Shadowhunter

Another Mother

It was early in the afternoon.  The grass was shiny below, still damp with dew.  Camille was sitting in her room blankly staring out her window. Her eyes were transfixed on a mother snuggling her newborn baby at the park across the street.  An empty space that had been left vacant by Camille's own mother ached with a familiar longing.  It seemed like no one, not even Mayrse, could fill that void. 

A flash back blinded her as she watched.  She saw her father packing his old red pickup truck.  He threw his suitcases into the bed filled with classic flannel shirts and dangerous hunting weapons.  His face looked older from the rough years of demon hunting.  But little Cami knew, on the inside was the caring and selfless father.  Camille loved him with all her heart.  The warmth she felt when his eyes fell onto her was positively overwhelming.

He hugged Camille goodbye and whispered in her ear:  "I'll be back before you know it."  The excitement lit up her face as if there were a flashlight being held to her porcelain skin.  He let her go and proceeded to kiss her mother on the cheek.  The phony look of grief coated her pointed rat face.  Camille knew that Angelica never loved her husband.

Her father, Charlie, turned to his truck.  Before he shut his door, he left Camille with one last wink that wrinkled the aged skin around his eye.  He closed his door as softly, making little to no sound.  He stuck his hand out of the open car window and waved until he was out of sight. That was the last time Camille saw her father.

She snapped herself back to reality.  She wiped her eyes angrily realizing she was crying.  The ache was stronger.  She stood up and grabbed her stele off of her table.  The alarm clock read 2:56pm.  She took the stele in her right hand and searched for the place her pulse was the strongest.  She forcefully drew the Heal/Painless rune on her left wrist.  The pain subsided slightly, but a rune can only heal to a certain extent.   She did, however, feel a tad better.  She replaced the stele where she had grabbed it and wandered wearily into the hall.  She looked over the railing to see Jace and Alec discussing something indistinctly.

"What's going on?" She echoed into the foyer winning their attention.  She descended from the stairs and rested her weight on the bottom railing.

"I'm going to a poetry reading at Java Jones." Jace said as he slid a dagger into his belt. Camille's eyebrows went up.  She never was able to master raising just one like her brother could.  She knew there was more to it than just that. 

"Poetry? You?" There was amusement in her tone, which made his features tighten into a scowl. 

"I hear our little friend is going to be there..." He gave Alec a side glance and walked out the door without another word. Camille looked at Alec suspiciously. 

"Little friend?" She repeated.  Alec ignored her.

"What's that on your arm?"  He pointed to the freshly applied rune.  She tried to cover it with her other hand, but she was too late.  Alec pulled her arm unintentionally causing a jolt of pain to strike up to her elbow.  "Is that the Healing rune?"  He asked as he closely studied it.  Camille shrugged.  What did it matter?  "Cami, why did you do that? You don't have a wound there?"  He let her arm go, but didn't stop looking at her. He seemed deeply troubled to why she would do such a thing. 

"I started feeling bad and I thought I could stop it,"  His tensed muscles in his arms relaxed and his eyes softened.  "But it didn't."  She said shortly with a frown.

"Runes only work on the outside.  You just gave yourself a pointless tattoo."  He acted as though none of this troubled him.  Camille shrugged.