The park was desolate, leaves rippling down from the trees and landing softly on the ground. A girl, no older than six years of age, was sitting in the grass, her dress long and beautiful as it bunched up around her legs. Her wavy platinum blonde hair shone in the moonlight, and her vibrant green eyes stood out next to her pale skin. She was watching something, a duck; it was all black, with mud coloured feet, and a red bill. This duck did not look normal in the slightest, and it had a sort of demonic aura about it. She had been following this duck from her parent's manor.
Of course, the girl had seen the duck many times before. She had not payed much attention to it, just dismissing it as any other duck. But alas, today was different. Today, the duck seemed strange. A little off. The girl was only six years old, and after all, she was curious about the creature. So she decided to follow it.
It waddled over to her in short, careful steps, avoiding eye contact. She could see the muscles and tendons moving in the duck's small body as it moved ever closer towards her. She was not afraid of the abnormal creature, for she was to become a Shadowhunter. The daughter of Lidia and Jasper Morgenstern, she was not going to be afraid of a measly little duck.
Feeling bold, the girl reached out and touched the duck's surprisingly soft pitch black feathers. She felt a stinging sensation where she touched them, though, so she quickly jerked her hand back. The duck looked up at her and all she could see were piercing red eyes, full of hatred and... hunger?
Her fingers stung, the nerves fraying. She tried to shake it off but the feeling just would not subside. In fact, it intensified, but as she stated before, she was to become a Shadowhunter, therefore someone who deals with pain easily and effectively. As a direct result of this, she tried to shrug off the stinging sensation. It was most likely nothing.
The girl felt fear rise in her chest nonetheless. Don't be afraid, she told herself. It is just a duck. But as she stared into its hungry eyes, she realized that no, it was not just a duck and she needed to flee. That stinging was a warning. She put her hands behind her body and backed up, slowly standing so she could turn around and run. But the duck changed as well, and the girl was knocked off of her feet as it morphed into something bigger, taller, and much more menacing.
The creature that now stood before her was over seven feet tall, with gurgling black skin and piercing red eyes. It took on a human like sort of shape, but it was still overtly disfigured and gruesome. Horns protruded from its head, and it had a long tail that looked like it had been cut off and reattached again in many different places. It had a human like face, with two different sized ears, an almost non-existent nose, and a jagged line that was supposed to be a mouth.
"Foolish Nephilim child," it hissed in a surprisingly strong and clear voice. "Do you know who I am?" It took a challenging step towards the girl, and she reflexively stood up, moving backwards but standing her guard. "Foolish child," the creature said again. "I am Mal'lard, a Greater Demon from the pits of Hell. You will pay for summoning me into my true form!"
The girl whimpered in fear, clutching a tree. Her knuckles became white and swollen, but she did not care. "Don't touch me!" she cried, tears spilling down her cheeks. Mal'lard just laughed, a horrible, choking sound. "Why did you follow me? I was spying on your foolish parents! You interfered!" Mal'lard roared. "I will not harm you directly, for that will eventually heal. No, I will harm you in such a way that you might never fully recover. The horror of it will haunt you for eternity, Nephilim girl. That is what you get for defying and interfering with a Greater Demon."
"Leave me be!" she cried. "I will not do nothing to harm you again!" The girl moved backwards slightly, and Mal'lard laughed. "I do not know that for sure, but I will make sure I do." The girl looked at Mal'lard's gruesome form, freezing. "What have my parents ever done to you!" she yelled, courage rising. That clearly struck a chord within the Greater Demon, and he - it - recoiled. "ENOUGH!" the hideous creature yelled, and it shot a flash of blinding blue light at the girl. It hit her back and she fell, face first, into the pavement. Her back was stinging and a sticky liquid was soaking into the fabric of her dress.
But all she could feel was blinding, white pain.
The girl shut her eyes, silently praying to Raziel for this all to be over. She did not mean to antagonize the Greater Demon, truly! She just wanted to go home, where she could be safe, with her parents. Her parents didn't care much for her but at least she always felt safe with them.
She cracked an eye open to see that the demon was gone. She tried to sit up and was faced with intense pain. In the demon's place sat a piece of parchment, and the girl painfully walked over to it and hesitantly picked it up. It had two words written on it in the blackest ichor she had ever seen: Go home.
She did not need to be told twice. The girl dropped the parchment and darted out of the park in her stockings, dress flaring around her thin body. The pain in her back was excruciating but she did not care. She needed to get home. She tripped on her feet about halfway home, and landed on her skirts. She heard the material rip and saw a large, gaping hole near her waist. She could honestly care less about the dress as she looked at her scraped and bloodied knees.
The blood soaked into the fabric of her dress, and she tried to stand up. Pain seared through her knees and her back, but she pushed through it, staggering to her feet. She continued to run, the pain in her knees and back quite evident as tears fell down her cheeks. It just made her push harder, her legs moving faster as she ran towards her home.
When the girl finally reached her house, she saw it in flames. Fear spiked in her chest as she collapsed in the grass. "Mother!" she cried, the tears now falling heavily, all her pains forgotten. "Father!" Her chest heaved as she cried, her home and her parents burning down before her eyes. She could not stop the flames, nor could she do anything to save the innocent people inside.
She started to see stars, and the last thing she saw before she blacked out was the tall, menacing figure of Mal'lard grinning.
Many years later, in London, England, a girl who went by the name of Crepes awoke with tear stained cheeks, for she had just experienced the nightmare of when her parents were killed, again.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters no matter how much I want to. They belong to the lovely Cassie Clare. Also, this chapter is so short because it is merely a kickstarter. The others will be longer, I promise.