Hello, readers! Thank you for reading this and taking the time to do so! I really hope you enjoy this!
I finally got around to uploading this! I was really hesitant to do so; I had this idea FOREVER but never got it written out.
So, with that knowledge, please R&R and let me know what you think! :)
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or terms, just the plot!
"You start with a darkness to move through,
but sometimes the darkness moves through you."
~Dean Young
Twenty year old Clarissa Morgenstern stood outside her apartment in the pouring rain, staring incredulously at the neon green flyer taped to the door. She had dropped her bag at her feet some time ago; she wasn't quite sure when, but the bag was now soaked through from sitting in a puddle.
She somehow couldn't bring herself to enter the apartment. The shock of what was happening seemed too overwhelming for her to fully comprehend. She had called her roommates, Tessa Gray and Emma Carstairs, some time ago. She was still awaiting their arrival.
As if on cue, she heard pounding footsteps splashing through the rain. She spun on her heel, her heavy, wet hair flying with the movement, flinging rain drops all around. Tessa and Emma were hurrying through the downpour toward her, their eyes wide and anxious.
The wet weather had weighed down the two girls' long hair. Emma's straight blonde hair was plastered down her back in flat strands; Tessa's brown hair had sprung into its accustomed waves. Tessa was very tall, much taller than both Emma and Clary. Clary, being only five foot two inches, always felt extremely short next to Tessa, who was nearly five foot eight inches. Emma was in the middle, nearly exactly; approximately three inches taller than Clary and shorter than Tessa.
"Clary," Tessa breathed breathlessly when they had reached her. Clary stepped aside so her friends could see the flyer on the door, bending to retrieve her bag.
It read: EVICTION NOTICE: MUST PAY BILLS FOR THE MONTHS OF JULY AND AUGUST OF 2014 WITHIN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN EVICTION. IF NOT EVICTED IN THE TIME GIVEN, WE, BY ALL RIGHTS OF SIGNED CONTRACTS, WILL BE FORCED TO ENTER APARTMENT AND REMOVE ALL BELONGINGS. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE DONE TO BELONGINGS.
The girls had spoken to their landlord in July, explaining their situation. He had been gracious enough to allow them to pay July's bill with the August bill. Now it was the beginning of September, and neither month had been paid for.
Emma sucked in a breath and pushed her hair out of her eyes. "I thought we had given him some money-"
Tessa was shaking her head before Emma finished. "No, we had gathered money to give him, but we never did..." her voice trailed off.
The three girls stood there in the rain, gathered in a half-circle around the door of their apartment. As Clary had been doing, they all just stared at the paper, wishing it to go away by the sheer force of will.
"Well," Emma said, "I suppose we better go inside and figure out what the hell we're supposed to do next."
Clary nodded, and moved to unlock the door. She pushed it, hard, for the door often stuck. She stumbled inside, letting her roommates in. Water splattered on the marble of the entrance from their wet clothing and hair.
They all parted, going to their separate bedrooms, silently. There seemed nothing else to say or do.
There was only so much girls could do to get by in New York, afford a small three bedroom apartment-which was rather expensive, even on the far outskirts of the city-and still manage to eat and pay bills.
Clary stood in the entrance of her room, leaning against the door, glancing around hopelessly at her walls. They were covered in countless paintings and photographs of her own work, yet she knew none of these things would pay for the bills.
Her room was cluttered with the items she had so desperately wished to make a living with: her expensive camera, film, cords attached to her laptop for uploading photos, a couple easels, paint brushes, coal, Prismacolor pencils, paint jars, canvases.
Her room was in between Tessa's and Emma's.
She knew Tessa was probably going to change and then sit down at her desk, her head in her hands, her desk scattered with articles, pieces of writing, highlighted books, in what she referred to as "organized chaos." She would either have a pad of paper and a pen-she didn't use pencils because then her "previous ideas would be gone forever"-or her laptop open in front of her.
On the other side of her, she guessed that Emma was presumably cleaning her weapons and obsessively organizing them to make them perfect. She figured Emma had locked away the weapons for the evening and had tended to her work gear and uniform.
Jace Lightwood jumped off the roof of a building and landed lightly, almost catlike, on the ground below. He grinned and looked up; the height was easily thirty or forty feet, an easy feat for Jace. He looked over at William Herondale and raised his eyebrows, as if his friend should be impressed.
Will simply cocked an eyebrow. "Do you get a rush from jumping off buildings?" he inquired in his British accent.
Him, along with several other Shadowhunters-James Carstairs, and Gabriel, Tatiana, and Gideon Lightwood-had been transferred from the London Institute to the New York Institute temporarily while Charlotte and Henry Branwell dealt with the Enclave. Apparently they were having several disagreements involving the younger Shadowhunters inhabiting the London Institute. Even those who hadn't been staying there-the Lightwoods, in particular-were forced to come to America to avoid anymore conflict.
Jace winked. "Perhaps that is secretly my death wish."
"What? Jumping off an impossibly tall height, even for a Shadowhunter?"
"Precisely. See, I'd rather die in a fashionable way-"
"Oh, and being killed by a demon isn't fashionable enough?" Will said.
"Unless, of course, he means he wishes to be fashionable, in which this would be where he admits he's gay," a voice said from the shadows.
Jace and Will both turned to look into the alley to see who spoke. A figure detached itself from the wall and came toward them. The shadows thinned as the figure stepped into the dreary grey weather.
The person was immediately familiar to the two boys, for their third person had been lost. They both grinned.
"Julian!" Will cried, then frowned. "Do you wish to tell me that Jace is, in fact, gay?"
Julian looked thoughtful. "I mean, look how blonde his hair is. There isn't that much sun in New York. He's definitely got highlights-"
"I'd be happy to tell you that my hair is naturally blonde, thank you very much," Jace cut in, feigning offense, pushing his blonde hair out of his eyes.
Will shook his head of black hair, looking over Jace's shoulder in confusion. There was a group of girls gathered on the other side of the street, giggling and pointing at the three boys. Their voices were faintly audible despite the distance and the sparse traffic.
Jace and Julian followed his gaze, Jace swearing under his breath.
"The glamours shouldn't have worn off yet," he said.
Will smirked. "Does it matter? They aren't that bad to look at."
Julian looked at Will sourly. "Really, Will, that's what you choose to focus on right now? We have to get back to the Institute-"
Jace rolled his eyes. "I agree with the both of you. Now shut up and let's go before we attract more attention."
"But-" Will started to protest, eyeing the girls longingly.
"You should check in on James. Maryse said he wasn't feeling well before we left," Julian admitted.
Will blanched. "Why are you just now telling me this?"
"We needed you to focus. Now come on," Jace snapped, grabbing his two friends by the collars of their gear and dragging them along.
Tessa paced back and forth in the small living room of the apartment. She had pinned her hair up into a messy knot at the back of her head, and stray pieces floated around her face frustratedly.
Clary, her fiery orange curls pulled up into a pony, sat on the floor in front of the coffee table with a notebook in front of her, her bright green eyes fixing on Tessa.
Emma sat beside Clary, a calculator in her hand, punching in numbers. She pushed pieces of hair that had fallen out of her braid back from her face.
"So how much are we at again?" Tessa asked for the fourth time, pinching the bridge of her nose as she stopped pacing.
"One thousand two hundred and thirty-eight dollars," Clary recited, scowling at the result. "That's still just over half the rent we need to pay."
"I know, I know," Tessa said warily. She sat in the middle of the room, leaning on her elbows to put her face in her hands. "I know. But where do we get the rest of the money in two weeks? There's no possible way we can do this while we keep up with Shadowhunter duties."
"Maybe we can ask for them to cut us slack for a couple of weeks-" Emma suggested.
"We already tried that," Clary interrupted. "We asked them when we asked the landlord if we could get an extension on our rent. It's been nearly two months since then, and they aren't going to let us off easily again."
"I guess we just have to work our asses off," Emma said. "I don't see any other option. Unless you guys have some stroke of genius to get us twelve hundred dollars in two weeks?"
"Where did all our money go?" Tessa groaned, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes. Had it been a stranger looking at her, one would have thought that Tessa was crying, but the girls knew better. None of them were emotional and hated crying or showing any sort of weakness.
"Well, let's see. There's food to take into account, then there are the phone bills, the cable bills, the Internet bills-"
Tessa exhaled sharply. "Okay, I get it. Food was a necessity. So were the phone bills. But I think we could have cut the cable bills out that."
Emma shot her a dark look. "I live off cable when I'm off work. Which, might I add, is back-breaking work. Hunting down criminals and marching them down to a police station. I may get paid a little over minimum wage, but that's not quite enough to cover these bills. That's why it's nice for me to actually catch the criminals, because I get paid extra for that."
"I work just as hard! It's not like it's easy to find someone to allow me to put an article in their newspaper or magazine, and the economy right now doesn't help that-"
"Shut up!" Clary snapped. "We all work hard, okay? We've all busted our asses to pay for this apartment. We knew what to expect getting into this. But now is not the time to argue, not when we're about to wind up on the streets."
While Will tended to Jem's health, Jace and Julian meandered down the streets of the city, not wandering too far from the Institute. They had re-glamoured themselves.
They had just passed a narrow, dark alley way between two tall, brick buildings, their roofs overlapping, when they heard the low whispering. They both froze, peering into the darkness, then to each other.
"Come here," the voice hissed.
Jace shook his head imperceptibly, and Julian shrugged. As they turned away, a hand reached out of the darkness and wrapped around Jace's wrist.
Jace, startled, looked up. In front of him stood a tall man, his eyes black and his hair a pale white, though not from age. He was tall, taller than Jace and Julian, and broad-shouldered. His muscles bulged against the sleeves of his shirt.
But Jace knew who he was immediately.
Valentine Morgenstern.
Jace had heard the description of the man several times before, and seen pictures of him in the Circle-the rebellious group of young Shadowhunters. Jace struggled against the Valentine's grip, but his grip was like a vice, even to Jace.
"Let him go," Julian snarled, his blue-green eyes flashing in anger.
Valentine glanced over at Julian with cool amusement. "Or what?"
"What do you want?" Jace snapped.
Valentine's black eyes gleamed wickedly. "The two of you and that black-haired friend of yours. The Herondale."
"Why would you want anything to do with us?" Julian asked, his hand hovering over his seraph blades in his belt.
Valentine moved quickly then, quickly enough that neither boy had time to react. He let go of Jace's wrist and elbowed him in the temple. Jace dropped instantly. Valentine whirled on Julian, who had started to draw a seraph blade. Valentine swung his leg around and wrapped them around the boy's knees. They buckled under the impact, and Valentine caught him by the hair. Julian cried out in pain and surprise as Valentine connected the his head with the brick wall behind him. Julian collapsed, slumping against the wall.
Valentine shook blood off his hand, his lips curling in disgust. He looked down at the two boys at his feet.
Some Shadowhunters, he thought. But then again, they'll do my dirty work.
He snapped his fingers, and from the shadows appeared his two assistants: Pangborn and Blackwell. Without being asked, they each hauled one boy over their shoulders and followed their leader down the streets.
Hello! So, I know this chapter wasn't entirely put together... But I promise it'll get better! I have some great ideas for this story!
So... Please R&R! :)
It would be much obliged.
I'll take good, bad, anything!
I also listen to music while I write, so here are the songs I listened to to write this:
1) How You Remind Me-Nickelback (I don't know why-I like the rock-feel of Nickelback's music)
2) Next Contestant-Nickelback
3) Miss Jackson-Panic! At The Disco
Soo... yeah! :) I'll update soon!
Xoxo!
~Caitlyn