DENIAL: JACE WAYLAND

Three

The drawing seems to tell me something. A faint whispering voice in my head: 'Healing' I hesitate before I pick up the non-pencil-thing. The meds are doing their work, and I start to feel a bit sleepy. Promising myself to stay awake, I examine the notebook again, not knowing why I don't want to copy the image immediately.

Nothing but blank pages until I reach the last one. To kind of prepare myself, I trace the lines in the air first, thinking it would be hard to remember them. But it goes shockingly well. Or I've hit my head at IKEA and became a genius or it isn't a normal drawing.

Feeling more confident, I give it a try. The burning sting of the crystal gives me such a shock that I withdraw my hand from my leg, almost hitting the monitors. A little spike in the graphic of my heartbeat can be seen after a second.

'Ina you're overreacting.' I tell myself, taking a big breath before trying again. Closing my eyes, pencil-thing in my hand, I draw on my injured leg. The burn is less then just a moment ago, almost pleasant. Almost... It doesn't take much more that ten seconds to finish the complicated line work.

I dare to open my eyes, I was so focussed that I hadn't payed attention towards my already existing wounds. They were gone. Eyes blinking once, very slowly before looking again. It's as nothing had happened. I also don't feel tired anymore, don't have the feeling I'll fall asleep for a year or five. But how?! This was probably a dream, but it feels so real and also familiar.

Just to be sure I pinch myself, expecting to feel nothing. But I feel it. My mind is going 100/h while I try to find a reasonable explanation for what happened in the past two minutes. Almost not realizing what I'm doing I get up and pull of all the cables that were connected to my body. Spotting my clothes on an extra chair, I grab them and move to the bathroom.

It's the first time I see myself in a mirror. I thought my face was covered in bruises but seeing my reflection I slap my hand on my mouth. I'm perfectly fine. Not even a little scratch is showing. Fortunately some part of my brain remembers how to get dressed. This is getting to much, breathing is getting harder and my hearing is starting to ring. To stabilize myself, I grab the sink with both hands. The stone of the sink feels cold against my hands. I turn on the tab and ice cold water is coming down in streams. I cup my hands and trow some water in my face. The change of temperature helps me to calm down.

The ringing in my ears is replaced by the sound of the water gushing everywhere. A final deep breath gives me the energy to walk out. Out of the bathroom, out of my room, out of the hospital. My legs know the way, I don't need to pay attention to get to the exit. Once I stand outside I come to think of my mom. She went with doctor Pellow to disgust something. Damn it mom.

I have to drag myself up the stair to reach the floor I originally came from. Finally I see my mom's back facing me. She is still talking to the doctor. I don't want to interrupt so I sit down on a chair around the corner of the doctor's office.

POV : ISABELLE

"Where have you been all day?" it's Alec, already expecting us in the entrance of the institute. He doesn't look very happy. Jace and I got send on a mission to find out were the sudden demonic activity came from. It led us to IKEA of all places. Jace suggested that I went looking inside and he would do the parking lot and stand guard at the exit. While I was facing a regular demon in the couch section, Jace was witness of an almost robbery. A girl was being used us hostage, she was shot in the leg and stabbed in the stomach. Jace was to late to safe the girl from getting hurt but he helped catching to robbers. An ambulance came a few minutes later and the girl and her mom were send to the hospital. What I didn't know was that Jace went with them, leaving me with just a text message. I took a cab to the Institute, changed clothes, and went l looking for him.

After a couple of hours I found him, glamoured, just like I was, standing in the corner of the hospital room where Nemina Morris lay. Jace who always knows when somebody is near almost jumped when I touched his shoulder. I've known him long enough to know that he thought that this was his fault.

"Demon hunting. You knew we had orders of the Clave." Jace answers after a moment of silence. It's clear he doesn't want to talk about the robbery. Who could blame him?

"Don't lie to me Jace. You're my parabatai, I can sense you're hiding something." now Alec isn't just unhappy, he is getting angry. "A normal, regular demon attack doesn't take you twelve hours!" he almost starts yelling.

"Could you keep your voice down big brother. Nothing happened. Nothing you should worry about at least." trying to calm him down, I take his hand in mine and lead him to the trainingsroom. It is empty for now.

"Nothing to worry about?! I haven't heard from one of you the entire day." Alec gives me a nasty look. Nothing I haven't seen before but it's never fun to see him like this.

"There was a robbery..." Jace starts telling Alec the hole story. Telling everything that happened from the moment of the attack till we left the hospital. He only let out one big detail. Who this girl was. He never says her name, doesn't mention anything about her.

"That is why we were gone for so long." is the last thing Jace says. Alec is blown back with the events of the day. "And not one brain cell thought about sending me a message? Or give me a call?" disappointment was dripping from Alec's voice." I hate it when he talks like that.

"I came to the Institute after I knew that Jace had left. I looked for you but nobody had seen you. I left a note in your bedroom." I confess. I maybe didn't ask EVERYONE, but I did ask Hodge, Kaj and Maria.

Alec doesn't say anything, he just gives me a single nod and leaves. Jace makes an attempt to follow him. "Just give him a second Jace, he will figure it out." that stops Jace mid track. He turns around and looks at me. He sights : "You're probably right... Goodnight Izzy." And of he is towards his dorm

POV : NEMINA

It feels like I've been sitting for ages, in reality its only seven minutes according to the clock. Mom is still in the office so I decide to go back to my room. Just to be more comfortable. Nothing else. Room 421. I walk in and go straight to the mini closet. Empty. Somehow I had hoped that someone was hid in there. Someone who could explain everything.

"OH MY GOD INA!" the almost screaming voice gives me a jump scare. I spin on my heels to see who's there.