Serendipity / A.Lightwood

Chapter Twelve

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With a heavy heart, Charlie rested his hands on his knees. He breathed heavily, trying to come to terms with the fact that he had technically been kidnapped. Again. He ignored all the buzzing of the people that were in the apartment with him. There were some with horns, some with different coloured eyes and some with something Charlie wasn't sure of.

"Charles." Glancing up, he came face-to-face with the eccentric Magnus Bane. The Magnus that was from his memories and the Magnus that had called him a foreign name. The look of pity was something Charlie hadn't been used to and yet it still made his skin crawl. "What happened to you?" Soft fingers gingerly touched the side of Charlie's face, where a dark bruise stuck out like a sore thumb before they moved to grasp onto the boy's hands gently.

"Just had some, uh, difficult events." His explanation couldn't be more vague, and due to this, Magnus pinched his brows and stared the blonde haired boy down like that of a parent scorning a lying child.

"I know you better than that, Charles." Magnus scowled before sighing and taking a seat opposed to the boy. He examined the bandaged hands, the bruises and the cuts, the bags under Charlie's eyes and how unusually messy and unkempt his hair was.

These were the signs of a troubled boy, and it had only been a few days from which he had last seen Charlie at the Pandemonium, the night he and Clary had discovered the Shadow world.

"I don't know you, though." Charlie finally stared into Magnus' eyes with a storm flaring inside of his own before he slowly stood, towering over Magnus and almost challenging him to call out on Charlie's lies. "You know my name, but still are calling me a name-"

"You don't know who you are?" Magnus' voice was filled with confusion, a stark contrast to his scowling expression he had held previously. It soon fizzled away to reveal a look of annoyance and perhaps anger. "She swore she'd tell you on your eighteenth-"

"Sorry buddy, but that ship sailed about six years ago." Charlie scoffed before he walked away, quietly excusing himself as he accidentally bumped into people. He had reached an area where liquor and wine, even champagne and prosecco, were on display. He glanced at all the bottles on display and instead settled for grabbing a bottle of Glenlivet whisky. He took the cap off and gulped down a fair couple chugs, resisting the urge to cough and splutter at the burning sensation of the strong alcohol going into his system. He grunted and shook his head before taking another swig.

His life was a disaster, and before it could better, you gotta have a pinch of rock bottom. Charlie was at this point. He had tried to smile the best he could that day for Alec, but without the boy here it felt almost impossible.

And with Magnus' suspicious and frustating words on the fact 'she' was meant to tell him something, Charlie only felt more angry at how fast his life had flipped. But a hatred grew, and it was growing rather putrid.

When the crashes became evident, Charlie was halfway through the bottle, his back leaning against a pillar of the apartment.

"Charles!" He raised a scultped brow and looked towards the frantic Magnus, who had a girl at his side. "Please help her find her father, i don't know where he-" battle cries tore Magnus from his short plea as he pushed the little girl into Charlie before going to aid the people by fighting against the attackers.

"Shit." Charlie mumbled, about to place the bottle down when the little girl screamed in fright. As though on instinct, Charlie spun and smashed the bottle over an attackers head, his hand going for the Seraph Blade he kept in his trousers. The glow of the blade casted a cold blue hue over the side of Charlie's face as he held the blade in defense, awaiting for the opposition to make a move. A Circle rune caught Charlie's eye, however, and the boy frowned.