I'm Not What I Seem [COMPLETED]

Chapter 24

Clary POV

We all gather around the Ouija board and place our hands on the 'all seeing eye' thing. Isabelle starts us off by asking, "Is there a spirit here? Preferably a hot guy?"

I decide to have some fun and push it to 'Yes'. Unfortunately, I don't fool anyone.

"Clary, that was so obviously you!" Tessa shrieks, mildly drunk.

"Okay okay! I'll stop pushing it," I say giggling slightly. I clear my throat and ask, "Are there any serious spirits with us?"

Slowly, but surely, the piece thing moves to 'Yes'. "Okay, who's doing that?" Jace asks. Everyone shakes their head indicating they didn't move it. Jace eyes it carefully. "What is your name?"

The piece moves, spelling out the word 'Stiff'.

My blood runs cold. It can't be. Ghosts aren't real. "Okay, who's doing that?" I ask, but I know it's hopeless. The only people there that night who know I called the man 'Stiff' aren't here. No one here could know what happened. Instead of waiting for the others to respond, I ask, "What happened to you?"

'Murdered Shot Head'

I start to sweat slightly.

"Clary? Are you okay?" Will asks.

I ignore his question. "Who murdered you?"

'Redhead Drugs Gun'

"Clary, you're scaring me," Isabelle says glancing over at me. Other people nod in agreement.

"I'm scared too," I whisper before I stand up and sprint out of the room. How can this be happening? No one here knows what I did except Aline and she's not even here and I know she would never tell anyone my darkest secret.

I sprint out of the apartment and ride down the elevator, practically bouncing as I wait for it to let me out. As soon as the doors open I sprint away and hail a cab.

I ride in silence, the only noise around being the city traffic and my silent sobs. As we drive, I see a shop. "Can you stop here for a minute," I request the cabbie. I give him $20 to wait for me and I go in quickly to buy something. When I go back into the cab, I remain silent.

When I get back to my room, I put the Ouija board on my bed and get my laptop to FaceTime my boss from the voodoo shop, Jeanette Lemay.

When she answers, I frantically get talking. "Jeanette, you know how I always said the Ouija board stuff was complete rubbish," I start.

"Yes?" she answers cautiously as she runs a hand through her curly brown hair. "Why?"

"I need your help. You said using the Ouija board alone was different than using it with a group. How?" I ask

"Clary, is everything okay? You look like you just saw every spirit in New York," Jeanette says worriedly.

"I'm fine. I just--I need to know."

She sighs and looks me in the eye. "You have to be careful with the questions you ask. Playing alone is a lot riskier because if you give the spirit a strong enough tether, they can latch on and stick around."

"Thank you," I breathe.

"Listen Clary. I don't know what you've gotten yourself into up there, but just promise me you'll be careful," she commands with a worried look.

I look at her for a minute before I say, "Thank you." I close the laptop and turn to the Ouija board. I put my hands on the eye thing and take a deep breath. "If you followed me here from the party, give me a sign."

The piece moves to spell out 'July 21 2014'. That's the day it happened.

That's the day I shot him.

"How long have you been following me?" I ask shakily.

My fingers move with the piece and until '3 years' has been clarified by Stiff.

"If you've been following me for three years, why make yourself known now? I've been around this Ouija board shit for two years. Why now?" I wait for a minute without a reply, so I ask, "Is this some sort of way of torturing me for what I did? Because I have spent two fucking years hiding from the only people that ever cared about me because of this. No one feels worse about what I did to you two years ago than me. What I did has haunted me since that night and it caused me to, technically, kill another person. So, if you plan to torture me until I feel like I can't breathe anymore, that happened a year ago. You must know that I had no intention of killing you. I was wasted and was utterly convinced the gun was on safety. If I could go back and trade places with you, I would. So tell me, what do you want from me?" Tears fall from my eyes as my eyes stay trained on the Ouija board. The piece moves until one word is spelled out.

Justice.

I stare at the letters for a minute. "Is that what you want? You want me to turn myself in?" The piece moves to 'yes' and I close my eyes. "I can't. There are too many people that need me."

Are there.

I stare at the letters yet again and think of what I was just told. He's completely right. Everyone here got along fine without me for two years. How much can they actually need me? All I can do is bring them pain. Maybe it would be better if I disappeared for good.

"Goodbye," I whisper before I walk to the window and open it, throwing the Ouija board through the narrow slit and watching as it falls and breaks into a hundred splinters.

He was right. I need to do the right thing, but it won't be going to jail. I need to bring him, and even Mark, justice another way. A way more fitting of my crimes.

"What the hell was that?"

Shit.

Maybe I should have closed the door completely on my way in...

I turn to face my golden boy with a very worried expression on my face. "I can explain."

AN

IM BAAAAAAAACK.

I had some personal family stuff going on that I won't bore you with so there you go.

Now, onto I'm not What I Seem...

There will be one more chapter, maybe two, and then an epilogue. I feel like I've pulled everything I can out of this story and that I have a good ending to it. So, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

Bella