Disclaimer: Since I'm not wearing my red wig, I guess I'm not Cassandra Clare and therefore, do not own this. I do, however, own my characters (Nisha, Zef, Aden, Selena, Courtney, their parents, and her deceased brother)

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, added my story on story alert and/or fav. Author. Especially since this is mostly OC.

Chapter 3: Delayed by Drugs

A knock on the door made Aden stand up and open the door. As Aden let the person in, I heard a familiar voice. "Hey, I was wondering if you wanted hot chocolate."

Apparently spotting me, he added in an undertone, "How is she doing?"

Before Aden could respond, I curtly snapped, "I'm right here!"

Zef walked over, next to the bed. "Sorry," he apologized sheepishly, stuffing his hand in his pockets. "I was just worried about you since you left during dinner."

"I'm fine, thanks though." I intertwined my fingers together, staring at the ceiling. We all just stayed in silence for a while.

"I made some hot chocolate. Come in the kitchen if you want some," he said, walking through the door.

Aden sat back down next to me, glancing at the door before looking back at me. "C'mon, let's go. It will make you feel better."

"How do you do it?" I asked, ignoring what he said. How could he act so fine, how could he help me with my pain, when he had his own to deal with?

"Do what?" he asked, but I was sure that he knew the answer.

"Not show the pain we're in. Everyone's mostly concerned about me."

"Because you're the youngest," he responded gently.

"Yeah, cause a less than half a year is such a big difference," I said huffily.

"Look, we're all cooping in some way. I guess it helps me comfort you. Keeps my mind off things," he consoled me. "Now, if you don't mind, I want some hot chocolate."

Aden helped me get up and we walked down to the kitchen. Three steaming cups of hot chocolate were on the tray. "Is Courtney not coming?" I asked, staring at the three cups.

"She, uh, had hers before. With Nisha," Zef responded apologetically.

"Oh, okay," I responded, let down. I sipped my hot chocolate before I quickly put it back on the table.

"I think I just burnt my tongue," I said due to the Aden looking at me.

"Whoops, forgot to warn you that it's hot. Want some ice?" Zef asked.

"Nah, I'm fine. If it starts becoming annoying, I'll just give myself an iratze." I blew on it, not ready to burn my tongue again.

Memories flashed back in my mind from when I was a kid, watching snow fall gently down to the ground. I was sitting by the hearth, reading a book and had a mug of steaming hot chocolate in front of me. It really was, in fact, steaming. I burnt my tongue on and family thought it would be funny to make me endure the full three to four days with it.

I couldn't properly taste anything, and it just felt plain weird. And after that, I never really did burn my tongue, until now, that is. They always did, however, joke around that I was going to burn it again.

And of course, being bratty and stubborn to prove them wrong, I never did. Which resulted in laughing at them when they burnt their own tongues.

The memories faded and I absently took a sip, no longer scalding. I looked up, seeing Zef and Aden both watching me. Uncomfortable, I squirmed in my chair. "What?" I asked, my eyes flickering back and forth from the two of them.

Neither of them said anything for a while. "Just…you were like, daydreaming."

"Right," I said sarcastically. "I just got lost in my thoughts…"

Aden nodded in understanding and Zef took a sip of his own hot chocolate to do something during that awkward little moment. I drained the cup, the milky feeling that was spreading through my making me sleepy.

I got up, and almost stumbled before catching myself. "I'm okay," I announced to no one in particular.

"It's almost like she's drunk," Zef muttered under his breath to Aden.

"You put too much in it!" he exclaimed. The last part, of course, didn't make sense to me. Not a lot of things were – my mind was all fuzzy and the world was spinning.

Zef opened his mouth to respond, but I got my slurred words out before he did. "I'm not drunk. What the hell are you guys talking about?" The world swam and the floor was rushing up to my face. I leaned against the wall, feeling better when I closed my eyes.

A peaceful sensation was over me, but it was tainted. Something was wrong. It was tugging on the edge of my mind, like a tease. I didn't know what was wrong, but something just was.

"Dude, next time, leave it to me," Aden said, shaking his head and started walking to me.

"Don't step a foot closer," I warned him, pointing an accusing finger at him. "What the hell did you do to me?"

Guilt and hurt flashed in his eyes before it was replaced by the hard dark sapphire. The world dipped and I collapsed on the floor. Aden grabbed my forearms and helped me up. As soon as I was standing – well, l would call standing leaning against the wall without toppling over – I yanked my arms away from him.

"Don't touch me," I growled. "I'm fine. Now I'm going to ask again, what did you do to me?"

Shades of black and gray crept along my vision like mist, before it was all I could see. The last thing I saw was blue, the last thing I heard was someone screaming – I couldn't tell who, maybe it was even me since I was far too gone to tell – and the last thing I felt was like I was swaying.

And then the world disappeared.

"I think we should wake her up," someone said nervously, the sounds coming to me like I was hearing underwater. Which wasn't really well.

"Shh, let her sleep if she has to. The longer, the better," someone else said, and I still couldn't hear them quiet clearly.

It felt like I was mummified – but I wasn't. My hands and feet felt like someone had put a thousand pounds on them and I felt weak. I could barely even move my head to the side or twitch my fingers.

The sounds went away, replaced by a warm feeling again, starting at my hand, and spreading across my body like a fire.

I rolled my head to the side, groggily. I snuggled my face into the pillow, trying to chase away the awareness. All I wanted was to go back to sleep.

Then my eyes snapped open. I remembered what happened before. Whenever before was, anyways.

I slowly, barely, lifted up my hand, glad to see the heaviness of it gone. I closed my eyes again, and turned to the other side, cracking them open just a bit.

Not seeing anything other than something blobs of shapes blurred by the silver of my eyelashes, I opened my eyes. And instantly regretted it. Zef, seeing my eyes open, hurriedly came to my side. I clearly remembered him standing over me. That son of a bitch.

"How are you feeling?" he asked concernedly.

"Stop with the bullshit. What the fuck did you do to me?"

"Whoa, language," Zef said, reeling back like I struck him. He had no idea how much I wanted to.

"Oh, cut the crap and tell me now," I threatened him, pissed off at him. And Aden.

At the world. Everyone.

Did they really freakin thing that I needed this on top of everything else? What the hell did they think they were doing? I swear by the Angel, I was going to bash their heads together.

"Listen Sel," he said patiently after drawing a deep breath.

My eyes flashed. "You have no right to call me Sel. You got that?"

I saw hurt on his face, before he turned away. A small part of me was angry at myself at hurting him, but the anger at him, Aden and everything else the dense world had thrown at me, masked it.

"Sorry," he muttered. "I just heard…just forget about it."

"After you tell me what's going on," I stipulated.

"For someone who's in bed, you can be so demanding. And like I said before, you are the one in the bed Do you not think I should be the one calling the shots?"

"I can easily pummel you to pulp. And no, since you weren't the one that was drugged I call the shots." He winced at the word drugged and I knew I hit a sore spot. "So, care to explain?"

His green eyes darted around the room, looking anywhere – except at me. "Damnit Zef, I deserve to know!"

He opened his mouth, as if he was going to really answer me, but the door banged open. Zef turned towards the door, taking the chance to escape from answering. Aden stood at the door, and when his eyes meet mine, he perked up.

"Sel!" he exclaimed, rushing towards me. "You're awake." He stood by the side of my bed, eyes happy.

I wanted so badly to punch him in the nose, to hold him by the front of the shirt and demand an answer. I could imagine the ruby blood that would come from the broken nose…

But I couldn't do that to my best friend. I heard Zef complaining in the background. "Why can he get away with calling you Sel, but I can't?" No one answered him, of course.

"Explain," I demanded to Aden. "Now."

He sighed dramatically, sitting down on the bed. "We drugged you."

"Thanks for telling me that Captain Obvious! I want to know why."

He pursed his lips, as if he was trying to delay this as much as possible. "You were upset," he started, looking at me with sad blue eyes. "And the whole thing with Courtney put you on the edge. So…we thought that a night without anything to worry about would do you good."

"You knocked me out for a night?" I cried incredulously.

"Actually," he said, not meeting my eyes and looking very involved with picking at a loose thread, "It was about a day and a half."

"The hell Aden! Why would you do that?"

"It was for your own good," he answered, still not quite meeting my eyes.

"Well, you don't see me drugging you!" I shot back, fuming.

He was silent at that, looking down at his hands. "Well, Zef here put too much in your hot chocolate…" he trailed off.

"Yeah, I kind of realized that it was in the hot chocolate. Seriously guys, you don't know how much I just want to smack your faces off."

"You look pretty calm," Zef remarked.

"Shut up!" I snapped at him.

"So much for calm," he noted.

"Go away," I moaned, burying my face under the covers. "I don't ever want to see either of you again."

"Selena, don't do that. You were free from all that misery, which did you good."

"Yeah, only to have it crushing back along with the betrayal," I said, my eyes glinting dangerously. They both winced at the harshness of my words, but I didn't pay it any attention. "It was my choice. Not yours."

They both didn't look at me anymore, heads down before Aden spoke. "I did feel guilty, Sel. Really."

"Well, how would you feel if I did that to you?" I asked tersely. They both clammed up immediately, picturing it, I assumed.

Sighing, I threw the covers to the side, and swung my legs over the side. I stood up, wobbly, not unlike a newborn calf and nearly toppled over. Aden grabbed my arm, pulling me upright. I yanked my hand back stiffly.

"Don't touch me," I warned, before walking like I was in seven inch heels for five hours. I finally made it to the door and pried it open.

I was faintly surprised that neither of them made a move to stop me, but I carried on walking into the kitchen. My stomach rumbled with hunger, and I succumbed to its demands.

On the counter, there was a wrapped up sandwich. Narrowing my eyes at it, I poked it before deciding to unwrap it and take a cautious bite.

Flavors flooded in my mouth and I took more bites, barely chewing before I swallowed my food. "I'm taking that you like it," someone said.

I whirled around, seeing a familiar figure leaning against the wall, arms crossed. "What do you want Zef?" I asked, annoyed.

"Just to let you know that I made that sandwich," he said, pointing to it with his chin.

"In that case," I said, while dropping it back in the counter. My stomach silently protested, but I silenced it. "There you go."

He detached himself from the wall, walking towards me, almost predator like. "I didn't do anything to it. I made it as a peace offering. Special family recipe," he said, while stopping. "Go ahead and eat it."

"No," I said stubbornly.

"I swear on the Angel that I didn't do anything to it." I narrowed my eyes at him and did nothing.

"You want me to take a bite out of it then?" he offered, walking to the counter, where I had tossed the sandwich.

Zef held it out to me and I just stared at it for a second before I slowly took it. "Look, we did it for you. I couldn't see someone who seemed so nice and young go through so much pain. It just isn't right."

"I'm not young," I huffily replied as I took a bite out of the sandwich.

"Okay, not young then. You guys are so alike…" he said, mostly to himself.

The sandwich stopped midway on its journey to my mouth. "Who?" I asked.

Zef just shook his head sadly. "I think you owe me one," I told him, sitting down at the table, motioning for him to join me.

"Fine. It's a sad story, so prepare yourself," he said, settling in the chair.

"The person I just compared you to, was my sister, Sabrina. She would be a little younger than you right now, I think."

"Was?" I asked, picking up the key word. He nodded miserably.

"She, along with the rest of my family, and my grandparents on my father's side all died in a demon induced fire. In was in the middle of the night, and I had snuck out. Which is why I didn't die like I was suppose to with them."

"That isn't your fault," I told him, feeling really bad for him. His eyes looked glassy as he continued eyes that were glancing back in the past.

"All of them died. My sister was so young, she didn't deserve that. I myself was your age when it happened to me. Which is how I came here. My only living relative, my grandma from my mom's side. Everyone told me that it wasn't my fault, that it was just survivor's guilt, but I didn't pay attention to them. All I knew was that my family had died. I fell into a depression, not talking, not eating. I just laid in bed all day, thinking about my family. Why I didn't die. Why my family had to die."

"But it wasn't your fault," I told him.

"I know that now. And I'm telling you this because it wasn't your fault for what happened to your family either."

I laughed bitterly. At least it really wasn't Zef's fault, like it was mine. "It was my fault. I went demon hunting, even though they told me not to. They came to save me and in return, they died. So how isn't that my fault? That's completely my fault."

"No it's not. A lot of things could have been done differently. They could have taken you when you asked in the first place. You just went out on the wrong day, at the wrong time. It wasn't your fault."

"Yes it was! They came out, looking for me. They all died for saving me. All of this points back to me!" I shouted, angry tears threatening to spill over my cheeks.

Zef looked conflicted, before taking a step. He looked up to see my reaction, but I was too busy wiping away my tears to be really bothered with him. I didn't even notice that he moved again until he was hugging me, stroking my back comfortingly.

Somehow, I got control over myself in a few minutes. Sniffling, I pulled back, muttering a thanks. Really, though, his words really hadn't made it all better – just for the time being it did. I said something about going to sleep before walking away.

"Selena?" Zef called from behind me.

I turned around, raising my eyebrow at him. "I'm here if you need to talk. Really. I know how you feel. Been there, done that. Still hurts sometimes." I nodded my head, unsure of what else to do before I headed back in my room.

So I could have a real good crying jag that was long overdue.

Ta-da! I finally did this…took me forever, I know. I'm sorry – I was in texas. Came back just a couple of days ago and boy did I have a shitload of work to make up.

So…tell me what you think? Secret word: highways. Because I saw SO many of them in Texas…

Also, anyone else who reads my other story called Superhero, I'm working on it (superhero was first started by the person I beta for, CoolestxNerd, before I took over. So give her props for the story and the first chapters)

Leave a review…I might update faster ;P

~Icyfirelove3