A/N- Here we go! Figured it out.
Hello everyone! So this is my first ever fan fiction! First off, I'm terrible with titles. That's my least favorite part of this story. If you have a better idea, let me hear it.
Being this is the first chapter it is slightly more boring than future chapters may be. This is just explaining the past and introducing everyone to the story. I promise for more action in the future!
I had never thought of doing fan fiction before. I discovered this website by chance and started reading for fun. I came across a specific story by an author who's writing a greatly enjoy. I began speaking with her and then decided to try out a story myself. She helped me navigate around this site and explained to me how to publish story's. I would like to send a shout out to her (divergentfan4life) and I hope you will check out her stories. She is an amazing writer!
That's all I have to say for now. Enjoy the story! :D
Tessa was on her usual nightly walk. The one that left her alone with her thoughts. Every night, between eight and midnight, her brother Nathaniel would go off to a club and gamble. Every time, he took all the money he made from his day job and lost it all. If it weren't for his boss paying their bills, they would be out on the streets. She had never known someone to have such a relationship with their boss that the boss would pay the employees bills, yet she had learned not to question that.
All in all however, she enjoyed her time alone, walking the streets of London. Her brother hated her being out by herself, and being that his work times varied, she never knew when he would be home during the day, which closed off the option of wandering alone while he was at work.
At night however, when he went gambling, he was always gone and home by a certain time, leaving her time to herself, and this was what she chose to do with it. Walk and think.
On this particular night, she found herself thinking of her family. Not just of Nate, but of her whole family before, when it was full. When it was happy back in New York. When her brother would dance her around the room, letting her stand on his feet as he did so. Her mother and father would sit on the couch, watching with love in their eyes. They would never sit more than a few feet apart. Their love was always so strong that they would rarely quarrel.
Then one night, they just vanished.
She had never know why. Never understood. She still didn't. All she knew was she woke up one morning and they were gone. She had expected they would come back. Perhaps they had had a work emergency. However that spark of hope had quickly diminished when her aunt Harriet had come, telling them she would take care of them from then on.
So, she grew up with aunt Harriet as a mother figure. It hadn't been so terrible, yet the absence of a true mother sent a pain through her heart. The only thing she had left of her mother's was a ticking clockwork angel on a necklace around her throat. She touched a hand to it now, falling into the sweet rhythm of its ticking as she continued with her reminiscing.
As she had grown, her aunt thought her more lessons that she would need through life. Mostly on men and how to "deal" with them. Tessa smiled to herself. Aunt Harriet had always been very spirited. When it came to men, she always had more than enough advice.
Her aunt had passed away shortly after Nathaniel had come to live in London, and after her passing, Tessa had to come live with Nate. Tessa had sat right beside her aunt, grasping her hand as she had called Tessa by her mother's name. Had sat right beside her as she drew her final breath.
She quickly yanked herself from her memories, shaking her head as her hand fell away from her clockwork angel. That was the last place she wanted her thoughts to go. She stared at the ground as she walked, focusing on small nicks in the pavement of the sidewalk to clear her mind before she suddenly stopped.
Lifting her head, she let her gaze travel around the area. She had stopped under a street light along a silent stretch of road. Along both sides of the road, as far as she could see, were dark unwelcoming houses. Not a single light was on in any of those houses.
She bit her lip. She had wandered too far, lost in her train of thought, and now she had no idea where she was. She debated continuing forward, to see about finding someone who could direct her back to true civilization, or turning back, to find her way herself. She thought she could retrace her steps if she headed back, so she turned and started onward.
She walked on, hearing no sound of horse's hooves on pavement, seeing no trace of city light, and not finding a trace of another living being. She glanced around her. Surely she hadn't walked for this long without noticing how far she had gone. Shaking her head, she continued forward. There had to be someone up here she could speak to, if she didn't catch sight of the city first.
Tessa tilted her head curiously toward the dark houses. It couldn't be any later than ten. Where were all these people? She supposed there was a possibility these houses were abandoned. They looked worn down enough to be yet she couldn't find that true. She got a strange feeling near the houses. One she couldn't explain. A soft tingle in the back of her mind, telling her something wasn't right. She had thought for a moment she might be going insane, letting her imagination run too wild, but that was before she saw it.
It, For there was no other word to use. It was not male, not female, not even human. It had dark, sea blue skin, scales more like it, and it stood many feet taller than her. When it opened the slit she would assume was it's mouth, rows of yellow teeth gleamed in the light of the moon. It had black sunken sockets where its eyes should have been and long curved claws for fingers.
It loomed up in front of her and she choked on a scream before it advanced on her and she fell backwards, landing hard on her elbows. She rolled sideways just in time as it's teeth chomped down where she had just been seconds before. She scrambled to her feet and broke into a run down the street.
She heard it's heavy footsteps after her as she rounded a bend and ducked behind a bush, working to show her breathing. The blue scaled creature came into view, slowing as it walked past the bush she was hiding behind. Seeing the it from the back, she noted that it had a long tail that ended in four spikes. That tail now swayed back and forth slowly, then stopped, aimed at her bush. The creature turned and Tessa ducked all the way behind the bush, shutting her eyes tightly as she sent a silent farewell to her brother.
"Eremiel!" She heard a voice yell out before hearing an inhuman scream. She opened her eyes, blinking before she peered around the bush once more.
The first thing she saw was a steady light, like the glow of the moon. The second was the dark scarlet color that shown through that glow. Then the third was the man.
Maybe not man, yet not quite boy either. He launched himself at the creature for what she would guess was the second time. He was a whirl of dark and light, dark from his black hair, and light from what she could now see was a glowing blade.
He slashed his blade across the creature's side as it let out another inhuman scream before a low, menacing growl. The creature swung its tail toward the man, who lept over it easily and slashed out once more with his blade. The blade connected and embedded itself in the creature's upper back with the man hanging onto it.
The creature landed on all fours and rolled. Tessa's eyes widened, fearing the man would be crushed. However with a quick movement, quicker than she had ever seen someone move before, he was beside the creature's head. He had a new blade in his hand, for his old one was still set in the creature's back. This new blade he had did not glow, but was still very effective, for as the creature rolled onto its back, the man jammed the blade into its throat. It let out a final, high-pitched scream as it seemed to fold in on itself and vanish altogether, leaving nothing but a blackish blood where it had once been, and the blade the man had used to kill it, however it was only a hilt now. The blade had appeared to be eaten away.
The man turned to face down the street, a large smile plastered across his face. "You see Jem?" He called out, his voice slightly grough. "I told you I could handle it."
A few moments past, and she thought the man was insane for talking to no one. Then there was movement further down the street, followed an answering voice, more gentle than the first man's, yet firm. "I still wish you would have allowed me to help William. I am not completely useless you know." The owner of the voice stepped into view, heading toward the first man. William, she came to understand his name was, and this was Jem.
As Jem moved closer, she could see he was slim, with silver hair that shone white in the moonlight. His eyes matched his hairs color. He stopped directly in front of William. Standing beside each other, Tessa could see they were roughly the same height.
Where she has compared William and the blade as light and dark before she compared these two boys to day and night. Where William was dark hair and blue eyes, like the sky before the sun completely vanished, Jem was the sun itself. There was a soft light around him that seemed to balance the two of them out.
Too late, she realized she had missed William's response, for Jem was shaking his head. He looked up then, his face scanning the surrounding area. Tessa ducked back behind a bush, only hearing their voices now.
"It seemed the demon was after something." It was the owner of the gentler voice. Jem. There was a pause, then the same voice, prompting "Perhaps we should look around?"
"I don't see what good that would do us." Another pause, then a sigh. "Oh alright, alright. Let's make it quick. Charlotte said she wants a report on whether the demon was relevant or not"
There was the sound of two separate sets of footsteps and one sounded as if it was coming this way. Tessa's eyes widened and she looked around for an escape route. She backed away from the bush slowly, then turned and dashed down the street.
And there it is! I love leaving off at endings that leave you guessing. Some may hate me for that. Please leave reviews with what you liked, and what I could improve on. I welcome constructive criticism. Follow the story if you enjoy it. I would like to try to update frequently. Once a week maybe?
Thanks again for reading! :D
Disclaimer- I do not own any of the characters in this story. They belong to Cassandra Clare.