The Mortal Instruments – FanFiction

Torment

Chapter 13 – Unravelling

Sebastian's Perspective

"How dare you escape me!" Sebastian screamed as his hands clenched into fists of sheer anger. His blood boiled and his skin burned with a sweltering flame. Sebastian held little control at this point. His body raced ahead before his mind could even contemplate what he was going to do when he found Clary. "You are mine! Mine! You stupid, foolish temptress!" His shoulders rose and fell with his raced breaths. Did he really just call Clary that?

"Sebastian! Calm down!" Clary protested when he used his body weight to pin her to the forest floor. His anger fuelled his desire to hurt her. No, I don't want to hurt her – he thought. He felt conflicted as he sat up – straddling his wriggling sister. Valentine taught him to show no mercy. Clary banged her small fists against his chest in desperation - his head was too high for her to reach.
"Shut up you useless bitch! You are nothing to me – Nothing!" Sebastian's mind disconnected from his body as he drove a hard punch into her nose.
He had never done that before. Sebastian had never punched his sister in the face…
Clary's pained cries echoed out into the forest as her innocent and angelic blood poured down her sunken and pale face. Sebastian released his hold on her hands, allowing her to bring them up to cradle her nose. Clary's blatant rejection of him pushed him too far. Sure, he knew she would escape. He knew that Clary was a fighter and would try to leave him as soon as possible. It just hurt so God damn much when she did so. Clary was the unravelling of him. Her rejection stung more than his lifetime of ostracism and cruelty by his father. Just when Sebastian thought he could feel emotion… Just when he thought that his brain had opened his mental floodgates of feeling… The water pounding through represented his epitomising darkness - the influx of emotion had become his powerful weapon.

Sebastian had held his emotional complexity within him for so many years. His carnal desires for Clary were more than just physical. It had taken him so long to realise his attraction to Clary was both physical and mental. This control frightened him. No woman should have this power! No woman should be able to elicit these responses from him! Sebastian felt his emotional composure slip at the thought of someone controlling him again. Valentine had dictated his entire life. Sebastian swore to himself that no one would ever have that kind of control over him again. He was going to enforce his authority. Clary needed reinforcement – she needed to know who was in charge. Darkness flooded into his heart, just like in his dream. Except, this time – he had control of it. He could feel its power develop deep within him. It rumbled like a great migration as it flooded his mind with a delicious ecstasy. He had no orientation or sense of reasoning as his malicious nature overthrew every feeling he had ever had about Clary.
"Get the f*ck off the ground!" He thundered, accentuating each word. "You. Are. Mine."

Clary's Perspective

The pain in Clary's knee was almost minimal in comparison to her nose. Wet, thick and clumpy blood dripped down her face – threatening to drizzle into her mouth. Her brother latched his strong hand around her ankle in an unbreakable death lock. He yanked her frail and malnourished body with extreme force back through the forest. Clary cried out in agony as she was dragged over rocks and through thorny bushes. Each bruise or cut that developed on her skin only added to her collection. Her body was so beyond breaking point. At this moment, Clary wished that she could be under the injection Sebastian used on her when Jace came to save her. Clary knew what was coming. Somehow, dying felt like the better alternative. Clary felt broken – both physically and emotionally broken. Her mind became hazy and her previous wave of nausea came back. Black spots appeared in her vision as she fought her brain to stop thinking of what will happen.

Clary's arms latched onto the tree roots that passed by her. She clung onto them for dear life as her sense of reasoning disappeared. She was overwhelmed by her survival instincts as she screamed. Clary felt her throat tear up as her voice box cut off. Her blood curdling screams still echoed through the forest as Sebastian turned around. He saw her frail fingers clinging to the earth and the tree roots for survival. Raising his boot – Sebastian smashed his foot down hard onto her hand like a tonne of bricks with an audible crunch. He knelt down and brought his face right up to hers – their noses touching. Clary could feel his heated breath rise up between them and press onto her eyelids. She refused to open them – she would not let her brother see her tears. Sebastian held his ground, waiting for her to open them. When she didn't, Clary heard a sharp ring in her ear before she felt the pain. Sebastian's long arm reached behind and pulled a knife from his belt. His gaze travelled to her other hand – still wrapped around the roots. Slowly, almost ominously – Sebastian bought the blade to the inside of her wrist. Her hand was clenched so tight that Clary knew Sebastian could see the arteries and veins that pressed out of her skin from strain. In a fluid motion, Sebastian pulled the blade up and slit her wrist. Before Clary could even draw in a breath to scream, Sebastian grabbed her wrist and brought it to his mouth. He locked his fingers around her hand and forearm as her blood began to drip from his lips.
"You sick f*cker!" Clary wailed as her vision blurred. She could see dark red lines drip down her arm as her brother feasted on her blood like it was a matured wine. Her brother had become so blinded with rage that his demon side had taken over. This wasn't Sebastian, this was the demonic blood that polluted him and darkened his soul. His demonic instincts feasted on her blood to quench his thirst of rage and rejection. Clary felt her fear engulf her completely – making her feel dizzy. Clary's consciousness began to fade - her mind beginning the slow decent into oblivion.

Clary didn't want to recognise that this was it. This was the moment when Sebastian's long awaited intent became a reality. Clary closed her eyes; praying that her body could conjure enough energy to let her make one last final stand. Her mind dove in and out of consciousness as she felt Sebastian grip her leg again and continue on their journey back to the campsite. She knew that her body had long since drained itself of adrenaline – let alone energy. There was nothing left of her. She was reduced to skin and bone - weakness and meaninglessness replaced her sanity. This was the moment when Sebastian would win. This was the moment when her brother took from her something that Mother Nature conditioned to be wrong. This was Clary's last moment to be free of plagued thoughts – to be free of the countless nightmares she feared would haunt her after this. She knew that what her brother planned would send her to breaking point. She would become a living creature with a broken soul and comatose body. She had fought for so long; it suddenly seemed like a waste. This was the inventible. Sebastian was about to claim what he deemed as his. Clary would be a broken porcelain doll – ruined by the sickness of her own flesh and blood brother.

Maryse Lightwood's Perspective

Dinner at the institute that night was in silence. After a short time, Jace came into the kitchen and sat at his usual spot amongst his family. It pained Maryse to see her adoptive son so torn. Jace had been acting so tough these last few weeks – however, every mother knows her children. Maryse knew better than to believe his carefully constructed façade. Jace kept his eyes fixed on a dark knot that twisted within the wooden table. He took several mouthfuls of food and sculled his water – enough to keep him physically functioning. He kept his head down as he stood up, took his plate to the sink and left without another word.

"He is a ghost…" Isabelle whispered beside her. "His body is just an empty shell."
Maryse wrapped her arm around her daughter. Times like these bought out the resilience of their character, but enabled to them to empathise with strength.
"I know Izzy." Maryse stated. "He can't hold on forever…"

Later that night, Maryse found herself tossing and turning under her covers. Her mind could not find peace. Maryse was a strong woman, but that didn't mean that she couldn't love her children with all her heart. Memories of Max still haunted her as she feared that her son's killer would soon become Clary's.

Maryse wrapped herself in a black silken nightgown. She sighed quietly as she remembered when Robert bought it for her. It had been a long time since she had received any news from him – her love life currently hung by a thread.

Stepping out into the dim hallway, Maryse let her feet sweep her away. Maryse knew the institute like the back of her hand – she didn't need a light. Every hallway within the institute had some kind of memory – some kind of reminiscence that only made her pain deeper. Maryse walked to Isabelle's room and quietly opened the door. Seeing her only daughter sleep peacefully within her bed eased her heated pain of heartbreak. Each of her children contributed to the beating of her heart. So far one child had met God's hands too early. Her eldest son had sunken into a deep heartbreak and her adoptive son was on the precarious edges of depression and severe anxiety. Maryse had always felt like a strong parent. She had always believed that Robert and herself were fervent parents. These days it seemed that all Maryse could do was question herself and every decision she had ever made.

Finally, Maryse's feet had taken her to her destination. Her footsteps were quiet and poised as she hesitated outside Jace's bedroom. It seemed inaudible at first as she pressed her ear to the door. She could make out a soft rhythm with hushed words. Jace was singing quietly to himself… Jace was singing the song she sung for Alec and Isabelle when they were afraid of the dark as children. It was in this moment that Maryse remembered Jace saying that she was the only mother he ever had. The song was the only thing Maryse could think of using to keep Jace from leaving her after the incident with Valentine's boat. The gentle melody disappeared as softly as it had appeared. Jace must have known that she was there.

Maryse realised her son wanted to be left alone to wallow in his grief. She walked back down the hallway as her throat closed up and tears formed in her eyes. Maryse felt her son's depression become her own. Maryse gripped onto the wall as she felt her own problems consume her…