The Devil's Gift/The Bloody Handed

4

We drove to the nearest, and possibly safest area to do some research. We all stuck in pairs of two so nothing was missed.

"Remember any information is good information." Steve says.

"What about this? The koala eats more than ten times the amount of food that—"

"No, Eddie." We all say at the same time. He purses his lips and nods. I can't help but laugh a little at his weird humor sometimes.

"Well here's this." Dustin says pointing at the book. "Here it says that The Damned are all.. related to one another. And Vecna is their controller. It says it goes through a line of..." Dustin pauses and my chest automatically tightens, finishing the sentence in my head. I totally forgot about Vecna stating we were related. I thought he was lying. Using me, or tearing my confidence down to anger me. I look up at Dustin who looks at me then the book again.

I finish his sentence. "Bloodline. It only goes through a blood line. Fuck!" I slam the book shut and put my hands to my temples. "Vecna told me.. back in the Upside Down. He said my mom.. was his sister he thought he killed when he killed his whole family. I thought maybe he was saying that to get under my skin because he knew I was different, but.. I guess not." I prop my chin onto my hands and close my eyes.

"I saw that in my vision.." Nancy says recalling. "He tried to kill everyone. You should have seen what he did to his own father. Robin saw it too."

"Yeah.." Robin says slowly.

"And you didn't decide to tell us this why?!" Eddie asks.

"Maybe because I was pretty much dead and asleep for over a month, Munson" I snap. He shrinks down into his seat and bites his lip.

"I promise I'm not like Vecna—"

"We aren't worried about you, Gregerson." Steve says smiling.

"Honestly. You didn't sign up for this shit," Robin gestures to the book.

"Yeah. Don't worry about it Clary. What matters is that we're here to help." Nancy smiles and grabs my hand.

"So if I'm related to a monster after all, that makes me one" I scoff and shake my head. "I'm the reason my mother and father are dead. Vecna wants me to fight his war. To join him."

"You aren't a monster, Clary." Eddie grabs my hand.

"You were just born into chaos you didn't ask for" Dustin finishes.

I nod my head. I feel my head pound from the influx of information. "Well.. what next?" I look to Dustin.

He smiles and starts to read again. "You can break the curse.. by.." he pauses and looks at all of us "by converting to his army and fight Vecna's curse, proving your innocent and repent of evil."

"So in other words, I'm screwed." I shake my head. "Anything about the abilities?"

"Yeah.. right here. It says that these abilities are random and can be controlled through practice. They usually introduce themselves when you introduce your being into a new reality. You can manipulate any object that uses or associates with any form of matter or environment around it. Which explains why you were able to do what you did to that demobat."

I twist my lips and nod. "Alright. Anything about killing the son of a bitch yet?" Dustin shakes his head, flipping the pages. I feel Eddie's hand grip my thigh and rub it. There was no time to sit here and be stunned over information that affected me. We needed to get moving. "Let's dig into the symbols book and see if we can find anything to kill Uncle Vecna."

"On it," Robin says.

I knew my walls were crumbling down. At this point, my mind barrier was crumbling but I was starting to build with bricks instead of sticks and stones. I wasn't going to let this taunt me in anyway. I was no longer the same Clary Gregerson who hid in her own shadows waiting to an alibi to get by in life. I knew my identity and I had to embrace it. I was going to make something of it. And I was going to go down swinging.