Nothing is ever as it seems.

A boy of seventeen waits on a wall for a girl. He's been doing it for a while. When she comes, he smiles and gets off his wall. She has pretty red hair, like his sister's. He gets on her bus, sits next to her, and they ride in silence for the rest of the journey to her home. Then they embrace, and then she spends the night at his house. It doesn't sound too bad.

Until you think about the fact that the boy of seventeen is a Shadowhunter, the red haired girl a mundane, and that she doesn't know he is there until he breaks into her house through her window, throws a knife in her general direction, and she breaks his wrist. And then he kidnaps her, imprisons her to the point of near insanity and nearly turns her into a Forsaken. She spends the night paralysed in his bed.

Nothing is ever as it seems.

This is a birthday gift for a friend. Happy birthday, Natasha. We all love you, you annoying little prat.

WARNING: There are gross bits, and graphic descriptions. This is not the kind of story that ends particularly happily.