16 years later
I was running for my life. Again.
A stupid vampire decided to make me his meal. Again.
I took a sharp turn to the left, away from what me and Father call 'Sanctuary'. It's a safe place, and no Downworlder or Otherworlder had found it. I could feel him behind me. He was obviously fast because he was a vampire, and I can't race him. He got my scent and he won't lose my trail. Only one way out of this. I took a deep breath and ran to the clearing. I don't exactly 'explore' Purgatory, 'cause it doesn't exactly end, but I know places around sanctuary like a back of my hand. I did grew up here and a girl gotta eat.
I whipped my blade out and turned around, the same time vampire snarled and jumped. I rolled to the side, but the bastard barely missed me.
"Long time since I tasted mundane blood" he hissed.
Bitch please, you ain't tasting it, either way, I wanted to say, but I didn't 'cause the vamp leaped again. Father said that taunting makes everyone angrier, and angrier means stronger. So not doing it again.
I kicked the vamp off of me and slashed my blade. His head fell off with a thump and I didn't wait far him to turn into ashes. Cause he will, and after a few years or so, he will reborn again. 'Cause that's what Purgatory is. You don't die, not really at least, and you don't age. Well I aged, but I'm a mundane. Father says I don't belong here, and he'd been looking for a way to get me out for a long time. Not that it works really.
I went the same way I came only heading to the Sanctuary. It wasn't big, but it was home.
Home.
This word means different thing to me and my father. For me? Well, I can't imagine life outside this place. I wasn't born here, but I went here for unknown reason and learned to adapt. I'm Ama, it's kind of what I do.
Purgatory for my father is a prison. Stephen Herondale was born a Shadowhunter and he hated Downworlders. The same day he died he got bit by a werewolf and so he went here, where all Downworlders go. Trapped for an eternity in here. He says that finding me was the best thing that happened to him here. Of course I know he feels guilty, that me being in Purgatory is happiness for him, but honestly, it doesn't make a difference. I killed my first monster when I was seven. Stephen finally realized that being trained will not help me much without experience. It was a vetala - a snake like Otherworlder, that enjoys blood like vampires. I remember shooting an arrow to her stomach with my homemade bow. Well, my father made it but details... Anyway, vetalas hunt in pairs, so when the first was down, the second attacked me. Father said he would only interfere if I was about to die, but he didn't, cause the vetala didn't expect me to have a hidden knife in my boot. I killed her, then I finished off the first one. Stephen says that I'm good, but still didn't let me wander off alone for five years.
I reached the sanctuary, but it was empty. Father must be out again. He's been doing that a lot lately, but I didn't mind. I can take care of myself. I made myself comfortable and closed my eyes.
"You don't understand Simon. I should've been there, I should've protected him!" cried a beautiful dark-haired girl in front of me. I could not understand what was happening. Arms went to hug the girl. Not my arms. Man's.
"Shhh, Izzy, there was nothing you could've done." My mouth opened, but it wasn't my voice that came out. I didn't understand what was happening, and I couldn't control my body. Or this body. I could just watch.
'Izzy' kept sobbing into my shoulder, I was murmuring soothing words into her ear.
"Ama? Am, wake up."
'What?' I wanted to say, but no sound came out.
"Am?"
"Ama?
I opened my eyes and saw Father with a curious look in his eyes.
"You were dreaming" he said.
"Yeah, I figured" I rubbed my eyes. How long was I out?
"Who's Izzy?" father's eyes narrowed. He was looking at me intensively trying to find any traces of lie.
"No one, father, I know no 'Izzys' ."
Stephen was still staring at me. I didn't lie, I just didn't elaborate.
"You know what I told you when you were little" I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Here comes the speech. "You can't trust anyone there, but me, they are monsters, and they are not your friends."
Yeah yeah, so maybe I did complain a little about it being just me and Stephen when I was a kid.
"I know, father." I yawned. "What's new?"
Immediately my father's eyes turned more serious, if that was possible.
"Ama, we need to talk."
I took some rabbit meat from a bag. Yes, there were animals in Purgatory.
"We're talking now." I said chewing.
He sighed. Something important was on his mind.
"You must've noticed my... absence lately." he started. "I was doing something... with a Otherworlder."
I was dumbfounded. He lectures me about not trusting monsters, but here he s confessing to me about his 'absence'? That's a fancy way of saying I'm sleeping with someone.
Still, I said nothing.
"It's a Djinn, and.." he took a deep breath "he might know a way to send you back to Earth. "
I do not know how I might look right now, but if my eyes fall out of their sockets, excuse me.
"What..I mean..how?" was all I could muster.
He looked at me with sad eyes.
"Let's not talk about you not wanting to leave me, or Purgatory being your home, because it's not. Ama, you're a mundane, and mundanes go to either Heaven or Hell, there's no in-between. You have a chance in normal life and you're taking it. "
I looked at him with teary eyes. I never cried, but then again I was never about to leave Stephen. Not permanently. But from the look in his eyes, I knew that he wasn't asking. It's an order.
"Tell me how."
He looked at me, and for a moment, I saw loss in his eyes.
"There's a place, I don't know where, he didn't tell me, but it's a way out. And no Downworlder can use it. But you can Ama, you're a mundane, I..." he gently took my face with both his arms. "I thought you everything I know. You'll be fine" he seemed telling that to himself rather than me. " Ama it will be hard, but you must manage" he kissed my forehead.
"I will" I whispered.
"Ama..." he closed his eyes."You'll have to go through Hell. Literally."