Another update?! I just got really good at time management this week, so happy reading!
With Uncle Magnus being questioned and almost all of the family in Idris, Anna had had a wonderfully lazy day, and that was perfectly fine with her. She'd spent nearly the entire day reading, knowing that it was better to fill her mind with the words of a book than to sit around and think about what may or may not be happening with Uncle Magnus and the Clave. Both Sophie and Maddie had come to check on her several times throughout the day. Maddie generally brought her little snacks, something so considerate and gentle that Anna couldn't help but think of Uncle Alec.
Every time Sophie had come to check on her, Anna had been hard-pressed to convince her that she really didn't need any help. Sophie was always, always trying to protect her, to help her when she could. Anna certainly appreciated the concern her twin sister always showed; she loved the fact that she always knew that Sophie would have her back no matter the situation, but sometimes Anna wished that everyone in the family would understand that she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Being quiet didn't equate to being weak. But out of all the people, Sophie seemed to understand that the best, offering help in a way that never seemed to be demeaning.
So when Anna heard the first rumble of thunder, she automatically got up from where she'd been sitting in the greenhouse and headed toward Sophie's room. She didn't bother knocking as she entered, but Anna instinctively locked the door behind her as she always did when she came to stay with Sophie during a storm. When Anna entered, Sophie was already wrapped up in her covers, and Anna couldn't help but smile when she saw Murphy's head sticking out from under the covers as well. Murphy was Sophie's puppy, the cutest brown lab Anna had ever laid eyes on.
But Anna was the only one that knew about Murphy, and she and Sophie both knew that if their parents found out that Murphy would likely automatically be with a new family within the hour. Yet Anna refused to tell anyone about Murphy, refused to betray her sister that way. Anna knew that Sophie needed Murphy, knew that ratting Sophie out would be the worst possible way to hurt her. For as long as Anna could remember, Sophie had had a rather extreme phobia of thunderstorms that she refused to tell anyone other than Anna about. When Sophie had found Murphy as a stray puppy, she'd taken him in, only to discover that Murphy would comfort her during storms. Now, it seemed as though the only way to get Sophie through a storm was to ensure that she had Murphy by her side.
Anna climbed in bed beside of her sister, giving Murphy a pat on his head. "Uncle Alec and Uncle Magnus got back just a little bit ago," Sophie said, her voice strained as it usually was during storms. "The Clave decided that Uncle Magnus had nothing to do with the girl's murder." Anna sighed in relief, feeling like a huge weight had just been lifted from her shoulders. She hadn't realized until that moment just how worried she'd been about her uncle, but she did know that she'd never once suspected that Uncle Magnus had had anything to do with the situation in the slightest. "How did reading go today?" Sophie suddenly asked, but the question was far from surprising to Anna.
"I told you a million times already," Anna replied, her voice far from angry. She had trouble being angry with Sophie, especially when she knew that her sister was only trying to help her. "I got a lot of practice in today, and it wasn't as bad as it normally is." Like Murphy was for Sophie, Anna's trouble with reading was her secret. Anna didn't know what was wrong with her, but there was definitely something different. She'd never told her parents because she simply didn't know how to do so, but now it seemed as though it was far too late to tell anyone else about it.
Anna wrapped an arm around Sophie as they heard more thunder, and she knew that she needed to keep talking, to distract her sister from what was going on outside. "Preston Cartwright is something else, isn't he?" she asked, her voice full of sarcasm in a way that it rarely was. Anna smiled when her sister laughed, knowing that the sarcasm definitely came as a surprise to Sophie. When Murphy moved to snuggle closer to Sophie, Anna knew that another round of thunder was coming, but this time, Sophie was too focused on her puppy to worry much about it.
"I've got a few words I could use other than 'something,'" Sophie replied after kissing Murphy's head. Anna could only imagine the words that Sophie and George might come up with for Preston, not to mention what Charlie might say about him. But there was something about the boy that was almost sad to Anna, and she had a hard time staying angry with him over what he had said to Charlie. It was almost as though his arrogance was a sort of defence, as if he was trying to overcompensate for what he really felt inside. "He isn't bad looking, though," Sophie admitted almost begrudgingly. "I will give him that."
Anna considered this for several seconds, and hated to realize that her sister was right. But what was most interesting to her about Preston wasn't his looks or even the thought that he might be half as good as he thought he was. Anna was interested in the part of Preston that he was hiding, the part of him that he truly didn't want anyone to know about. What Anna truly loved was a good mystery, and Preston Cartwright was just that. But she knew that she'd have to be careful; she knew that she couldn't let any of her family know just how intrigued she was by him.
Getting up the next morning for training was grueling to say the least. Anna had stayed with Sophie all night, long after the storm had passed, spending time with her her sister in a way she hadn't had the chance to in a long time. Anna enjoyed the distraction of training, but she couldn't keep herself from focusing on Preston throughout training as well. She almost wished the she had the kind of intuition that Rafael had, that she could spend five minutes with a person and know their life's story the way he could. But since she didn't have the same kind of skills that Rafael had, she watched Preston as closely as possible, squeezing out every ounce of information that she could.
In the end, she realized that despite his arrogant nature, Preston seemed to be a bit timid, especially when it came to authority figures. He wouldn't meet Uncle Alec's eyes, wouldn't get very close to Uncle Jace, but he followed everything they said perfectly, as though he was afraid of messing up. Anna was terribly confused by what she picked up from Preston, so as soon as training was over, she grabbed her book and ran to the library, knowing that that was the one place people would hardly go all day..
Yet Anna was already so distracted that reading was even harder than normal. As she normally did, Anna resorted to reading out loud, something Sophie had suggested because it seemed to help her focus a bit better. She hadn't quite registered the fact that she was reading out loud, but she was so distracted that she certainly didn't realize it when someone else entered the library. All she was focused on at the moment was a particularly agonizing word that she simply couldn't seem to pronounce correctly, stumbling over the syllables over and over again, determined to get it right no matter how long it took.
Anna froze when she heard a voice just behind her, the last possible voice that she would want to hear. "I think the word you're looking for is 'miniscule,'" Preston said, his voice automatically putting Anna on guard. She'd gone to great lengths to ensure that Sophie was the only one who knew about her struggles, and now here was the one person who could very easily ruin all of that work. Naturally she had to have been discovered by the most arrogant person in the Institute; naturally she couldn't have been discovered by Max or James or anyone else she knew would be understanding.
Without stopping to think about what she was doing, Anna immediately turned on Preston, her mind already working in overdrive. "I don't need your help," she said, her voice wavering ever so slightly. She wished that she could credit that to the fact that she was nervous about her family discovering her secret, but she knew that that certainly wasn't the case. This was the first time that she'd seen Preston without his gear on, and she absolutely hated to admit that the deep orange shirt he was wearing greatly complimented his brown hair and green eyes.
"I wasn't trying to imply that you did," Preston replied, all of the usual arrogance completely erased from his tone. He moved to sit down across from Anna, and she couldn't help but look back down at her hands, at the book she'd been reading, suddenly much more self-conscious than she had been before. "When you look at the page," Preston continued, his voice suddenly becoming much gentler than it had ever been before, "the words seem so familiar to you, but the letters look as though they're continually floating around the page and sometimes you just can't tell where the letters are supposed to go?"
Anna couldn't help but look up at Preston in thinly veiled surprise, unable to keep her expression neutral in any way. For as long as Anna could remember, those around her had had no idea what she felt like day in and day out. No one had ever been able to articulate exactly how she was struggling. She was so surprised that she was unable to respond, unable to even let Preston know that he was right. "I know what you're thinking, Anna. But trust me when I tell you that there's nothing wrong with you. It's called dyslexia, and it's very common among mundanes but you didn't know what it was because it's very rare among Shadowhunters. Google it if you don't believe me." Anna tried to hide her smile as she reached for her phone, mostly because she wanted to make sure that Preston was really telling her the truth, mostly because she wasn't quite ready to fully trust him.
"If you would ever like any help in learning how to manage it, you know where to find me," Preston said as he got up from his seat. Anna looked up at him with an almost blank expression, trying to figure out if this was truly the same arrogant boy she had seen just hours before. "My little sister had dyslexia; I loved reading with her." Preston stopped speaking very abruptly, and Anna was left to wonder why Preston had used past tense when referring to his sister. There was only one obvious reason, but Anna didn't want to think about what that meant exactly. Before Anna could respond, Preston turned to leave, and suddenly, Anna felt as though she needed to do something more.
"Preston, wait," she said, placing her book on the seat behind her as she got up as well. Preston turned around rather slowly, and Anna began to wonder if she was about to do the right thing or not. But before she could truly stop to think about the situation, the words were spilling out of her mouth. "Thank you," she said, trying to soften her voice, knowing that she'd been too harsh with him before. "And I think I'll take you up on that offer after training tomorrow." This time, it was Anna's turn to move to leave, but not before she caught the smile on Preston's face. Anna couldn't help but wonder how a person's smile could change their appearance so drastically.
All through training, Anna tried to keep her eyes off of Preston, knowing that her cousins and siblings would very easily pick up on anything out of the ordinary. Yet the less suspicious she tried to make herself look, the more she felt as though she was acting suspicious. Training felt as though it was dragging on and on in a way it never had before, and Anna begrudgingly found herself looking forward to spending time with Preston. She had always wished that she would find someone who could truly help her with reading, and now here he was.
Several times throughout training, Anna noticed that Charlie seemed particularly out of breath, but she refrained from saying anything, mostly because James and Max were continually asking her if she was okay anyway. Charlie got out of breath quite often when it came to training, but for some reason, Anna sensed that there was something more to it today. Everyone was seemingly on edge the entire time, and the last thing Anna wanted to do was make things worse, so she continued training as she normally would, her mind occupied with thoughts of both her cousin and Preston.
Eventually, Uncle Alec signaled for them to take a break, and he swiftly left the room. It was Anna's guess that he was going to get Uncle Jace, that he'd been noticing what was going on with Charlie and that he wanted to make sure everything was alright. The only problem with this was that just a few short minutes after he left, everything suddenly turned into chaos. When Anna heard a loud thump, she turned around to see Charlie on the ground, and suddenly she froze in place. But thankfully, Rafael and George did not freeze up in the way that she did. They were by Charlie's side in seconds, but that didn't seem to make a difference.
It was very clear that Charlie couldn't breathe, painfully clear that there was something going on with her heart. "James," Rafe said, his voice forceful yet far from frantic. "Call 9-1-1. Now. She needs to go to the mundanes for help, you know that." Yet it seemed as though James couldn't move, and Anna knew that he was terrified for his sister, that he would be the last person to be able to help at a moment like this. Anna heard Max's voice, knew that he was calling for an ambulance, and suddenly she was running, trying her hardest to find absolutely any of the adults. She didn't realize she was crying until she felt her mother's arms wrap around her once Uncle Jace and Aunt Clary were by Charlie's side.
The next few minutes went by in a whirl as everyone tried to clear Charlie out, her breathing not easing in the slightest. In the end, Anna sat with her parents, trying to comprehend what was going on, trying to find a reasonable explanation for all of it. She watched as George went to be with James, knowing that her brother would stay with James all day if he needed to. Anna's eyes locked with Preston's, and for a moment, she wanted nothing more than to spend time with him again. At least she thought she did, until he spoke.
"See, just like I said," Preston began, his voice dripping with the arrogance that had been missing the day before. "If she were a real Shadowhunter, this wouldn't have happened." The world around Anna seemed to freeze, and Anna knew that Preston was very lucky that Uncle Jace was no longer in the room. Everyone around Anna seemed to have no idea of how to react or what to do. Anna's mind told her that what she was about to do was a horrible idea, but her heart told her to go for it.
She stepped away from her parents despite the fact that her mom had tightened her arm around Anna. Anna reached for one of her throwing knives, handling it with expert care. "Real Shadowhunters," she began, throwing the knife with terrifying speed toward Preston's head. The knife lodged in the wall just centimeters away from him, but Anna was already reaching for a second knife. "Would never talk about other Shadowhunters," she said, throwing the second knife to the opposite side of Preston's head. "Like that," she finished, letting a third knife fly, the knife landing just above Preston's head this time. She forced herself to keep from registering the look on Preston's face; the only thing she could think about at the moment was Charlie and just how terrified she was for her cousin.
Anna knew that everyone in the room was likely looking at her with a mixture of shock and confusion. Usually, Sophie and George were the ones who were prone to outbursts like that. But Anna didn't care. All she cared about was getting out of the training room and away from Preston. Her mind was already running at full speed, wondering why she'd ever been foolish enough to think that Preston might be anything less than an arrogant jerk. She felt like an idiot for trusting him in the slightest. Anna knew there would be questions to answer later, but at the moment, she just needed to get away and be alone, to figure out exactly what was going on without having anyone else around her.
Just so you all know the plan, this story is only going to have a few more chapters to it. Then, I will begin writing the main story for my OCs. It'll be about their overall plot line and the villain that they're going to have to deal with and various other villains actually. In addition to that, I will be writing various one-shots for a lot of my OCs as a way to give you all backstories and so on. Each of them has a secret or a fear that greatly comes into play in their stories, as you saw with Sophie and Anna in this chapter, so I will be writing some different things about them in regards to those!
Let me know your thoughts! I love hearing form you all about my writing!