The Legend of Cheryl Morgenstern

A Hopeless Future

The last thing I remembered was being thrown to the portal and being back to a room in Chernobyl Factory. I wished this was all a dream. I was so tired and I was hurting from the pain Jonathan's death caused me. I couldn't take it and I was about to pass out. The room started spinning and I almost fell on the ground. Luckily for me, a guy caught me and then I heard dad's voice saying "She's gonna be fine. You can leave her down now. She is just in shock. She'll get through this" And after that I passed out.

When I woke up, it probably have passed some hours. I didn't even feel tired anymore. When I opened my eyes, dad was near me.

- Good morning, Cheryl. How did you sleep?

- How do you think? I just had a nightmare again. You took me home and you-

- Daughter...

- This actually happened, didn't it??

Before I could even finish my sentence, I stood up from my bed really quickly and in shock while the pain returned back to me again...

- Yes, but it was for the best and you know that deep inside you.

- You're insane! And surely you don't know me at all! I would never burn my brother alive even if I was forced by the Angels!

- Don't worry, Cheryl. I know you are going to understand me. You'll just need time. Now, walk with me. We have a lot of things that we need to discuss...

He said and he got out of the room as I followed him. He took me to another room where some downworlders where prisoned in cages.

- Theses downworlders are to blame for hundred of mundane deaths and the Clave did nothing about it. So, that's what we are going to do. We are going to bring justice and kill them. Just like we are going to do with all the other demons and downworlders. That way, we'll keep the Mundane World safe.

- I accept the fact of wanting to kill demons. I get that. It's our responsibility as Shadowhunters. But killing downworlders is a lot different. They may have demon blood as you say but they are also humans and most of them probably even were humans before they became downworlders.

- Being humans or not, they are part demons and one day, want it or not, they are going to lose control of their demonic side. You need to understand that.

- It still won't be their fault.

- It may not, but the mundanes still will be dead or turned. They will no longer be a part of their world. They will be part of ours and we need to prevent that.

- No matter what you do I'm never gonna do it. I'm never gonna kill innocent downworlders for their uncontrollable instincts. It's not like they asked them. They were given to them with no choice to make. They were born like this. We are not the ones who should judge them. The Angels are.

- The Angels trusted the Clave, who is doing nothing.

- Then, it's their problem. I won't become a mass murderer. Even if it's the last thing I can possibly do.

- Whatever you think... But be sure that if you don't follow my orders, you're not going to have fun here.

By his tone, everything were crystal clear. He wasn't going to let me go away or do anything either to stop him or to disagree with him. I knew that difficult moments was about to come...