A small girl with coppery red hair rubbed her temples and sighed in frustration, her head buzzing with tasks and events of the day. Her feet were making no sound as she walked along the empty halls of the Sydney Institute, but her humming reverberated off the cold stone walls. She reached a large set of intricately carved wooden double doors and knocked twice. There was a muffled shout of permission from inside and the young girl let herself in.
"Clarissa Fray, where have you been all day?" sitting at the head of a large glossy mahogany table was a slightly taller and older version of the red-headed girl.
"Calm down, Mom," Clary grumbled, "I was just at the library."
"What, for four hours?" Clary's mom's voice was strained and her hair was coming out of the hastily put up bun. "You ate breakfast with me four hours ago!"
"Yes, Mom, I get it. Four hours. What's the big deal?"
"The big deal, Clary, is that your mom and I asked you to get to work after breakfast." A tall man wearing a worn red flannel shirt and faded jeans appeared at the door. "Jocelyn, go get some lunch, I'll stay here with Clary and finish up."
Jocelyn narrowed her eyes at the two figures before her, knowing full well that Clary would end up distracted anyway. She muttered, "As long as you work, Luke."
Without another word, Jocelyn got up from her chair and walked out of the room. Clary sat down in one of the chairs and found herself seated behind a very intimidating stack of letters and packages.
"Luke. I'm tired." Clary yawned and put her head in her hands.
"We have to work, Clary," Luke said with a laugh, "or else your mom will have our heads."
Clary sighed and picked up the first letter from the stack and began reading.
Clary, along with her mom and Luke, had lived at the Sydney Institute in Australia for three months now. They were an on-demand task force. They went where the Clave needed them, which just so happened to be demon-infested Sydney, Australia. There were four other Shadowhunters in the Institute: a set of very intelligent yet surprisingly rowdy twin teenage boys and their parents. The father, Anthony Ralton, was the head of the Institute, but his wife, Arianna, often acted as his equally powerful partner. Clary and her family had moved here the day before her sixteenth birthday, much to Clary's annoyance. The two boys, Mark and Timothy, were always nice to her, but they had never become close. They all kept their distance because Clary's kind weren't known to stay in one place for too long. And it looked like three months was the longest she was going to have to stay in the Sydney Institute.
"Luke, come here." This was Clary's fourteenth letter and her brain was already started to feel fuzzy. "Look at this, the Clave sent us another request."
Luke groaned, "And now I'll have to pack all our stuff. Again."
"Oh come on!" Clary laughed with a smile, "It really isn't that bad seeing that you're a big buff werewolf."
Luke rolled his eyes and took the letter from Clary's hands. In surprise, he gasped, "New York? I never thought we'd see the United States again. I mean, demons are terrified of us Americans."
"Well then, let's show them what we've got!" Clary grinned and stood up, stretching out her aching legs. She left the room practically bouncing with joy.
"Mark. Mark. Mark. Mark. Mark. Mark. Mark." Clary jabbed her finger into the tall boy's shoulder and continued saying his name, "Mark. Mark. Maaaaaaaarrrrrrrrkkkkkkkk."
"Thanks, Clary. My name now sounds like an alien word," Mark complained, "Seriously, what's going on?"
"Guess!" Clary giggled and made a show of skipping around the library like a little girl among a field of wildflowers.
"Um… Timothy dropped dead."
"Hey! I'm right over here, you know!" Timothy was glaring at the two of them over the top of his book.
"Just kidding, Tim." In a low voice, he whispered, "Not joking."
Clary just rolled her eyes and exclaimed excitedly, "I'm moving to New York!"
"Come on, Australia isn't that bad!" Mark put a hand to his heart, adopting a comically wounded expression.
"Mark, we've spent seventeen years here. Aren't you tired of it yet?" Tim asked.
"Nope, I'm a true Aussie at heart!"
"Well I'm not. I'm a loud and proud American and I'm going back to New York!"
"Well Clarissa Fray, we're going to miss you whether you're an annoying American or not," declared Mark. Clary pulled him into a suffocating hug.
"I'm going to miss you guys, too." And with that, she dragged Timothy out of his chair and pulled them into a group hug.
"Hey, watch it! If you ruin my copy of Great Expectations, I will murder you!"
Clary just laughed and hugged them even tighter, not wanting to leave her two friends, but wanting to go home.
Home. Clary was going home.
The Portal glimmered and cast ghostly light onto the walls. Jocelyn would be going first, with Clary following and Luke bringing up the rear. Each of them had a large suitcase and a duffle bag with them along with steles and seraph blades hidden in their jackets and shoes just in case of an arbitrary attack. Jocelyn imagined the the grand New York Institute's front lawn and soon the image appeared in the shimmering Portal. Without looking back, she stepped in. Clary hesitated though and looked back at the four Shadowhunters behind her.
"Hey, Mark and Tim," Clary said, "you be good, alright? Go destroy those big bad demons together."
"Yes, mother," the twins replied in unison.
"Oh, shut up you big idiots." Even though she had only spent a short amount of time in Australia, she had grown attached to them. Clary cleared her throat and with a wave, she said, "Goodbye Mr. and Mrs. Ralton. Bye Mark. Bye Tim. Maybe we'll see each other soon." Without another hesitation, she stepped into the Portal and was whisked away.
She blinked rapidly in an attempt to adjust to the blinding sunlight coming from above. After her vision cleared, she found her mom to be walking up the path to the New York Institute. Clary quickly followed suit and dragged her stuff to the front door. There were large trees lining the paved stone walkway and flowers were scattered here and there. The Institute itself was as grand as could be expected from one of the most prominent Institutes of the world. The entire building resembled that of a massive Gothic cathedral. While that normally may have looked depressingly gaudy, the pleasant addition of trees and flowers made it look beautiful. The large set of doors loomed over Clary's tiny figure and she suddenly felt a little bit of anxiety. What if the people here don't like me? She worried, What if I don't like them?
Clary felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Luke smiling at her as if he wanted to reassure her that everything was going to be okay, and who was she to doubt that? In turn, Clary looked at her mother and their little family pushed the doors open and stepped inside. The first thing Clary's eyes focused on was another set of doors. Great, just how many doors will I have to open to get into this cursed building? Then, she noticed that they were not the standard wooden swinging doors, but great sliding blocks of solid metal. An elevator? In a century-old building? That can't be safe. Clary absentmindedly nibbled on her bottom lip and stumbled forward after her mother, who was taking great long strides towards the elevator. Jocelyn forcefully jabbed the "down" button and the doors opened with a ding! The three of them clambered in and waited as the elevator descended into the depths of the earth. Not too long later, the doors opened and Clary found herself standing in front of five figures, all of them much taller than her. There was a man and woman who looked around the same age as Jocelyn and Luke. There were three others who looked not too much older than herself.
"Welcome to the New York Institute," the older woman greeted, "It's been so long since I've seen you, Jocelyn."
"Thank you, Maryse, for allowing us to stay here," replied Jocelyn with a gracious tilt of the head. Under her breath, she whispered, "Clary, introduce yourself."
"Hello," Clary said with a nervous smile, "I'm Jocelyn's daughter, Clarissa, but you can call me Clary."
"Luke Garroway." Luke went to shake the older man's hand, "Robert, it's great to see you."
Clary shifted her weight from right to left, looking down at her shoes. A bright voice spoke, "Hi, I'm Isabelle and this is my brother Alec. My younger brother, Max, is off running around somewhere, but you'll see him soon." Clary looked up to find herself looking at a gorgeous girl with the perfect figure and shiny straight black hair flowing down her back. Her smile was very warm and Clary immediately felt relieved. At least she would have a friend. She looked to her right to find the boy she presumed was Alec, who had the same dark hair as his sister, but his eyes were a bright blue instead of her deep black ones. He merely grunted a hello and went back to thinking about whatever his mind was occupied with. Clary looked away with a pang of annoyance. It was her first day and he already seemed to dislike her. She was about to say something about unpacking or something when the elevator opened and a boy stumbled out, bloody and stained with mud and black fluid. His eyes and hair were both a blindingly warm golden color with none of the falseness of bleached hair or contact lenses. He took a few moments to notice Clary, but when he did, his lips curved up in a smirk.
"You must be the new arrivals. I'm Jace, and I would suggest you to move aside unless you want blood all over you." And with no warning, he collapsed.
Hey readers! Lifeofabookaddict here (that's quite a mouthful) and I'd just like to thank you for reading this! I looooove constructive criticism (I practically live on it), so review review review! I'm going to try to update every 1-2 weeks. If I don't, you guys can message me and yell at me to write some more. Again, thanks! :)