologue is set in present-time, but the following chapters will all be flashbacks. The epilogue will go back to present-time (in short, a continuation of this chapter). Had to post this one first because I just wanted some feedback from you guys (so please, review, review, review). I'm sorry in advance to the heartbreak (?) it's all going to cause you.