Chapter Two - Strange Visions

Chapter Two – Strange Visions

17 September 2002 – Clary’s POV

It’s been a few days since I started school, everything has been normal. School was boring as hell, we had a lot of homework and I couldn’t wait until we would have summer vacation. I was already tired and ready for holiday. But a t least, I had my friends who prevented me from dying of boredom. The new class I was in, as always, nobody was really interested to talk with me. I, again didn’t make any new friends and as always I would probably be the outcast and loner girl. Every year, I hated the fact that I would always hope somewhere inside me that it would be different this year, and then realise that it would be the same. The disappointment was stronger every time, it kind of hurt. I shook my head to get rid of these thoughts. Right now I was in the mall with Clary and Jess, they wanted to buy a new dress for themselves and for me. Tyler was somewhere hanging out with his friends, the moment he heard the word shopping escaping Clary’s mouth, he ran as if death itself was after him. He tripped three times causing us to laugh and him to panic even more as he tried to escape. He absolutely hated shopping! Like really, really hated it. No, more like loathed it with all his heart and soul. He would prefer to die than go shopping.

‘’Hey what do you think of this dress?’’ asked Clary as she came out of the dressing room wearing a pink dress.

‘’Hm, too bright.’’ Said Jess and she was right. It was way too bright, it hurt your eyes.

‘’You think so?’’ asked Clary as she looked at herself in the mirror.

‘’Yeah, she’s right. I have to shield my eyes, that’s how bright it is.’’ I said and Clary sighed and walked back inside to get the dress off. Jessica stood up and walked to a pile of dresses as she looked from one dress to another. She had already bought one dark green dress, it looked very good on her. Suddenly she threw a dress on me. I gasped in surprise as my eyes widened.

‘’What the hell?’’ I asked as I looked at her.

‘’Your turn!’’ she said as she winked at me.

‘’What?’’ I said and before I had time to realise what happened she pushed me inside the dressing room.

‘’Come one now, try it on Emily!’’ she shouted and then I heard Clary ask ‘’And what about this one?’’

I heard Jessica sigh loudly and said ‘’You two are absolutely hopeless when it comes to fashion! This one isn’t for your body type Clary! Try this one!’’

‘’But, I don’t like this one!’’ whined Clary and I could imagine her doing the puppy eyes.

‘’Just do it!’’ I heard Jess’s voice which sounded annoyed. Well, I guess anyone who had a sense of style and would follow the last trends of mode like Jessica would be annoyed by me and Clary. Clary was practically clueless when it came to what looked good to her, and I was just disinterested. I looked for the first time at the dress. It was a short dark blue dress, it was a bit too short for my liking but I put it on anyway cause I didn’t want to test Jessica’s patience cause I had a feeling it was starting to fade away. When I had it on I got out and looked at the mirror. It was a nice dress, but something was missing. I turned around ready so say something when Jessica threw at my face another dress.

‘’This isn’t the right one, try this one.’’ She said

I looked at Clary, she was wearing a yellow dress with an orange belt, it looked colourful and great on her. It made her look even more cheerful and bright.

‘’That one looks great on you, Clary!’’ I commented and Clary turned around and said ‘’You really think so?’’

‘’Yeah, it makes you look brighter.’’ I said and saw how a smile appeared on her face. She squealed happily and jumped up and down. I was about to say something when I heard Jessica ‘’Go inside! We still have to choose a dress for you! Clary already found her dress!’’

‘’Okay, I-‘’ I started saying but I was cut off when Jessica said ‘’Less talking, more dressing!’’

I rolled my eyes and went inside, I took the dress off and putted this new, black with silver one on. This one felt very comfortable and it wasn’t too short. I went outside and asked ‘’This one’s bad too, right?’’

I was ready to go inside again and change when Jessica said ‘’Wait!’’

I stopped and looked at myself in the mirror.

I gasped and said ‘’Wow…’’

‘’Yeah, this is one… it’s…’’ Clary tried saying but didn’t finish of so Jessica finished for her.

‘’It’s awesome, it looks great on you.’’ She said and smiled she putted the dresses we tried on to their places.

‘’So, we’re done?’’ asked Clary

‘’We still have to pay and then we have to go look for shoes and jewellery and…’’

‘’And a whole lot of other stuff.’’ I finished for Jessica.

‘’Right.’’ She said as she pushed us inside the dressing room and told us to change. Meanwhile we were changing I heard someone call her. When we finished Jessica seemed a little bit upset, it probably had something to do with the phone call. Me and Clary looked at each other.

‘’Hey, is everything okay?’’ I asked her and she snapped and said ‘’Everything’s wonderful!’’

I decided to drop the conversation, if she didn’t want to talk about it, it’s better not to bring it up. I think it had something to do with Jessica’s mother, you see she and Jess don’t have the best mother daughter relationship. They argue a lot, even for the smallest things.

After we paid for the clothes we walked through a few shops and Jessica’s mood lightened up and I assume she decided to forget and ignore what happened. She was again cheerful and happy. Well we went to the shops and bought for Clary shoes since she didn’t have anything to match it with her dress. But she did have shoes that matched perfectly with Jessica’s dress so Clary decided to let Jessica borrow them. I would wear simple black high heels so we didn’t need any more shoes. Clary bought some jewellery with the help of Jessica, since she’s our fashion expert. Then we went to McDonalds to eat something. We ordered our hamburgers and Tyler came by so we were all sitting together chatting. After a while the burgers came and we were eating until I had to go to the bathroom. I went and did what I had to, today was actually quite fun even though we went shopping. I enjoyed spending time with my friends. I was washing my hands when I felt the temperature drop a few degrees. It was colder but I decided to ignore this fact. I did feel a little bit uneasy but I continued washing them. When I finished I dried them up and I looked up to the mirror to see how I looked like. But the behind me I saw from the reflection I saw a girl. Her clothes were bloody and she had scratches all around her body. One of her eyes was missing, the one that still was there was purple. She had claws in her hands and fangs in her mouth. She looked with fury at me and I saw how she took a step towards me and raised her hands to scratch me with her claws. My eyes widened and I screamed as I turned around, but when I did I saw nobody standing there. My heart was beating fast and my eyes were wide, I could feel the adrenaline and fear inside me. I looked around me looking for the girl with the purple eye but she wasn’t there, where was she? I didn’t imagine her did I? After a few minutes I forced myself to calm down and looked at the mirror, the was nobody there? I’m not crazy, maybe I just hallucinated it? I probably watch too many horror films. I laughed nervously and splashed some cold water to my face. I took deep breaths as I closed my eyes.

Relax, it was just your imagination going wild. I just watch too many horror movies, read too many thriller books. Just take deep breaths, calm down.

I smiled as I managed to convince myself that it was nothing. I looked up in the mirror and I swear my heart stopped beating for a second. My eyes widened and they were impossibly wide. The scream that I wanted to get out died in my throat as I looked at the girl with the purple eyes who was inside the mirror. It looked as if she was standing there and a piece of glass was separating us. She opened her mouth and there were bloody fangs.

‘’Emily!’’ I heard her say with her voice that sounded as if she had screamed so much that she lost her voice.

Then she tried to attack me and went forward. Out of instincts I took a few steps back and accidentally fell on the floor. The mirror broke and she disappeared. But there was blood on the mirror. I crawled back to the wall and stood up. I ran away as fast as I could to my friends. My heart was beating fast and I was breathing very hard. I was looking around me wildly as my hands trembled and I tried explaining what happened. But I was stuttering so much that they didn’t understand.

‘’Hey, take deep breath! Calm down first!’’ said Clary.

‘’Deep breath! In and out!’’ said Tyler as he held my shoulders.

‘’Look at me! In and out!’’ he said and I followed his instruction. I breathed in and out, and slowly I managed to calm my breathing and my heart down. But the fear was still inside.

‘’What happened?’’ asked Jessica when I was calmer.

‘’There was this woman, she was first behind me, I saw her from the mirror but when I turned around she wasn’t there! But when I looked at the mirror she was there! She tried to attack me! She broke the mirror, and there was blood there! And- and…’’ I said and tried continuing but I couldn’t help it. I started sobbing and Clary hugged me.

‘’How did she look like?’’ asked Tyler.

‘’She had black hair, and she had purple eye, the other one was missing, and she had these fangs in her mouth and there was blood inside, she also had this claws in her hands, she tried to hurt me!’’ I said feeling shaken up.

After they managed to calm me down we decided to go see if there was anything there. I was standing outside as Tyler looked inside.

‘’There’s no broken mirror…’’ he said as he came outside.

‘’What?’’ I asked as I pushed him, Clary and Jessica out of the way. I went inside and he was right. There was no broken mirror. I looked at the mirror where I had seen here, but it was fine and there was no blood there. I looked around me wildly.

‘’But-but… But it was broken! How can this be?’’ I said in disbelief.

‘’Hey maybe you should sit down and…’’ Clary started saying.

‘’I’m not crazy! I’m find, I’m not lying! It really did happen!’’ I said and Tyler placed his arm around me as the started pushing me away.

‘’Come on, let’s go.’’ Said Tyler

‘’I’m telling you the truth!’’ I said

‘’Look, maybe you were just tired and imagined it! You know, all those horror films we watched probably decided to make an appearance! Like when you walk in a dark street and you think someone’s following you like in the movie you saw, but it’s just a cat in the end!’’ explained Tyler

‘’But I’m not walking a dark road! I wasn’t even thinking about any horror movie!’’ I argued

‘’Look, it can also be just the shopping giving you it’s side effects! I had it myself! When Jess forced me to come with her a few years ago, I couldn’t sleep for a whole week!’’ he said and I couldn’t help it but laugh.

‘’Hey, shopping is fun!’’ Jessica said and Clary laughed.

‘’Yeah, for you maybe! But I had to suffer for a whole week from shopping side effects!’’ Tyler said.

Jessica roller her eyes and said ‘’Whatever.’’

‘’See, you and I aren’t made for shopping! We get side effects, like no sleep, hallucinations and others! Believe me, it was nothing! You just imagined it!.’’ he said sounding so convincing that I couldn’t help it but believe him. Maybe he was right, no screw it. He was right. I just imagined it. I had what you call ‘shopping side effects’. I chuckled at the thought and said ‘’Okay, maybe you’re right.’’

He smiled at me and then glared at Jessica and said ‘’Don’t worry, I won’t let her take you to this activity that shouldn’t be allowed by law, this activity names ‘shopping’. I will protect you from the witch that wants to take you to torture!’’

Jessica narrowed her eyes and said ‘’This witch here is about to kick your ass!’’

‘’And this knight in shining armour is about to leave!’’ he said as he started running away from Jessica who started chasing him.

‘’’Hey! And what about protecting me?’’ I asked and he said ‘’Sorry, gotta save myself first princess.’’

I rolled my eyes and said ‘’What an amazing knight that you are!’’

I heard him laughing and saw how Jessica jumped on his back. I rolled my eyes and walked with Clary. I felt much better now.

‘’So… are you excited for the party?’’ she asked. I was silent for a few seconds. Usually I’m not excited for parties, but I think that with me friends, it will be fun and awesome.

‘’Yes!’’ I answered and smiled at her.

After that we chatted until I had to go home, Tyler gave me and the girls a lift. I was the last one so it was just the two of us inside the car as he rode me to my place. When we finally came, he stopped his car but I didn’t go outside.

‘’Thank you.’’ I said

‘’For what?’’ he asked as he looked at me. I looked at his big brown eyes full of warmth, he was like a brother to me.

‘’For helping me today when…’’ I said trailing off.

‘’It’s okay, you’re welcome. I would do anything for you. We are after all best friends.’’ He said and I could sense that he was hiding something from me. I decided to ignore it. I smiled at him and hugged him, loving the familiar feel of his body. His strong arms, his smell of lavender. He was a family to me, one that I could always depend on. I could always depend on him, and that was reassuring. One thing that never changed.

‘’Never, ever, change.’’ I said to him. He smiled and said ‘’Not in a million years.’’

I smiled and said ‘’Goodnight, Tyler.’’

‘’Goodnight, Emily. And don’t dream too much about me!’’ he said jokingly. I rolled my eyes and said ‘’Don’t worry, I won’t.’’

But he startled me when he said suddenly very serious ‘’Be careful. If something happens you can call me any time. Even if it’s 4 am. I’ll answer no matter what. Okay?’’

‘’Okay.’’ I said and he hugged me tightly and I could now see that he had been very worried about me. More than what I had realised, more than what he had let me see.

‘’Sweet dreams.’’ He said

‘’You too.’’ I said as I got out and waved him goodbye. He left and I was left standing outside. I was there for a few minutes, thinking. I then looked up at the sky. The moon was full, there were a few stars here and there. I sighed as I shook my head. I went to the door and ringed. My sister Anna opened up.

‘’Hey, what’s up?’’ she asked

‘’Not much.’’ I answered as I walked inside. I got my coat and shoes off as I went to the living room. Our parents weren’t here, mum wouldn’t be here until eleven but dad should be here already.

‘’Where’s dad?’’ I asked and Anna said ‘’Out with some co-workers.’’

I hummed as a response to what she said and went to the kitchen to make something to eat. Sam was playing again Play Station but this time with a friend of his. It was Cully, his best friend. When we were younger, like 10 years old, he had a crush on me. Not anymore, but he used to.

‘’Hey Cully, what’s up?’’ I asked

‘’As usual, and you?’’ he said paying little attention as he was focused on killing zombies.

‘’Same here.’’ I said as I make a sandwich and sat on the dining room eating. Anna came and she looked excited.

‘’Guess what happened?’’ she asked

‘’What?’’ I asked and she shook her head.

‘’Guess!’’ she said

I sighed as I thought.

‘’I don’t know, you tell me.’’ I said

‘’Well, you see, there was that really, really cute guy that I met when I was out with some friends of mine clubbing. His name is Ryan, Ryan Walker. He’s two years older than me, he’s twenty, but he’s so cute! And he’s such a nice guy, but anyway, I accidentally spilled my drink on him and blah, blah, blah, I apologized and we started talking. And he was so nice, so sweet and so cute! Oh my God, I really, really like him! Anyway, so we started flirting after some time, and we danced and we made out and he asked for my number and he said that we should really go out some time. So I said that he could call me when he’s free and well after a week and a half he called he asked if I was free this week and I said that I’m not sure. So he said that I should text him when I’m free, and I texted him and said that I’m free this Saturday so we could go out that day. And he said, what do you want to do? And I said that I wouldn’t mind going to that party of a guy that organized it from my school. And he said, if you want to, and so we decided to go there. And then he asked me if I mind that he bring a friend of his because he thinks that his friend should go out a little bit. He’s so caring! Look, he cares for his friend, because of something that happened to his friend he became a little bit depressed which is why Ryan wants to cheer him up. But because I want for us two to be together and not him having to babysit his friend I said that what will your friend do if we two are going to be together, is he going to be alone? And he asked if I have any single friend that I could bring with me, but I don’t. All my friends have boyfriends except for two. The one broke up just recently so she’s too heartbroken and the other one isn’t even coming cause she’s sick! So… I didn’t have a choice and I had to… I said that I will be bringing you…’’ she said

‘’What?’’ I said still not taking everything she said completely in. She was talking so fast and so much and… I was confused.

‘’I’m really sorry, I didn’t have a choice! You have to understand that! If I said no then me and Ryan will have an awful date! Please! All you have to do is hang out with him for a little while! Maybe he’ll find someone else and then you won’t even have to talk with him! But please, for the first few hours! Please!’’ she begged

I stood there as I looked at the half eaten sandwich that I was holding in my hands. I looked in her eyes ready to find an excuse to decline but I didn’t have the heart to when I saw how much she really wanted it. I could see it in her eyes, she really liked him. She wouldn’t go so out of the way for a guy, it just wasn’t who she was. Except if she really, really liked him. I sighed as I closed my eyes. I placed the sandwich on the dish and said ‘’Fine! But I’m going with my friend to the party. I’ll meet up with him over there. I’ll be with him until he finds his own company.’’

‘’Oh my God! You’re the best sister in the world! I love you, I love you, I love you! You’re the best!’’ she said happily as she hugged me tight and kissed my cheeks.

‘’Yeah, yeah, I know. You own me for that!’’ I said and she rolled her eyes.

‘’Whatever you want! Except for painting my hair! Cause I will never, even do that in my life!’’ she said and I sighed.

‘’Don’t worry, your hair isn’t getting painted any time soon. But be ready to pay with money! Cause that may be something I can ask you to do.’’ I said and she said ‘’Sure.’’

Then she took her phone and I didn’t even have to guess, she was texting Ryan, telling him that she found that ‘friend‘ that would go out with his friend.

‘’What’s his name?’’ I asked her. She looked up and said ‘’I think it was Stefan, I’m not sure. Wait a second.’’

She texted something and after a few minutes she looked up and said ‘’Yeah, it’s Stefan.’’

I nodded and walked off to my bedroom. I was really tired. I opened the door to my bedroom and went to my bed. I lied down and looked at the time. It was already 10:37 o’clock. Tomorrow it would be Friday. And then Saturday. Me, Clary and Jessica decided to go to Clary’s house to get ready since Tyler will pick us up from there. I should text them about what happened. I took my phone from my pocket and started texting. I got three different responses. Tyler’s response was kind of strange and short. It was :

Sure, whatever

Clary was hinting that me and him could possibly like each other and start dating and Jessica said that if I don’t like him and he’s hot that I can introduce him to her, she is good after all with flirting and boys. She’s not slutty or a whore, she’s just more experienced in dating than me. I have never even dated or kissed a guy. Even Clary with her strict parents has tried dating, it was awkward for her and she had an awkward first kiss. She usually dates those very shy and awkward guys that are cute. I shook my head and closed my phone. I went to the bathroom and changed my clothes, I wore my pyjamas and putted my clothes in the bin with dirty clothes. I then brushed my teeth and sighed as I looked myself in the mirror. I looked behind me, nothing. I looked back, nothing. I remember her face, her eyes, her fangs, her claws, the blood… I closed my eyes. I remember her gruff voice, as if she hadn’t spoken for years, or as if she had screamed for so long that she had lost her voice… I shrieked as I remember how the mirror had been broken. I splashed cold water on my face and started walking away when I heard it.

‘’Emily…’’ it was the same voice. I turned around, but there was nobody there. I looked at the mirror and saw with blood written ‘HELP’. My eyes widened as I ran to my bedroom away from the bathroom. My heard beat faster. I went to take my phone, I wanted to call Tyler. But then I remembered his text, it seemed as if he was upset.

Sure, whatever.

It didn’t sound like him, usually he would ask question or just bluntly say that he doesn’t care and he finds it boring. But this, this was disinterment. And I found myself stopping myself from clicking on the button call, I want scared to annoy him. I didn’t want to interrupt him or annoy him. I placed my phone on my bed as I went to my bathroom. I opened the lights, there was nothing. I went to the mirror. I placed my hands on it, it was cold and dry. It hadn’t been wet, no blood. I gulped as I shook my head.

Shopping side effects, it was just shopping side effects. I’m just tired, I should sleep. And then tomorrow when I won’t be tired, everything will be fine. I’m just tired…

I tried convincing myself. I then went to my bedroom and took the calming pills from on the desk. I took two and took the with water from the bottle on my desk. I always have bottle with water in my room, it’s quite annoying when you have to go all the way downstairs for a glass of water. I took deep breaths and went to sleep, I forced myself to shut the lights off as I tried to fall asleep.



It was just my imagination…