Nico

I was in a chasm. A dark, endless chasm. I felt nothing. The void was still and silent. I just existed lifelessly along with it- I don't know how long for. The only marker of time was when a warm glow appeared and started expanding and moving towards me. I stared at it, mesmerised. It was familiar and I kept trying to grab at it with my mind but it just slipped away at the last minute. Only when it was so close and I was practically breathing it in did I recognise it. Bianca.

I could see so clearly now. Her very essence just rushed at me, that feeling of being so safe and cared for and loved. I could also see her, not just feel. I could see her eyes, her hair, and her smile. I hugged her the tightest I ever could.

I was overwhelmed by emotion. I was happy, so blissfully and abnormally happy. "Shhh, Nico, it is okay," she soothed. I looked up at her, dazed, only to realise that my face was wet. I didn't remember crying.

"Do you love me?" she asked, face suddenly serious. Her loving glow now seemed to simmer. "Yes!" I said with confidence. She was my sister, Bianca. Bianca!

She doubted that?

She let go of me slowly, face sad and mournful. She backed away.

"No, you don't." I was overcome with intense coldness.

"Yes, I do," I barely whispered. Bianca's eyes started glistening. Tears roll down her cheeks.

"No, you don't," she said more fiercely, her voice breaking with sobs.

It broke my heart.

"Bianca…why?" I begged, trying not to let emotion disable my speech.

In one sharp movement she pierced me with her eyes, full of anger, betrayal and hatred.

"Why?" she screamed like a banshee. I flinched in fright. The void was suddenly full of wailing and blustering wind, no longer still. Bianca turned towards a lone figure, her dress and hair flapping in the air. My heart took a few stuttering beats when I saw who it was.

Percy.

My attention shot to Bianca when she started gagging.

"You make me sick, you make me sick!" She recoiled, one arm clutching her stomach. "Not only are your feelings repulsive, but you betray me. It is like you want me to loathe you! Might as well kill two birds with one stone, Nico?" I cannot reply.

She points her finger at me, accusing. "You love my killer, Nico. Percy Jackson killed me and you love him."

I cannot breathe.

She starts slowly walking to me. She is crying now again, looking so tired, so broken. "I feel like I'm dying all over again," she weeps.

She reaches me. I feel her words stab and burn like a hot iron poker.

"And this time, you are my murderer."

I explode into consciousness with a shattering scream. I am gasping for air, but it's hard to breathe with sobs racking my body. I sit there, just letting weeps and wails submerge me so I don't have to exist, don't have to live.

Alec

I lay in my bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. I should be sleeping. I glance at my phone on the bed side table -nothing. I look back at the ceiling again. I am in my pyjamas, under the duvet, head on pillow, but I am not comfortable. My body is rigid, but it's nagging me to get up, move, do something… look at my phone. With a grunt of frustration I sit up, push my duvet off and swing my legs off the bed. I stand up and grab my mobile. I shift about on the spot while my aching eyes scroll through my messages to check if I'd missed one. Just in case. No, no messages from Magnus Bane. That strange empty longing feeling spreads through me and tears start to surface. I put my phone down and sit in the edge of the bed. I wipe them away. "No more crying," I say to myself. "You promised no more crying." A memory of the last time I made that promise resurfaced. "By the Angel Alec, Max? Seriously?" I laugh at myself for my weak attempt of holding it together, but tears are still falling. I take a deep breath and stare at the floor. "See, you don't cry in front of others, so you can not cry in front of yourself." My face hardens when my emotions subside. "Just go to sleep now Alec. Just go to sleep." I mutter while I lean back onto my bed.

I lay there. And lay there. And lay there. "Ah that's it," I leap put of my bed. "If I can't go to sleep I'm doing something productive instead. I'll go pick up Simon's blood for him-I was just going to do it in the morning anyway while he went Christmas shopping with Clary." I get changed into basic Shadowhunter gear. It's just enough to go outside in public without an invisibility rune without people thinking I am an assassin. I open the door of my room and slip out.

Jace is standing there, arms folded and shirtless.

"Uh, why are you so underdressed?" I asked, cringing back in embarrassment and surprise.

"Why are you so overdressed?" he replied.

"I am not overdressed!"

"You are if you are meant to be sleeping. Where are you going?"

I look at him steadily. His face is one of determination. I sigh.

"I can't get to sleep so I am going out to do some errands."

He looks at me.

"Okay,"

I was caught off guard. I thought he would say he wanted to come with me or something.

"You going?" he asks, eyebrows raised.

"Yes, see you tomorrow," I reply.

"See you," he calls down the hall while I walk away, suspicious and confused.

"What the hell was he doing standing outside my room?" I mutter.

"Alec?" I hear him say before I get into the elevator.

"Yes?"

"You talk to yourself too much,"