My vision is blurred. Everything is tinted red, like I am looking through a stained glass window. I watch a boy with golden hair stand at the balcony. His luscious locks are gently tossed behind his head by a stray wind that comes from the front of him. He is wearing a white shirt and black jeans. The shirt is open, billowing behind him like a cape. Silhouetted by the rising sun, the golden boy looks like an angel.
I watch as a girl who resembles me goes over to him. He turns at her touch on his back and his expression is one of hunger and lust. The short red head looks up at him, and he searches her body with his eyes, as if he has lost something and she is hiding it beneath her black silk dress.
They step closer to one another and begin to kiss; his hands are on her back, her body, hers are delicately entwined in his hair. She pulls away and taking his hand, the girl leads him to the very edge of the balcony. They both stand on the railing and look down on the ground beneath them. The girl turns to him, her hair crowning her head in a halo of blood red. She leans up to his neck. She presses her lips to the sensitive skin beneath his jaw. The girl sinks her teeth into his skin.
I watch as she pulls away, her mouth stained as red as her hair. I watch as she pushes the golden boy off of the balcony. I watch as he crumbles from safety and flies through the air to the ground below. His face is an expression of pain and fear, his eyes silently crying out for help.
The girl observes all of this with a steely expression. She licks the blood from her chin. Turning her back from the boy with golden hair, she greets the new comer, her eyes light up from the familiar face.
"Simon." She says.
I wake up to the sound of someone saying my name outside of the tent. I sit up, my tank top is plastered to my skin and the smell of sweat is prominent for my nose. "Clary," Jace calls again from outside of my tent. "Are you okay in there?" My mouth is dry and I find I don't know the answer to that question. "When you're out, come and find me okay?"
"okay." I manage to reply, my voice sounds weak and hollow, it croaks as if I've never used it before.
When I clean up and put on some new clothes, I head out of the tent and see Jace ahead of me, seated under a tree. As I walk over, he notices me and smiles. My stomach flips. I sit down next to him and hug my knees, my back presses against the cold bark. Jace looks down at me, he eyes warm and concerned. "Who's Simon?" he asks.
"What?" I ask him in shock. How does he know that name? How does he know to ask me about that name? My hands begin to shake and I hug myself closer, my breaths coming in quick, short puffs. I feel myself start to panic. The monster of my past rumbles inside of me, daring to be let free, waiting to swallow me whole. I tremble, my whole body wracked with fear and panic.
"I heard you say his name when you were sleeping." He says, his voice gentle, as if he is trying hard not to break me, as if he thinks that I am fragile. This pisses me off. I know it shouldn't, but it does.
"Why where you listening to me sleep?" I snap, my voice wavering almost hysterically.
"It was hard not too with you yelling so loud, I'll bet everyone heard you." He says, his voice tinged with irritation.
"Well, it's none of your business who s-… he is. You don't know me, what makes you think that you can talk to me about things like that?" By now I had stood up, feeling empowered by the sight of him beneath me. The panic was still gnawing at my insides, and every aspect of my being was telling me to run, to get away from that name. To get away from the memory of what I did. The memory of what I did to Simon.
"Clary, I'm sorry, I didn't know that-… I hadn't realised it was such a delicate subject." He rises, his voice calming, trying to reassure me. His hands are out in front of him as if I am a wild hose and he is trying to calm me down, tame me.
My instincts take over and I begin to run away in the direction of the trees but before I can get to them someone steps out in front of me. Magnus grabs my arms and tries to steady me. "Sorry Cl-" he stops midsentence when he sees the tears that have appeared on my face, and his expression melts to one of pity. "Darling, darling come this way." He leads me into the trees and we sit on a fallen log, his arm around my shoulders, my nose sniffing into his side.
"What did Jace say to you that caused this reaction?" Magnus exclaims and squeezes my side supportively. "He can go over the top sometimes, whatever he said I bet he didn't mean it." For some reason, Magnus being so nice make me cry even harder. I sob so loud that I have to quit myself just in case there are walkers around.
When I am capable of speech I say:" thank you for being so nice but really it was my fault. I said a boy's name in my sleep and Jace was worried about me. I overreacted, it was my fault."
"Boys name huh?" Magnus raises an eyebrow at me suggestively.
"It really wasn't like that." I roll my eyes at Magnus and wipe my nose on my sleeve in a totally unhygienic way. "He is… was my best friend. I'd known him since I was 2 maybe. We practically grew up together, like my brother really." I take a shaky sigh, and hope Magnus won't ask me anything more about it.
"Do you know what I think?" He says, taking the hint that I had done talking about my past. "I think Jace is jealous."
"Jealous?" I exclaim in a stutter, surprise practically seeping from my eyes. "Why would he be jealous?"
"I've seen the ways he looks at you, he's totally into you. And then when he hears you crying out this other guy's name, his poor male ego can't handle it." Magnus purrs, his slated, yellow eyes gleaming mischievously. "So obviously he's worried about you, and he uses that worry to suss out his competition."
"What? Magnus that's ridiculous, Jace doesn't like me! And even if he does, he shouldn't use that as an excuse to snoop into my personal life." My mind reels at the concept of Jace's affections. It's so preposterous it's not even worth thinking about; why would anyone like him, think about someone like me…? Besides, I have more oppressing matters to be thinking about, like zombies, and staying alive.
"Okay." The man retorts dubiously. "If you say so!" his sing song voice cheers me up and a little giggle escapes my lips. "Jace is hot," he says matter of factly, "but Alec is so much hotter." I find myself blush at his words and I giggle again. "Those eyes of his… mmmmm"
"Magnus!" I exclaim, laughing at his forwardness.
"What?" he asks me innocently, his long eyelashes fluttering. I laugh again and we begin to walk back again.
"So do you think I should apologise to Jace?" I ask him as we walk.
"Clary, I think you should stop worrying about it so much. You can trust us, and you've proved more than enough that we can trust you. You're part of the family now; we are going to accept you no matter what happened in your past." I smile at his words and feel a warm feeling settle in my stomach. But just as soon as it settles, I remember why that phrase is familiar.
"We are family now, you, Luke and I, we look out for each other, and we trust each other." Simon says, entwining his fingers in mine. "We love you Clary, no matter what happened in the past."
The memory of Simon makes me feel sick and I must have cringed as Magnus gives me a concerned look. "If you ever need help with your memories, I'm here." Magnus says, giving me a wink before sauntering off towards Alec. I watch him go fondly. He really has grown on me, with all of his oddities; he is the most grounded person here.
"Clary, hey!" I hear a voice call, and looking over my shoulder, I head over into that direction. Isabelle, Jordan, Maia and Jace are all crowded around a set of weapons. Izzy beckons me over, and there is urgency in her eyes.
"We're going hunting, go grab you're sword." She says, stroking her whip, and glances at my tent on the other side of camp. "Be back in five or we are leaving without you."
"So, do you know how to shoot one of those things?" Jordan asks Maia, as I follow them all into the woods three minutes later. Maia carries an elegant looking bow, its dark oak the same colour as her skin. She narrows her eyes in a 'don't mess with me' way.
"I've got the general idea thanks," Maia replies, her eyes shooting ice, "point the pointy end at the animal and pull the string, right?" she bats her eyelashes, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"There's a bit more to it than that but yeah…" Jordan looks a bit embarrassed. "What I'm trying to say is, if you need any help or anything, which you obviously don't…" Jordan trails of at the look on Maia's face.
A pebble comes sailing through the air then, hitting Jordan in the chest. I look up, and see Jace holding a finger to his lips; he is crouched under a tree, his body tense. He points to a clump of bushes ahead.
I am instantly alert. Something is moving in the undergrowth about fifty yards away, a large black shape, shuffling low to the ground. Jace smoothly reaches behind him, silently draws an arrow from his quiver, fits it to the string and pulls back the cord, I breath in slowly.
The stench of blood, rot and general wrongness hits me like a hammer, and I gasp. "Jace no!" I whisper, throwing out a hand, but it is too late. Jace releases the string, and the arrow shoots into the bushes, striking its mark with a muffled thunk.
A maddened squeal rises into the air, making my blood run cold. The bushes part and a huge boar lunges into the clearing, frothing and shaking its head. Its eyes blaze white, with no pupils or irises, and blood streams from the sockets, running down its bristly fur. Two yellow tusks curl from its jaw, razor sharp and lethal, as it screams again and charges at Jace.
As I lunge forward, Jace drops the bow, pulling out his hand gun and machete at the same time, and firing several shots at the rabid pig. I see blood erupt from its head, face and shoulders, but the crazed animal doesn't slow down. At the last instant, Jace steps away, swinging himself out of the boar's way, and brings his machete slashing down across its flanks.
The boar whirls with frightening speed, but by that time, I have drawn my sword and sliced deep into the animals back, shearing through flesh and bone. The pig squeals and whirls', gouging me with one of the deadly tusks, but its spine has been severed and its hind legs give out before it could do any real damage. Jace steps up and hits it again, landing a blow directly behind its skull, opening a deep gash in its neck, and the boar stumbles. Raising my blade, I bring it down with all my strength, aiming for the gaping wound Jace had already opened. The Katana edge slices cleanly through the pigs burly neck, cutting through spine and flesh and severing its head from its shoulders. The ugly creature collapses to the ground and rolls over, kicking the air a final time before, finally, becoming still.
I slump against a tree, letting my sword arm drop, watching as Jace sinks to the ground. I can see his muscles shacking with adrenaline, the sweat running down his brow and cheeks. I hear my heart beating a mile a minute, thudding loudly in my chest.
"Oh, my god." Jordan staggers forward, shaking as well. There is an arrow fitted to his bowstring, but everything had happened so fast that he hadn't had time to shoot it. "Are you two all right? I'm sorry, I couldn't… it just came so… out of nowhere."
Jace waves it off and stands, grabbing a hanging branch to steady him. "It's all right," he says, holstering his gun. "It's done. It's over, and everyone is fine. Clary?" he looks at me. "You're okay right? I thought I saw it get you, did it?"
I look down at my leg and the blood making my black leggings look even darker, but I shake my head, I can deal with it. "I'm fine."
"More than fine." Maia's voice is awed and jealous all at once. "Damn, girl. You cut its head clean off! You betta come hunting with us more often."
I smile at her but am suddenly away of Jace, watching me with a thoughtful expression on his face. "You were incredible," he says softly, then seems to catch himself. "I mean… that sword must be crazy sharp to cut through its neck like that!"
I smile and try to move but my leg screams in pain and I stumble, catching on to Maia's arm for support. Jace steps toward me, looking worried, but my attention suddenly shifts to something else. A sound of rustling; too quiet to be nearby but distinct enough for me to notice.
"Hello?" calls a weak, unfamiliar voice through the trees. "Please help me, are you still alive?"
Authors note: thank you for your reviews they make my day. Sorry for another cliff-hanger I just couldn't resist, this is a really long one already after all. I hope to be updating this Wednesday but if not it will be on Sunday as usual. Love y'all xx
