Chapter 2

It will contain all the characters from the original TID, just more modern and plenty of plot twists! Here is the second chapter! I know it's long, but I had a lot to get to and it all sounded right to fit it all into one chapter! Please R&R or PM me! Xoxo! :)

I will try and post as often as I can! I know this chapter has a cliffhanger and I'm sorry for that but another chapter will be up soon! :p

I DO NOT OWN MOST OF THE CHARACTERS! They belong to Cassandra Clare.

Part 1: Dreams Come True ~ Tessa

Tessa was at work the next day, feeling jumpy and skittish. She was more than a little shaken up by her phone call with Mortmain. When he heard it was her calling, he'd laughed a sinister laugh, and it gave her chills down to the bone. She thought of the conversation they'd had.

"Axel Mortmain speaking," he snapped on the other end.

Tessa inhaled sharply. "Mr. Mortmain, this is Theresa Gray, Nathaniel Gray's sister. Is Nate around by any chance? I need to speak with him. It's urgent."

He laughed coldly and it sounded like metal gears grinding together. It made her shiver. "Tessa, your brother is away on business right now. What is it you need his assistance for?"

Tessa bit her lip. "Mr. Mortmain, please. Some strange things have been happening to me since he left a week ago. I know he can help calm me down. Just please let me speak with him." She knew she sounded desperate, but it was only because she was desperate. She needed help.

Mortmain laughed again. "Miss Tessa, I don't think I can do that for you. He's… not exactly available at the moment."

Tessa's heart rate accelerated. "What do you mean he isn't available? What is he doing?"

"You said strange things have been happening to you?" he wondered. She heard a disturbing amount of curiosity in his voice.

She hesitated. "Yes," she responded slowly, cautiously.

"So I see you've been receiving my surprises, yes?"

"Surprises? What do you mean?" This conversation was beginning to freak Tessa out more than she already was.

"Oh, you know, the reptilian demon in the bookstore, the Dark Sisters, the worm…" his voice trailed off, leaving it to Tessa to put the pieces together.

"Demon?! What are you talking about? Demons don't exist!" she half-yelled.

Mortmain laughed that laugh again. "Everything you're seeing is real. You have the sight. We want you, Tessa, and we're going to have you."

Tessa's eyes darted around the room, as if she could find a way out of the conversation. "You're never going to 'have me', Mortmain. I don't belong to anyone. As for this 'sight' that you speak of, I have no idea what you're talking about." She gnashed her teeth together in frustration. She just wanted to talk to her damn brother! Why was that so much to ask for?

"Tessa, I've poisoned your mind," he ridiculed. "You are having those nightmares because you've seen these things before, you just don't remember them. You were much too young to remember…"

"No! I don't believe you, Mortmain!" She shouted.

Mortmain cackled. "Believe what you'd like, Miss Gray. Just remember we have your brother…"

The line went dead. Tessa sat there in a panic and unsure of what to do next.

"Excuse me!" a voice exclaimed.

Tessa snapped out of her reverie. She had been staring at her book, lost in thought, and hadn't even noticed the customer that had approached the counter.

"I'm sorry, it's been a long day," she apologized in a rather monotone voice. She rang up the customer's purchases, forcing back a frown at the selection: A Mundane's Guide to Identifying Demons, How to Summon Demons, A Beginner's Guide to Potions, and The Myths Are Real.

"Your total comes to twenty-two dollars and thirty-one cents," she said, accepting the cash from the customer. "Your cash back will be one dollar and sixty-nine cents." She handed the change back, raising her eyes as she did so. She gasped at what she saw. The "customer" she thought had been standing before her had skin green and slick-looking with dark spots all over it, like a toad. Its tongue rolled out of its mouth, licking its lips and blinking at Tessa, but the eyelids closed together just like a reptile.

She stood, frozen in fright. It did something of a wink, took its purchases, and walked out of the store.

"Tessa, are you okay? You look like you've just seen a ghost," Amber, a coworker of Tessa's, said.

Tessa looked over at Amber, her white-blonde hair glowing like a halo under the dim lighting. "Uh, Amber, I need to go. Are you okay if I take off early? I'm not feeling well."

Amber's blue eyes roamed over Tessa through her wire-frame glasses worriedly. "Yeah, go ahead, Tess. I can cover your shift. I'll see you later, right?" Amber smiled.

Tess attempted a small smile back. "Yeah, I'll see you later." She gathered her things and left quickly.

She felt like she couldn't breathe. What was that thing? She had almost touched it.

She didn't know, but she did know that she had to get out of there, and fast. She had to get out of that apartment as quickly as possible. She ran the short block to Nate's apartment, up the stairs, and burst through the door.

Tessa rushed to her room, grabbed two suitcases, and tried to fit as much of her clothes in there as possible. She managed most of her clothes to fit in them. She started grabbing her most favorite books off her shelves—The Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, and a few other classics—to stuff in on top of her clothes, her laptop, phone chargers, make up, a flat iron, and some jewelry. The suitcases were crammed to their limit, and Tessa knew she had to leave the remainder of her belongings behind.

She sighed, tears welling up in her eyes. She grabbed a piece of paper from her desk and pen to write a note to Nate. She wrote:

Dear Nate,

I'm sorry for leaving, but some weird things have been happening to me. I tried to call you, but I couldn't get a hold of you. I tried Mortmain, but he really freaked me out and wouldn't let me talk to you.

Again, I'm really sorry for leaving. I appreciate you flying me here, but I'm just not happy here as it is, and I feel like I'm going crazy. I'm headed home, wherever that may be, in New York. I can go to college there.

I'll call when I get there.

I promise.

I love you,

Tessie

Tessa capped the pen and left the note on her desk. She started to pick up her suitcases, realizing how heavy they were, when she heard a pounding at her front door.

She froze. Nobody knew she lived here. She went over to the bedroom window and opened it, gently setting her suitcases out on the fire escape, out of sight of the window. Then, quietly, she walked back over to the bedroom door, cracking it slightly to see if anyone would come in.

'Come in' wasn't the correct term. They burst in, kicking down the door. Tessa jumped at the cracking noises. When the dust settled, she saw two familiar figures. One was short and plump, Mrs. Black, and the other was tall and thin, Mrs. Dark. They were standing in the doorway.

"Miss Tessa! We know you are here!" Mrs. Black yelled. Tessa heard one of them inhale deeply. "We smell you!"

Both of the women stepped inside, observing the apartment. Behind them, Tessa spotted a large… worm-like monster.

A hand flew to her mouth. This is not happening, she thought. She quickly turned and went to the window, climbing out of it and shutting it as quietly as possible behind her. She grabbed her bags and started to make her way down the fire escape as quickly as she could.

It wasn't easy, though, because the metal stairs were wet and the suitcases were fairly heavy. She had just reached the bottom of the second flight when she heard a screeching from above. She heard Mrs. Black demanding for her to come out from hiding.

Tessa glanced over the railing of the fire escape and saw she only had one flight left to go, so she heaved her suitcases up and over, dropping them over the side and momentarily forgetting about her valuable belongings. They landed loudly in the mud below, and she hurled herself down the rest of the stairs.

Her heart was pounding in her head when she reached the bottom. She grabbed her bags and tried to run as fast as she could with them. She didn't know how far she could go, and it was getting dark outside and it was raining.

With her suitcases trailing behind her, she threw a glance over her shoulder as she rounded the corner, and the ground beneath her turned into slick wood as she entered the slums of Thames. The monster and the sisters were just now emerging from the apartment building, furiously glancing around the streets for her.

Tessa turned back around, focusing on the road in front of her. The wind that tore down the streets ripped through her hair, tossing it around and lashing her in the face. Panic started to set in as she recognized the scene she was in was just like her dreams.

But it wasn't just recognition she felt. She also felt something like… recollection.

Mortmain's voice rang through her head. "You are having those nightmares because you've seen these things before, you just don't remember them. You were much too young to remember…"

A memory hit her full force, and Tessa stopped abruptly in the middle of the road.

It was dark and stormy; much like it was just then. Tessa ran outside the house she grew up in to see her mom. She was crying; she didn't want her mom to leave.

"Mommy!" Little Tessa cried out. She watched as her mom turned at the end of the sidewalk. Her mother had tears in her eyes, her dark hair billowing all around her.

"Tessie, please go inside. I'll be back soon. I love you so much! With all my heart, and please don't forget that," her mother called.

Little Tessa continued to cry and raced down the sidewalk to her mother. "Mommy, please don't leave me," she whimpered.

Her mother wrapped her in her arms. "I'll be back, Tessie. I love you. Now go back inside, okay? The weather is dangerous."

Little Tessa touched her mom's face, and her gray eyes softened when she looked at her daughter. "I love you, mommy. I'll miss you." With that, she obeyed her mother and turned to go back inside.

Just as she reached the door, she turned one last time to see her mother. She was smiling and waving to Tess. Tessa was about to go inside when she heard her mother scream; it was a bloodcurdling scream.

"Mommy!" Tessa screamed as she whipped back around to see a giant worm-like creature descend upon her mother. Tears streamed down her face, but she was frozen in fear as her mother looked at her one last time.

"Tessie, run! I love you!"

An orange-haired boy, who appeared to be a teenager, ran outside the house with a glowing blade. Little Tessa recognized him as her babysitter, Henry. Henry looked down at her, then reached down and picked her up, setting her inside the house.

"Tessie, stay in here and don't come out," he demanded. Tessa knew from the tone in his voice this was serious.

She shut the door behind him and ran to the front window, watching as Henry fought off the worm creature. She saw her mother lying on the ground, blood spilling from her abdomen. It made Little Tessa cry harder when she saw her mother wasn't moving.

And her mother never moved again.

Tessa was brought back to reality as the memory faded away. Tears were pouring down her cheeks and she was gasping for air. She couldn't remember why she was standing in the middle of the street, on some docks in the slums of the Thames River.

The memory of the worm reminded her she was running away from the Dark Sisters and the worm-creature. She thought, out of the blue, how no one had stopped to help her. Did no one see the thing that was chasing her? Tessa glanced behind her and she took off running again. She caught a glimpse of the worm rounding the corner, noticeably sniffing around for her scent. She could tell it had no eyes, but a keen sense of smell.

Tessa was terrified. She was about to relive her mother's death as her own. Her arms were starting to feel more like lead, and her bags suddenly felt like they contained bricks instead of common necessities.

Tessa's foot slipped in a patch of mud, and her bags went skidding in front of her as she fell toward the uneven ground below her. Just like in her nightmare, she landed on her elbows and knees, but she hit the side of her head too.

She gasped at the throbbing that instantly went through her body. She tried to push herself up, but her limbs went limp.

No, she demanded herself. This is not going to happen to me. Not now. I can make it through this.

She raised her eyes and saw, as she was lying on the corner of the street adjacent to the docks, about a quarter mile away, a building that looked like it had burned down.

Maybe if I can get there, I can hide.

The longer she stared at the burned down building, it evolved into a tall building with gothic spires rising up into the sky.

A church! She though ecstatically. They will help me!

As she was finding the strength to lift herself back up, the worm creature latched its teeth around her ankle. Tessa collapsed again and screamed, kicking and thrashing about to get it to let go. Tessa felt the pain in her ankle start to spread, and she knew instantly the thing was poisonous. She twisted herself around, knowing it was shredding the skin on her ankle.

"No! Let go of me!" she screamed. She kicked the thing in between where the eyes should have been. It must have been in shock because it released her momentarily, slimy liquid dripping out of its mouth and down her pant leg.

She seized the opportunity and scrambled to her feet. She almost fell again from the indescribable pain in her ankle. She glanced down briefly, seeing how it had already swollen twice its original size. She shivered at the sight of so much blood but limped as quickly as she could toward her bags.

Tessa knew the creature couldn't see, so she gripped her bags and made a zigzag pathway toward the church. Behind her, she could hear it sniffling. She could also hear the Dark Sisters screeching some distance away, but gaining distance on her. She knew she had to move quicker.

The aching spread upward toward her thigh now, and her leg was becoming less and less mobile. She pushed herself harder and harder. Only a few hundred feet more! Come on, Tessa!

She was almost there, but so were the creature and the Dark Sisters. The throbbing now burrowed itself in her hips, spreading down to her other leg.

Tessa could almost touch the entrance of the church. If she could just go a little bit further…

The weight of her suitcases was too much for her to handle at this point. She set them down to reach up and unlatch the gate. She picked them up and then dropped them again just as she reached the inside of the gates and bolted as quickly as she could to the doors.

She didn't have much time to take it all in. She was in panic mode and needed help immediately. She started pounding on the door, not knowing what else to do.

"Help me! Please! Someone help me!" she screamed as loudly as she could. She banged harder and louder, this time with both fists. She couldn't stand on her legs much longer. They were beginning to lock up. "Please help me! Please! They're coming after me! They're so close!"

The door swung open and Tessa fell into the doorway, but right into someone that caught her. Under normal circumstances she would've been embarrassed and apologized, but she was in a state of paranoia. She looked up at the person who'd caught her.

She was in the arms of a tall boy, probably the same age as her. He had unruly hair the shade of black licorice and eyes violently blue with long eyelashes. His face was elegant but all angles, with a strong jaw and chin, and sharp cheekbones. He had full, soft-looking lips, and his skin was a pale pallor.

At first, his face held an expression of pure shock, but it melted into a smirk. "Well, if I'd known that women were going to physically throw themselves into my arms, I would've better prepared myself with something a little more ravishing than a plain t-shirt," he remarked.

"William! This poor girl needs help!" a woman scolded. Tessa looked over at her. She was small, much smaller than Tessa, with long brown hair and brown eyes that held years of wisdom. As young as she looked, Tessa could tell she had a powerful personality.

Tessa, who was beginning to feel blackness pulling at the edges of her mind, didn't have time to mess around at this point. "You have to help me," she whimpered. "Please." The pain was unbearable now and she couldn't move anything.

The last thing Tessa's mind registered was her body going limp in the boy's arms before the blackness completely washed over her.