Disclaimer: All characters belong to Cassandra Clare.
Chapter 1: Falling Into You
You know when you're about to fall asleep and you dream that you're tripping over concrete, which instantly causes you to shoot up in bed? Falling into limbo is kind of like that, except you never wake up. You just fall.
Time turns into a figment of your imagination. Seconds become hours and minutes become days, the clock coming to a complete halt. I tried to scream as I fell, but no sound came out of my open mouth. I tried to move, but my muscles no longer obeyed my command. Limbo was slowly taking over everything that I'd normally have control over until I was left with nothing. Leaving me only alive to fall. I couldn't even cry.
When I finally started to think that I'd be falling forever, I hit rock bottom, literally. One second I was free falling and the next gravity was pulling me straight into the dirt. As my back hit the ground, the air was knocked out of me, and I rolled over gasping. I can move? Oh my gosh I can move.
Let's take a few steps back so I can tell you how this all started.
It was an ordinary Tuesday morning for me. I woke up to a plateful of tasty pancakes made by my mother. I devoured them all at the same time as my brother. Sebastian liked to make everything a competition, and that included who would finish their stack of pancakes first. Sadly he beat me this time, but in my defense he did have a head start. Tomorrow, I'm the winner.
"Dad, are we still going to train out in the field today?" I ask. My father had promised Seb and I that we would train in the field this week. I was hoping today was the day.
"I've thought about it a lot Clarissa, but I don't think you're ready."
"Oh come on dad, she's better than half of the shadowhunters in Idris and you know it." I smile at Seb as he comes to my defense.
"She may be better than them, but that doesn't mean she's good enough to come out with us in the field." My father paused, looking up from his morning paper, "How about you and I go alone today Clarissa and I'll judge whether you're ready or not?"
"I'll do anything to prove to you that I'm ready."
"Then it's settled. You and I have a date in demon world. Meet me out front in half an hour," said my father.
I got up and went to my room to get dressed and gather my weapons. My dad has always been really hard on my brother and I with our training. Our family is known to be strong and relentless in battle. My ancestors left a big shadow for us to fill, and my dad has made it his mission to keep this family well know.
After getting into my battle gear and strapping on my favorite seraph blade, I head out front to find my father staring off into the forest. I walk up next to him and stare in the same direction, searching for whatever had him so entranced.
"What weapon did you decide on?" My father asked.
"I chose my favorite seraph blade, and packed a couple throwing knives just in case."
"If you do well out here today, I want to start you practicing with the kindjal."
I looked up at my father in surprise. The kindjal is the main weapon my father uses in battle. He's never let me near it, claiming that I hadn't had enough training yet. I must impress father today to prove that I'm worthy of his most precious weapon.
I follow my father as he walks into the forest behind our mansion. As we slide in through trees and around small bolders I notice something off with my father. He's usually so graceful with his movements, light as a feather, but today he is tensed. I see it in his shoulders, he's stressing about something. I wonder what it is.
Ten minutes pass by before we reach the wardings that keep Idris invisible to mundanes. I exchange a glance with my father before we both pass through to the other side. I look around, examining my new surroundings. It seems we are in another forest, and there are hills in the distance. I don't think many mundanes live around here, but who knows about demons.
"You see those mountains up ahead?"
I nod in response to my fathers question.
"I have a feeling that area will be good for fighting. You brought your sensor right?"
"Yeah. I'll keep an eye out for demonic frequencies," I said.
"That's my girl, now lets get to those mountains."
Every couple minutes I'd glance at my sensor to make sure the area was still clear, and it was until we reached the mountains. I notified my father and we moved forward, both on guard. I pulled out my seraph blade and spoke, Dumah, making it glow with heavenly fire. Dumah is one of the ancient angels that we can call on for power against demons. There are a ton of angels that allow this, but the one angel we can never call on for this type of thing is Raziel. I'm not completely sure why, but my father made sure Seb and I had that ingrained into our heads.
I was snapped out of my thoughts to see two shax demons snarling at me and my father. My sensor was going off the rails indicating that they weren't the only two demons in the area. This is perfect. I need to prove to my father that I am good enough for the field and good enough to use his favorite weapon. I use this as motivation to step forward and battle the two shax demons on my own.
With one to my left and one to my right, I stand in between them waiting for one to move. Seconds pass before the demon to my left charges at me, but he was too slow for my shadowhunter reflexes. I raised my blade, using the hilt to smack the demon away, and turn to throw two knives into the gut of the demon to my right. I face back towards the other demon, calling on Dumah for more energy, and I move forward. I strike the demon across the face, leaving a large gash before running my blade completely through his chest. I watch as the demon turned to ash.
"Well done Clarissa, well done."
I turn from the ash to find my father clapping at me, next to another pile of ash which I assume was the other demon. Father leans down and grabs my two throwing knives, handing them back to me.
"I'm surprised at your swiftness between the two demons."
"So I did good?" I ask excited.
"You did well, but not extraordinary like I'd expect from you. You're a Morgenstern, Clarissa. You need to start fighting like one."
"What can I do better father?" I'm at a loss. I don't know what he wants from me. I mean I'm only 17 years old and I've killed more demons than most other shadowhunters my age. The only other shadowhunter my age that's killed as many demons as I have went missing two years ago. Ever since he disappeared I became the best of my age. What more can I do to please my father?
"You need to become ruthless. Yeah sure you killed two shax demons in a matter of five minutes, but I need that number to be six demons in five minutes. Do you understand?"
"I'm not quick enough. Got it."
"Yes, and you kill like any ordinary shadowhunter would kill. You need to get creative, Clary."
"I can do creative." I'm an artist after all. Becoming more creative is right up my alley, but I'm not so sure I can be any faster than I already am. I guess I have to try if I want to live up to the Morgenstern family name.
My father and I continue searching out demons and taking them all out one by one. By the end of the day, we'd killed a total of twenty three demons. I don't know why so many of them were hanging out in these mountains, but it made for a good field day for father and I. Out of the twenty three demons that we took out, I killed eleven of them. We came across shax, ravener, and eidolon demons. I got to kill at least one of each, but the majority of my numbers were shax demons. Either way it was a good day out there.
On our way back to the border of Idris, my father seemed to grow more and more tense. I had barely noticed it earlier this morning, but now it was like his body was screaming stress and it was the only thing I could see on him. I thought I'd address it, maybe it would help him to talk about whatever's making him so tensed.
"Hey dad…you got anything on your mind you'd like to talk about?"
He looked back at me with a weird expression. "What do you mean by that?"
"You just seem so tensed. I figured you had something on your mind."
He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but he just kept walking forward into the forest. I guess he doesn't want to talk about it.
About fifteen minutes later we were on the other side of the wards back in Idris. We had walked until we were back in the forest that was behind my house. I thought maybe I'd made my father angry earlier when I asked about the tension. He hadn't said one thing since I had asked earlier, until now.
"Clarissa. I'm sorry I didn't answer you earlier, I needed to think about how I was going to bring this up."
"That's okay dad. What's on your mind?"
We both stopped walking as my father turned around to look at me. His face was expressionless, his shoulders still tensed. Something really is getting at him.
"My daughter," He paused for a second before continuing, "I never had a doubt in my mind that you weren't ready for the field."
"Why didn't you let me come out with you and Sebastian then?"
"I needed you alone."
I watch as my father's shoulders release some of their tension, his facial expressions relaxing along with them. Why would he need me alone today?
"You see Clary, I have a plan forming. One that will keep the Morgenstern name talked about for decades."
"What does getting me out here alone have to do with your plan?" I ask.
My father smiles a little at my question, looking down at the ground. "My plan begins today and it starts with having you out here alone in the forest." He looked back up at me, eyes as cold as ice.
Something in my gut feels wrong. "Do you want me to do something for your plan?"
"Yes."
"What do you need father? Just ask and I'll do it." I wait in silence for him to reply, but instead of words he replies with his actions.
I watch as my father pulls his kindjal out of his boot, arming himself…against me.
"Father," I rest my hand on my own blade, "is this some new weird form of training?"
He laughs as he moves closer to me, and I know the answer to my question is no. The horrible feeling in my gut picks up and I realize it was trying to warn me earlier. I can't believe my own father would turn on me. Maybe one of the eidolon demons shape-shifted into my dad earlier, but I should see through the glamour…this is my father.
"The beginning of my plan starts with you, my daughter. It starts when your beloved mother and brother think you're dead. It starts when I make you disappear," said my father.
"You would kill your own daughter to promote your family? Doesn't make much sense, dad."
"Who said anything about killing you?"
"Then what are you-" He interrupts me mid-sentence.
"Easy now Love, I'm going to send you somewhere no one will ever find you. I could never kill my own daughter, not without good reason."
"Where? At least tell me where." I ask.
"Limbo," said father, laughing after the word left his mouth.
"Dad, you can't conjure your own portal without a warlock."
He looked back at me, smiling in a way that made me feel uneasy. "I have that part covered," he said. He snapped his fingers and within seconds a portal appeared to my left.
Eyes wide, I turn around in circles looking for the warlock, but see nothing other than trees. What warlock would help my father do something so crazy, so wrong? My fear begins to pick up as I try to figure out what to do. I can't kill my father, I just can't…but I do need to keep him from sending me through that portal. I guess I have no choice but to fight him.
"I'm not going down without a fight, father." I slowly begin to wrap my hand around the hilt of my seraph blade as an unsettling smile appears on my father's face once again.
"I was hoping you'd say that."
He walks towards me fast and I pull out my seraph blade ready to fight him. Just as I raise my blade, something hits me hard in the back of the head. I fall to my knees, dropping my weapon on the way down. Right before I completely black out, I see a figure walk out from behind me to stand at my father's side. Everything around became too blurry for me to make out who it was, but I was sure that they had just hit me in the back of the head with a bat or a huge stick.
I let the rest of my body fall to the ground, looking up at the two blurry figures. They exchanged a couple of words, but it was all too muffled for me to understand them. As my mind started to slip into unconsciousness I felt my body get picked up and thrown into the portal.
And so I fell straight into limbo, which just about catches you all up on how I got here.
I don't know how long I was falling unconscious, but when I woke up I was disoriented and in pain. My head was throbbing and it felt like I couldn't breathe at all until I got used to falling. It felt very weird to fall for an extended amount of time. My heart was constantly beating faster than it needed to, and it felt like my nerves were being juggled inside my body.
I was hungry, but there was nothing to eat. When I needed to sleep, I just fell asleep and continued my descent into nothing. I don't know how many days I was falling through the abyss before I got lucky and dropped into an actual place.
It wasn't until I had finally accepted that I'd be falling forever when I hit rock bottom, literally. One second I was free falling and the next gravity was pulling me down, straight into the dirt. As my back hit the ground, the air was knocked out of me, and I rolled over gasping. I can move? Oh my gosh I can move.
As I finally regained the ability to breathe, I sat up brushing the grass off of my body. Looking around, I examined my landing spot. I saw trees in front of me, and hills to my left. To my right was a small lake and behind me was….oh my gosh…am I imagining this or…is this real?
"Are you okay?" A man whose face I knew all too well, extended his hand out to me.
I tried to say something as I stood up, but I could only stare and gape at this man. He looked the same as he did in all of the pictures I had seen over the past two years. This is the only other shadowhunter rumored to be as good as me, but he went missing two years ago. No one has seen him since, but here I am looking right into his eyes. How in the angel is this possible?
"Y-y-you're Jace Herondale…" I said, still trying to grasp what my eyes were looking at.
"You know me?"
I knew him. Yes, I had never met him in person before, but over the past two years he was the only thing the shadow world talked about. Disappearing without a trace along with his brother and sister, these three were even famous among the downworlders. Everyone knew their names and their faces. We all knew their story, but no one knew their location. Yet, somehow I'm standing in front of one of them. I'm standing in front of Jace Herondale.
"You're one of the missing shadowhunters."
Estimated Word Count: 3,000
(I saw someone do this on a fanfic once, and really liked that I could know how long the chapters were. So here I am doing it too!)
I got the idea for this story a couple years ago, and am finally putting it into words. I hope that if you took the time to read this first chapter, that you enjoyed every moment of it. Please leave your thoughts/ideas in the reviews. I'd love to get some feedback on this story and hear what you guys think is going to happen. Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope that you all read my next chapter when it comes out.