I wake to a noise, almost like a voice. I don't know how long I was out or if dad was here with me at any time during that period. I really hope not. I don't want that sick man anywhere near me. "Ughhh." I groan, lifting my head up to find Jace and Sebastian.
"Maybe she came out here." Jace sounds hopeful.
"I don't know man, this is pretty far away from town. I don't know why she would have come out here anyway." They were looking in every crick and cranny, coming up to where I was laying. I guess the rock in front of me was hiding me from their vision. I hope they don't turn around. Don't give up on me guys.
I don't know why but I feel so weak. The injections have never had this effect on me before. Why would they be different now? Well my very first injection knocked me out. Maybe it's just been too long since I had one.
The boys came closer. I couldn't tell who was who anymore, but I could hear their footsteps getting closer to me. In the next few seconds I will finally have some help.
"SEBASTIAN." I locked eyes with Jace. His face filled with horror as he took everything in.
"Oh thank go-" Sebastian stopped in the middle of his sentence, and stared at the syringe in my hand. He instantly pulled out his seraph blades and told Jace to arm himself.
"What's wrong?" Jace's aurora changed when he held a blade in his hand. He seemed so confident and natural like that.
"You see that syringe in her hand?"
"Yeah? You don't think she tried to…"
"NO. No. This is my father. I can't believe I let this happen. I've failed her."
"What do you mean? Is he dangerous?"
"Yes, very. We need to get her out of here. Be on your guard."
"Why does she have her pants off? He didn't…"
"No, he's sick, but not that sick. He had to expose her skin to inject her." Sebastian kneeled down beside me and we locked eyes. "She's awake, but not responding. Her body must have rejected it. It's been so long since he last did this to her."
"Woah. This is normal?" I wonder what Jace is going to think of me now. He's probably going to see me as weak. I hate being weak. I refuse to be weak.
"Se..Sebastian…" I could make out Seb's name, but nothing else that I was wanting to say. Like oh hey Jace. How's the weather? You look really majestic standing in this valley. You come here often? Sadly none of my thoughts were said, I only squeaked out my brother's name.
"Shhhh. It's okay Clary. I'm here. We are going to get you home alright." He rolled me over onto my back, revealing my scar. In the very first moment that Jace's eyes came in contact with my now bloody scar, he changed. He looked like he wanted to strangle the life out of both me and Sebastian.
"What is this?" Jace's eyes filled with horror when he saw my scar. He almost looked like he was in pain. I don't know why my scar made him act this way. Maybe he knows what it is.
"Jace, I need you to help me get Clary out of here so we can get help. Okay? I'll tell you everything when we get back to the house."
"Okay. I'm gonna hold you to that."
"Oh and Jace?"
"Yeah?"
"If anyone asks just say she was born with the scar."
Jace looked at Sebastian questioningly, but nodded in agreement. They grabbed my pants and slid them on to me. My brother took the syringe out of my hand and looked back and forth from it to me. He looked so sad. I wish I could say something to help him feel better. If only he knew I did it to myself.
Jace squatted down next to me and gently lifted me up into his arms. His hands were so soft. I felt very safe in his arms. We stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds, but he broke the contact when he started to walk. I moved my head into his shoulder and closed my eyes.
Shivers went all over my body. I felt so alone. My very own father is destroying me. He wants to hurt me, and I don't understand why. My eighth birthday was yesterday, and father took me on an adventure as a present. I was so excited, but was sad that mommy and Seb couldn't come with us.
"Daddy why can't mommy and Seb come too?"
"They don't know about this adventure. I wanted to keep it a secret so that it would just be me and you."
"Why?"
"Well Clary, it's simply because I love you. I want good things to happen to you and since it's your eighth birthday I wanted to make the day memorable." He looked down at me and we exchanged smiles. I was so happy. I like this version of daddy. I grabbed onto his hand and we started swinging our arms back and forth.
"Can I know where we are going?"
"It's one of my secret places that nobody knows about. I'm going to show it to you, because some day it will be yours."
My eyes widened. "I get to have your secret place?"
"Yes. I know you will make me proud, and this is my gift to you."
"You are the best daddy in the world." He's actually far from that, but since he is being nice to me I will do the same.
"And you, Clary, are the most powerful shadowhunter to walk this earth. You will do great things someday. I will teach you how."
"Thanks daddy."
We walked for another half hour talking about random things that came to our minds. He was acting so normal, like he used to be. It was really nice while it lasted.
"Well here we are. This is one of my secret places."
"It's an old barn. Are there horses in there? Is that my gift?" I have never been on a horse before. I'm so excited!
"No, but I will teach you to ride next week. I had that planned for later. Now I'm just going to show you the place and give you a few memories of it to keep for later."
"Ok sounds good daddy."
We walked up to the front door of the barn and then entered. I saw a table and a belt. The same belt from the basement. There were chains hooked up to the wall and I knew what my gift was. I couldn't fight him either, he's too strong for me. Maybe if I let him do what he has to do then it will be quicker.
"Are you excited my dear?" He looks so happy. I wonder why my pain excites him.
"Yes father."
"Good, you are warming up to this. I promise you I'm only doing this to get it to take over you. I need you to let it take over you. When you get that weird feeling in your body let it take control okay?"
"Sure." He says this every time, but I have no idea what he is talking about.
I went over and chained myself up and waited for daddy to start. Within the next five minutes I was screaming out in pain and clenching onto the chains. I felt a weird tingly sensation spread throughout my entire body. It felt foreign. I don't like it at all so I push it back. I don't want to lose control. Father sees how I'm resisting so he hits me harder and harder for what seems like hours. I let my tears flow out of me, giving up everything to my father, but I keep control of the tingly thing inside me.
He finishes soon, giving up for today. After he unchains me we walk out of the barn and go towards home. He tells me that it's okay, that I will get it soon. I block him out, and drench myself in my tears.
"Sebastian? Clary is crying in her sleep."
"She's probably having another nightmare. I didn't know she still had these. She told me they stopped years ago."
"What happened to her?"
"My father is a messed up man. He did horrible, awful things to her growing up. We had to send him to a prison in Idris for a couple of years so he could get help. He just came back two years ago, and it looks like he's still a psycho. I don't want to tell you everything, because I think she should be the one to tell her story."
"I just have one question I need you to tell me."
"Okay what is it?"
"Did he put that symbol on her leg? Or was she really just born with it?"
"He did that to her."
Jace didn't reply, he just kept walking with me in his arms. I hope I'm not too heavy. They don't know but I'm awake now, and heard everything they just said. I'm glad Sebastian respects me enough to let me tell Jace. I guess with everything he already knows I might as well just tell him. I need to tell him everything about me, because I think he knows what the symbol means. I need him to trust me enough to tell me what it means.
Finally we made it back to Alicante and to the Lightwood's house. Jace walked me to the infirmary, and laid me down onto a bed. Sebastian was out in the hall explaining what all had happened to Maryse and Robert.
"Clary. I don't know if you can hear me or not since you are sleeping, but please get better." I felt his hand on my face. He moved a few of my stray hairs behind my ear. His touch sent shocks of electricity all throughout my body. "There's something about you…I don't get it. I'm drawn to you. This has never happened to me before." He stood there for a few moments longer, and then left the room.
Soon Maryse and Robert entered and checked me out. They told Sebastian that nothing was wrong with me. It just looked like I had been over exhausted. Sleep is the only thing that can help me, but I don't want to sleep again, not with the nightmares. They feel way too real to me, and I don't want to go through all of that torture again, but if I want to get better I have to face my fear. I let sleep take me.
When I open my eyes there is no longer light coming from the window. I guess I slept through the day and into the night. Darn, now my sleep schedule is going to be all messed up. I sit up, stretching my arms and rubbing my eyes. I'm wearing a big t-shirt and shorts again. They were different clothes than the last I wore to sleep in, but they had the same smell. Jace. His smell makes me feel all warm inside. I'm really glad he didn't know I was awake when he confessed what he was feeling towards me. I thought I was the only one feeling the connection.
Slowly I slide out of the infirmary bed and jump when my bare feet hit the cold tile. My right leg is sore from the injection, but I feel the same as I did before. I bet those injections don't even do anything to me. I put the majority of my weight on my left leg as I head out into the hallway. I don't really know where I'm going, so I just go. I find the stairs and head up towards my room, but take a turn down the hallway that I hadn't been to before.
There are more rooms, like the ones we have all claimed as our own, and there is another bathroom. I reach the end of the hall and enter the last room. I shut the door behind me, and look around. The room is empty except for a ladder going up one of the walls into the ceiling. My curiosity takes over me and I start to climb the mysterious ladder.
I get to the top of the ladder to find a door that I assume leads to the roof. I look for the handle and find a lock. My hopes drop for a second until I realize that the lock is opened. I wonder if someone forgot to lock it on their way down. After I push the door open I feel a cool breeze, and see the beautiful stars of the night. My mother used to tell me that there was a star out there for each of us. She said that we shared our star with one other person, and that if we were meant to be we would see a shooting star after we confessed our love to each other. I've never confessed to somebody that I loved them, but I guess I have never loved a boy before.
I continue to climb the last few steps of the ladder so that I can move over to stand on the roof, but I get lost in thought and stop paying attention to where I place my feet. All of a sudden my left foot misses a step putting all of my weight on my right leg. I felt a pain centered where my scar is at on my leg and my knee started to buckle. I couldn't hold myself up with just my arms, so I shut my eyes waiting to hit the ground below me, but that didn't happen. Gravity didn't take me down more than an inch or two because somebody had caught me. I opened my eyes to see two familiar hands holding on to my wrists.
Jace grunted as he pulled me up and onto the roof. "Clary what are you doing?"
"I was exploring." Actually right now I'm trying to hide my blushes from you saving me. Also I am trying not to smile right now. For some reason I just want to smile.
He chuckled. "You were exploring?"
"What, you don't believe me? I'm a very adventurous person."
"I can see that now."
I looked up at Jace. His hands had slid from my wrists down to my hands. I hope my hands aren't clammy. I guess Jace being here explains the lock being left open. If he wasn't here I would have fallen and probably hurt myself even more than I already have.
"Thank you…for you know…saving me and all." I looked down at my feet and a shyness started to take over me. I felt vulnerable with him, a good vulnerable.
"I thought I heard someone calling out for a hunky man to save them, and just knew they were calling for me." His smile could kill me.
"I don't know about that…I mean I've had hunkier men save me." I really haven't, but I want to see if I can get under his skin. It was clearly working too because he changed from goofy to serious real fast.
"Why are you up out of bed? You should be resting."
"I woke up and felt fine."
"Are you sure about that? I've already noticed how you are favoring your left leg."
"Yeah…" Maybe he will want to talk about it with me.
"Why don't we sit down? Come on." He walked over to the edge of the flat roof and sat down hanging his legs off the edge. I slowly walked behind him and did the same. We both stared at the stars for a couple of minutes, and the whole time I was thinking about my mother.
"Jace…I know you are probably wondering…I just…I-" I broke the silence and tried to start my story, but I lost my words.
"Clary it's okay. You don't have to tell me until you are ready." He's so genuine.
"No, I want to. I just have never told anybody this before. Not even my best friend." I took a deep breath and started my long, long story. "It started when I was five. My father would come into my room and inject me with this stuff he called his serum. Some nights it was so agonizing I thought I wouldn't wake up in the morning, but other nights I felt nothing. After about two years of the constant injections, my father started taking me to our basement during the middle of the night and would beat me." I felt a single tear roll down my cheek. Jace was sitting towards me now, not taking his eyes off of mine. "He would tie me up in chains and beat me until I went unconscious. He always said the same thing to me too. I'm doing this because I love you. I just need it to take over you. I never understood that. Anyway this went on until I was nine, then my father was caught injecting me and was sent away to Idris for help. He came back two years ago, and I avoided him at all costs. He murdered my mother three days ago and was going to take me but I ran." Jace's hands were clenched at his sides. "Please Jace promise me to keep this next part to yourself okay?" I looked him dead into the eyes and he nodded. "My father was chasing me yesterday but I lost him. I tried to outsmart him and ended up in that valley. I found the syringe and a note from my father."
"Wait. You found a note? We didn't find one on you." Out of the three days I have known Jace, I have never seen him get this upset. I could feel his anger radiating off of him.
"It burst into flames after I finished reading it. In the note my father wrote that I had to inject myself or he would hurt my best friend, Simon. If I didn't inject myself and travel back to New York to meet with my father, then he would kill my best friend."
"No. You aren't going Clary, that's suicide. It's too dangerous."
"Yeah but if I don't go it's the murder of my best friend."
"I can't let you go alone."
"You can't stop me Jace. I'm going to go."
"Let me come with you." Our eyes locked and I knew he was serious. I don't really want to involve him in my problems, but it would be nice to have company.
"Okay. When do we leave? I was thinking tonight."
"When you can put weight on your right leg we will leave."
I got up and stood evenly on my right and left legs. Then I started to walk back and forth with equal weight on each leg. Even though it hurt like hell, I had to prove to Jace that sooner was better. I ran back and forth a couple of times too, but he said nothing so I thought I would kick it up a notch. I started jumping on my right leg by itself. The pain wasn't anything like the pain of some of my injections, but it still hit me hard. He watched me and then spoke.
"Okay okay, you can stop now. Let's go pack some travel bags and then head out. We don't want to wake anyone up so be quiet. I'll write a quick note for Maryse and Robert so they don't think we are dead."
My smile almost reaches my eyes as I run up to Jace and hug all of the air out of him. "Thank you. How will we get there?"
"I know a warlock that will help us. For now go get your things. I will meet you by the front door in ten minutes." I unwrapped myself from him and we walked together to the door in the ceiling.
Don't ya just love Jace? He's such an interesting character. I would read an entire book just about Jace. That would be a very entertaining book. Anyway, so chapter 6 was pretty nice! Looked like Jace has some kind of pull forming towards Clary. Maybe the beginning of Clace? I guess you'll find soon.
Thanks for reading!