A/N: I had a new idea. I hope you like it; I spent some time drafting it, so that the plot would be enjoyable.

.o

The dreams were frighteningly similar each night.

It was like a bad TV programme on repeat, every night dragging on, waking up in cold sweat, with tears blurring her vision, and a muted scream building up in her throat.

A rustle of feathers, wings flapping, a child's scream, that scraped at the edges of her mind with painful white noise, and then nothing, for a while, at least.

Usually it was just fragments of a whole thing, shattered pieces of a mirror, strange, multicoloured kaleidoscopes of light, splayed randomly, seemingly senseless – but it always ended the same.

She saw herself, smiling, and letting go of a long angular stick, which shape could only have been of a stele, and turning around. Her eyes scared her. The expression was empty, devoid of emotion, and her eyes appeared to have no pupils, depleted coal black, like a sharks.

The dream version of her gave a humourless smile, and stepped aside.

On the wall cast in shadow behind her, a black rune was carefully carved, not drawn, like the other marks were, but carved into the stone – maybe burnt as explanation for the black colour. Her eyes passed over the edges, it felt wrong somehow, to look into the centre, but it was unlike her not to try– and she could feel her vision, her brain whirr harder, and sweat beginning to form, a stifling heat everywhere, but there was something, something she needed to do.

She forced herself to look, and suddenly, it was as if a switch had been flicked. She felt herself drawn to the rune.

She let her eyes focus onto the swirling, sweeping patterns of the mark, and let herself take it all in and–

Her eyes snapped open.

She was breathing hard, clutching her duvet as if it was a life support jacket. After the immediate fear, a sense of overwhelming disappointment overtook her, and she let out a sigh. Light was already coming through the sides o her window, where her curtain could not quite cover. With arising sense of unease, she turned her head, catching the red light of her bedside LED clock. 02:31AM. She groaned.

But… at least she has gotten closer to actually seeing what the rune was this time. Maybe next time it would be–

With a flinch, she caught herself just in time, and mentally scolded herself.

You've been watching too many horror films again, she told herself for the hundredth time, go back to sleep.

She rolled over, with a shaking hand, brushed a few irritating sweat soaked strands of hair out of her eyes and attempted to fall back into the heavenly clutches of sleep. It had been like this for too long. A feeling of panic rose up in her chest, and she rolled over again, restlessly.

Every night, every god damned night she–

Shut up. That's pathetic. It's nothing to be scared of… just go back to sleep. Dreams mean nothing; you're a Shadowhunter, remember? If a six foot tall demon can't kill you, how can a dream?

"It can't." She murmured, in a strong attempt to console herself. "You're just being stupid now."

Clearing her mind of anything – everything, she covered her face with both arms in attempt to block out any excess light, and let out a shaky breath.

Clarissa Fray shut her eyes as tight as she could manage, but she hardly felt sleepy anymore.

It's just a dream, she told herself.

It's bigger than that… A sudden, small smug voice, somewhere deep inside her head chided, much bigger and you know it.

"No." She whispered. "It's just a dream."

Did you like my first attempt? Even if you didn't, please leave a review so I can improve later on. None of the proper action has begun yet, so don't worry, it isn't all this boring…