Verge of Death Chapter 2: I Know You, Jace, a mortal instruments fanfic

Story Name: Verge of Death

Summary: Jace is vulnerable. He is battling demons – not real ones, but emotional ones. Ones that are willing to tear open his heart and murder his soul. Battling illnesses no one knows anything about, will Jace survive, or will he be lost forever? Murdered by the one he thought he always knew – himself. Rated M for self-harm and Anorexia/Bulimia.

Families:

Maryse & Robert Lightwood –- Alec, Jace, Isabelle, Max and Noah.

Jocelyn Fairchild and Luke Garroway – Jonathon, Clary and Ava.

* Reminder * - Noah is an added child to the lightwoods, and is the real brother of Isabelle, Alec and Max, and the adoptive brother of Jace. Ava is the half sister of Clary and Jonathon.

This story has been taken over (with permission) after original author is unable to finish it and access fanfiction.

First period passed slowly for Jace even though it was a "free period" where he had no lesson.

His second lesson was English. Then after that he had 2 lab lessons through third and fourth period. US and World history was fifth period, and the last two lessons were Theatre/Drama and Math.

Jace wandered to English quietly, thankful that Alec was in his class so that he wasn't so alone.

"How was first period?" Alec asked as they rounded the corner.

Jace shrugged. "Boring. I did nothing. I didn't have a lesson. I didn't have anyone to talk to…"

"That sucks." Alec mused softly just as they entered the English room. "But it'll get better, dude, don't worry."

"Hello!" A short, plump lady with browny grey hair and glasses said to the boys when they walked in. "You must be our new students!"

Jace ignored her, looking around the room for an empty seat. There was one right at the back of the class, surrounded by mundanes who looked quite dark and scary.

Jace moved slowly to the seat, dropping his bag on the floor with a loud slump as he went.

"Yes, we are, Mrs….Phillips." He heard Alec reply from the front of the room.

"Today is just a revision lesson," Mrs. Phillips said eventually. "So I'll come over and explain to you and Jace what we've been learning a bit later on."

"Okay, thank you." Alec replied, his voice getting closer to Jace as he moved to sit at the other empty desk. He turned around and gave Jace a soft, encouraging smile.

The lesson consisted of Mrs. Phillips spending the entire time explaining to Jace and Alec the whole events of the year's English lessons. Jace found it very boring and felt like going to sleep.

Just as his eyes began to droop, the school bell rung, signalling the end of his class.

Jace slowly moved from his desk, a period of light-headiness washing over him. This was the time of the day where his stomach would start rumbling from no food.

"Jace," Alec whispered as they started to walk down the corridor. "You okay, man? I know 'mundane' school is a bit systematic and whatever but its okay."

Jace shrugged Alec's concern off with a wave of his hand. "Let's get this crap over with. Can lab lessons be any worse than a year's top up of English?"

Alec grinned, silently agreeing. He moved through the mundanes quickly, leaving Jace to find his next period all on his own.

In lab class, Jace sat down on the desks at the back. He wanted to keep himself out of the mundanes view as much as possible. He relaxed slightly when Clary walked through the door, moving to sit down by him with a smile. "How was class?" She asked.

"Demon hunting is more fun." He said, staring down at the patterned desk. Hearing Clary sigh, he turned to stare up at her.

Her soft, green eyes swirled with emotion, a line appearing in-between her thin brows. "Jace, I'm worried about you. Why are you pushing me away?"

Jace knew this was coming, but he didn't want Clary to believe he was going away. "No, Clary." He reached over to softly caress her hand. "I just don't see why we have to do this whole school thing. What's the point?"

She smiled, just a little. "I know you just want to go out there and fight demons all the time but you need some kind of stability, Jace. Being around demons all the time will just mess with your emotions. Mundanes aren't so bad."

Jace shrugged. Being around demons wouldn't mess with his emotions. Inside, a demon was already taking him away from everyone. Soon, he would just be bones. Perfect, sculpted bones. He needed that. And the only way to get it was to stop eating food. "I hate this place."

A few minutes later, Clary started. "Okay, tell you what, if you last a week of this and decide you don't like it, you can stay at the institute and be a full-time shadow hunter okay?"

Jace smiled gratefully. "I love you, Clary."

"I love you too."

Lunch time came around slowly. He still had Drama and Math to tackle even after lunch. The amount of lessons just annoyed him, honestly. Skipping the dinner queue, Jace moved his way through the cafeteria in search for Clary and his siblings. He eventually found them, sitting at a small table near the doors of the cafeteria. At that moment, he debated leaving the room completely but as if Clary could sense his presence, she looked directly at him and waved him over.

He sat down beside her, smiling as Isabelle told Alec all about her awesome gym lesson. "How was class?" Jace repeated back to Clary as she'd done so to him in lab.

She smiled. "It was good. But not as good as it would've been if you were there with me." She shuffled over and curled into his side. "What food do you fancy?"

Jace momentarily stiffened. Not only was Clary mentioning food, but she was also leaning into his ribs, which had gotten more definite over the weeks. He shuffled sideways slightly, making sure Clary didn't fall and smiled confidentially. "We had a taster session in world history, so I'm honestly full to the brim." He tapped his stomach in emphasis, inwardly wincing when the action stirred a grumble.

She shrugged. "Okay, cool. What food did you try? Was it nice?"

Jace racked his brain. What did he know about other countries? "In the France section we tried…snails?"

Clary wrinkled her nose, turning away in disgust. She dropped the questions, leaving Jace feeling satisfied. He had gotten out of it, this time. "What are you going to have for dinner?"

"Chips." Clary answered quickly, moving from the side of him to the queue with Alec.

Isabelle stared at Jace from across the table, clearly not believing his little story about world history class.

Jace, not liking the silence, started to fidget under Isabelle's heavy gaze and turned his attention to the table.

"So," She started. "What food did you have from Germany?"

"I don't remember. The name was German."

"I know you, Jace." Isabelle said, raising one eyebrow. "Even if you had eaten tasters in History, you would never pass up more food. You never said no to food when we were younger."

"I'm not a kid anymore." Jace protested, ready to flee from the table and sit somewhere else.

Isabelle pulled a couple of cheese coated potatoes from her tray and handed them to Jace. "You used to like these at home. Remember? You always had extra cheese. Why don't you have one?" She was testing Jace, seeing if he would.

Jace swallowed deeply, his stomach rumbling and churning at the smell. He clenched his hands around the corner of the table in order to control himself but temptation was getting the best of him.

Without thinking, he pushed himself away from the table, his head submerging in dizziness fleetingly from the fast movement. He turned his back on his sister and then ran. Ran right through the doors of the cafeteria, across the grass and onto the street. When he was safely outside of the school gates, he kept on running. And running. Until early evening crept in along with exhaustion and he passed out in the park.