Chapter 8 - Never let go.

"Clary!"

Someone desperately called out her name, but seemed to be far away, too far away. The sun shone down on Clary's skin and she could feel all the warmth that she had missed for the past few months. Her feet enjoyed the soft sand under her feet and she felt like she wanted to run; just run. Run away from everything.

"Clary!", someone called out again.

She turned around but couldn't see anybody. Instead she watched how the beautiful scenery of the sea began to burn down and turn into pure darkness.
She screamed out; her voice broke because her throat was completely dried out, as the ground disappeared from beneath her feet and she started to fall.

"Clary!", another voice yelled.

"Open up your eyes please!", now she heard them clear and loud, and she could feel a sharp pain rushing through her body.

...

She opened her eyes and fought for air. Her chest rose as a wave of oxygen filled her empty lungs and then, she collapsed again. This time she was able to keep her consciousness and looked up to the sky.

Just then, two familiar faces appeared above her, both staring down at her worriedly.

She looked around and noticed, that she was lying on the ground, grass brushed against her arm, but suddenly the pain sent a wave of shivers through her body again. Where was she?

"Clary..", One of them said "You have to stay awake, you hear me?"

Alec.

His hand patted her cheek, trying to keep her awake. He saw that his eyes were completely red, as if he was about to break into tears. Next to him was Simon, he had nearly the same expression on his face, just that she could see another feeling in his eyes. Hunger. she soon found out why.

She was bleeding. Her shirt was soaked in her own, dark red blood. So that's where the pain came from. She felt Alec's hand in hers and somehow managed to grab a tight hold of it.

A weak smile spread across his lips as he felt it and he looked at her with bright eyes, before he turned to Simon.

"We need to bring her to the others!"

"But they are in the Accords hall, aren't they?", Simon said, his voice sounded dry.

"Yeah, but if we want her to survive, we don't have any other choice than going through all of that again."

"That would be suicide!", he exclaimed "It was luck that we made it out of the city alive, now you want to make us go through the whole town again?!"

"Do it for Clary!", his voice was sharp and seemed to make Simon shiver.

"I am doing this for Clary!", he hissed "If you want to commit suicide then go ahead! Go back into that chaos again, but without her!"

"I can't treat her wounds here! The demon ichor she has been covered in is going to slowly corrode her skin, is that what you want?"

Now Simon stopped speaking immediately.

There was a long, creepy silence between them.

Alec looked at him "You can stay here if you want to, but I won't let her die."

Simon's mouth opened but before he could say anything, Alec picked up Clary in his arms, again she felt the same pain coming from the wound on her side. Her head rested on his chest, it was warm and she could hear his heart beat. It was so loud, that she couldn't hear the rest of their conversation.

He smells like a mix of coffee and mint tea, Clary thought to herself, trying to forget about the pain that made her weaker and weaker.

She watched how the grass and hills disappeared and soon, Alec carried her onto the main street of Alicante.

There were flames coming out of some buildings. Other houses had collapsed. It's like in a horror movie, just worse. As Clary spotted lifeless bodies on the pavements and all the bloodstains on the ground, she decided to close her eyes and buried her face in Alec's chest once more.

"By the angel...", he spoke, more to himself "We've lost a lot of our kind tonight. But at least the demons seem to have disappeared."

His voice was shaking and weak.
As he continued walking he kept whispering something.."...Vale."

When she closed her eyes again, she saw Jace's face followed by her mum's and Luke's. Were they alright?

The pain got stronger again and again she was about to faint. Blood dripped down her side and mixed with the bloodstains on the street. Why were they trapped in such a nightmare.

Before she passed out, she looked up at Alec and realised that he was risking his own life to try to save her. His face was extremely pale and he was sweating. He had already saved her life once this day, how did she deserve something like that?

Clary thought that everything was her fault; Max' death, Imogen's and Malik's death, the war, the danger she put Simon in, Valentine's demons hordes which destroyed the city, and she even blamed herself for when Alec nearly died because of her.

Suddenly the world around her turned black again.