WARNING: Dark themes and ideas are present in this chapter.

Since we had so much fun at Pandemonium last week, we all decided to go again this week. It was a good decision too because we all had loads of fun. I remember spending half the night dancing with Jace and then with the rest of the girls as Izzy instead on dancing even more despite the rest of us being exhausted. Despite having so much fun, it could never live up to last week. I think it was because I wasn't expecting anything so when it turned out to be a great night it felt so amazing.

The one downfall about last night was that I managed to forget my phone in the club. I don't even know how I did that, it's usually always with me. That meant that I had to go back to Pandemonium on my Saturday and hope that the club wasn't closed. Luckily for me it wasn't and I found my phone pretty easily. It was on the table where we were all sat last night. It was a miracle no one had stolen it since it was out in the open like that.

I left the club and was on my way back home when something yanked me by the arm and into an alleyway. I looked at what was yanking at my arm an saw that it was someone's hand. My gaze followed the arm all the way up to the face. Before I had time to react I felt a sudden pain on my head and then my whole body relaxed and I was swallowed by the darkness.

Slurred shouts filled my head, then a pounding ache coming from my left temple that made me feel like my skull was two sizes too small. My body hurt all over. I tried to concentrate on understanding the voices but the harder I tried, the harder it became. I realised that my pounding head probably had something to do with it.

I strained to remember what happened and how I got here, when the voices began to get clearer and I managed to make out the end of a conversation.

"-waiting outside like an idiot."

I didn't really recognise the voice but by then I had started to remember a bit despite the excruciating headache. I remembered going back to the club, I remembered seeing Sebastian and I remembered the darkness that followed almost immediately after seeing his face.

I tried to open my eyes but it was too dark to make out anything but shadows. Panic started to overwhelm me and I struggled to sit up from the hard concrete floor that I was lying against. I tried to move my hands so that I could push myself up but some sort of hard plastic was cutting into my skin, holding my wrists together behind my back. Despite the pain I yanked at my wrists, attempting to free myself. A warm liquid, I could only assume it was blood, started to trickle down my wrists and covered my fingers.

"Sleeping beauty awakens." said a voice from behind me, before I had a chance to reply, hands appeared from behind me and secured a piece of duct tape over my mouth. I tried to struggle but the person was too strong and my body hurt all over, not to mention I had my wrists tied behind my back.

My heart was beating so hard, I was worried it would actually burst out of my chest any second. I heard footsteps originate from behind me and make their way around my body. A pair of shoes came into my line of sight, and the person they belonged to bent down so that they were crouching in front of me.

"We wouldn't want you screaming for help now would we? We haven't even had a chance to talk yet." Sebastian mocked. It was official, this was the most scared I had ever been in my entire life. All I wanted to do was wake up and realise that this was another one of my nightmares, ironically nothing would make me happier than realising this nightmare was just a dream. "And the other guests haven't even arrived yet." he continued as he pulled something out of his pocket. I squinted my eyes and realised that he was clutching my phone in his hand.

"I know you're wondering what's going on, but I guess you'll just have to wait for your two little saviours to get here before I explain anything. God knows I hate repeating myself." Sebastian looked up past me and nodded to something behind me. I almost jumped out of my skin when I was harshly pulled to my feet by someone else. Sebastian leaned his head in close to mine and whispered in my ear so that only I could hear, "The first guest has arrived. I guess it's time for the party to start." He grabbed hold of my arm and started to pull me out of the dark room we were in.

We walked into a large room that appeared to be under construction. There was a square shaped hole in the wall that looked like it was meant to be a window, except it held no glass, it was just a hole in the wall. The entire room was made out of concrete, there were a few sheets of plastic hanging from the walls and some were even on the floor. Piece of rubble were scattered around the floor and there were a few pipes along the ceiling coming from one wall and disappearing in another.

Sebastian stopped us after we took a fews steps into the room. The lack of lighting did nothing to illuminate the room, but from where we were standing we were able to see almost everything pretty well. Two people, obviously the one's having the conversation earlier, walked past Sebastian and I towards the other end of the room before returning back to behind us. Rafael and Meliorn, I didn't know them too well, but I recognised them from school.

I could feel Sebastian pulling something out from behind him, the next thing I knew there was cold hard metal pressing against my neck. "Just in case you get any ideas." Sebastian whispered in my ear. By this point I was almost sure my heart had stopped completely. I could barely hear a thing over the blood rushing in my ears until I was able to hear light footsteps approaching. Jace rounded the corner, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw me.

"What the-" he started, only to be cut off abruptly by Sebastian.

"Jace, I'm so glad you could make it. We don't really have much time to chat right now, but I'll explain everything soon. Right now all you need to know is that as long as you behave yourself and do exactly as your told then Clary here will be just fine." Sebastian explained before nodding his head to Rafael and Meliorn. The two of them approached Jace and grabbed and arm each before roughly dragging him towards us so that we were all cloaked in the shadows. The whole time Jace kept his eyes locked with mine and I could see all the worry in them, all the love and all the hatred towards Sebastian reflected in the two golden pools. Luckily the three of them stopped a little off to my right,just out of reach, so that I was still able to see Jace despite the knife being held at my neck.

"Keep your mouth shut." Sebastian barked at Jace. A second pair of footsteps began to approach us and my heart sank as I saw who it was. The light in the room dimmed and I was sure we were completely hidden from sight. Jon began walking further into the room and suddenly I felt hands pushing against my back and I found myself flying through the air. Unable to catch myself due to my hands being tied behind my back I hit the ground hard causing my head to collide with the concrete floor painfully. It took a few seconds for my vision to clear but when it did I saw Jon approaching me from across the room.

"Clary?!"

Before Jon could reach me Sebastian jerked me onto my knees and brought the sharp knife back to my neck. Jon stopped abruptly and watched Sebastian and I carefully. "You know Clary," Sebastian began, "your so small and delicate, you remind me of a small doll."

"Let her go!" Jonathan demanded.

But Sebastian continued, ignoring Jon's protests. "It's a pity really because I've never been very good with toys, I always managed to break them as a child. I've always been a bit too…" he paused trying to search for the right word, "heavy handed". As if prove his point he pushed the knife harder against my skin, a small drop of blood began to roll down my neck from where Sebastian had managed to cut me. Jon took a step closer but before he could do anything else Sebastian dug the knife in harder causing more blood to trickle from the wound. I winced from the pain of the knife. Sebastian tutted at himself, "See, there I go again."

Jace couldn't contain himself any longer and burst out at Sebastian, "You son of bitch!".

"What did I say? If you can't shut your mouth yourself, we'll just have to do it for you." Sebastian told Jace. Meliorn pulled out a piece of duct tape and placed it over Jace's mouth, silencing any protests he had about the matter. "Much better. The next time either of you step out of line I might be clumsy and accidentally cut Clary a bit too deep."

When Sebastian finished talking Meliorn and Rafael dragged Jace over to the right side of the room and pulled his arms up towards the ceiling before securing them around one of the steel pipes connected to the walls with a cable tie. They then proceeded to do the same to Jon on the left side of the room. To my horror neither Jace or Jon put up a fight, they were letting themselves be put in this position because of me. Meliorn even punched Jonathan in the gut for good measure.

Sebastian pulled me off of the floor and turned me towards him, we were so close our chests were touching. I tried to pull away from him but he was too strong, one of his arms was wrapped around my waist keeping me in place. He brought his other hand, the one with the blade, towards my face and began to peel the tape away painfully slowly. Once enough of my mouth was free he leant his head forwards and forced his lips onto mine unexpectedly. I could hear something behind me but I was too focused on trying to get Sebastian off of my to be able to focus on anything else.

I bit down on his tongue that he was forcing down my throat as hard as I could causing him to pull back abruptly and reseal the tape over my mouth. Sebastian touched his lip with his finger and when he pulled back there was a drop of blood on his finger. I couldn't help the small smile that appeared on my face from the victory, though it was short lived because Sebastian drew back his hand and connected it to my cheek painfully. My head whipped to the side from the impact before Sebastian clutched my chin and caused me to look him straight in the eyes. "That wasn't very nice Clarissa. Did I forget to mention what would happen if you didn't behave yourself?"

Sebastian yanked me around so that I was once again facing Jace and Jon. I could see that Jace was struggling against his restraints while also mumbling something to Sebastian through the tape. The hatred in his eyes was clearly visible, It must have been him that I could hear before when Sebastian was trying to kiss me. "Why don't we start with Jace since he seems so keen." Sebastian stated as he nodded to Rafael who then proceeded to walk right up to Jace and punch him in the stomach. Jace doubled over, as much as he could considering his arms were tied above his head.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to see anyone I loved in pain. I was forced to turn around to face Sebastian once again. He unpeeled the tape from my mouth, the same way as he did before, but this time I didn't fight back when he kissed me and I didn't fight back when he clutched onto my waist with bruising force. All I could think about was Jace and how much I wished I was kissing him instead. When Sebastian finally pulled away I felt like I wanted to be sick, unlike him, who looked very pleased with himself.

"There's a good girl." He said as he stroked my cheek, it took everything in me not to flinch away from his touch. Just the thought of him made my skin crawl. He turned me around once again, unable to face Jon or Jace I forced myself to look at the floor. "We're going to play a little game, Clary's going to pick between the two of you," Sebastian said as he addressed Jon and Jace, "and whoever she doesn't pick, well, let's just say it won't be good. If she doesn't pick, then both of you will suffer the consequences. If you do anything other than just stand there, then Clary will get it. Understood?".

This couldn't be happening, it just couldn't. I was not going to pick between the two people that I love most in the world, I couldn't. But if I didn't then I would be condemning them both. My mind was reeling with all of the possibilities, yet no answer that I came up with was good enough. I could pick Jon and let Jace suffer, I could pick Jace and let Jon suffer or I could pick neither and they would both suffer. It's not even like I could pick the one who I thought could defend themselves best either because I knew they weren't going to do anything to protect themselves for my sake. Why couldn't they just be selfish and let me suffer, surely it would be better than knowing that it was my fault that one or both of them were in so much pain.

"Who's it going to be Clary?" I looked to both of the boys in front of me, willing myself to make a decision, but nothing came. The only thing I could do was shake my head as guilt flooded my mind. "You sure about that? You know what will happen, if you pick one then you can save the other, but if you don't then you will condemn them both. I really thought you were better than that Clary, how you disappoint me."

Sebastian then lent in so that only I could hear the next bit, "After everything your brother has done for you, I at least thought that you would pick your own blood over some boy you just met. What's so special about him Clary? What makes him better than anyone else? Why did you pick him over ME! No one has ever NOT picked ME!" By the time he finished he was shouting so that the whole room could hear him. He took a breath and seemed to calm down before continuing, "I know what it is, it's his eyes, isn't it? Isn't it!" He yanked my hair backwards so that he was shouting straight into my ear. Rafael seemed to take this a sign because he punched Jace right in his left eye."Or maybe it's his abs?" Rafael punched Jace in the chest, then again, and again, and again.

"Stop!" I screamed, unable to bear it any longer.

Rafael ignored my protests and continued to punch and jab. "No, I've got it! It's definitely that chip in his front tooth. Something about it seems to make the girls go crazy, why don't we see if we can add another one, add to his 'beauty'." Sebastian mocked. And then Rafael proceeded to attack Jace's jaw. By the time they had finished their assault on him he was bloody and bruised. He was hanging his head, obviously unable to summon the energy to lift it up, and his body was slumped in an uncomfortable looking position. It pained me to see him like this and know that it was all my fault, and then when I didn't think it could hurt any more he lifted his head and looked straight at me. I could tell by the way he was looking at me that he was worried, not for himself, but for ME. "Why don't we see what Jace has to say about his new look?" Following Sebastian's words, Rafael unpeeled the tape from Jace's mouth as slowly as he could in order to inflict more pain to the already broken boy.

Jace visibly struggled to draw enough energy to reply, "Go…to…hell" he then accompanied his bitter words with a smug grin aimed at Sebastian. The next thing I knew, both Meliorn and Rafael were kicking the living crap out of Jace while I was forced to watch. There was so much blood, I could barely see the cuts anymore, his entire top was covered in the stuff. I wanted to scream at them stop, but Sebastian was holding the knife so hard against my neck that I was scared if I even breathed too hard he would cut into something that I needed to survive and I would bleed out watching the people I love in pain because of me.

I was snapped out of it when a loud alarm started going off. My pounding headache caused by the multiple hits to the head I had received made it hard for me to recognise the type alarm. I watched as looks of terror appeared on Meliorn and Rafael's faces "Crap!" one of them shouted, and as quick as a flash they both bolted out of the room without a second thought.

Sebastian began to curse profusely before ultimately making a decision on what he was going to do next, without warning I was once again flung sideways into the air. I impacted against the ground, my skull connecting with the floor, before I slid sideways into the closest wall. If smashing my head for the third time wasn't bad enough it collided against the wall before I finally came to a stop. The world began to go blurry and I herd distant shouts but they sounded as if I was hearing them from underwater. Darkness began to crawl in from the edges of my vision and my eyelids became impossibly heavy, just as they were about to shut there was another shout but I was already too far gone to come back.