CHAPTER VII

Forsaken

The first thing that came to me as I awoke was the sound of hushed unfamiliar voices speaking, in what you could barely call a whisper, above me. Judging by what they were saying, I guessed I was still dreaming.

"Her runes. They still haven't faded, Jules" a female voice says, filled with curiosity and sounding faintly familiar.

"That's weird, they should've by now. Especially this one, soundless" a male voice replied softly, sounding slightly older and accented with a hint of American.

I felt a soft finger poking at my inner arm.

"Has Clary come up with some longer lasting runes or something?"

"Don't be stupid, Em. You know she hasn't"

"Whatever. She's a lame excuse for a Shadowhunter anyway, weird" the girl says. If only I had control of my limbs already. I felt a shift in weight on the bed where I was laid, making the balance uneven so that I rolled ever so slightly to the left, just touching another human body. Someone had sat down at my side. If I had been more awake I would have blushed or panicked, but -as it was- my senses were still deep in the peaceful realms of slumber, where fear and panic couldn't reach; meaning that my brain hadn't processed the situation properly, so in this moment I felt no fear, anxiety or embarrassment, "Jules are you even listening?" now the girl sounded irritated.

"What's wrong with her, Em" the male wondered aloud, voice catching with concern.

"How am I supposed to know? Strange thing for a Shadowhunter, just stood there as I chased down the Behemoth demon and didn't even budge as it was about to eat her. She just held out this" I heard a faint rustle, "and then dropped after I killed it" the young girl's voice was sounding increasingly familiar.

"But... this is fake"

"Yeah, I hadn't noticed" her voice is riddled with sarcasm.

"Who are you?" the boy mutters under his breath, addressing me, but I was helpless to reply. Then he spoke louder to the girl, "Hmm... did you try an iratze?"

"Hm... no. Didn't think to at the time, I was interrupted by that guy"

Guy. What guy? My brain is still foggy, but as I was slowly coming to I could faintly remembered hearing a voice cry out to me before I fell under.

"Oh Emma, I can't believe you. No wonder she hasn't woken up" the boy's voice rose with annoyance. After some scuffling, some movement and a shift in weight again on the bed, I felt a gentle hand on my arm and then a painful, burn-like sting itch at my skin.

"Stop! What are you doing!?" a very familiar voice shouts from the other end of the room, echoing off the walls. This was the voice of Alexander, and he sound angry. Really angry.

"Giving her an iratze. It'll heal her, you know that?" the boy's voice is laced with confusion, taken aback by Alexander's outcry.

Why should Alexander know that? Iratze... to heal. This was a strange dream. And I didn't want to wake up.

"You're going to kill her!" Alexander cries and I hear heavy footsteps running across stone flooring and then another hand on my arm, rougher, pushing away the other. Then suddenly the irritating sensation of stinging vanished, "She's not a Shadowhunter!"

I felt a body being pushed forcefully off the bed and then a few stumbling footsteps, edging backwards to crash into what I could only guess was a table. Silence rang through the room heavily, lingering for a couple seconds, then a quiet voice broke through, edged with alarm,

"Julian... what have you done?"

"I... I..." the boy stammered in reply, sounding startled and filled with regret. A ringing clatter of something being dropped onto the stone floor echoed through the room. Waking up my foggy brain from its slumber, "Bu-but... she's okay..."

I felt a dozen eyes staring at me as I pulled my brain back together. Then it all comes back. Octavia, the party, Alexander and...

No, not possible...

I remember what had caused me to black out.

The demon. The girl. Shadowhunters.

It was all true.

My emotions all flood back to me in a raging torrent, ripping me clean from my sleep.

"Hey" the boy said, "I think, I think she's waking up"

Damn right I was. And whoever it was who was touching my arm needed to be removed. Heat swells from the source, rising to my cheeks in a flush of embarrassment and anger. My emotions were out of control. My eyes snapped open. After a second of blurred confusion, the scene above me comes into focus. Three people stood around the bed, staring at me like I was some kind of experiment. Alexander was closest, leant over me with one hand touching my arm, eyes swarmed with concern.

Why should he be concerned? He sure wasn't concerned last night when he was snogging my best friend.

Ex-Best friend.

That realisation dawns on me, the withered and broken state of our relationship, causing tears to well in my eyes.

Anger. Hurt. Fear. Betrayal. Anxiety. Confusion. All whipping around within me like a tornado who didn't know which house to destroy first. As it turned out, anger came most easily.

The two people stood at either side of the bed were unknown to me. The first was the girl -Emma- I recognise as the Shadowhunter from last night, looking uncharacteristically intrigued by my arousal and still dressed in what she had worn last night. The boy -whom she called Julian- was closer to me, on the other side looking anxiously down at me, with eyes fashioned from the purest oceans. His hair was dark brown like pure chocolate and unruly, hanging in waves over his head. I could recognise the marks of an artist from the paint that stained his hands and the black clothes that looked like he had just thrown on, as they were the same kind that always marked my face, hands, arms and clothes every time I emerged from the Art room at school. He had a beautiful face defined with high cheekbones and was tall and thin, but I couldn't tear my eyes from his beautiful blue-green ones. Growing up, I'd always been fascinated with beauty and capturing beauty so I can't help but stare at the boy for a moment before noticing my surroundings.

As I looked around myself I noticed I was in a long hall with an arched ceiling that reminded me of a the hospital wing in Harry Potter and I was laid down on one of the black, wrought-iron beds that lined the walls with matching bedside tables. I was in the bed furthest from the door by a window and diagonal from a long table decked with some kind of medicinal supplies. The room impressed my with its vast ornateness, resembling that of a church complete with exquisite stained glass windows which made the light shine through onto my bed in angular prism of colours; I gasp at its beauty as I start to sit up.

I was about to move my left arm to help me sit up when I realised, once again, that someone was holding it. And that that someone was Alexander.

I bolt upright, ripping his hand from my arm and pushing myself backwards into the wall at my back to get my distance from him. The three look down at my display with alarm, moving backwards, further away from me. Alexander, noticing his mistake, draws backwards with them, hurt and rejection lingering in his eyes but continues to watch me as I lean back against the wall, drawing my knees inwards to my body and hugging them.

What did they expect? How did they think I would react to waking up in a unknown room full of strangers?

I then finally found my voice.

"Where am I?" I squeak, my voice uneven an quiet.

Silence. I am answered only by stares. The three continue to stare at me cautiously like I was about to explode or turn into a flying monkey. Following the direction of their stares I look down at my arm, where I had felt stinging before Alexander's intervention. At first, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, just a arm but with fake runes tattooed onto it. But then, looking over the runes, I noticed something different. Most of the fakes I had applied yesterday before the party were now flaking and worn after the events of the evening, but one stood out, different from the rest. On my lower middle arm, just below my wrist, was a rune that appeared fresh, new, one I recognise as an Iratze. Staring at it, mesmerised, I slowly reached out my hand to touch it, but on contact, found it white hot. I winced with pain, tearing my hand away from its scorching touch. The truth dawned on me, creeping into my mind as I felt the pain of a burn alight in my arm and sear through my body. The stinging pain earlier, it was the pain of a rune being drawn through my skin. Burn-like and red hot.

I knew what happened when untrained mundanes were given runes.

I was forsaken...

I was waiting for an agonising pain to consume me, to course through my body and drive me over the brink of insanity, never to return. And I kept waiting and then waiting for the inevitable.

Nothing.

I open my eyes, which had been squeezed shut in anticipation, to stare at my arm, at the newly-applied iratze. Tentatively, I reach out my hand to touch it again, already wincing at the memory of the pain, prepared for the sear of burning flesh to greet my touch. But I find my skin normal and whole under my hand. Nothing out of the ordinary. I had born the mark. I was alive. I was still me. Unforsaken and whole.

A symphony of relieved sighs breath around me, I glance upwards to see three faces breathing in reprieve, weights of alarm lifted from their expressions.

"You're... okay?" Julian asked hesitatingly.

"Yeah, I'm...fine" I reply, my voice faint with shock.

"She bore the mark." Alexander utters under his breath in shock and disbelief, "How is that possible?"

"You said she wasn't a Shadowhunter" the girl -Emma- begins, "She should be loony by now"

"I'm no crazier than I was before actually" I surprise myself with my counter. Emma seems miffed but impressed at my unexpected come-back, I suddenly felt like I was being appraised. The sound of sudden laughter then took me off-guard. Alexander.

"Why are you here, Alexander?" I asked, my tone quiet bottled emotion.

"Well, looking after you it seems" he replies with amusement dancing in his eyes. It was clear he expected me to fall in to the same repartee we had done so easily last night. Has he forgotten what he did?

"I do not need taking after!" I half-shout in indignance. Alexander seemed shocked by my outburst but took it in his stride, answering,

"That much is abundantly clear. But an escort can hardly leave a lady in need, unchaperoned, with stranger" he teased, voice rising in glee, trying to tempt me back into complacence by using our joke from last night, only making me more angry.

"Be serious Alexander. Why are you here? What makes you think I'd ever want to see you again after last night!?" it takes effort to lower my voice.

"Last night?" he responded with a look of ignorance. This guy.

"Last night. When you snogged my drunk best-friend right in front of me?!"

"You did that?" Julian chimes in, now looking eyes narrowed at Alexander in disbelief.

Alexander looked like a child with his hand caught in the cookie jar, his face crumbled in anguish and regret before looking up to me with his beautiful green eyes filled with misery.

"Please" he utters softly, looking at me imploringly his eyes pleading understanding, "Let me explain"

"Erm. Hate to break up a lovers spat" Emma interrupted, I was glad for the intrusion, "But we have more pressing matters at hand. Like, I don't know, that fact that the girl isn't ripping us to shreds right now"

"This is not a lovers spat. And I have a name you know" I blurt out in exasperation.

"Yeah, well I don't know it"

"What is your name" asked Julian calmly, ignoring the explosive atmosphere.

"November"

"November" he smiles, "Well, November, I'm Julian and this is Emma, my parabatai"

Suddenly nervous, I strained a smile in reply.

"So" Emma says "How did you survive the rune?"

I was about to reply with 'I don't know' when Julian said,

"Sorry about that, by the way, see we thought you were a Shadowhunter. And can you blame us, judging by the way you're dressed?"

"Oh, it's fine. I'm okay, aren't it?"

"Don't forgive him so easily November!" Alexander exclaims, "You could have-"

"No harm done" I finished, electing to ignore Alexander's presence completely.

"Why are you dressed like that? Now did you do these?" Emma gestured to my fake runes.

"Oh, well it's a Halloween costume. These are fake tattoos" I answer, "You see, I'm a big fan of the book series so I...erm... decided to go as a Shadowhunter" I finish, blushing with embarrassment.

"Mundanes. You and your holidays. Did you ever stop and think that a real Shadowhunter might have mistaken you for one?" Emma's voice reels in anger, chastising me. Was she always like this?

"Well,in my world, you're forgetting, you're all fiction"

"Anyway, Emma" Julian shot his parabatai a look of warning, "One thing is abundantly clear. November here isn't a mundane."

"What?" I answered, bewildered by his implication, "That's not possible. I'm normal, I'm entirely mundane. Nothing unusual about me" I tried to laugh it off like it was all some joke.

"November" Julian walked over to where I sat on the bed, hugging my knees. He sat softly beside me an placed a gentle, comforting hand on my knee, saying slowly, with an ease like one would use to calm a startled horse, "You're bore a mark, you're not a mundane. At least, not a normal one"

"But. But...how?" I answer, now unable to deny the impossible truth.

"I guess that's what we need to find out" Julian said, smiling, "You're welcome to stay here at the Institute while we do"

The Institute...

"The Institute?! Where am I?" I asked in alarm. With all the commotion I had forgotten that I had ran off so quickly last night, none of my friends knew where I went and Octavia was supposed to be my ride home. Even a drunk Octavia wouldn't have forgotten that. But then all that crazy shit happened and I guess I ended up here.

Oh God. Darcy was probably worried sick, Katelyn and Caleb included. They probably think I've been killed or kidnapped or... well anything. I need to get home.

"Duh, you're at the London Institute" Emma chimes in, looking down at me like I was stupid.

"What about my family? My friends? They're all going to be wondering where I am?"

If my Mum has even come back yet. Is what I didn't say.

"You don't need to worry about them" a sheepish voice said from the corner of my eye. Alexander slunk back into my view like a dog with his tail between his legs.

"Oh? And why is that?" I question with spite and malice edging my voice, still thoroughly pissed at him.

"Can we have a minute guys?" he asked Julian and Emma, who then began to dutifully leave. Emma strutted off to the door without looking back whilst Julian smiled ruefully at me before following Emma to the door, and then I was alone. Alone with the last person in the world I wanted to speak to at the moment, especially with what's going on around me. My entire world had been thrown off-balance, leaving me hanging on the edge barely able to hold on from falling into the swirling storm around me. Before this, Julian and Emma had been my distraction, keeping me in place and my emotions in check. But now, alone with Alexander and my thoughts. I was a breath away from a meltdown.

How did the people in my books usually cope with this?

I scoffed, they made it seem easy. They usually heard the news and accepted it just like that, before getting on with whatever they needed to do. Generally ending with them saving the world. But they were fictional. Written like that.

Or were they?

The events of the morning were causing me to question everything I'd even known, every book I'd ever read and every story I'd ever been told. I was so not dealing with this. The subject of my storming thoughts were causing my head to spin. In an attempt to steady it I propped it back so it was resting against the wall and I was looking up into the rafters, tears beginning to fall from my eyes.

"How can any of this be true?"