Burning Sky // Alec Lightwood ➰

Are you insane? Run!

Adam comes abruptly to a stop and I collide to his back. Taking a few steps back I turn to look what made him stop.

My breath catches in my throat.

The door to my moms office is broken and is now laying in the middle of the floor, along with pieces of glass from the window and her shattered desk. It seems like there was a fight in here , like she was trying to escape someone. Next to the broken desk and all the way to the window there is something that makes my heart stop.

Slowly, I move my gaze to Adam but he isn't  looking back.

His eyes are on the same trail of blood I was looking at only seconds ago. I try to speak but I can't form a word.

When he finally lifts his eyes they are sparkling with tears.

"Mom." I croak out but my voice is rough, hardly heard.

I cough and try again louder this time.

"Mom!"

The only answer is my voice echoing inside the small room.

Adam, snapping out of his gaze runs to the bathroom to look if there is anyone there and comes out moments later banging the door.

He shakes his head and pushes past me and towards the entrance.

I take another look at the room and get out, knowing it will be haunting me for the rest of my life.

When I go out I see him searching through her car that I hadn't noticed before. He lifts her keys, waving them in front of my face.

"She... she isn't." He doesn't say anything else.

He doesn't know what to say.

I don't speak either.

Instead I move towards the road, where I can see more traces of blood. I look around me, screaming for her, desperately trying to find something, anything. I groan and pull at my hair, frustrated, lost.

My eyes fall on a small, shining object a little left to the abandoned car. Running towards it, I fall on my knees and take a hold of it.

"Adam..." I whisper, while trying to keep her phone in my shaking hand.

He comes and sits next to me taking the phone from me and suspecting it closely.

It's shattered in thousands of pieces and it has blood on the screen, or what used to be a screen.

I can hardly process what is happening. I feel like this isn't really happening to me, like I'm just observing someone going through this from the outside. I look at my hands who have tiny pieces of glass in them and press on them, desperately trying to feel something, but it's like I've gone numb. I don't know if the sobs are coming from me or Adam, or if the water running down my face is tears or rain.

Adam lets out a scream and throws the phone and that's when I look up and snap out of my trance.

Sure enough it has started raining and the fresh blood on the pavement starts running like a pool.

I barely make it behind a bush before throwing up.

I close my eyes tight and feel the drops of the rain slamming down my body with force, like they are trying to wake me up, to make me do something.

"Sky... where is she? What happened?" Adams voice is barely heard over the wind and the rain but I shake my head at him.

"I don't know.. I..." there is nothing I can say, nothing that will fix this mess.

"Maybe we should go to the police." Adam suggests and I nod.

"Yeah, okay." He offers me his hand and I need all the force left in my body in order to stand up. His hands wrap protectively around my waist and he steadies me.

But before we have the time to move we see a figure running towards us.

I finally remember how to breathe and I let the air crush into my lungs as my mom is now standing in front of me, a panicked look on her face and hair standing all over the place. 

"Mom! What happened? We saw the office and..." Adam starts but he is cut off by mom's hands grasping his shoulders tight.

"You have to help me, quick, bring me the cup!" She shouts, her eyes wide, scanning our faces.

"The...what? Mom what are you talking about?" Adam asks confused, trying to remove her hands from his shoulders and take a hold of them.

She lets out a groan, desperate, angry.

"The cup, now! It's our only way of getting out of here alive." She insists and I take a step back frightened.

"Where is it?!" She finally snaps at us and that's when it finally downs me.

I examine her face, then her body, looking for any wound, something that indicates that she fought with someone.

Nothing.

My eyes land on the pool of blood, running down along with the dirty water of the rain.

I look again at the woman standing in front of us, she is ranting about something angrily, I don't understand what.

Silently I tug at Adams shirt, trying to get his attention, to get him to notice me. My attempts seem vain since his eyes stay locked on the woman's agonizing ones.

I take another step back, silently opening the car door and sliding my hand in it, trying to not be noticed.

The talking stops for only a second and my breath catches in my throat and I think that's it I'm dead. I don't move, and I don't breath, just pleading Adam with my eyes to start talking again.

He does. And I can finally breath again.

My hand lands on the object I was looking for and closes around it, ready to pull it out.

That's when her eyes snap at me and she squints. Suddenly, her face forms into something hideous, tentacles reaching out to me and aiming towards my head.

Without wasting another second I pull out the baseball bat and swing towards the now distressful form in front of me. I hear a loud bang as it collides with what is supposed to be the head of the thing and it takes several steps back.

Adam is looking at me with wide eyes and then back at the creature who has now fully recomposed itself and moving towards us while trying to bite us. I take a defensive stance with the bat but Adams eyes snap at me.

"Are you insane? Run!" He calls and one look back at the creature is enough to convince me.

But before we have the time to react an arrow flies towards the creature's head and it falls down dead.

At least I'm hoping so.

Looking down at the body that's now burning into ashes, realization strikes me and my hands start shaking, causing the bat to fall to the ground,  splashing drops of rain everywhere.

"That was impressive." A voice calls from behind me and the last thing I see before collapsing to the ground is two boys looking worriedly at me.