Our Burning Hearts- The Infernal Devices Re-written

Chapter 3- The Institute

Heyyyy!

I'm back! I have now completed my Apprenticeship, so hopefully I will have more time to write.

Apologies in advance, this chapter is nearly 4200 words long, it's a long one!

As always, let me know what you think, I love seeing your reactions.

You get to see a lot more of Evie in this chapter.|

As always, Evie and her plot belong to me, everything else belongs to Cassie. This chapter has been changed a lot, barely any of it is completely the same as the book.

I hope you enjoy it!

- Ellie <3

                                                                       ***

The Institute

Tessa woke with a cry, her eyes flying open, and found herself staring at shadows. Darkness clustered about her thickly. She could barely hear the murmur of voices through her panic, and struggled into a sitting position, kicking away the blankets and pillows. Dimly, she recognised that the blanket was thick and heavy, not the thin, braided one that belonged to the Dark House.

She was in a bed, just as she had dreamed, in a great stone room, and there was hardly any light. She heard the rasp of her own breath as she turned, and a scream forced it's way out of her throat. The face from her nightmare hovered in the darkness before her- a great white moon of a face, It's head shaved bald, smooth as Marble. Where the eyes should have been there were only indentations in the flesh- not as if they had ben ripped out, but as if they had never grown there at all. The lips were banded with black stitches, the face scrawled with black marks like the ones on Will's skin, though these looked as if they had been cut there with knives.

She screamed again and scrabbled backward, half-falling off the bed. She hit the cold stone floor and the fabric of the white nightdress she was wearing- someone must have put it on her while she was unconscious- ripped at the hem as she scrambled to her feet.

"Miss Gray." Someone was calling her name, but in her panic, she knew only that the voice was unfamiliar. The speaker was not the monster who stood staring at her from the bedside, it's scarred face impassive; It had not moved when she did, and though it showed no signs of pursuing her, she began to back away, carefully, feeling behind her-self for a door. The room was so dim, she could see only that it was roughly oval, the walls and floor all of stone. The ceiling was high enough to be in black shadow, and there were long windows across the opposite wall, the sort of arched windows that might have belonged in a church. Very little light filtered through them; it looked as though the sky outside was dark. "Theresa Gray–"

She found the door, the metal handle; turning, she seized on it thankfully, and pulled. Nothing happened. A sob rose up in her throat.

"Miss Gray!" The voice said again, and suddenly the room was flooded with light- a sharp, white-sliver light that she recognised. "Miss Gray, I am sorry. It was not our intention to frighten you." The voice was a woman's: still unfamiliar, but youthful and concerned."Miss Gray, please."

                                                                                    ***

Everlyn Woke with a cry, breathing heavily. Scanning her surroundings, she relaxed upon realising that she was in her room in the institute. She sat up, grimicing at the slight pain in her soulder, she looked down noticing a new scar that ran from the top of her shoulder to the tip of her collar bone. The surrounding area was slightly red, suggesting that it had only just been healed, most likely by a Iratze rune.