Et tú, Clarissa?

Chapter twenty-three

Present Day (New Jersey, USA)

The cold snow that covers the ground around me makes sure that I lie comfortable just outside the big, dark forest. I drag my arm through the snow and as my underarm comes below my waist, I feel some kind of warm liquid in the snow. As I lift my arm, I see how my arm is covered in blood. Then I notice that my clothes have big claw marks all over them and the thick warm blood covers most of me.

"Clarissa..."

My gaze turns directly towards the voice. I know it, but as I see the one who had spoken, I suddenly do not remember who is before me. This man standing in the snow have old, torn clothes which I supposed have been rather fine in their day. The curly brown hair dances around his head, like in the wind, but it is no wind around us. Not even one twig on the tall trees around us shows any indication on the slightest movement in the big, grey sky. His eyes, ocean blue eyes, is the only thing around me that puts any colour in this gloomy surrounding. He looks exhausted, like he has just run a mile, but his skin is pale white, ice cold and covered in dirt and dried blood. Actually, it's almost transparent.

"Zac? What happened to you? Why are you wearing those clothes?" my voice is distant and echoes though the glade.

Just the struggle of keep breathing seems to be much for him and he falls to his knees, but I am not late to rush up and get to him. I turn him over to get his face out of the snow. I caress over his cheek to get him to open his eyes. He quietly mumbles something and then my name and I see how my vision gets blurry, but I cannot hear what he is trying to say again, and again, and again. As I place my hand at his jaw, he forces his eyes open to look at me.

"I am not Zac." he says and I feel the pain through his body. "Clary, it's me. It's me."

He reaches out for me, but he starts to disappear.

"Don't leave me." he cries. "Please, don't leave me."

I feel tears roll slowly down my face and as I open my eyes a river of tears streams down my cheeks, so I sit up and try to get all the salty water out of my eyes to see clearly. My gaze climb over the room to the digital watch on the dresser. The blue lines write 03:22 clearly in the dark room and I sigh. I cannot get up now; it is too early. I lay back down, but I do not fully go back to sleep. I do not want to get back to that dream. The sadness and pure heartache still got my chest in an iron fist, but nothing I try, takes the pain away. Like someone have torn my heart from me. I close my eyes as I touch the blue stone around my neck and try to remember what happened, to depicture his face, his voice and words. To my surprise, I start to remember fragments, small, small fragments. Memories starts flashing by. They are fast and unclear, but they are there. A warm, calm feeling fills me as I see pictures of horse-riding, dancing, kissing and playing, but it disappears as the pictures change. A shiver goes down to my core and I know that something terrible happened, but the images are dark. I feel the panic go through my bones and just as I see the body of the same man on the ground covered in blood, a slam goes through the house and my eyes goes wide open.

"Find her." I hear the woman from the beach say in very low voice down stairs and that very second, Maze, Eli and Josef runs through the door into my room.

"The guardians are here." Maze says so low, it nearly does not come any sound over her lips. "We need to get you out of here."

I jump up from the bed and pull my clothes on, but I am too late. We hear how someone comes up the stairs and walks into the room opposite mine.

"I can shadow the portal, but you need to go now!" Eli says and his eyes turns into those of a lizard whilst his skin turns into scales as green sparks of magic starts flying around his fingers.