Goddess - Alec Lightwood

10.

That night after everyone went to sleep, Artemis awoke to a nightmare. She woke up breathing heavy and sweating like crazy. She didn't want to go to back to bed for fear of reliving her nightmares. Artemis went downstairs and walked around. When she was little she was terrified of her foster homes being broken into too, so she would always go around the houses and make sure the doors were locked and the windows were shut. It helped Art feel safe. So, the brunette tiredly walked around the institute checking doors and windows. Sometimes she would look at the art on the walls or the things that were in the glass cases. She was half asleep but awake enough to listen to her thoughts. She tried to process her nightmares. They were her inner demons and she thought she could get away from her past, but at night, they came to haunt her. Artemis tried not to think about the beatings, the way her  back stung from a belt, or how she felt when she was locked in a closet for a day. Artemis hated small spaces because of that incident. Artemis thought about all those awful nights that she had to deal with as a child. She could never remember having a good memory at any of the homes she went too. For the longest time, Artemis thought she had done something to make those people hate her. She thought she deserved it because that was how life worked to her.  Sometimes Artemis had finally gotten over those thoughts when she started living with the Frays. Artemis had a family that loved her and never treated her wrong. The Frays, well now the Fairchild, had closed those wounds for her. They showed her love and kindness and made her feel like she actually belonged. Now that Artemis knew that Jocelyn had left her in that basement, she couldn't help but let those old wounds come back to the surface. Artemis walked around the institute just letting her mind wander, with silent tears falling from her eyes.

With everyone asleep, Jace was dosing off while playing with a sleeping Clary's hair. They had stayed up talking in his room and somehow fell asleep. As he was playing with her hair, he couldn't help but think about his life since the small red head came into his life. He thought she was a beautiful storm that came in and swept his feet from underneath him. He couldn't help but smile at the light snores that were coming from her sleeping form. As he was becoming lost in his thoughts of Clary, he heard a bump in the hall. He shifted on the bed, being alert, and heard the bump again. It sounded like someone was trying to unlock the window. "Jace go back to bed," Clary said to him as she rolled over and faced him. "Someone is trying to break through the window", he told her as he was getting ready to get up. "It's okay, it's just Artemis. She had another nightmare, and I think this one must have been bad because she is making noise," Clary said as she sat up and was getting ready to console her friend. "How do you know it's her?" Jace asked Clary, not wanting her to go out of the room. "When she started to live with us, she would scream herself awake and then she would walk around the house, making sure the windows and doors were locked. Over the months, the screaming would stop, but I knew when it was bad because she would usually make a lot of noise when the nightmare was awful for her," Clary stated. Jace nodded at her with a frown thinking about how the petite brunette had been through hell and back and she was still standing. "Okay, just be careful," he told the girl he was falling for. With one last small smile, Clary made her way out of the room. As she closed the door, she heard Izzy walk beside her. "I heard a noise and I was going to check it out," she told Clary. "It's okay, it's just Art, she had a bad dream," as Clary told Izzy this, they heard Artemis again down the hall. They walked down the hall and saw the girl checking a window. She was silently crying but it looked like Artemis was coming down from the nightmare. "Art, you okay?" Clary asked her as she slowly walked towards her friend. "I'm fine," she said in a small voice. Clary went to Art and hugged her. "Was it a bad one?" Clary asked her in a gentle voice. "It was the worst one" Artemis told her in a grim voice. Artemis leaned into Clary's side and the redhead hugged her. Clary knew that nightmare, but Artemis never brought up what she actually saw in the nightmare. It would always scare Artemis enough to stay awake for the rest of the night. "How bout we get some ice cream and watch some chick flicks," Izzy joined into the conversation. She winked at Art and with a small smile Artemis nodded her head. The three girls grabbed their ice cream and ran to Izzy's room. With mean girls on, the three girls ate ice cream and had girl talk. Artemis fell asleep first in the middle between her two best friends. She finally felt safe enough to go back to bed and not have awful nightmares. As she was sleeping, Izzy asked Clary, "Does she usually go to sleep after a bad dream?" "No, she usually stays awake and draws or something, I never thought she would go back to sleep," Clary told her. After they talked for a while, both girls fell asleep, cuddled up to Art. All three finally at peace and not afraid of their own minds at night. 

After not hearing from Clary in a while, Jace started to get worried. As he left his room, Jace ran into Alec. "Hey have you seen Clary? We heard something and she went to go check on Art but she hasn't come back yet" Jace asked Alec. With a small smile, Alec leads Jace to Izzy's room. Simon stood with a content look on his face and the three boys looked into the room to find the three women all asleep and peaceful in their own worlds. "I heard the noise and came to check it out and found Clary and Izzy consoling Artemis, she was having a bad dream and the girls took her to the room with ice cream. I found Simon and he explained how Art checks the doors and windows if she has a bad dream, they must have calmed her down enough to go back to sleep," Alec told Jace with a small smile. The three boys watched the girls sleep with looks of love and contentment on their faces, knowing that their girls were safe for the night. The boys went back to bed and everything was still and quiet for the rest of the night. 

This is just a filler chapter to see how Artemis deals with all the demons that she has from her past. I'm fixing to start on the next chapter, but it may take a while because I have a paper and a final due next week and need to focus on that. Again, thank you guys so much for believing in this story and showing your support! You all are truly the best! Tell me what you think of the chapter if you want and enjoy the story, see you next time!