Chapter Text
The fluorescent lights in the hospital waiting room were harsh, and everything smelled like disinfectant. The last time Alec had been in a hospital had been when he was twelve, and Jace had broken his arm playing at being superman by jumping off the rooftop. Alec had come along for moral support while they put his brother's arm in a cast, and that had been the longest half an hour of his life.
They hadn't bothered with the hospital when their parents had died, because they hadn't needed a doctor to tell them their parents were dead — not when they had watched them turn into living pillars of fire, screaming and staggering around until the fire consumed everything. They hadn't bothered waiting for a coroner's verdict for Max, because the fire had burned so unnaturally hot that nothing had been left of their baby brother but a smear of ash on the nursery carpet.
Alec had seen to the funeral arrangements, then he, Jace and Izzy had checked out of town in Alec's car with almost no material possessions except a bunch of official documents, the contents of their parents' safe deposit box, and clothes and things people had donated to the three Lightwood orphans.
When the doors to the operating theatre opened, Alec's head snapped up. The surgeon removed her mask, and Alec saw the answer in her face before she spoke.
"I'm sorry, Mr Lightwood. We've done all we could for your brother and sister."
Alec stared at the surgeon, hoping for a different meaning in her words. "What do you mean?"
The surgeon pursed her lips, clearly sympathetic. "Their injuries are very severe. You should prepare yourself for the worst."
"They — Izzy and Jace — are they going to die?" Alec asked, and hated how his voice cracked on the last word.
"You look like you need a doctor yourself, Mr Lightwood," the surgeon said gently. "Let's get you seen to, and we can talk in the morning. How's that?"
Alec shook his head. "Bruises. It's just scratches and bruises. I've got to go," Alec blurted out, then turned and ran down the hospital corridor before anybody could stop him.
-24 HOURS EARLIER-
"This way is a dead end too. Fuck," Alec cursed, slamming the door to what might have once been some sort of food storage cellar — definitely not what they were looking for.
"Told you we should have taken the other flight of stairs," Jace said complacently.
"Yeah, the other flight of stairs, the one that was coated with ectoplasm, when we've got two civilians with us. Fantastic idea, I wonder why I wasn't on board with it," Alec said sarcastically. He hefted the sawn-off shotgun in his hands as they made their way back down the corridor, watching the shadows around them for sudden movements.
"So what do we do now?" the bespectacled guy they'd found wandering in the abandoned hospital asked nervously.
"You can shut up and stay out of the way," Alec barked.
"Sorry, he gets cranky when we're surrounded by hostile ghosts and trapped in the basement. I'm Izzy, by the way," Izzy said, extending a hand and a smile.
"I'm Simon! Nice to meet you. Um. I think. Not that it isn't nice to meet you, but this is a weird place to meet people, and..."
"Don't worry, I won't bite. Unless you want me to." Izzy winked.
Alec sighed. "Izzy, this isn't the time for flirting."
"Speak for yourself," Jace said, sidling up to the redhead who had been with Simon. "I'm Jace, and you are?"
"Clary," she replied, nervous of her surroundings but also wary of the three Lightwoods. "Who are the three of you, anyway? You're not from around here."
"We heard the stories about this place, and came to check it out," Jace replied easily.
"So you're paranormal investigators?" Clary asked at the same time that Simon asked, "So you guys are like, the ghostbusters?"
"Only if I get to be the hot blonde lesbian one," Jace said, winking at Simon.
"Hey, this one is mine," Izzy protested.
Jace shrugged and leered at Simon. "Let Harry Potter here pick his own poison, how about that?"
"Did you just call me Harry Potter? I think I'm in love," Simon said with a grin, and Jace shot a smug look at Izzy.
"Arrange your booty calls on your own time, alright? We've got work to do," Alec said when they were back in the foyer where the two stairs had branched off in two different directions.
They had picked the one on the left the first time, hoping to find their way to the catacombs Izzy's research had mentioned. This time they went right, stepping gingerly around the puddles of black goo.
"Whatever you do, don't touch this stuff," Izzy warned Clary and Simon. "Not even with your shoes, or places where you're clothed."
"What is it?" Clary asked, wrinkling her nose.
"Ectoplasm. This is what happens when an active spirit gets very pissed-off. Or, in this case, many active spirits," Izzy replied. "Touch it, and you give the spirits an 'in'. They'll take over your body in a heartbeat."
"Wait — so you guys actually believe in this. Ghosts, spirits," Clary said.
"Seeing is believing," Izzy said with a shrug.
"Why else do you think we couldn't get the front doors of this place open? What did you think the cold spots were? Or did you think there was just a really strong gale blowing through a place with all its doors and windows sealed up?" Alec bit out.
"Shit. I told you we didn't need a real haunted place for your film project," Simon told Clary. He turned to Izzy and said, "So we're going into the catacombs because...?"
"We're looking for the mortal remains of the spirits that haunt this place. Salt and burn them, and that ought to take them out," Jace replied on Izzy's behalf.
"Great. Arson and grave desecration. Normal, wholesome activities for the whole family, then. How do you guys know this stuff?" Simon asked, adjusting his glasses nervously.
"We didn't, at first. Blundered around with holy water and crosses at our first gig, but we were lucky that there was another hunter working the same job, and he taught us how to do it right," Jace replied. "And if we come across something new, there's always Google. You'd be amazed at what you can find online."
"Yeah, I'm sure," Simon replied.
They'd hit pay dirt this time. There were niches in the damp brick walls, all filled with human bones sorted neatly by type — stacks of skulls on one shelf, thigh bones on the next. Everything was covered in black goo.
"Shit. I don't think I've seen a real human skull before this," Simon said, sounding a little faint.
Jace had put down the bag he'd slung over his shoulder, and was handing out containers of salt and lighter fluid to Simon and Clary. "Here, help us with this, will you?"
Between the five of them, they managed to get all the niches covered pretty quickly. But once Izzy set the first pile of bones on fire, there was an unearthly shriek and something burst through the walls, coming straight at them with a knife in its hand. And it was fast — it was only a few inches away from Clary when Alec took aim and fired a shot at it, forcing it to vanish in a burst of smoke.
"What the hell was that?" Simon cried out.
"What do you think?" Alec asked sarcastically as he fired another shot at the next attacking spectre.
"The salt rounds are only going to piss them off even more, they're going to keep coming back," Izzy explained, grabbing a shotgun of her own. "Stay behind us."
Izzy and Alec fired shot after shot at the screaming spirits, and when Jace was done with the last pile of bones, he grabbed Simon and Clary and shoved them in front of him.
"Go, go, go!" he choked out through the acrid stench of burning bone.
They ran up the stairs as quickly as they could and made a mad dash for the front doors, which now opened easily with a firm push. By the time they were a safe distance away, the fire was already spreading up from the basement, the whole building glowing like a lantern.
"Oh my god. What did we do?" Simon gulped, horrified.
"We'd better get out of here before the cops come. Come on," Izzy said as she nudged Simon and Clary gently, and the group trudged away until they were out of sight from the building. There was a black car — one of those ubiquitous Japanese-made cars that were were a dime a dozen on the roads nowadays — parked in plain sight in the shady corner of a relatively empty car park. Alec walked up to it and unlocked the boot to stow away the shotguns.
"You saved our lives back there, didn't you?" Clary finally said. "If it weren't for the three of you, Simon and I would have been another couple of corpses in the long list of corpses they've found in that building. I don't know how to thank you."
"I do — next time somebody tells you a place is haunted, how about you listen?" Alec grumbled.
Izzy winked at Clary. "Well, if you really want to thank me... I'd be happy to accept."
"All up for accepting some gratitude as well," Jace agreed, smirking at Simon
"Oh my god," Alec muttered. He rolled his eyes, got in the car, and drove off, leaving his siblings to their own devices.
At 4am, Alec was woken up by his phone vibrating on the bedside table.
"Yeah?" he mumbled groggily.
"Which motel are you in?" Jace asked over the phone.
Alec gave him the address and room number, and went back to sleep for a precious 20 minutes before he had to open the door for Jace.
"Harry Potter kicked you out of his bed?" Alec asked, yawning.
Jace shook his head, digging stuff out of his pockets and dumping them on the table. "Nah. We just went to a bar for some beers and I hustled some pool with his help. Then I walked him home to his doorstep."
Alec raised an eyebrow at that. "Huh."
Jace shrugged. "He wasn't comfortable with doing more, when he heard we were only in town for one night. So we just hung out."
Alec nodded sympathetically, and went back to bed.
They woke up just in time to check out, got some food and restocked their supplies, then picked Izzy up from the address she'd sent them. The redhead girl from the night before was waiting on the front porch with Izzy, and kissed Izzy deeply one last time before waving them off with a smile.
They were back on the interstate by 2pm, and stopped at a rest stop for a late lunch and a toilet break, before continuing their journey to Tennessee, where Izzy had heard rumours of another haunting. Unfortunately, they were caught in a thunderstorm just after sundown. Alec turned off the interstate.
"What the hell?" Jace asked, jolting awake.
"We're still four hours away, and it's raining cats and dogs. Let's just call it a day," Alec said, honestly exhausted from a full day of driving. He couldn't even see properly in front of him anymore, the rain was so heavy.
"Let me drive then," Izzy said.
"You flunked your driving test — three times! You don't have a license!" Alec said, exasperated.
"Why does anybody even need a license to drive this shitty hippie automatic car?" Jace said snarkily.
Alec scowled. "This car is fuel-efficient, comes with a whole suite of safety features—"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm not buying it, so stop trying to sell it."
They were still bickering when the truck came out of nowhere and slammed into their car.
-NOW-
He had hidden the contents of the trunk of their car, conveniently packed in a luggage case for easy transport in case of emergencies, in the bushes before the ambulance and police came and the wreckage of the car and truck had been towed away.
Alec had taken a cab to the scene of the accident, well aware of how suspicious it seemed that he had taken a cab to the middle of nowhere, but he had had no other choice. Once he was sure the cab was far away and wasn't going to turn back, he pulled the case out. He had been pretty certain that they had the necessary ingredients inside there, and he had been right. With shaking hands, Alec put one of his fake IDs, graveyard dirt, a bone from a black cat, and a sprig of yarrow in a spare tupperware box.
He didn't have a car anymore and didn't want to risk another cab, but thankfully his GPS indicated that there was an isolated-looking crossroads not too far away. His body hurt from his own injuries from the crash, but Alec gritted his teeth and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other until he reached his destination, shoulders hunched against the rain that was still falling.
He didn't have anything to dig with, so he used his hands to scrape at the gravelly soil until his fingers were raw and bleeding, then he placed the box in the shallow hole and covered it up. After he'd thrown the last handful of wet soil and gravel over the box, he stood up and looked down the road in all four directions. There were trees on either side of the road, but it didn't seem like there was a house for miles around. Alec was soaked to the bone and shivering. He spun slowly one more time, but he was all alone
"Come on," Alec muttered, wondering if he had gotten the list of ingredients wrong, or if the tales about crossroad demons were just rumours and nothing more. He was just about to dig the box back up when he heard footsteps behind him.
"Looking for me, pretty boy?"