Darkness.
Ever since I came to this hospital, I never thought it was a bad thing. To be honest, at the moment, it was the most peaceful place I could ever be.
One of the only advantages of the drugs they injected us was that we could sleep without having any dreams. In my case, a sleep without nightmares. Unfortunately, they had more inconveniences than advantages. First of all, the way they injected the drugs in our system was painful. I hated needles so much. Even after being forced to be drugged for years, I was still not used to it. Not only that, but there was also the fact that I couldn't always remember what happened before I was drugged when I would wake up. It had the same effects on a few of us here.
So when I opened my eyes, I asked the nurse who was checking on me, what happened.
"You were seeing things again, but this time was different. You weren't afraid of it and you didn't want us to look at it. Whatever it was, you wanted it to look at you." she stated as she kept checking on me.
I nodded slowly and tried to remember what it was. Why was this time different ? Of course, they wouldn't have seen whatever I saw so she couldn't tell me what I was looking at. As I tried to move my hands, I realized that I couldn't. I looked down at them, and saw that they were still tied to the bed.
"Can you release me ?" I asked the nurse even though I already knew the answer.
She shook her head, as I expected. "You're not allowed to leave your room, you know that."
"I just don't want to feel more trapped than I already am."
"The answer's no. End of discussion." she insisted.
The nurses here weren't our friends. They didn't care much about us.
She grabbed her stuff and opened the door to leave, but then she turned around to look at me.
"Sue, will come to bring you food since you haven't eaten..." she said but my attention was on something else.
As soon as the door opened, a blond guy entered. He was looking straight at me and brought his finger to his lips to tell me to stay quiet. The nurse didn't seem to see him because if she did, she would've alerted someone.
Was I hallucinating again ? If so, this time was certainly different. He was more handsome than the creatures I've seen before. He had blond hair, and from where I was, I could see that one of his blue eyes was darker. His clothes were all black and I noticed a bit of his tattoo on his neck.
"Okay ?" the nurse asked annoyed.
I turned my eyes towards her, and quickly nodded. She left and closed the door behind her. The guy approached me, and I became agitated. He was here to hurt me. Now, I couldn't pretend not to see him. He knew I saw him.
"You have the Sight." he said.
"Am I hallucinating again ?" I asked out loud. It was more a question for me than for him.
"You're not. Who are you ?"
"If I tell you who I am, will you tell me who and what you are ?" I asked the guy.
I couldn't stay without answers. It was the first time I was talking to one of my hallucinations. The guy nodded.
"My name's Leila King. You ?" I told him.
"Jace Wayland. I'm a Shadowhunter." he finally revealed his identity.
I frowned. That wasn't something I've heard before. "A sha-what ?"
"A shadowhunter. I'll explain it to you later." he said.
"What do you mean later ? Are you going to hurt me ?" I asked Jace.
"I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to get you out."
I didn't believe him. He couldn't get me out of here, he was just an illusion. Maybe I was still dreaming. The drugs they injected me might have not been strong enough to grant me a sleep without dreams. It was simply impossible for me to get out of here, and yet I felt him release one of my hands.
I stared at him while he leaned over my bed to release my other hand.
"Are you an hallucination ?" I asked him.
He looked down at me. The whole time he's been here, his gaze had been cold. But when his eyes looked down at mine, I found something changing in the way he looked at me. Was it pity ? This kind of gaze was familiar to me as it was the kind of look I gave to other patients when they were being drugged against their free will, in front of us.
But then, a smirk appeared on his face.
"Have you ever had an hallucination that was so good-looking ?" he asked me.
"Never." I admitted without thinking.
When he winked at me, I realized what I just said and I wanted to face-palm myself for being so dumb.
He released my other hand and I was finally able to sit. While I did so, he took out something from his jacket. It looked like a tube at first, but then a illuminated blade came out of it. He put it on my bed and the light of the blade turned off. Why did he have a blade on him and what was it for ?
"Pick it up." he said.
I looked at him for a while, clueless. What was this all about ? He was acting weirdly. Now I knew that he was real, but how could I explain that the nurse didn't see him when he came in ? I really didn't know what to think.
I picked up the blade anyway, and it lighted up again, just like when he touched it.
"Okay, it's going to make things easier." he mumbled more for himself than for me.
"What are you talking about ?" I asked him.
Instead of answering me, he grabbed something from his pocket. He then, proceeded to grab my arm and pull it forward.
"It's going to hurt a little. Don't scream." he told me.
What ? Before I could even say anything, I felt something sting. I gritted my teeth, and looked down at what he was doing to me. At first glance, it looked like the thing he was holding was burning me. It did hurt a little, but not enough to make me scream. He was drawing something on my wrist. Wait, was this a tattoo ? I didn't sign up for that.
"What are you doing ? What is it ?" I asked him as I tried to free myself from his grip, but he was holding me firmly.
"It's a rune. To get you out of here, we've gotta go unnoticed." Jace answered.
"How is this going to help me ? It's not going to make me invisible."
Jace released my wrist once he was done. "It is."
This drawing was supposed to make me invisible ? In what world did he live in ? How would that be possible ? Was I really the one who needed to be in this hospital ? This sounded like nonesense to me. As I opened my mouth to ask him questions, he cut me.
"Later. Don't you want to get out of here ?" Jace asked again.
I nodded. I pulled the sheets off of me, and stood up. However, it felt like my body hadn't moved for hours because my legs gave up on me the moment I tried standing on my own. Had Jace not caught me in time, I would've been on the floor right now.
"I got you." he said.
I was going to thank him when the door of my room suddenly opened.
It was the nurse, Sue. She was holding a tray of food, and when she looked at the bed, her eyes widened. I waited for her to look at me, and realize that I was still here, that someone got in my room and released me from my chains.
But she didn't.
Did it really work ? Was I really invisible ? I looked at Jace and he nodded at me. He put his index finger over his lips again to make me understand not to make any sound, and then put his arm behind my knees and lifted me up.
While he was walking out of the room, Sue was alerting the other nurses. My heart was still beating fast when I saw the nurses running in our way. Jace made sure not to touch them, and walked toward the exit.
"Wait." I whispered.
"What ?" he asked me.
"I can't leave."
"You've gotta be kidding me." he groaned. "Don't tell me you're getting sentimental."
"No but...They took something from me. It's the only thing I had of my mother and I need to get it back." I informed him.
He sighed. "Okay, where is it ?"
I told him to let go of me, and he did. It took me a moment to regain my balance, but I eventually did, and then I showed him the way.
I have been in this asylum from the beginning. This kind of asylum for minors were not common, so I had never been transfered since I first came here. So all of my belongings were still here.
I always knew where they kept our personal belongings. When I tried to get mine back once, I got caught. A key was needed to open the door but I didn't know which key it was. Talking about keys...
"I have to get the keys first." I told Jace.
"No need, keep going." he said.
No need ? What ? Did he also have a rune to open the door ?
He did.
When reaching the door, he took out the small object he used to draw a rune on me, and drew another one on the door. And the door opened magically.
What the hell was this object ? To what extent could we use it . Where could I buy one ? I wondered what else it could do. I was secretly looking forward to having all of my questions answered once we'd get out of here.
Jace and I got in and he closed the door behind him. We looked around to find the box with my belongings. What I was looking for was that mysterious box that my mother gave me on my eighth birthday. Mysterious because I didn't know how to open it, and what was inside. She had told me to open it when I was 18, but why would she give it to me 10 years ago instead of giving it to me when I was 18 ? Now that I thought about it, it looked like she knew something would happen to her, and that she wouldn't be there to give it to me. What happened to her was still a mystery, and I didn't know if I would ever get the answers to my unanswered questions about her death.
"There." Jace said.
I looked behind me, and found Jace, carrying a box with my name on it. I approached him and lifted the cover. There it was. The small box that was taken away from me 8 years ago.
"Ready to leave now ?" Jace asked.
I looked up at him. Will I really leave the place that's been holding me captive for so long ? Will I get a normal life ? Or at least what looked like a normal life ? There was only one way to find out. Maybe he was a serial killer or a psychopath but I had to take my chances.
"I've been ready for 8 years. Let's go." I answered.