To Love Is To Destroy (Wattys2014)

'Memories'

"Clary, wake up. Clary," a gentle voice awoke her from her nightmares. She thrashed out in fear.

"Clary! It's just me!"

"Seb!" she exclaimed. "I'm so sorry!"

"It's fine. Don't worry. It'll take a lot more than you to hurt me."

"Why did you wake me up?"

"Hmmm," he said, theatrically scratching his head. "It could have been something to do with the thrashing, or the screaming. Oh! Or the crying."

Clary threw her pillow at him in mock annoyance.

"Or maybe it's time to get your memories back."

"Really? Are you sure it will work?"

"Clarissa Adel Fray. I promise that in a few hours you will remember everything."

***

"Are you ready?"

"Yes," Clary nodded her head, barely able to keep the fear from her voice. Would it work? Would she ever remember her feelings for Sebastian? It didn't seem likely. He seemed more like a brother than a lover.

"Let's go," Sebastian extended his arm to her. She looked at it as if the mere sight of it repulsed her, even more so the idea of touching him. "Clary? What's wrong?"

"What happened?" she asked, shaking her head as a wave of dizziness hit her.

"It's worse than I feared. Jace had began to make you hate me. It was all in his master plan. Make you forget all our best moments and then make you think that I was the one that chained you to that wall."

"No! I could never think that!"

"But for a moment you did. We must bring back your memories before he comes for you. He only had one more stage of the ritual."

"Let's go," she said, taking hold of his hand.

Moments later they burst into an empty room. It was sparsely furnished but still elegant.

"My dear Clarissa. Are you ready?" said a voice from the shadows. A figure in black appeared. "I am Lilith, Sebastian's mother."

"Oh, nice to meet you Ms Morgenstern."

"The pleasure is all mine. Are you ready?"

Clary nodded uncertainly. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"Are you sure? I know our goal is for you to remember what Jonathan Herondale made you forget. But I cannot measure how much you remember, or what. His goal was to make you forget that it was him that tortured you. You remember some of it but in mere minutes you could remember everything."

"I'm ready. I have to be. I'm trying so hard to remember but I can't."

"Very well." Lilith began to chant in a foreign tongue. Clary couldn't remember where she'd heard that language before.

Suddenly she was filled with immeasurable pain. She screamed in agony, the world going dark...