The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones *Jace Wayland*

Don't Come Home

     I opened my tired eyes knowing they were most likely red, I looked at my hand in front of my face, it had what looked like black chalk residue on it.

     I sat up and looked around my room to see the same symbol drawn on different pieces of paper and in different colors of chalk covering my walls. I ripped each one down, throwing them in the trash, scared out of my mind of what all of this was.

     I felt like I was going to have a panic attack when my phone started ringing, I walked over to it to see Sam was calling me.

     "Hi," I said after I was sure that I wouldn't sound shaky.

     "Let's go get coffee," he was in a good mood.

     "Normal place?" I asked.

     "Yeah, you coming?" he was impatient.

     "Yeah," he hung up before I could say anything else so I just got dressed and walked out into the living room.

     "You okay?" mom asked.

     "Yeah, I'm fine," I replied.

     "You've been sleeping all day and you didn't come home till late last night," she sounded mad but I didn't want to look at her, I was already messed up enough right now.

     "I'm just going to get coffee, please just let me go," I murmured getting no response.

     I walked out the door and down the stairs and through the front door, I walked to the coffee shop where I saw Sam sitting in our regular spot.

     "Hey," he hugged me.

     "Hi."

     "You look like your going out of your mind, you look so tired," his eyes were wide when he took a sip from his coffee and kept talking but I was distracted looking behind his shoulder.

     I saw the blonde haired teenager from last night who still wore a hood staring at me from behind the front window of the coffee shop, my eyes widened.

     "Oh god..." I whispered seeing Sam turn around to see what I was looking at.

     "What? Now your freaking me out," I looked at Sam then back at where the figure stood before but wasn't there anymore, "What are you looking at, Ryder?"

     I took a quiet breath but when I turned my head to look in front of us, there he stood looking at me, "I'll be right back."

     I walked to the side entrance to the empty alley, I turned around to see the guy had followed me and closed the door behind him.

     "Why can I see you and no one else can?" I asked, it was almost a whisper.

     "I was going to ask you the same question," there was something about his voice that I liked, his accent was thick, he was British.

     "You're a cold-blooded killer..." my voice was still very quiet, I'm surprised he heard me.

     "As opposed to a peace-keeping killer?" he countered.

     "I know what I saw," I stated seeing him move closer.

     "You think you know," he pointed his finger at me revealing tattoos on his arms of symbols like the one I kept drawing, in the middle there it was.

     I pulled out one of the papers that I shoved in my pocket and looked at the resemblance, they were exactly alike.  

     He took the paper from my hands and turned away from me looking at it closely, "So I was right, you're not a mundane."

     "What's a mundane?" I asked.

     "Someone from the human world."

     "If I'm not a human, what am I?" I wondered, still quiet.

     "When did this start?" he asked in return.

     "Why am I drawing this?"

     My phone started to vibrate in my pocket and apparently the guy heard it, "Go ahead, answer it."

     I picked up the phone seeing the word 'Mom' on the caller ID, "Please, don't worry I'll be home soon, I promise."   

     "No, you can't come home! Do you understand?" she sounded panicked and sad, "You don't come home, you call Kyle. Tell him Valentine's alive and that he found us."

     "Mom?" I said feeling my heart beat increase.

     "I love you," was the last thing she said.

     I dropped my phone on the ground and ran as fast as I could back to our house, I don't care what she said, I needed to help my mom no matter what the consequences were for me. I cared about the people around me being safe then I did myself."

     I got to the house and ran up the stairs to the open doorway to our apartment. It was destroyed, I looked around what used to be our living room and my mother was nowhere to be found, I turned a corner and saw a viscous looking dog standing in front of me, growling at me.

     I lunged  to my room hearing it following me, I ran into the bathroom and stepped beside the doorway seeing the dog run in then running out myself shutting the door behind me, trapping it in there.

     It jumped up at me but couldn't get out, I saw its eyes roll back and it start to change into something much more threatening.

     I had no idea what it was but I stepped back, it got through the door, I ran into the kitchen and clutched a butchers knife in my hand from the knife rack.

     It lunged towards me and as soon as it got remotely close to me I chopped its head of and its body in half but as soon as it fell to the ground it inched back together.

     I grabbed a bottle of fuel and a box of matches from the cabinet with the time I had and turned the eyes on the stove on, I spilled the fuel on the floor and since the refrigerator door was broken off, I couldn't really protect myself.

     I covered my ears with my hands and part of my face but I couldn't cover all of it, I lit the match and threw it over onto the fuel, covering my ears again.