𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐄

𝐱𝐢. 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬

Alia Zayed hated her life. Well, she hadn't until a couple of days ago. Before he turned up at her doorstep. A man with neon orange eyeliner. A man from Anas' past. Usually she would have been happy to meet anyone who actually knew Ana. But, again, her disarming positivity was, well, unasked for. It had been exactly 2 days since he had turned up and Ana had called her, only to tell her to sit tight and welcome this man into her home.

At first (as always), she had been excited to get to know this stranger, but, again- unasked for. He slept on her couch, curled up, like a cat. Alia seriously had no idea how someone as sensible as Ana could know someone as strange as this. He hadn't said a word, used all her make up, and eaten everything in her fridge, and spent eternity in her bathroom.

This was another one of those moments. She had just come back from an especially hard and stressful shift at Taco Bell. It was 11 o'clock and he was talking agitatedly to himself.

"Don't fret, Magnus, Alec will get you out of this. Or Ana. My daughter, I should have known. The moment she finds out about her real father, he has to come swooping in and manipulate her. She doesn't deserve that. And so do I. For all I know, she can't even control her magic anymore."

That was too much. She ran out of her apartment, down 5 flight of stairs and came to a halt before her apartment block. She had been the nice best friend for too long. She whipped out her phone and dialled the number of her best friend.

"It's not a good time, Al, really, I'm kinda busy here"

Typical

"I AM NOT GOING TO TAKE YOUR BULLSHIT ANY LONGER, YOU HEAR ME? IF YOU CAN'T TELL ME THIS INSTANT WHAT THIS MAGNUS GUY HAS TO DO WITH YOU AND WHY HE'S SAYING THE THINGS HE IS, I SWEAR I AM GOING TO FIND AND-"

"Alia Zayed!" Ana shouted through the phone, and she felt her mouth closing. Her mouth never closed, especially in situations like these.

"Look, Alia, you're my best friend, but this is for your own good. This is not some sort of joke, this is real! You can't expect me to willingly get you into danger. I'm sorry but this is the way it has to be"

Alia tried hard not to throw her phone on the sidewalk. After all this, Ana was treating her like she was infinitely older than her, and Alia was pretty sure that she was 24.

She turned around, intending to dramatically storm back into her home and confront Magnus instead, when a voice sounded behind her.

She turned around again, to see that a man had appeared in front of her.

"I know where Ana is," he said

She stared. From a very early age on, she had been taught to never talk to random strangers, but there was something about this man. Maybe it was because he looked like a dollar-store version of Tom Ellis but it might have also been his purple eyes.

"You know?"

Stupid question. Of course he did.

"Ana's my daughter, I always know where she is" he said, smiling. His voice was soft, but had a certain force in it.

"wait, what do you mean you're her father? And where is she? What is this all about? And it does seem a little convenient for me to just talk to her about this and then some random junkie shows up claiming he's knows her?"
He chuckled.

"Silly mundane, you'll find out soon enough"

Before Alia could utter another word she was sucked through the ground, crushed into eternal darkness, and came out in a room lit with candles.

A boy was tied to a chair in the centre and a woman was standing over him. At the sound of Alia hitting the floor unceremoniously, she looked up, her purple eyes blazing. Wait, purple?

But as she lay there on the ground, Alia could only think one thing.

"Ana"