Three days.
Three days Dahlia went without a wink of sleep and it was starting to get to her. She'd used countless runes all over her body to keep herself going, to train without stopping, to strengthen herself. The thing was, she wasn't strengthening herself, she was tiring and weakening her body.
She didn't really care though. All she wanted was to rid herself of her nightmares and if that meant not sleeping, then so be it. It was like she'd reverted back to the person she was when Magnus had just met her—quiet, sleep deprived, and void of emotions.
Magnus was gradually growing more worried as days passed. While Dahlia wasn't completely silent like she'd once been, she only spoke when necessary and even then, it was only a few words. On top of that, she was losing a lot of weight due to skipping meals and over training, and the bags under her eyes grew deeper each day.
And Magnus truly believed she was getting better. She'd been smiling more, joking around, training less intensely, so what went wrong? He genuinely thought she could finally let go of her demons—or demon, quite literally—and learn to be truly happy.
What caused her to deteriorate like this?
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Dahlia heard a soft knock at her door—she assumed it was Magnus because who else would it be? Dropping her weapon, she let her hair fall loose from the ponytail it was tied into. "One second," she called, quickly putting her katana back in its sheath.
After slipping a now-loose sweater over her body, she unlocked the door. "J-Jace." her eyes widened in surprise at the blond's unexpected appearance. "Hi," she greeted, stomach fluttering at the smile he returned to her.
"Hey," he replied, trying to remain passive but, if he was honest with himself, he was just as flustered as her, if not more.
"What're you doing here?" she asked, a soft smile settling on her lips as she watched him nervously fiddle with the ring on his finger.
"I was—um—kind of wondering if, maybe, you wanted to. . . do something?" he asked hesitantly, gaze avoiding hers. "Only if you're up for it. . ."
She giggled lightly and he swore that alone was enough to end wars. Brushing her hair behind her ear and biting down on her bottom lip, she contemplated if she wanted to go or not. After a few moments, she made up her mind, realising that it was Jace and whenever she was with him, she had a good time. "Sure," she said, smiling, "I'd love to. Just. . . give me a minute, I need to get changed."
As quickly as she could, she slipped back into her room and, without a single thought of anything else, she slipped on a decent pair of light blue jeans along with a pale pink hoodie that didn't exactly fit her properly. Now that she'd lost weight, it seemed even bigger on her but even before, her finger tips would barely peak out of the sleeve.
She grabbed her brush and ran it through the knots of hair before doing a quick braid to one side. Taking her phone, earphones and some cash she had, she shoved the items in the front pocket of her hoodie. When she opened the door, Jace was on his phone but as soon as he heard her, he looked up, turned his phone off, and pocketed it.
"No shoes?" Jace asked, raising his eyebrows. She blushed, looking down at her sock covered feet. Pointing to the shoes by the doorway, she grabbed her keys off the kitchen counter and leaned down to slip her sneakers on.
"Let's go," Dahlia mumbled, gently taking Jace's hand into hers and slipping her fingers between his. At this, Jace couldn't help but notice how perfectly her hands felt in hers, and how well her fingers fit in the spaces between his.
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"Where are we going now?" asked Dahlia, following Jace as he walked out of the small café. He stopped, waiting for her to catch up and putting his arm around her shoulder when she did.
"You'll see. I found this place when I was patrolling the other day," Jace replied, "I'm sure you'll love it."
As the day slipped into night, the sky was painted in hues of pinks and yellows, the clouds edible-looking and the stars peeking out from behind. It was an ethereal sight, the kind of scenery you would take a picture of in your mind and hope to never forget.
It looked like freedom, it looked like hope.
And Dahlia clung onto the tiny optimism that she would get to find and keep both of those things, even if she knew that she couldn't.
They walked together in something close to a comfortable silence—there was still a slight lingering feeling of awkwardness and Dahlia couldn't quite place her finger on the reason why. Maybe it was to do with the fact that this was their second date, they'd even kissed, yet they didn't exactly know what they were.
When they started to venture into the rougher areas of Brooklyn, Dahlia grew more and more confused. Where was Jace taking her? Deciding to voice her thoughts, she asked, "Jace, where are we going?"
He chuckled, realising the place didn't exactly look appealing. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna kill you or something bizarre like that."
She wasn't convinced but she didn't bring it up again.
When they approached the destination, Dahlia's heart started beating even faster. She didn't know what was going on but they stood in front of a really tall building, clearly abandoned. There was no one around them.
Jace reached into his pocket and took his stele out, raising his eyebrows in her direction. "Enough energy to walk up or want a rune?" he asked, already drawing a rune on his own forearm.
"Rune," she murmured, still slightly worried. He smiled, and that alone seemed to ease her, taking her arm gently in his hand and drawing the same rune on her arm.
"Come on." he walked into the building, not looking back to see if she was following. After taking a deep breath and shaking her nerves, she followed behind him.
When she entered the building, she coughed, the amount of dust laying blanketed all over the inside of the building getting to her lungs. She didn't get a chance to take in the rotten wood of the doors and railings, or the empty halls that lead elsewhere, she simply followed Jace up the staircase that seemed to never end.
Eventually, after a long and tiring walk up multiple staircases, they reached the last floor and Jace finally turned to her. He offered her a gentle smile before taking his stele out of his pocket and drawing an opening rune on the metal door in the corner of the room of the top floor.
The door opened up to a final staircase, and Dahlia could see light at the top of it. She took his hand and walked up with him. The two stepped onto the roof and Dahlia almost gasped at the scene that lay before her.
From the top of the high building, a view of the entire city, the sun setting with a deep orange behind skyscrapers, clouds resting on the tips of buildings, lay before their eyes and the violet eyed girl nearly lost her breath at the sight.
Jace sat close to the edge of the building but far enough to be considered safe, and motioned for her to join him. She did, all the hesitance and worry she had before disappearing.
The blond was looking at the view with a small, barely noticeable smile on his face. Dahlia examined him closely, his blond hair changing colour when the orange hue of sun rested on it, his eyelashes casting long shadows upon his smooth skin.
"It's beautiful," he said, lips parted.
But Dahlia wasn't looking at the view, she was staring at Jace and a smiled danced across her face, a happy sigh leaving her lips.
"Yeah," she agreed softly, "Beautiful."
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A/N This was supposed to be slightly angsty as you can see from the beginning but I started listening to some soft songs so the rest kind of happened. I apologise for the really cheesy ending but I'm really soft rn
Anyway I know this wasn't really that great but I haven't had any motivation recently. I'm feeling a bit better though, so I should get back on track and hopefully will be able to update some more.
Thank you guys so much for 5k!