Dusk Till Dawn [ will herondale ]

1 - the forgotten souls

" We are all the pieces of what we remember. We hold in ourselves the hopes and fears of those who love us. As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss. "

Cassandra Clare, City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6) 

---

Arabella peeked out from the top of the extensive marble staircase, her small hands gripping the banister with a white knuckled grip. Terror coursed through her veins as her dark brown eyes scanned across the empty foyer. The marble steps dwindling down to the main hall, where once she expected to see shadowhunters run across, was completely still. Jem Carstairs, a twelve-year old scrawny boy who had just recently started to develop muscles, stood beside his sister. Never had the institute been this quiet and desolate.  

"We're going to be okay, Bella." Jem whispered, trying not only to convince her but also himself. His little body heaved with suspicion and terror of the unknown. All he could remember from his lessons with his father, clear as day, was, 'whatever you do, protect Arabella.'

Arabella and Jem's beloved mother, Ke Wen Yu, and her father, Jonah Carstairs, sprinted across the halls a couple rooms down. Years of training and missions making their footsteps almost silent as they slipped down the hallways. The only telltale that anyone was in the foyers was their their breaths that came out ragged as they struggled to control themselves. They only had a mere few minutes before the Greater Demon Yanluo would catch them. The body and blood of shadowhunters that littered the institute was enough of a warning. They were the last surviving shadowhunters in the institute and they were running. Yanluo would not stop until he had murdered and mutilated every person in the institute in retaliation for the destruction of his nest.

It only took a few more seconds before Arabella caught sight of her mother and father passing the stairs. If she hadn't been watching so closely, she almost would've missed them. She immediately pushed herself to her feet and began to run down the stairs, Jem not far behind his younger sister. The slap of their feet across the marble, not quite as experienced due to their limited training, made Ke Wen Yu snap her head around. Her heart stopping as the breath in her lungs left her small frame. [1] "没有!" She whispered fearfully to herself, reverting to speaking Chinese in her distress. 

It was almost beautiful seeing the two siblings run down the stairs. Arabella's shoulder length black hair bouncing against her neck as she ran. Jem wasn't far behind, his hands reaching out to catch the younger girls shoulder. His hair was a stark black, making him seem paler than he actually was.

In a matter of seconds the two siblings were at the bottom of the stairs. A terrified Arabella, just having barely turned eleven years old, gripping her mothers legs. Jem tried to stand tall and watched as his mothers face morphed into horror. Her face no longer looking at her children, but the demon Yanluo who was calmly walking down the hallway. A wicked grin was plastered across his pale face and his eyes seeming to shine like bright red rubies. Their mother moved Arabella and Jem behind her frame, raising her seraph blade in front of herself in defense. The true embodiment of a shadowhunter. Arabella stared up at her mother in amazement, remembering the painting in the library of a beautiful young lady stabbing a demon.

Beautiful.

---

"James!" Jonah screamed for his son, helplessly thrashing in the wooden chair that Yanluo had strapped him into. The leather straps digging into his wrist and ankles. The ferocious anger across his face was animalistic. Ke Wen Yu drowsily swung her head to the side, fighting off the black spots in her vision. Muttering Chinese under her breathe.

Jem seized uncontrollably on the library floor, drowning in and out of consciousness. The demon poison, Yin Fen, wreaking havoc in Jem's system, dragging him into hallucinations that threatened to drive him insane. Jem could no longer see between reality and fiction as he went delirious. The rows of books on the walls morphing into grotesque creatures and shadows. Between sputters of breath, Jonah could hear Jem screaming out of terror. Whispering his sisters name repeatedly as he withered in pain.

"Arabella. Bella. Arabella." Jem muttered uncontrollably as he withered; knees locking into place. His skin was a sickly white, almost transparent. The blue veins could be shown very clearly under his skin, pumping the blood rapidly through his body.

Arabella was slowly becoming conscious, blood matting in her hair from having been hit over the head. Her limp body lay across from Jem. Black hair almost creating a halo across the carpeted floor. Ke Wen Fu felt her stomach drop as she realized how still her youngest child was. Her skin a sickly shade of white as she lost blood. "Stop! Don't hurt them!" She screamed in anger, kicking her heel back to hit the wooden chair she was tied to. Teeth snarling at the man who threatened to take away the two most important jewels in her life.

"Don't worry about them." A sick smirk spread across the demons face as he approached the couple. Twirling an axe in his left hand as he advanced towards them. From up close Ke Wen Yu could see the rotten skin peeling off his face.

Arabella blinked lazily, eyelids heavy and drowsy. Her head scrapped against the carpet as everything around her seemed to tilt. Screams could be heard near her, but it was like her head was underwater. Not quite believing that this was actually happening. We are Carstairs. We are shadowhunters. Arabella finally turned her head fully, and stopped. A chocked gasp leaving her throat, mouth open wide in frozen shock.

The Great Demon was chopping away at her parents. Blood spattering on his clothes as the axe came down ruthlessly. Screams sounded from her parents mouths, filling the once silent room. The sickening crunch of broken bones sounded throughout the room as Arabella watched in chocked horror. Withering in sorrow as she tried to control her sobs. Another chop and her mother's arm was cut clean off. Dropping to the floor with a hollow thud, her wedding ring mockingly glimmering.

---

A few days later the Conclave investigated the Shanghai Institute. The institute having seeming to have been deserted and barren. As they forced themselves in through the main door of the institute, they spotted the dead bodies of shadowhunters that littered the halls. Blood smeared across the fine marble as they were led to the library. On the wooden doors of the library, a clear message was written.

All shadowhunters must fall.

The two men leading the search party pushed open the dark heavy wooden doors, seraph blades raised in the anticipation of a fight. What they found was the dead bodies of Jonah Carstairs and Ke Wen Yu, with their withering half dead son staring in horror. The whole team burst in, grimaces on their usually stoic face as they examined the scene.

"Did anyone see the younger daughter's body?" One asked, faintly remembering how a sassy younger girl had wandered these halls. A smile on her face as she trained with her mother. Stubbornly huffing as she lifted her skirts and demanded to play when Jem would be reading a book. A chill ran through the air as more shadowhunters flooded into the room. One yelled at another to call for the Silent Brothers.

She was gone.

---

Author's Note & Translation

[1] "no"

I use google translate for the translation, and they may be very rough. If a better translation or format for the words is known please inform me