Author's Note: Hello lovely readers… it's very good to be back! I hope you have all enjoyed the last two chapters, they went up rather quickly didn't they? I hope you did like them because if you didn't that'd make me sad, if I'm not writing the way I used to and you absolutely hate it, let me know I'll try and fix it for you! Okay onto the next chapter wonderful readers :)
Chapter 17: No light, No sight
She knew it was happening before it occurred, kind of how you often know you're about to wake up from a dream a few seconds before you do, she knew she was about to open her eyes. She willed her body not to, to just leave it be and lie still, so that she didn't feel that pain that felt like metal scraping against metal inside her head. It was some sort of torture she'd decided, this unescapable pain that she continued to experience as soon as her eyes opened wide to nothing but bitter blackness. There was nothing for her to see so why did she continue to open her eyes? Jocelyn knew what she would be greeted with, and that was absolutely nothing but the emptiness clouded in darkness that swarmed around her, matching her own feelings. She felt completely empty and hollow, Jocelyn was a Fairchild, she was not one to give up easily it just simply wasn't in her nature. She was stubborn and persistent and she stuck to things she wanted or desired. But there comes a time when, if you simply cannot move a single muscle in your body to do anything but lie completely helpless, eventually reality hits. And that's what had happened to Jocelyn, she realised there was nothing to do. She was completely paralysed in this abyss of nothingness.
It was truly damaging to the mind and Jocelyn knew it, she couldn't see anything and couldn't feel anything until her bright green eyes opened to a sight that was no different to when they were closed, and in a second the searing pain shot through her head. Jocelyn begged for the ability to do something, instinctively she wanted to bring her hands to her head as she would have done as a child, but she could not move. She was frozen, time didn't seem to be a factor in this place and she wondered, was anyone looking for her? Anyone? The pain felt like someone had taken a match to her scalp and burnt it slowly, not letting the flame close enough to do the type of damage that would cause her to pass out. But instead, just a constant, piercing pain that never subsided. It got worse as her eyes stayed open, so eventually she would close them again and pray that the pain would leave her, but once she was awake and once her eyes were open she was done for. She was gone. No chance of the pain diminishing, it would build and build and build until… what?
She still hadn't figured out what was happening. All she knew was that one moment she would open her eyes and the pain would strike hard through her, and it would continue until she realised, she was pain free and her eyes were threatening to open again. Did she pass out between these 'sessions' of pain? Or did she disappear from this black hell? She had no idea… she was confused and scared and in a vulnerable situation. She just wanted to be back in the arms of Luke, watching her daughter grow into the beautiful young women she was becoming with her son in law by Clary's side. Throughout everything, sometimes Jocelyn wondered if the name Fairchild held some sort of bad luck, it seemed Valentine had tainted the whole concept of being a Fairchild. It was difficult to watch her daughter grow up and constantly be pushed through every time of hurdle and thrown at every little problem… it was a tough sight to see.
She had to stop thinking so hard, her head was pounding and felt like it was being pulled apart down the middle… she couldn't handle this pain for much longer… but she had no idea how long the pain would last. All she knew was at some point it would end one way or another, but she wouldn't be there to experience it, rather she would be there to experience the few seconds before the pain hit.
-Impulses-
The dim glow of the blade that spun around as Jace tossed it occasionally created an unsettling atmosphere amongst the group. The trio of Shadowhunters stalked through the night covered in their black gear that helped conceal them from sight. Originally they would have drawn an invisibility rune on each other's skin to hide them from mundane view, however considering it was a Mundane they were seeking out, they decided it was simply a waste of time. They'd all had plenty of experience when it came to hiding from the view of unwanted onlookers without the runes, this was no different. Jace walked a little behind his two adoptive siblings who were both whispering quietly about Angel knows what, but all Jace wanted was to be alone for a bit. Initially he wanted to embark on this mission himself but Isabelle wouldn't stand for it obviously and Alec was definite about accompanying his parabati. So it was the three of them, just like old times, but Jace was seriously on edge about the whole situation. Even though his wife came from the mundane world, he stilled struggled to trust any of them, in general they were just not good at keeping anything quiet. They gossiped and shared "secrets" and were completely unable to understand the concept of secrecy. This was the very reason that Shadowhunters, those protecting these mundane from the grips of demons, had to go about their work in complete secret. The fact that they were turning to a mundane for help was just mind-blowing to Jace, even though the women they were visiting was fully aware of the Shadowhunter world, it didn't change her mundane status.
Jace fell into one of his numerous bad habits, twirling his seraph blade in the air and catching it perfectly with an iron grip around the hilt. Something he'd been told off for numerous times as a child but now no one really bothered him about it, if he cut his hand he cut his hand. He looked around the silent neighbourhood they were travelling through. Small houses with minimal front yards, tattered fences and lawns that hadn't been mowed in years. The graffiti on the pavement was certainly the opposite of what some people called "street Art" and the number of signs warning pedestrians and visitors of a dangerous dog was rather high. This wasn't the area you wanted to be raising your children in. As Jace walked along the dirty, pot-hole filled road her wondered why the woman they were seeking chose to live in such a derelict area, a rather unsafe looking neighbourhood that seemed to be exploding with signs of crime. Perhaps she grew up here or something sentimental like that, Jace wasn't sure.
"Hey, I'd like to get there before sunrise yea?" Isabelle muttered to Jace, falling into step with him matching his legs movements till they were completely in sync. Her raven black hair was tied neatly in a bun on top of her head, it looked rather loose but Jace knew that her hair wasn't going to come out of that bun unless she wanted it to. Her whipped tapped against her thigh as she walked with Jace, and her seraph blades were backed neatly into her belt that hung tightly around her waist. "You're distracted" she stated, not asking him, but instructing him that he was.
"No I'm not Iz" Jace replied half-heartedly, normally he was up for a good argument but not tonight. Tonight he just wanted to get the job done and go home to his sick wife who was still lying in bed having periods of unexplainable pain shoot through her head and the same message being repeated to her. He just wanted to be back by her side and holding her hand, but he knew this meeting with this woman was imperative to them learning more about what was happening. They'd instructed the Silent Brothers to continue their investigation, and naturally not wanting a bad reputation they'd reluctantly agreed however the quality and effort the Brotherhood was going to put into this was uncontrollable to the Lightwoods. So it was obvious some private research would have to be undertaken.
"You are. You're very distracted. Now I don't know why but I could hazard a guess no worries. But it's dangerous Jace, you gotta get you head back on this meeting okay? Carla isn't the most… understanding of women" Isabelle whispered to him, he heard the sympathy in her voice. It was very clear that Isabelle was heartbroken for Jace over the situation with his wife and for Luke; however he knew that she was right. He was distracted, all he was thinking about what was happening to the two fiery haired women who both lay in bed, clearly sick from something completely unknown. He was extremely distracted and his mind certainly wasn't on meeting this 'Carla' as Isabelle had called her.
"Got it" he muttered back staring at the ground, "Who is this chick anyway?"
Isabelle laughed quietly, shaking her head slightly, "See now that kind of language is what'll get you in her bad books. She likes a high level of respect Jace, she's one of the few mundanes that is highly regarded amongst the people of our world"
Jace just scoffed "A mundane? She might want to get off her high horse if she wants respect from me, she's a mundane for Angel's sake"
"Jace… I'm serious here she's strong, she'll take you down and bring you to your knees" Isabelle looked at him, he could feel her gaze on his face and the sense of worry she emitted from her body was frightening.
"To my knees? Isabelle, she's a mundane, she couldn't do anything but try and tap me with her fist. We're Shadowhunters; we're made to be stronger than they are. She wouldn't touch me" He replied arrogantly, unwilling to even consider a mundane being stronger than him. It was that he thought they were worthless or weak, Clary could prove that in a heartbeat, but they simply weren't as strong as the Shadowhunters. That's just the way it was.
Isabelle replied quietly, so quiet that even Jace couldn't hear her, "Physical strength isn't the only thing that can make a man's knees buckle".
-Impulses-
The three of them turned right down Hark Court and continued walking until they met a dead end, at this point Isabelle got out her diary where she'd written the address of the stranger Carla and looked around for the matching house. It was dark an extremely difficult to see, the night was covering everything with a black blanket that made it impossible to read any house numbers. Alec reached into his pocket and went to pull something out but Isabelle grabbed his arm viciously and held it in its place, not allowing Alec to show the group what he was grabbing.
"No witch lights. That won't go down well with her. We'll have to try and see which house number is what by ourselves" Isabelle let go of Alec's hand and walked up slowly, without making a single sound to a small white bungalow's wooden letter box to try and read the numbers. No matter how close she got to the letterbox, she could see nothing.
"Dammit" she muttered to herself. Isabelle looked around, pondering something with a look of deep thought plastered on her face. There was something rather odd about the whole area they were in, this Hark Court. Isabelle stared at the homes, none of which had lights on even though it was only about eight o'clock at night. She could see basic details of the houses, their shapes, roof colour, size of windows and doors, she could see the outlines of gardens and driveways but she could not for the life of her see the numbers of the houses, or any writing for that matter. It was as if, she knew they were there, stuck to each letter box, but the shadows we so dark over the numbers that there was absolutely no way to see them.
"Hey guys" she called quietly, calling the boys over to her. The rushed over silently to stand by her side.
"Do you guys notice this? We can see almost everything moderately clearly except for the house numbers. Look around, it's the same at every single house, it's completely dark over where the numbers should be" she explained quickly, wondering if either of them could figure out what was going on. It was becoming extremely tense between the three, something was definitely off.
"Yeah and there's no lights" Alec replied, "Not even the street lights are lit" they all looked up to stare at the metal street lights looming over their heads that shed no a drop of light. Isabelle wondered how they were supposed to find the house if they couldn't see any numbers… they could possibly go and knock on each door but it was unlikely they'd do anything but disturb and anger the residents, and what from what she'd heard of Carla, even if they asked if it was her she'd just say no. They had to be sure, absolutely sure they'd found the right house and the right women, or things could get difficult very, very quickly.
"How do we find her then?" Jace asked casually, seemingly not fazed by the obstacle they were facing, his arrogance was a part of who he was… that didn't mean it didn't piss Isabelle off. Her mother Maryse had told them to be wary of Carla if they should attempt to ask her for advice on the Fairchild issue, but these three Shadowhunters had been to the ends of earth together and were ready for anything, but that didn't mean Isabelle wasn't cautious. Cautious just didn't seem to register in Jace's mind, didn't fit in his personality type, non-existent to him, which constantly got them into trouble. Clary had given him more of a sense of cautiousness, but on the whole he was still "invincible" Jace, didn't help that he survived being killed by Valentine either.
"I have no idea" Isabelle replied, almost to herself. Her mind was ticking away, trying to figure out what was going on here, "No lights and most mundane kids would still be up…" for some reason, an idea was on the tip of her tongue but she still was unable to figure it out.
"There's no one in the houses" Jace replied seeming to care little about the whole situation, but inside Isabelle knew that he was as confused as they were and was so filled up with worry over his wife and his mother in law that this careless façade was just that, a mask and nothing more. He was right though, absolutely right. There was no one in these houses, they couldn't see any movement, no lights, no dogs barking down this particular street and even more obvious, the gardens were completely unkept. Weeds grew up the sides of all of the houses, creeping up onto the roof, destroying the gutters and the water pipes, filling them with their leaves and vines… there was no way anyone lived in these houses. So why was Isabelle given this address to find Carla? It made no sense, if there was no one here, and then they were surely in the wrong spot.
"Does that mean we are lost or something Iz? Because I don't think Carla is here" Alec asked a little confused and unsettled by the whole situation, "and if she isn't here, we are completely wasting our time really" Alec was slightly pessimistic about this little adventure, seeing it as completely useless and saw no real reason for it. The fact that there was no sign of anyone, anywhere down this Hark Court only fuelled his argument that seeking out a Mundane is basically a waste of effort.
"Alec, I have the address here, which our mother, the head of the Institute gave me, I doubt she has it wrong. Either Carla isn't here right now, or she's hiding. But I'm telling you this is her address" Isabelle answered confidently, all the Head of Institutes across the globe got their information directly from Idris and their various departments. This address wasn't wrong, they just had to persist a little further.
"Well if there is no one home we might as well just knock on all the doors" Jace put in, obviously starting to take a little more interest in the dilemma they were facing instead of trying to act all big and tough. He still didn't get it, Isabelle and Alec saw right through it, had for years but he kept it up.
"Jace, get focused! Why do you think there isn't a single soul in this street? Something is up, if we go knocking on all the doors we have no idea who or what will answer and what'll happen, we need to be careful. We need to find out which house it is and go there, not take some random guesses and hope for the best" Isabelle stated, she was getting tired of the guessing and wondering, she just wanted to find this damn Carla, find out what she knew and get this thing sorted.
"hmm true" Jace replied, looking around him at the gloomy street, then his face lit up, "Izzy, what's the number of the house you've got written down?" he asked quickly, as if he was running out of time to get the words out.
"Um… 42"
"Okay, so we can't see the numbers because of these thick shadow things that loom over all the numbers and words on the houses right?" the Lightwood siblings all nodded staring intently at Jace with the deep blue eyes, "so who says we can't feel for the numbers?"
-Impulses-
Izzy's hand ran over what she thought was the metal shape of a number 4 on an oak wood letterbox that she kneelt up against. Her fingers traced the shape confirming it was the 4 from forty, so slowly moving her hand to not lose her place she travelled slightly right to find the next number, still completely unable to see what she was feeling. When her fingertips hit the next piece of cool, bumpy metal she focused on tracing the metal shape carefully so she was completely sure of the number she thought it was. She felt the metal curve slightly at the top and come around.
"It could be a two, a three, a six, and eight or a nine" She informed the two boys who were standing behind her, watching her every move.
"Gee thanks for narrowing it down" Alec laughed quietly before the seriousness of what was happening came back to him.
"Shut up" she muttered back in reply, but she doubted Alec could actually hear her. Her fingers came down to a point before reaching back over to the right, "this is it"
"It's forty two? You sure?" Jace asked a bit unsure.
"Mmmhmm" was all Isabelle replied and she stood up to stare at the house in front of them, certainly not the house she would have picked for Carla to live in. It was a small brick home, low-lying with a yellow concrete path to the wire door. Weeds had overtaken the garden and ran along every wall, walkway and fence, covering almost every surface on the houses exterior. The fence was a rusted metal wire that criss-crossed to form large diamonds, and the gate that lead to the pathway was falling off its hinges, and left rusted scrape marks on the yellow pavement every time it was open. Still no windows showed and lights to be on and the house was completely silent.
Isabelle was the first one to walk towards the rundown looking house, walking towards the gate but not daring to open it knowing it would create a god awful screech that would have woken up the whole street, if there was anyone here. She put her hand down on the top of the rusted gate and pushed hard to leap over the top of it, landing silently on the yellow path, and slowly began to walk up to the door, the two boys following closely behind. When she reached the door she looked inside to see if there were any lights on further inside the house, but there was nothing, only black. "Should we…" Alec started reaching for the doorbell but he was interrupted by a chirpy "Come in!"
Ta da! Done!
Did you like it? I hope you did! Can I see if I can get 5 reviews? That'd be cool, I'll still update no matter what haha but 5 would be super duper awesome :) Again I hope you enjoyed it and let me know what you thought!
Thank you for reading lovelies!
Xx
Green-doves