Chapter 2
It was blue. It was a cold blue. Not the blue when you look up at the sky on a sunny, cloudless day on a picnic. It was the blue you see when you first trip on ice and fall on your face. When you're on the ground and push yourself back up and you see the clear blue ice. It was the stinging feeling and the numbness kind of blue. I was lying on my back, paralyzed. I was drowning, yet floating. I lay there, a stinging all over my body. A blue box, for I could only see the blue. I struggled. I screamed and kicked. Nothing happened. The hard, cool ground pressed into my legs, back, neck, and head. All of a sudden I heard a rushing. A trickle of water landed on my head. Then, a bucket size amount of water was dumped on me. My blue box started to fill. The serenity was gone. It felt as if thousands of waterfalls were smashing and grinding my body into the ground. There was no air for me to breathe. I was drowning. My body, bound to the earth with invisible cords. I writhed and squirmed and nothing. I was under the water. And once again, I saw nothing. It was a black box now.
I began to hear noises. Soft murmurs whispered in the corners of rooms. Shadows cast across the black nothingness of where I was. I started to move my wrists and I groaned as I started to feel the pain on the left side of my face. I slowly and carefully, as if keeping my eyes closed kept me from harm, opened my eyes. The first thing I noticed was this was not my room. I was lying in a queen size bed with gray satin linens that smelled like my uncle's house. The desk and bureau in the corner were dark stained wood and elegantly polished. There was a single floor to ceiling window, lathered in a gaudy maroon velvet drape. I immediately sat up and a wave of pain hit me. I slowly got up and walked to the bureau and opened it with a light squeak. There was a small silver handheld mirror in one of the drawers. I raised it up and with the little light in the musky room I could make out a bruise that ran from my chin to my temple. I nearly dropped the mirror. What had happened to my face? Surely, my cat, Sir Philip, hadn't done this! "Admiring yourself in the mirror, are you? Don't be embarrassed! I would spend hours in the mirror, but when others tell me how gorgeous I am, I don't really see the need." I gasped in surprise, and actually did drop the mirror in my shock, I turned and saw a beautiful blonde boy. He was wearing a well -fitted black t-shirt, and black jeans with a hole in the knee. But his face took my breath away. He had a face that looked like it was chiseled out of stone and his eyes were a brilliant gold. Wait. I recognized him. Blonde hair. The memories flooded back. "YOU!" I screamed. My voice sounded crackly and strained in anger. "You did this to me! Get me out of here! What are you trying to pull? You better stop right now, or I swear I will-" I never got a chance to finish because Mr. Blonde guy grabbed me by the throat and whipped out a dagger I hadn't even noticed before. He held the dagger so close I could smell the scent of dried blood and rust on the hilt. "What are you, little girl? Vampire is out of the question, but… werewolf? I don't know. Are you a spy? How can you see us?" I laughed, well it sounded more like a cough seeing as he was holding my throat. "I'm not a little girl, just so you know. I'm seventeen. And nice game but werewolves and vampires don't exist. Aren't you a little old for Twilight?" He looked at me for a second and set me down. Only then did I realize what I was wearing. I looked down and saw that I had on a pair of cotton shorts, and a scoop neck sweater with gold rhinestones. "What is this? Some mansion? Club? What is with the clothes?" Blondie actually chuckled and whispered under his breath, "Wait until Izzy hears that one." It was getting awkward so I said, "Well, it was great meeting you. Um, thanks for the bruise. I'll be going now." He just looked at me confuses, like a lost puppy, "Wait. I still don't know how you can see us! At least let Hodge take a look at you. And by the way, it's Wayland. Jace Wayland. Shadowhunter." He said with a cheesy grin. I chuckled and tried to keep my cool. "I'm Hannah. And fine. I don't know what a Hodge is but okay." Jace just laughed and motioned to follow him. We walked through at least a dozen corridors of black polished wood with pictures and display cases everywhere. " Welcome to the heart of the Institute, Hannah." He pushed open double doors into the biggest library I had ever seen. I love books and my heart just kind of melted inside looking at all of these books. I looked over and saw a boy and a girl sitting at a table. The girl was stunning. She looked at least my age and at least 6 feet tall, she had long dark hair, and was wearing a black velvet dress and way too much silver jewelry. She had great posture. The boy was slumped in his seat his tangled black hair swept over his blue eyes as he read a large red novel. I realized they all had these weird black tattoos smothered over their bodies. Was it a cult or something? "Hannah! You made it!" I turned around and saw my Uncle Henry on the stool next to a bookcase. "Uncle Henry? Why are you here?" Jace, the boy and the girl burst out laughing. They looked at my uncle and giggled, "Uncle Henry? Seriously Hodge?" Uncle turned to me and said, "Hannah so glad you could make it!" clearly ignoring the teenagers snickering behind him. He shouted, "Everyone this is Hannah. My neice." Jace and the others stopped immediately and looked over at me with some sort of respect. At that moment, Clary barged in and started screaming about being a shadow hunter. Jace turned to me and said, "Welcome. Your'e a shadowhunter, now Hannah. You have no idea what you dived into." Huh, I thought. Hananh the shadowhunter. I like it.
