AN:: Hey guys! I have a confession to make. I began to write this story like a year ago, got about one and a half chapters in and stopped. Few weeks ago I decided to publish the story for some random because 'hey, why not?'. Now it turns out you guys like it and I feel pressured to finish it. So while I'm trying to remember what my original idea for the plot actually was, please excuse me as I fumble to put what I can remember together and don't hate me if it starts to suck. Thanks for understanding! Love y'all!
Clary stood frozen as the white-blonde-haired boy turned towards her. Taking the knife from the other boy had barely done anything to distract him from Jace and now she was bleeding. Clary had never been more scared in her life. There was no way she stood any change against the other boy. She looked back at Jace who was obviously unconscious. What was she supposed to do now? Clary assumed that if there had been someone, like maybe a parent or guardian that was actually concerned were here, this would not be happening in the first place. She was on her own against this psycho maniac. At least there was the knife, but Clary doubted she would actually be able to use it against him. Then again, would this not be considered a life-or-death situation? Still, the thought of actually purposely hurting someone made her uneasy.
"Where did you come from?!" the older demanded. Clary still stood petrified in fear from the boy's harsh and deadly glare. She swallowed and held the knife out in front of her, ready to use it if she needed to, which she probably would. Her hands were shaking and she didn't feel very confident. Obviously didn't look very confident either as the boy laughed at her and smirked. Clearly he didn't think Clary stood half a chance either.
Taking a deep breath Clary tried to convince herself that this boy didn't scare her. "I'm your neighbor," she said as confidently as she could. The boy raised an eyebrow as if curious, though the murderous look did not leave his eyes. Clary looked at Jace's figure which was still lying on the ground, unmoving, and for a split second Clary feared unbreathing. She watched as Jace took a shaky labored breath and a small amount of relief came to her, though not much. He needed help, and he was definitely not going to get it from whoever this boy was. "He needs help," Clary says, a bit more firmly this time, though it was stupid to state the obvious, especially when she already knew the response she was going to get.
The boy laughed at her and rage filled Clary. "He needs help!" she said, more demandingly than last time, her temper as fiery as her hair coming into play. "You can't just let him die!" she cried, but her pleading demand fell on deaf ears which enraged her even more. "Do you not care what happens to him? Do you not care if he dies?!" Clary didn't care if she was stating the obvious now, and she was, Jace was hurt and he needed help. He couldn't die, he just couldn't.
"Feisty little thing aren't you," the boy remarks, still examining her with a curious fixation. An odd look suddenly passed over his face. "Do I know you?" he asked, almost dumbly. The question came to such a shock to Clary that she almost dropped the knife. How could he know her? Clary was quite certain she had never seen him before a day in her life. When would he have seen her? Out at the grocery store with her mother? The boy looked older than she and Jace were (he looked a few years older than Jace, who Clary was guessing about her age, and of course Jace looked older than her). Could they have met before she could remember? Clary supposed it was a possibility. But if it was that long ago could he really still remember her?
"I think I would've remembered your ugly face," she said with a lot more spunk than she meant to. Clary still had good reason to be scared of him and if she set him off on another violent and murderous rampage- too late. Anger flashed in the boy's eyes and he lunged for her. What little confidence and anger Clary had quickly evaporated and condescend into sheer terror. She screamed and just barely managed to doge him, though it did little to detour the older boy.
Jace was suddenly snapped back into consciousness when he heard a scream. It took a few precious seconds for him to process it. His eyes snapped open. 'Clary!'he instantly thought. How long had he been out? Even worse, what had Sebastian done to her in that time? He couldn't let Clary get hurt. Jace tried to get up and groaned, remembering he had a few a broken ribs at best. But he couldn't afford to waste any more time, not with Clary left to face Sebastian by herself.
"Jace!" he could hear Clary call out. Jace wondered it she was calling for help. Without looking he could already tell that Sebastian had turned from Clary back to him. Jace already knew what was awaiting him with Sebastian, but if it caused a distraction and gave Clary a chance to escape then it would be worth it. Sebastian would kill him later, if not now (in fact Jace was a little surprised that he hadn't been killed earlier, especially with Sebastian so set on getting rid of him).
"What are you still doing alive?!" he heard Sebastian demand. Jace tried to respond, but he was curled in fetal position in too much pain. He had to find a better way to distract Sebastian from Clary. Jace did his best to uncurl, but this was probably the worst Sebastian had done to him yet. Managing to get on his hands and knees Jace started coughing up blood. One of his lungs might've been punctured by his ribs when Sebastian kicked him. That would be hard to fix, Jace knew if it went unattended he would die. Jace managed to get on his hands and knees, but it he had spots dancing in front of his eyes and it just made the pain worse. He was already had feeling woozy like he would pass out any second.
"Leave him alone!" he heard Clary cry again. Jace tried to look and see what was going on, but his vision was too blurry. He tried to call out for Clary but all he could do was cough up blood. Jace could barely keep his consciousness. Clary needed to get out of here before Sebastian turned his attention back to her. If she could get back over the fence she would be safe. Jace knew that Sebastian wouldn't follow her over the fence. It was his best hope that Clary would be okay. And he would have to hope that Clary didn't come back.
"Clary, run!" Jace just barely managed to choke out, followed by more blood spit up. The he heard crying, it sounded like Clary. Had Sebastian turned on her again and hurt her. He suddenly felt a huge pain in his side and he realized that Sebastian had kicked him. At least that meant Clary was safe... for now. She had to run while she could. Jace tried to tell her to run again but he was already starting to go unconscious again. He spit up more blood before collapsing again.
Clary screamed. Again.
The older boy had turned on her and tackled her to the ground. That was when she had screamed the first time. Then she saw Jace moving and she had called out to him. It had distracted the older boy and she managed to kick him off her. It didn't really do any good as Clary discovered as he probably would have gotten off of her anyway. Instead of turning back to her, he turned towards Jace and yelled at him. "Leave him alone!" Clary yelled at him, hoping it would cause a distraction. Jace looked like he was going to pass out again any second.
Clary's yelling did nothing. "Clary run!" Jace had called out to her between spit-ups of blood. Then the older boy kicked him again and Jace collapsed. That's when Clary screamed again. She was about to start crying. That's when she realized that she had lost the knife. Fear sank to the pit of her stomach. Did that other boy have it again? Jace! What would happen to him if that other boy stabbed Jace? He would probably die; Jace couldn't take something like that.
That's when Clary noticed the man running towards them. It looked like he had come from the back door of the house. Clary didn't know what to do. She panicked and fled. Clary didn't even know what she was scared of, the man looked like he was genuinely concerned about what was happening. She stopped when she was far enough away to be hidden from obvious sight. The man ran over to Jace and the other boy, she heard him asking what happened.
The other boy's name was Sebastian; the man appeared to be his father as that's what Sebastian called him. And it made sense; the man looked like a carbon copy of an older Sebastian, same black eyes and everything. Jace, as it turned out was Sebastian's brother. Clary didn't get it, why would someone want to kill their own brother. On second thought, someone who was as crazy as Sebastian, something like that didn't seem so out of place. The man asked where the screams had come from and Clary quickly ducked behind a bush, not wanting to be seen.
Sebastian claimed he didn't know, Jace was unconscious, and Clary didn't want to giver herself away. She stayed hidden and continued to listen to the conversation until Valentine took Jace back inside to take care of him. Oddly enough the man seemed genuinely concerned about Jace. Clary wondered why he hadn't been outside sooner. Her question was quickly answered as she could hear Sebastian asking his father what he was still doing here. The answer was the man had forgotten something and came back for it; then he heard Clary scream and ran outside to see what was happening.
After Clary was certain that the man have taken both boys inside she got up and ran, only stopping when she reached the fence. She sat down, leaning against the fence, trying to catch her breath. It took her a few minutes to process what actually happened. At lease it seemed like Jace was safe. For now at least, but it would have to do. Clary wondered what would happen to Sebastian, the man didn't seem to suspect him in the least. A few more minutes of thinking and replaying what just happened and Clary remembered the man asking what had happened and Sebastian said something about Jace falling or something really clumsy. She didn't even think it was believable, but the man seemed to believe it. Clary wondered if he was dense or something.
Clary started to fit the pieces together. That man, Jace and Sebastian's father, apparently worked a lot and always left Jace in the care of his older brother. Sebastian would beat Jace up for some reason that Clary didn't know yet, and when the dad came back home Sebastian would lie about it and she guessed that Jace went along with it. For what reason she didn't know why, it was almost as confusing as why the man believed the stories that obviously weren't true. That meant when the man left again, hopefully after Jace was healed a little (guess that also explained why Clary hadn't seen Jace in two weeks), and Jace would be left to Sebastian. And next time he might not be so lucky as to have interference. Clary had just barely gotten there in time. She had no doubt that if she had been any later Jace would be dead.
'Stop!' she commanded herself. 'Don't-don't think about that. Don't think about what will happen to Jace when his dad goes away again.' After she had calmed down some she climbed back through the gap in the fence and headed home.
Sebastian trudged along besides Father into the house as he fussed over Jace, not caring about his other real son like her should.
Stupid Jace, always taking the attention from Father. Father acted like he could make up for what happened seven years ago with Jace. Like Jace would ever make up for Mother, or his precious little sister. Jace was just a stupid little- Sebastian was so angry he couldn't' even think straight. He would've taken care of Jace earlier if that stupid little girl hadn't interfered. He didn't even know where she had come from. Curiously Sebastian swore he had seen her before but he didn't know where. Then the feisty little thing had insulted him and he lost his patience. Father had come back for something he had forgotten and Sebastian was certain Jace had taken it to keep Father from leaving. That little brat was going to get it later. Thankfully Father would believe anything as long as it was better than his precious little family was still perfect. He wanted so badly to believe that he was actually making up for what had happened with Jace.
Sebastian remembered that day Father had gotten the little scamp. Acted like the whole incident with mother never happened. Sebastian hated the sight of the little boy. He was supposed to be a replacement for Sebastian's real family, and that little golden-blonde-haired thing was not it. Sebastian should've had a mother and a darling little sister. Instead he had Jace. And Father acted like it was supposed to be just as good. Well it wasn't. Jace would never make up for what Sebastian should have.
With Father preoccupied with the stupid excuse he was supposed to call a brother, Sebastian stalked up to his room. After closing and locking the door he walked over to the lose floorboard under his night stand and took out the only remaining picture left of his mother. After she had left with his beloved little sister, Father had removed any and all pictures of Mother like she never existed. Sebastian had been outraged that Father had done something like that. The woman in the picture was young; the picture was taken on their wedding day. She was tall and had bright hair, a caring look and a lovely smile. Sebastian remembered her like she had left only yesterday. He smiled and caressed the picture, hugging it close to his heart. "I miss you Mother" he whispered.
Clary got home a little bit before dinner. She was a bit dirty so her mother made her take a shower. While she was waiting for the water to warm up she looked out her bedroom window and noticed it looked like a new family was moving in. Clary could see a girl about her age playing in the front yard. The girl was tall for her age and would probably make Clary look like an even small midget. A boy who looked like her older brother was out there with her, holding a presumably baby brother. All three of the kids had black hair and pale skin.
The boy and girl were both attractive looking. The boy could be considered very cute, though he looked like the shy silent type that would be scared of the girls who thought he was cute. The girl on the other hand definitely knew she was pretty. Very girly-girl looking, not much of Clary's' type, they would probably go to the same school as Clary. The girl looked like one of those nasty mean girls that keep making fun of her.
After Clary had a nice hot shower she was sitting at the dinner table eating chicken tetrazzini leftovers that her mother had made yesterday. Jocelyn was walking but Clary wasn't really paying any attention at the moment, too busy still thinking about Jace. She we dragged from her thoughts when her mother said, "So what do you think Clary?" Clary gave her mother a blank look and Jocelyn looked exasperated. "Do you listen to anything I say?" she asks.
Her father laughed. "Jocelyn, she's probably thinking about the same thing and just doesn't know it. Clary you've seen that there's a family moving next door right?" Clary quickly nodded her head, trying to avoid her mother's frustration. Jocelyn seldom got more the very frustrated, but it did put her in a bad mood and more irritable. "See Jocelyn?" her dad asked smiling. "Clary's already thinking about making friends with them. You have nothing to worry about."
Clary tried not to look too confused as to not make her mother any more agitated. "Well what do you think Clary? Do you think you could make friends with their daughter?" Jocelyn asked. Clary didn't think she could, but she nodded anyway. She still didn't get why this was so important. Her mother read the look on her face and a more understanding expression came across her face. "The family that's moving in, you father and I used to know them from high school. I thought it would be nice to invite them over for dinner. I was asking if you thought you could make friends with their little girl." Clary supposed that she could at least try, and to please her mother she nodded.
Her mother smiles and Clary feels some relief, glad her mother was a little more relieved. "Good, I think you might like her. She seems to have a strong headed personality like you." Clary couldn't' imagine liking one of the mean girls, but she would give it a try. "I really hope you like her Clary, it would mean a lot to me if this dinner goes well. I would like to have a good reunion with our old friends." Clary nodded and promised she would try her best to get along with the other girl. "oh, and by the way Clary. Her name is Isabelle."