The Failing Sense (CassandraClare Fanfiction)

Chapter One- Chance Encounter

                                                            Chapter One - Chance Encounter

                                   "Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me."

                                                                                       -Emily Dickinson

Vancouver, 2012

         It was devastatingly hot day out, but the beating sun didn't faze Luca Chamberlain in the slightest. As she walked down the nearly deserted road, she could hear the subtle, yet deafening drone of cicadas over the roars of car engines that are always associated with the thought of hot summer days. It was the middle of June, and Luca was going where she always went when she wasn't home or at the library directly beside it; she was progressing the near effortless journey to her favourite place in Vancouver.

          It was a quiet and secluded patch of beauty amidst the bustling of West Side. She had once found strange the amount of people she had never seen there, one would think such a picturesque plot of land would be admired by many more than it was. However, she had only seen very few people there, and they still never lingered for long, and certainly never returned for a second visit.

          The park-like area was blocked off on three sides by various oak trees, large evergreens, and exorbitant lilac bushes. The only break between two colossal, green bushes also served as the sole entryway to the garden patch, leaving the stretch of land nearly invisible to anyone who wasn't already looking for it. It was located directly at the bottom of a sizable, beige and marble bridge only a few minutes’ walk from her small apartment. Due to its unimaginably perfect location, the only side not encircled by plants was taken up by a long breadth of breath-taking, sapphire blue water. There was a red wooden park bench off to the side, its face directed towards the river, its wrought iron legs resting delicately in the chartreuse-coloured grass. Luca had wondered once who cut the grass here, but like most, this was only a passing thought that was gone from her mind almost as soon as it had arisen.

          As Luca neared the small, slightly-worn path that led through the entrance of the area, she noticed a rather large spider-web in one of the massive green bushes to the left of the breach in the plant-barrier. A zigzag of thicker web ran through the center of it, interrupted only by an enormous black spider with distinct yellow markings. A writing spider had stumbled its way into the bush and made it its home.

          Clutching her worn copy of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Luca contemplated the unexpected elegance of the delicate work the spider must have spent hours slaving to accomplish overnight. She thought of how easy it would be for her to pick up one of the long sticks littering the ground at feet and destroy it with a flick of her wrist. The thought disturbed her moment of appreciation only briefly, but it had been enough. With a frown, she turned from the web and began again along her path into the garden patch.

         Making her way towards the bench, Luca noticed the Dilettante had been here again, his visit made apparent by the slight depressions in the soft blanket of grass leading towards the bench. 

          One day, approximately two weeks after Luca had first encountered the garden patch; she arrived to the same subtle footsteps directed towards the wooden bench.  As she neared the bench, she noticed that, to her mild surprise, someone had left a small, red, old and tattered book laying on it, as if forgotten. When she opened it, it was filled with poetry; from medieval times, to the 1800's, from Chaucer, to Tennyson. Though she had never given much thought to poetry, Luca had sat for hours reading that book. By the time she realized where she was again, the sun was already setting, and the entire garden patch had been diluted with the soft orange of the evening sky. She carefully set the book back on the bench where she'd found it and finally went home. When she returned the next day, the book had been gone. In its place, lay a cream-coloured note with a single word penned in unrealistically beautiful handwriting: Thanks. 

           Since that day, Luca would occasionally return to the garden patch to find the same modest indents in the glossy plain of grass, indicating the return of the Dilettante. Luca began to think of him as her friend, the only one other than herself who had ever returned to the garden patch, someone she knew. It was always a pleasant surprise to arrive and see the Dilettante’s sojourn betrayed by the delicate trail of imprints, like a great cat had been stalking there, though she knew better than to be disappointed if it wasn't.

          She had just settled herself into the center of the wooden bench when Luca noticed a man gazing across the horizon on the bridge above her. It wasn't until he swung his leg around the other side of the short, pillared railing that she realized what he was doing.

          A strange and unusual panic ripped through Luca. She bolted to her feet, causing her book to topple into the grass in front of her. She hesitated for only a few seconds before a rush of emotions utterly foreign to her dragged her from her place and propelled her forward. She flew back to the small path at the entrance of the garden patch and bounded faster than she thought possible up the dirt path to the bridge, where she paused. What was she going to do? Why had she been so desperate to get up here?

          She saw the man balancing precariously along the outside edge of the bridge, his arms that held the railing behind him the only thing keeping him from toppling into a watery grave. She could see him considerably better in the sun’s dazzling intensity. She noticed his soft, feather-like black hair that shone under the dazzling sun. It was pin-straight, stretching across his semblance and ending just above his collar bone. He was beautiful. His skin was tan, and the cast of his features distinctly Asian. Which country he was from, Luca didn’t know, she could never really distinguish between them. He looked sad and lonely as his tender, brown eyes gazed pensively at the sparkling, clear blue water.

          “No!” Luca cried out.

          The man looked up, positively alarmed at the sound of her voice. His gorgeous visage wore the strangest expression of confusion and utter disbelief as Luca sprinted towards him.

          “Please! Don’t do it! Please don’t do it.” Luca was nearly out of breath, and her voice came out in wretched gasps.

          The man just stood rigidly on his perch gawking at her, like an oddly placed statue, as Luca rapidly closed the distance between them and pulled him over the railing, on top of her. The two landed in a tangled mess by the side of the bridge, lines of traffic streaming by them, seemingly oblivious to the events taking place directly beside them.

          “What were you thinking?” Luca demanded the best she could between jagged gulps of air.

          The man– or boy rather, as he looked to be around eighteen– still only stared at her, making Luca wonder if he was deaf.

          “You can see me,” he stated simply, as if utterly floored by such a fact.

          Thoroughly confused and slightly annoyed, Luca answered without thinking. “Of course I can see you, why would you even think otherwi–” Her eyes widened in astonishment as she noticed in the pocket of the boy on top of her a small, tattered, red book. The boy she had just saved the life of was none other than the Dilettante. 

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Yay! Chapter one, completed. 

A bit of information to the readers, if you're interested:

I live in Ontario, and have never been to Vancouver in my life. I apologize for any details I get horribly wrong, I'd also appreciate if anyone who does live there would post a comment, inbox me, or something if they have any corrections or information that could help on the subject.

Also, the gorgeous young man on the cover I made for the series(MS paint, awyah) is a South Korean model/ actor/ singer/ bishounen named Ki Jun Lee. 

Thank you so much for reading! I appreciate all the votes and comments.

Chapter two will be released next Sunday. (: