Gun To My Head ➳ Shadowhunters [Rewriting]

1.2 || It's Dark Inside

Paige woke in her bed feeling lightheaded. A wave of nausea swept over her. She threw her covers off of her legs and rushed to the bathroom, but not before she saw a dark figure out of the corner of her eye.

"Are you alright?" Her brother's voice asked. Paige stood over the sink, ready to throw up, but nothing came. A shaking hand turned the faucet and splashed her face with freezing water. Cole handed her a towel.

"Did I see Henry leaving your room earlier?" He asked in his usual overprotective-big-brother voice.

Henry. Memories of the night before flooded into her mind; Henry's arms around her, holding her as she slept, the story of the Carstairs. She wondered when everything would make sense in her life again.

"I take it," he said, "from your expression that he did."

Paige nodded her head slowly and saw her brother's expression change into an expression of mixed horror and amazement. "Nothing like that happened." She said.

Cole let out a long sigh. "We've been here a week, and you're already in love with one of them."

She narrowed her eyes and stared at her brother. "Cole-"

"Remember why we're here." He shook his head. She reached for her brother's shoulder, but he swatted her hand away. Cole left her room, each step he took felt like another step away from the brother she'd known. She mentally cursed herself for running into the hallway the night she'd met Isis. If she'd never done that, she would've never have lost her brother as he turned into one of them.

-

Paige found herself walking to Henry's room in the late afternoon sunlight that leaked in through the few windows the Institute possessed. Her feet were silent on the floor, mostly because she'd carved Silence runes into the soles of her combat boots. She went to knock on the door when it swung open, revealing Henry in the threshold. He stared at her with large sea-green eyes.

"Are you going to let me in or are you just going to stare?" Paige asked.

He opened the door wider and gestured for her to come in. "What are you doing here?" Henry asked.

"I just wanted to talk." She said simply.

His room was laid out much like hers. His bed was made and a stack of black shirts was neatly folded on his bed. He closed the door with a shrug.

"What do you want to talk about?" Henry said.

Paige shrugged and went to stand by the small window in the corner of his room. A light brown, worn recliner was set by the window. She looked back at him.

"Why do you have a recliner?" She asked.

He laughed and gestured to the stack of books resting on the arm. "I sit and read."

She examined the titles, picking the up and tracing them with her fingers. "Classics. To Kill a Mockingbird." She fumbled to set the book down. "You even have Alice in Wonderland."

"Not everyone can get enough of the Mad Hatter." A smile spread across his face, a smile that sent sparks through Paige's body.

"'Have I gone mad?'" Paige said, stepping towards him. Time seemed to slow down as she took each step, closer and closer to Henry. She felt a playful grin spread across her face.

"'I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret.'" He took a step towards her and drew in air. "'All the best people are.'" He reached for her, but there was a harsh knock on his door and Isabella rushed in. She was dressed in gear and was putting a thin sword threw a sheath against her side. Paige felt the moment shatter in front of her like glass.

"Sorry, not sorry, if I'm interrupting anything." She avoided looking at Paige.

"It's alright." Henry stepped away from Paige and walked towards his cousin.

"Vampire clan, supposedly killing warlocks," Isabella explained, "They want us to check it out."

"Strange. We haven't had many cases with vampires lately." Henry said.

-

Henry walked behind his cousin. The street was illuminated only by streetlights and the glow of their witchlight rune-stones. Isabella walked ahead of him, making a point that she was clearly mad.

"Where's this place even at?" Henry asked.

"Some run-down fancy place downtown. I heard they used to have dances there where the vampires would feed off of their dance partners." He shuddered. Out of all the things he'd fought in his lifetime of demon hunting, vampires were by far his least favorite.

His parabtai stopped abruptly, causing Henry to bump into her. She put out an arm and held him back. She made a gesture for him to listen. In the distance, there was a scream followed by the sound of swords clashing together. The street was filled with blue sparks.

Henry and Isabella took off towards the sparks. They could feel the magic, like a fist in the gut, coming from the ally The sparks came from an ally in between too buildings. The buildings were tall and made out of red brick, sending dark shadows out over the ally.

The ally was lit only by tbe sparks. Henry could hear a high-pitched laugh down the ally. At the same time, him and Isabella reached for their blades; Henry with his long sword, and Isabella with her elegant Japanese blade.

A girl, with two long braids running past her waist, stood over a warlock. The warlock looked the same age as the girl; about seven. The warlock's magic faded. Henry and Isabella exchanged a look saying, 'he's dead'.

"Shadowhunters," the young girl said without turning from the dead warlock, "I can smell the daylight radiating off you."

"Vampire." Isabella mumbled.

Henry gripped his long sword tighter, "You've broken the Accords, there is nothing preventing us from killing you."

The black haired girl turned around, and Henry noticed her eyes were the color of oil. She made a choking sound, but when Henry looked at her closer he could see the half-blood, half-water tears running down her face. He looked at Isabella who simply shrugged.

"Don't kill me. Please, don't kill me." She begged.

"You're the one who has been killing warlocks aren't you?" Isabella said.

"I have no loyalty to you. My loyalty is to my clan leader, above all else." The girl said.

"We will not hesitate to kill you if you do not cooperate, vampire." Henry's cousin threatened, now standing over the girl.

"He can do worse, worse than you ever can. I much rather die, but I can give the Lightwood boy something in exchange for my life." She said.

Henry stood looking at her, shocked. "The whole Downworld knows of you. He speaks of you rather fondly."

"Who is 'he'?" He demanded.

"Swear on the Angel, you will not kill me." The girl said.

"I swear on the Angel, I will not kill you if you do not bring harm to us." Henry said.

"She's alive. Emerson is, I mean. She's been looking for you for a long time. If you come with us, we could help you find her." He heard his cousin's startled intake of breath, and felt his heart sink. He'd known she'd been alive, but to hear of her from a Downworlder couldn't mean anything good.

"Us?" Henry said, failing to keep his voice steady.

There was the sound of footsteps from above, almost as if someone had landed on the rooms above them. Isabella looked up and swore aloud. Vampires stood on the roofs above them, and one by one were jumping down to guard the girl. They advanced on Henry and Isabella, baring their fangs like weapons.