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"Hello," came the voice, but Alec didn't lift his head from where it was hidden between his knees, because it wasn't addressed to him, it couldn't be.
"Hello," they said again and Alec prayed that whomever it was they were talking to would respond, because he wanted to lift his head, he wanted it to be for him but it couldn't, it couldn't.
"Hey, I'm talking to you."
He raised his head. There was a boy at the bottom of the stairs, with brown skin and green, almond shaped eyes, who was dressed like a Sunday church goer and who seemed barely younger than Alec.
His arms were crossed on his chest and he had a tilt to his head and an eyebrow raised as if he was reprimanding someone. And he was looking straight at him.
Alec couldn't believe it. He didn't move, didn't do anything, fearing it might break the spell, end the miracle.
"To... to me?" he whispered, awed and unsure.
"Of course dummy! Who else?"
Alec burst into tears.
The boy was named Magnus. He was eleven years old and he had been coming to the hotel for years with his family. They spent two weeks there every summer. He had been surprised to never have seen Alec before, because most of the clients of the hotel were regulars like Magnus's family. They knew each other well, and the holiday at the hotel was the occasion to strengthen influential bonds and share news and gossip of their very closed off world. No wonder Magnus had never seen him - his family too, had been at the hotel for as long as he could remember, but it was because they were in charge of it. They were not of their clientele’s upbringing. They didn't mingle. With his siblings, they had always been instructed to stay hidden, to play outside or in the domestic quarters. But he didn't care now. No one was going to be angry with him for sitting in the main staircase.
Or so he thought.
"Do you want to play with me?"
"Your... your parents won't mind?"
"Nah, they don't really care about what I do as long as I don't cause any trouble."
Alec nodded in understanding. His parents had been like that too. Were they still, now that they didn't run the hotel anymore? They had to be less busy.
He would never know.
"Okay."
Magnus beamed at him but when he made to take his hand, Alec pulled back sharply, panicked. Magnus seemed taken aback, and maybe a bit hurt, but he didn't say anything His hand fell back to his side, and he gestured him to follow.
When the two weeks were up, Magnus stopped himself from hugging Alec, and Alec wanted to cry.
"I'll be back next summer," he said.
"I'll be there," Alec answered. He always would be.
Magnus was back next summer, and the next. Alec spent the whole year waiting for him. He wandered the corridors and the rooms endlessly, but Magnus had been the one and only person able to see him. So he waited for him. Magnus didn't ask what he was doing here every summer, why he never saw his parents, why he didn't age. Magnus must have known, but he never asked, and Alec never told. Magnus was taller and taller, but he was still okay to spend time with Alec. He seemed lonely, but he never would be as lonely as Alec.
The year Magnus turned seventeen, one month before summer started, the hotel went bankrupt and was abandoned. Alec stayed alone in the empty, decaying building, and cried.
"I think I always knew" came a voice from the bottom of the stairs, and Alec knew it was addressed to him - there was only him in the hotel.
Magnus looked like an adult now. He hadn't grown again that much in the years since Alec saw him last. Alec hadn’t either, but he still looked older. Maybe it was the raging despair and the solitude, the building anger that had made him chase away frightened teenagers who came to have fun at his expense in what was now known as a haunted hotel. His face wasn't as soft and juvenile as it had once been.
"I never talked about you, to anyone. I guess deep down I knew for them there wasn't anyone to talk about."
He sat next to Alec on the stairs.
"Did you ever met any other ghosts?" asked Alec after a while and he was surprised at how unaffected he was by the term. Back when he had met Magnus, he wouldn't have been able to say it.
"A couple, yeah. A suicidal girl at my school. My grandmother, at her own funeral. She was doing obscene gestures in front of my mother who was fake crying in her hands, covered in my grandma’s jewelry, but I was the one who was punished because I laughed during service."
They laughed a little.
"Is this why the Lightwoods sold the hotel?" asked Magnus. Alec nodded.
"They couldn't bear to stay. I drowned in the pool the summer before we met. It was a stupid accident, but I think it broke them. I never saw them again."
They stayed in a sorrowful silence for a long time.
"I can't do anything for you, Alec" Magnus whispered with a sad voice. Alec closed his eyes to hold back tears. He knew, of course he knew, but still he had hoped, because what else could he do?
"I'm going to be travelling a lot in the upcoming year, for my job. I don’t… I don't know when I'll come back."
If. If I'll come back, he had wanted to say. Alec was silent. He was petrified. Filled with dread, anguish and an irrational anger. Magnus couldn't just leave him there, alone and miserable, forever. He couldn't.
"I have to go" Magnus said. He got up, and Alec couldn't take it. Magnus was going down the stairs, he would open the hanging door and disappear on the road, and Alec would never see him again, he was certain of it.
“Magnus wait.”
"Alec, I can't stay. I can't help you.'"
"Don't leave Magnus. Please don't leave me. Don’t leave me here alone."
"Alec…"
"Please… You can’t, you can’t do that!"
"Alec, I'm sorry, I’m so sorry, but you have to let me go!"
"No!"
There was a deafening noise as the old, uncared for steps of the stairs cracked and gave under them.
"I'm... I'm sorry, Magnus."
"Are you, really?"
His voice was so cold and angry that Alec recoiled, but he didn't step back.
"Yeah, really. It's not what I wanted, I swear. I... I never wanted to hurt you."
"You did anyway."
"I'm sorry. I didn't... it wasn't on purpose. I couldn't control it. Please believe me."
Magnus was facing away from him, his shoulders set in a tense line, obviously still angry.
"It doesn't matter anyway. I forgive you."
Alec let out a surprised noise.
"You... you do?"
Magnus turned to face him then, with a sad, sad smile.
"I might as well. We're going to be together for a very long time, Alexander."