BLIND

Chapter 4: Pretend

"Rules of the society are nothing: one's conscience is the umpire."

-Madame Dudevant

BLIND Chapter 4: Pretend

Alec didn't know what exactly to think. Pain, was a given.

His arms were about to pop out of their sockets, the twisting already causing terribly bruises that would settle only for darker colours than purple. If Jonathan bumped the rope up, one more time, the pain he was feeling would intensify in a burst and undoubtedly overwhelm him for multiple seconds, but he felt... relief, in some odd way. He also felt afraid, and the anger of betrayal that should have driven him to rage only washed over him in pastels akin to guilt. Maybe if he'd been a better Parabatai, Jace wouldn't be standing in front of him in that fire-lit room, joking with Jonathan as he absently watched Alec be tortured.

He, Jace, hadn't been there when Jonathan had first pulled Alec into the other world-a pocket in dimensions, Alec had decided. He had almost managed to fight back successfully that time, too- the black eye Jonathan sported could attest to that. But he'd been overpowered, because the part-demon was faster, stronger, and less reserved about killing. Though Alec felt that he'd become much less opposed to killing since Jonathan had first kidnapped him from the streets of New York- he would love nothing more than to shoot into Jonathan's eye sockets and puncture his brain.

He'd been shoved to the ground, Jonathan's knee on his back, and his wrists had been bound together in thick metal cuffs that dug into his skin. He couldn't see it well, but a cord had been pulled through the loop his back and his arms had made, then secured. It was attached to the ceiling, which didn't quell his boiling stomach at all.

Then Jace had walked into the room as Alec had been hoisted up, his feet just inches above the ground. Alec had looked at his brother in surprise, as if asking for help because his wrists were cutting open and the skin tearing. Jace was fine. His clothes weren't even ruffled, though they weren't what Alec had last seen him in, his hair disheveled in that way that Alec had always thought was just too sexy. There was a blackening eye that had Alec worried, but Jace had hardly spared Alec a glance before he'd started talking with Jonathan as if Alec wasn't worth his time. As if he'd found a new, better parabatai. A more evil one, as if there wasn't a bruise on his eyethat Alec couldn't help but suspect was Jonathan's fault. Maybe it wasn't even Jonathan's doing, but he pushed that thought aside as he forgot about the injury.

"Sebastian," Jace had said. "You going to be done soon? I want to go to that potions shop on Essex, the one in Massachusetts. We need to get some more chaparral, foul smelling stuff."

Jonathan had shrugged, and hoisted Alec up further from the ground, nearly popping his arms out of their sockets. All of his weight was on his shoulders and his arms, his wrists, his hands turning purple because of poor circulation. Alec had felt tears well up in his eyes as he cried out in pain, but he didn't shed them. Not in front of Jace, and certainly not in front of Jonathan. He wasn't that weak, despite the churning of his insides and the entirety of the clave saying otherwise, directly or not.

Jonathan had tugged at the rope one last time, Alec's arms straining as he bounced up, his wrists digging back into their cuffs, then a scream joining a loud popping sound as both of Alec's arms were pulled out of there they were supposed to be. Jonathan laughed as looked at the broken-limbed shadowhunter, and Jace just looked mildly interested. As if Jonathan's laughter was more important than his pained parabatai.

The best he got was a, "Won't they notice if both of his arms have popped out?", and that only served to make things worse. Jace didn't care about Alec, he was just watching out for Jonathan's skin. And in the link between the two parabatai, there was nothing wrong. Even while watching Alec's shoulder joints be pushed past their limits, the only thing Alec could feel when it came to the link was the overwhelming fear that this was really his brother.