Who: Ty & Kit What: Their arrival When: Before Ty's post on the network Where: Woods near the prison Warnings: None but spoilers for QOAAD
Did he hit his head on something? No. He didn’t feel dizzy. His brain felt like it was functioning. Open your hands. Okay. Move your toes. They work. Ty felt like there was something heavy on his chest but maybe that was because he was laying down awkwardly, curled up a bit against leaves and dirt. Did he fall asleep like this? When Ty opened his eyes, dark hues staring at fog, he thought that he was back at Lake Lyn. Ty dreamt about the lake every other night, his memory replaying the ending of the resurrection spell, the figures that poured from the lake and then his sister - his sister Livvy.
“Liv?” he asked for her like he always did late at night. Sometimes Ty would wake up in a cold sweat grasping for his pillow, half thinking that when he opened his eyes his twin sister would be smiling down at him but no. Ty had to remind himself that Livvy was gone but also not gone. She was haunting him and that was his fault, too.
No wonder Kit moved away.
It hurt him more than he thought it would when Julian told him that Kit made the choice to live with Tessa and Jem. He wondered why he wouldn’t just stay at the Institute but remembered then. He didn’t know why he forgot about it or how poorly he treated Kit. Ty didn’t know how to apologize for being so selfish and now he wouldn’t get the chance to. Kit was gone and he wasn’t going to come back.
Maybe this was what it was like to be alone but where was he? Ty quickly realized that this wasn’t a dream. This place where nowhere near Los Angeles so what was happening?
“Hello?” Ty called out, his head turning after sitting up to see that there was something moving through the fog toward him.
---
Kit turned his head, hearing someone call out. Not just someone. It sounded a lot like Ty. “Great, my mind is playing tricks on me,” he complained to himself quietly. He didn’t know what this was, or how he had gotten here. Had he gone through a portal and not realized it? No, it was a lot more complicated than that. It felt more real than a dream, but less likely to be real. Which just made this place really, really … odd.
The last person he wanted to see was Ty, but now he was hearing his voice on the wind as if it was meant to be there. Things were complicated and it was easier to not see the shadowhunter, given he didn’t think that Ty wanted to see him.
He began walking toward the sound. If this was a dream, then so be it. Hopefully he would wake up, but the more he had walked, the more everything felt real. He had already called out to Jem and Tessa. Even Dru in his desperate attempt but to no avail.
“Where are you?” He called out, as if his voice was just a voice to taunt him. Why? He didn’t know. Ty wasn’t much of the taunting type.
When his vision became more clear of the fog, that’s when he stopped in his tracks, seeing Ty in front of him. Wake up, wake up, wake up. But he wasn’t waking up. He even tried to pinch himself for good measure. Shit.
“Are you real?” He asked, frowning his disappointment.
---
He didn’t deny the joy that he felt when he saw Kit. For whatever reason the lost Herondale was the very thing that brought Ty out of his dazed state. What was he doing here, anyway? Ty didn’t even know where they were but he didn’t think that Kit would be here of all people. Did they go through a portal? If so, where did that portal take them and how come they were in a place that was so unfamiliar? The landscape was dark and gritty. It looked like something that popped out of one of Dru’s horror movies.
“Yeah, I am.” Ty wondered if he came off a bit monotoned. He didn’t mean not to have any sense of emotions but he didn’t know if Kit was even glad to see him at all. Ty wanted to ask what Kit was thinking. Could he really not stand to be around him anymore? Did Kit leave with Jem and Tessa because he hated him? Ty had to know these things.
“Are you okay?” he asked, trying to deter the awkwardness that was now in the air. The main objective that Ty had now was to get out of here and find some high ground so the two of them could at least know what was going on.
“We should figure out what’s going on. Did you go through a portal? I can’t...remember.” Ty couldn’t recall what he was doing last. Maybe sleeping? He had been in the middle of reading one of his detective books when he suddenly woke up here.
---
Kit ignored his question as to whether he was okay or not. It didn’t matter. Not to Ty at least. Kit had realized that, it was one of the reasons why Kit left the Blackthorns and instead, chose to live with Jem and Tessa and their new baby. While that wasn’t really what he wanted, the idea of being a big brother kind of excited him. But what he really wanted was to be with the Blackthorns, Ty specifically. And even Dru. But he knew that it wasn’t possible, he knew that he wasn’t wanted.
“I don’t know, I don’t think I was. I know that I can’t make portals. I also know what they look like,” Kit said matter of factly. Which meant that it wasn’t a portal but if it wasn’t, then how did he get here? How did they get here. Only one of them messed with dark magics and the ‘one of them’ wasn’t Kit.
It was Ty. But why would he do this? It didn’t make sense. And also, Ty had only used dark magic to bring back his sister, who was now a ghost.
Everything was just confusing right now and Kit didn’t like it. He felt his pocket buzz and he frowned, reaching his hand inside.
“I have a phone,” he announced. “There’s messages.”
---
Ty picked up on how Kit didn’t say how he was which spoke a lot. Right now Kit didn’t want to talk about himself or how he was feeling and Ty had to do his best to bite his cheek. Kit hated him, probably. Ty couldn’t exactly blame him after everything he did. Kit was there to practically hold his hand through everything and Ty’s thank you was a slap in the face. It was hard to forget their fight on the beach. All of it was still so vivid to him.
“A phone?” Ty felt his pocket buzz too which was a little startling but he reached into the front of his pants to grab the odd device. It looked like an older phone. Nothing fancy like those iPhones mundanes were carrying around but it still had an actual touch screen and the apps looked, well, they looked ancient.
“You’re right,” Ty said, looking at the messages pop up. Despite being a shadowhunter Ty was very familiar with the internet and all of the websites that were out there. The posts looked a lot like a blog and people were commenting and saying things.
“What does this all mean?” he asked, wondering why he was looking to Kit for answers when he needed to deduce them himself. This was a mystery, after all.
---
Kit just looked at him. He knew that Ty had a way about things. He was very particular and for Kit, it was endearing in a way made him love him more. It wasn’t hard to admit that in his own mind, but he knew now that whatever bond he had with Ty didn’t matter. And it was hard to take. It was why he chose to live with Jem and Tessa. Not because he wanted to, but because he couldn’t face the Blackthorns. He couldn’t face Ty.
“I don’t know,” he said, not having an answer for him as he scrolled through the messages. “But I don’t think we’re the only ones here.” It was obvious. But if there were others here, where were they.
“We should say something,” Kit suggested but he saw that Ty was already going to work, doing whatever on the phone that just magically appeared. Kit pushed his own phone away. Whoever was here, it wasn’t for him. Both of his parents were killed. Jem and Tessa could have been here, he hoped they were here, but they probably weren’t either. He could wish for Dru, but he wouldn’t wish for her to be stuck in a place like that.
So that left him with Ty.
His best friend that hated him.
He saw Ty typing and sending a message and that’s when Kit walked over, looking down at his phone, waiting for any response.
---
Ty was working vigorously with his phone and discovered that there was an active network of sorts that allowed people to communicate. It was very basic and nothing fancy. Ty expected a lot more but apparently this world was different as he found out that his brother was also here, as well as a few others. Strange. How did all of them get there? There was something mentioned about timelines and suddenly everything turned sci-fi. It felt like one of his books. There was a mystery to be solved here.
“Julian is here and a few others, too.” Ty said, pocketing his phone as he turned to face Kit. It felt off talking to him. When the two of them were side by side it was easy to tell Kit what he was thinking but ever since the latter left there was this hollow hole inside of him. Ty didn’t know how to fill it.
“We should head to the prison. That’s where they’re staying. This world is apparently dangerous. They said something about zombies.” Ty didn’t know why it didn’t bother him but he wasn’t afraid. He felt sorry that Dru wasn’t here to witness all of this. Ty had a strong feeling that she would have loved all of this mess.
---
Kit didn’t expect that. He didn’t expect Julian the ‘others’ to be here, but pulling his phone out, he searched for the familiar faces. It was true. They were here. Kit frowned. It wasn’t unexpected that strange things happened with the Blackthorns and even waking up in a strange world wasn’t strange at all. He pushed his phone back in his pocket. It wouldn’t matter. They were Ty’s family and Kit was just there. He couldn’t help but feel a little jealous about that. But it didn’t stop him from nodding.
“Let’s go,” he said, waiting for Ty to take the first step before Kit walked alongside of him, not saying anything. There was nothing spectacular to look at. It was trees and more trees. The wind was hitting his face and it was cold. Luckily, he did have a hoodie on but it wasn’t doing him any favors. He stuffed his hands in his pockets.
He didn’t even know what to say to Ty. Maybe it didn’t matter. Maybe it did. He didn’t know. He said what he said and Kit went with it. What other choice did he have? He just wanted to push it out of his mind for now.
But something was on his mind.
“Zombies?” He asked. “Really? What is this, one of those cheesy horror movies?” He asked. He guessed he was also trying to lighten the situation but he doubted that would have helped where Ty was concerned. He knew how he worked, he knew that while he could be full of wonder right now, he was also killing himself to try and make sense of this.
---
Traversing through the woods brought back a familiar memory that Ty tried his best to ignore. As his boots crunched against dirt and twigs he could feel his heart ache as he remembered moving through Brocelind forest and the two of them reaching Lake Lyn. All that happened there was his fault. Ty couldn’t let Livvy go and his punishment was for his twin’s ghost to haunt him for the rest of his life. What had he done? Ty remembered the warning. What he did was going to cost him greatly.
After all, life and death needed balance.
Ty couldn’t talk to Kit about that. He didn’t know how to and it hurt so much because he needed Kit. Ty felt completely lost but he was too stubborn and too confused to speak up so he didn't. The two of them walked in silence until they reached a clearing and right there, in broad daylight, was the prison that he had read about through posts on the network.
It was a cheesy horror movie but Ty only exchanged a small look and a nod before the two headed for the giant fortress.