After the adrenaline rush started to dissipate, Clary stumbled over to the nearest seat and collapsed onto it. She couldn't believe what had happened tonight. She couldn't believe that her mother was actually dead.
She didn't realise that Simon had come in until he pulled back from his hug and asked her if she was ok.
"Clary what's wrong?" His face wore concern and she could barely breathe.
"Simon, I need to go" she whispered pleadingly. Her ribs felt like they were going to squeeze her to death her heart ached so badly and before he could respond, she shot passed him and made her way into the hall.
Jace was sauntering back to his bedroom when he heard pleads from that annoying vampire.
"Clary, please come back, what happened?. Before Jace could turn around, a fury of red hair bowled right passed him and continued barrelling down the hall. "What the hell is that about? Lovers quarrel?" He thought.
Jace physically flinched at the word "lovers" for a moment but he quickly came back down to focus on the situation and before Simon was out of his reach, Jace shot a hand out and grabbed him by the arm.
"Simon, what happened to Clary?" Jace growled.
"Look I dunno, from the second we walked into that room nothing was ok, all she said was that she needed to go and then she left" Jace's head whipped up at that. "Needed to go? Needed to go where Simon?"
Simon was at a loss for words and before he could stutter anything, Jace was running to catch up to Clary and figure out what was going on.
Clothes, shoes, artist's pad, steele….. As she was rattling off a mental packing list whilst walking to her room, she stopped and pulled the thin, cold metallic weapon from her pocket. As she held it in her hands and examined the runes on it, she thought about one of the last coversations she had with her Mom was about this stupid thing and that leaving it behind is dangerous….Mom…. Images flashed of Alec throwing Jocelyn against the wall and plunging his hand into her chest and her heart being crushed. She remembers the dread she felt walking into her room and seeing her mother splayed on her floor.
Get a grip of yourself Clary, falling apart here will help no-one, Mom is gone and you can't change that. Its just you and Simon now.
Clary slowed her breathing, deeply inhaled and as she was starting to walk back to her room, she felt a warm hand at the small of her back. She turned around to stare right up into the eyes of a worried Jace. He was saying something yet she couldn't make out what it was as there was a loud ringing in her ears. Jace's hands came up to softly cup around her face.
"Clary, Clary can you hear me? What happened? Where's Jocelyn?"
Only one word escaped her lips. Only one syllable was enough to break his heart for Clary.
"Dead"
The first thought that jumped into Jace's mind was that Valentine still had him locked up in a chamber somewhere and that he had passed out from all the beatings. Half of him hoped that that was the case.
"Clary what…I don't understand…she was just…." How do you respond when you are told that the mother you never knew, who also tried to kill you, was dead? Clary used this moment of confusion to slip out of his hands and to make her way back to her bedroom.
She stopped. The last time she saw this door, a confused and bloody Alec sat just in front of it. Clary took a deep breath and rounded the corner. Jocelyn's body was gone. It seems as though someone took care of her while Clary was fighting the demon. "Thanks" she thought sarcastically.
There was still a pool of thick blood next to where her mother's body was but she couldn't think about that. She walked over to her closet, pulled out a large duffel bag and began filling it with the items that she had arrived with.
A body slammed into her doorway but she knew who it was.
"Clary you can't just say something like that and then disapp…" Jace trailed off and when she turned around, he was staring at the notable amount of blood on the floor.
"What happened?" Jace's voice was frantic. Clary sighed and walked over to the bed and sat down. "Alec.." she began. Jace's head whipped around to her and she saw a mix of confusion and anger in his eyes but before he could say anything, she went on.
"When you were gone, Valentine released a demon into the Institute. It possessed people and then killed others by…" Clary had to take a deep breath before she continued as she was shaking. "The possessed people would smash their hands through the ribcage of their victims and then crush their hearts."
A single tear rolled its way down her face but as much as she wanted to curl up and cry till there were no more tears left, she stood up and continued packing. Her reasoning was that if she wasn't at the Institute anymore, she wouldn't feel all of this pain anymore so her only one goal was to keep packing and then to disappear. She didn't hear Jace move until he was right behind her.
"Clary please, you can't leave" he pleaded with her but it was no use. Once Clary made her mind up, there was no reasoning with her.
"I can't be here anymore. I cannot live in the same place where my mother was murdered!"
"We can work together to find Valentine, to kill him" Tears were building up in his eyes and he honestly could not tell if it was the missed opportunity to get to know his mother or if was the fact that the girl he wasn't supposed to love, was walking out on him.
She zipped up her bag as Simon appeared in her doorway and before Simon could get a word in, she silenced him with a look that said Please, not now.
He nodded his head in acknowledgement and she pushed passed a frozen Jace to get to the door.
Simon stared down at an exhausted Clary. "Are you sure about this?" He could see the internal battle raging in her head. Thoughts and questions flittering one after another until she looked up at him and replied " I came to The Institute to find my Mom and now that she's gone, so am I."
Simon grabbed her duffel bag and trailed behind her as she led the way to the main entrance. She was a few steps from it when she heard Alec calling after her.
She turned around to see Jace, Isabelle and finally Alec. His eyes were red-rimmed and puffy and for a moment she felt a pang of pity for him until she looked down at his arms and clothes and saw that they were still stained red from her mothers blood.
"Clary I'm sorry...I didn't mean to...I…"
The guilt he felt couldn't be comprehended into words.
She walked up to him and while everyone was preparing for her to slap him or yell at him, what she did instead was just as surprising. She took his hands in hers and looked up at him.
"Alec" she whispered "I don't blame you, you were possessed. But every time I look at you, it hurts...so much and I can't be here anymore. You were right, this isn't my world and I don't belong here."
With that, she let his hands go and walked back to Simon waiting by the entrance.
"Clary don't go" Jace was right there, tears still streaming down his face. With her hand on the door, she looked back at him one last time and said words that he will never forget.
"You have to let me go"
Before he could argue, she and the vampire were gone. Three Shadow hunters at the beginning and three Shadow hunters at the end.