III

                                    

                                          
"Listen Jace, no offense, but we're walking into an abandoned chu-" I shut up as soon as I blinked and the he moldy, cracked walls turned into clean, stone with widows holding brilliant colours and farther in the building were people working with technology I'd never even seen before. "Holy shit." I whispered, unable to fathom that that actually just happened.
                          
I saw Jace grin from the corner of my eye. "Thea, welcome to the New York Institute."
                          
I couldn't keep my eyes from roaming everywhere or my feet from moving as I made my way to the heart of the institute. "So what..happens at the institute? Like what's its purpose?" I asked, turning to Jace to see him deep in a conversation with a red head.
                          
It was Alec who answered instead, surprisingly. "It's like a Shdowhunters headquarters. Jace, myself, my sister Izzy, and the head, Hodge are really the only ones who stay here full time. My parents are currently visiting, though."
                          
My eyes began to roam around once more. "Were you guys raised here?"
                          
"No we were raised and trained in our home country called Idris."
                          
"I thought Idris was just a myth." I said absently, still looking around. 
                          
It wasn't until the talking and footsteps around me stopped that I noticed Jace, Alec, and a couple of others staring at me in shock.
                          
"What is it?" 
                          
"You've heard of Idris?" It was Jace who spoke this time.
                          
"Uh...yeah? My m-mother used to tell us stories about it when I was little. It was a hidden land in between Germany, France, and Switzerland that contained a city made of glass. She used to tell us all sorts of stories about it."
                          
They all continued to stare at me speechless until Jace spoke again, except this time he looked weary. "Who is us? Were you with others? And who is your mother?"
                          
This time I was speechless. I didn't know how to answer that nor did I want to answer that. I didn't even want to think about them. Thank God for Magnus because he seemed to get what was running through my mind and immediately stepped in.
                          
"Okay, I think Athena has had enough to deal with for one night so can she get a room?"
                          
Ok not where I thought that was going. "No, Henric said I need to find Raphael."
                          
"You know Raphael?" A dark haired girl appeared beside the redhead. Okay what was with everyone here being stunningly beautiful? Like I'm straight, but the four people in front of me were literally flawless. I had to look like trash compared to them. I mean, I wasn't fat or anything, but I had to look huge compared to the two girls. Not to mention, I had to look totally plain next to them with my dark brown hair and hazel/green eyes. 
                          
"Uh no, not exactly. Henric told me to find h-"
                          
"Who's Henric?" Jace cut me off.
                          
"Okay, enough." Magnus saved me once again. "Just show the girl to a room."
                          
"Whatever." Jace huffed. "Come with me little Mundie."
                          
I scoffed, following after him as he led me to the other side of the institute. "I'm not little. I'm probably only three inches shorter than you at the most."
                          
"I'm 5'11."
                          
"Ha! I was right. 5'8 bitch, suck it."
                          
I could actually hear the smirk in his voice when he said, "You have an interesting vocabulary."
                          
"For a girl that's been living with 100 year old plus vampires, I can't argue with that. You'd think I'd talk all proper and sh-"
                          
He stopped and turned around in one fluent motion, cutting me off with the look he gave me. "You lived with Vampires?"
                          
"Yup."
                          
"What about your parents?"
                          
I cast my hardening gaze to the floor. "Where's my room?"
                          
I could feel his eyes linger on my fidgeting figure for a little while longer before he turned and continued down the hall in silence. I'm going to guess we were now in the living quarters or something like that because the doors that were open were doors to bedrooms in the hallway. Hopefully we were close because I just wanted to lie down and rest. I could try to sleep, but the nightmares would probably just keep me up. 
                          
I was pulled out of my thoughts as Jace stopped, causing me to almost run into him, and pointed to a door. "Here you are. We'll get you tomorrow around eleven seeing that you'll probably need all the sleep you can get."
                          
I let out a humorous chuckle. "That won't be necessary, I won't be getting much sleep tonight."
                          
"You should at least try." He said, catching me off guard for a second. "The bags under you eyes say that you don't get much sleep period."
                          
"You wouldn't either if you were in my shoes. Goodnight, Jace." I said as I walked into the room.
                          
"What, no thank you?"
                          
I turned towards him and rolled my eyes. "Thank you for showing me to my room and inviting me into your home unwillingly. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to try to get some nonexistent sleep. Goodnight." 
                          
His eyes shone with amusement. "Well goodnight to you." He muttered before walking back the way we had came.
                          
I smiled and closed the door. My room was huge. Probably the biggest room I'd ever had. When I was little, we lived in an apartment and then even in Henric's mansion, this room was still bigger. But I couldn't get used to it because it was only temporary. My time here was only temporary. I had to remember that. This really nice, soft, comfortable mattress underneath me was only temporary. That's the way it had to be.


                          
I got no sleep not to my surprise. Every single time I closed my eyes, I saw my mom sitting in that chair with the twins. I saw my dad with his unforgiving knife, and now I had a new vision too. Henric. If I did manage to sleep, I would only wake up screaming like usual and I'm sure the residence institute wouldn't be too fond of that.
                          
So now, at 2 am, instead of trying to get some sleep for the one hundredth time, I decided to explore. This institute belonged to fric-fracking Shadowhunters. There had to he some interesting stuff in here. Sure enough, the first room in the next hallway was a library. Probably not the library as it was very small, but a library nonetheless. 
                          
As I made my way inside, I spotted a grand piano tucked away the back, left corner an couldn't help myself when I closed the door and made my way over to the bench. The tune of a piano always helped me calm down and  my mom used to play it to put me to sleep. I let my fingers wiz over the keys as the famous melody of "The Morning Mood" by Edvard Grieg floated through the room. I'd always enjoyed classical although I loved learning to play more modern tunes as well. I used to preform for Henric; play and sing. I never thought my voice was that good, but the Clan constantly insisted that I play at taverns or some local place.
                          
The thought that I could've woken someone up since it was two in the morning didn't even occur to me until I heard faint footsteps from the hall. Although, when I was playing, I was in my own world. Nothing could really pull me out of it. Not even the door opening and someone watching me. That was all very far away. 
                          
Until I finished and Jace's voice echoed through the room.
                          
"That was amazing."