River of the Dead: A Shadowhunter Fanfic

Chapter 7

When the two finally reached the soundless river, they stopped. Trees and bushes and fields of lush green grass surrounded them, and her boots crushed the leaves beneath her feet. Jem sat on a flat rock, but Autumn remained standing.

"Autumn," he said. "I want you to look into this river. What do you see?" he asked softly and encouragingly.

Autumn stood at the edge of the lake and stared. The river was so clear that she could see the bottom, and the little silver fish swimming in it. She concentrated hard, squinting her eyes into slits and drowning out the loud, piercing noise of the dead. Autumn wondered if the fish and animals she saw here were dead, too.

Her focus returned to the river as she stared. Then, there was a ripple in the center where she had been looking at. It was as if someone had tossed a rock there. She spun around to see if anyone had, but no one was around except for Jem.

She looked back at the river. The ripples were widening, and now she could make out a picture. It was at the Institute, and she could see herself lying on the floor of her room, clearly passed out. Irene was no longer in the room. Autumn watched as the door flew gently open and River walked through the doorway.

"Hey Aut-" he stopped as he saw his sister lying unconscious on the floor. His eyes widened and he pulled her body on the bed. "Chris!" he called, his voice edged with panic.

Was this happening now?

"Jem," she said, and turned to the thin boy. "Jem, what is this? Is this happening to my body... now?"

He nodded. "I think I might as well tell you what's going on," he said.

Autumn scoffed. "You think?"

Jem frowned at her. "Autumn, this river is the boundary between the dead and the living. When you look down on this river, you see the living. When the living look up at the sky, they see the river. It's like a one-way glass." Autumn nodded and Jem continued. "It's not like that for most people. Like you. They can look upwards and see us, the dead. They have an ability we call the Vision, too see through the river on both sides. It's called necromancy. The ability to communicate with the dead. It's been mentioned in ancient stories, especially Greek myths, where necromancy was most frequent in their people."

He looked down at her, to make sure she was understanding. "Does this make sense?" Autumn nodded.

"Will and I are trying to figure out more about this... so far, in everyone like you we have observed, they all have Lilith's blood. Demon blood. But warlocks have the blood of Lilith, but are still yet unable to see the dead," he said, and his face hardened and he looked sad when he mentioned warlocks.

"Maybe they have to have Shadowhunter blood," Autumn suggested.

Jem eyes softened, and his expression sad. "Tessa," he whispered.

"Tessa had Shadowhunter and demon blood. Was she able to see the dead? What about Jonathan Morgenstern?" Autumn asked.

"No. She hasn't seen us." he replied flatly. "I-I, uh, anyway, we also know that there has been a large increase of Shadowhunters being born with necromancy like this within the past two decades, including your brother, but we could only-"

Autumn cut him off angrily. "River? River does not--h-he can't-"

"You two are twins. Lilith could not have poisoned you inside of your mother without poisoning him too, and vice versa."

"But he's totally normal, he really is, trust me," she argued.

"You seemed perfectly normal until you had that dream about your father, am I correct?" he asked. Autumn nodded, although she was still frustrated. "We think that Lilith does that. She decides when your necromancy is activated. The dramatic increase with necromancers got me and Will's attention. We think Lilith is starting something, a war maybe, and so far you're the only one we could communicate with."

"Only me?" Autumn asked, shocked and confused at the same time.

"We need your help."