Chapter One: At The Wrong Time

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Simon pulled Clary up from the green bed of grass. After they got back from Idris, the two best friends wanted to have some time together at the park. After a whole day of laughing, relaxing, running and sleeping they decided it was time to turn back. The sky was red splattered with clouds of purple. Clary had to admit, she was pretty tired after today.

"You ready?" Simon asked as he opened the car door for her. Clary nodded and climbed in.

The car drove past a beautiful forest, even prettier with the sunset.

"Wow." Clary said in admiration of the scenery. "It's so beautiful here." Clary put her fingertips to the cool glass of her window.

"Yeah, I've been down this way a long time ago. That was before all of these trees were grown here. It wasn't much before." They were a few blocks away from Manhattan when the car started slowing down. Simon said, "I think something wrong with the engine." Clary made a confused face. Simon pulled over to the sidewalk next to what looked like an old abandoned house. The thought gave Clary a shiver. Was it really necessary for the car to stop here?

"Is it the fuel?" Clary wondered.

"No, the tanks half full." He said slowly. He pushed his hair out of his face and sighed.

"Okay, why don't you go check out the hood and fix it." She suggested.

Simon gave a shaky laugh, "I actually don't know how to fix a car."

Clary rolled her eyes, "Don't you know anything about cars? C'mon Simon, show some masculine side of you."

"I can give you a list of all the video games I've beaten, but that seems like a waste of time."

Clary shook her head and got out of the car. She went to the front and opened the hood. Simon shut his door and joined her at the front. "Does it look bad?" Clary said.

"I don't see anything wrong with it." Simon scratched his head.

"Well duh there's something wrong with it otherwise we'd be home by now!" She smacked him in the back of his head. He rubbed the spot where she hit him.

"Do you have a better idea?" He asked her.

"Sure. Get. Some. Help." She said as she stuck out a finger for each word.

"Easy for you to say. We're in the middle of downright nowhere!" He threw his hands up. "Unless you're willing to check out that beautiful looking house." He pointed to the creepy house beside us.

"Are you insane? Who knows what unknown species are in there?" She said as her eyes widened.

"What about your phone? Can you call someone?" Simon asked. She pulled out her phone from her butt pocket. She flipped the screen and saw no bars.

"No signal." She replied as she put the phone away. Great. They both thought. They leaned against the car. As they waited the sun continued to go down.

"By the time we could've called someone it would have been too dark anyway." She banged her head against the car. "Well, we should start walking." Clary said as she got the things out of his car.

"Seriously? We're just going to leave my car here? What about the species thingies? They might thrash it!" He argued.

"It's screwed up anyway, it's not like they are gonna drive it somewhere." She put all the blankets in her backpack and all the food (and blood) in Simon's. She shut the car door and held out his backpack to him. She sighed in defeat, "Look, we can come back for it tomorrow, okay?" He folded his arms stubbornly. "Why do you have to be so complicated?" Clary chucked the bag at him and put her bag on. Then she started walking.

"Clary, wait!" He yelled after her. She stopped and turned around. It was so dark she could only see the silhouette of his figure. "Give me a chance to try and fix this, please?" He stood still. Clary started walking back to him.

"Fine, but you have 10 minutes, or else I'm leaving you with the species." After a couple of failed attempts at fixing the engine, she couldn't take the frustration. "Simon, we're leaving now." She grabbed his arm and noticed that he was focused on something else. "Simon." She said again. Clary looked at where his eyes were concentrated. There was a dark figure in the distance, standing on the porch of the house. "I can't believe someone actually lives here." The figure stood still in front of the door.

"Okay, so do you want to ask this guy if he can fix my car?" Simon asked.

"Umm I'm not sure about that. He seems…suspicious. I mean I would if the scenario wasn't so dark, deserted and mysterious." Clary said as she let go of his arm. The shadow started to make its way down the porch steps. "Simon, I think he's coming."

"Really?" Simon said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "I haven't noticed. Now are you going to ask this dude or what?" The man slowly made his way across the lawn.

"Simon, say something." When he still didn't say anything she nudged him in the stomach.

He cleared his throat, "EXCUSE ME!" The figure stopped in the middle of the yellow lawn. "Excuse me, mister. We're having some trouble with our car so, uh, do you-" The guy didn't say anything but started walking up to us again. As the figure came closer we began to see it more clearly. "Oh, I mean miss…" The figure happened to be a woman. But Clary thought there was something wrong about her…

"Miss, do you know who can help us?" Simon said and his voice wavered a little. The lady stopped about 10 feet in front of us and Clary began to see her more clearly.

She shuddered at her sight. The lady was as gray as a rain cloud and so were her bloodshot eyes. She had cuts all over her body, chunks of skin missing and her clothes were bloody and torn. What happened to her? Clary thought. The woman made a hissing noise and growled a little.

She doesn't look like an average human. Maybe she's a demon…but wouldn't I have sensed it? "Simon, let's go." Clary tugged at his sweater. He stood there in fear.

"Miss…?" Simon said with eyes wide open.

All of a sudden, the lady pounced towards us. Simon pushed me out of the way and had barely enough time to dodge her himself. I crawled away from her with my elbows. The thing hissed and ran towards Simon. Clary fumbled for her seraph blade in her boot. She finally got it out and whispered, "Sanvi." Clary sprang up and jumped on top of the demon, just as it was about to lunge for Simon. She tackled it to the ground. Clary pinned the thing in between her legs and stabbed her chest with the blade. Blood splattered onto Clary's white shirt. To her surprise the demon didn't die, it only paused for the shortest of seconds. What? How did it not feel anything? Clary thought. It grabbed Clary as she was distracted and tried to bring her down to its face.

Simon grabbed Clary by her waist and tried to pull her away from the growling monster, but it had a firm grip. Clary screamed as it dragged her face to its mouth. She swung her blade with her eyes shut. She opened her eyes and saw the demon's nose fall to the ground. With another shriek she punched the lady in the face. This time the demon loosened its grip just enough for Clary to escape. She flung back to the ground with a grunt. She felt a hand pick her up by the arm.

"Run!" Simon yelled. Clary got up and ran with Simon still holding her arm. She felt a hand rip through the back of her shirt. The demon started running after them. Already slowing down they finally made it to the streets of Manhattan. When they looked back the demon was gone. Clary and Simon stopped to catch their breath.

"What the hell was that?" Clary shouted as she breathed quickly.

"I don't know! I was hoping you would know, miss Shadowhunter." Simon said.

"I am a beginner!" Giving little pauses in between her words. "I have no idea what kind of demon this is. It's weird how it looked like a human."

"Did you just say that thing was human?!" Simon said with disbelief.

"I said it looks like one, I never said it was human." She eyed her right hand with her bloody angel blade. "But its blood it red...this is so strange." She showed him her bloodied hand. Simon flinched and she immediately felt stupid. He's probably really hungry right now from seeing all of this blood. Clary thought. "Sorry. Uh, there are some packets of blood in your bag if you need it." She said awkwardly.

Simon smiled, "I'm fine. Let's just get to the Institute and clean the blood off our clothes."

"Good idea." Clary realized they were about to walk into Manhattan looking all bloody. And by Simon's hesitation she knew he realized it to. "How about we run?" Clary suggested.

Simon nodded his head as they started to run towards the Institute.

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Hey guys! I actually edited this chapter (12/9/12). Yeah, so just a blast from the past...lol. Review if you like it!

~Beanie Wayland