The Lost Morgensterns

Chapter 6 - Truths Revealed

I head to the kitchen and grab an apple from the fridge. Biting into it, everyone was looking at me. "Why do I have to explain our life story?" I pouted.

"Come on Clares." Seb said. "Me and Jon suck at words and Sera and Val were to young to remember much."

I sighed and put the apple down. "How much do you know about Valentine?" I asked Jace, Izzy and Alec.

Jace shrugged. "We know he went crazy and killed a bunch of people. But not much."

I sighed. I didn't want to repeat such a horrible part of our past but we had to for them to understand it. "He was a terrible man. He would beat me, Jon and Seb, and even Sera a few times even though she was only five."

There faces turned to pity, and my anger boiled. "We're not looking for your pity." I snarled. "I'm telling you this so you'll understand."

They nodded and I went on. "He started to experiment on himself when I was nine, injecting himself with demon, angel, and Downworlder blood. He was a lunatic. When I was twelve, the blood made him crazy. He left the house that morning, and came back covered in blood. Me and Jon were there when he came through the door and knew he must have killed a lot of people. He pushed us into the kitchen, where our mom was cooking. Jocelyn saw him with his hands on us, covered in blood. She blew up. The yelling alerted Seb, Sera, and Val, and they all came into the room. Once they saw what was happening they curled up behind me and Jon. That's when Valentine started to hit Jocelyn, until he pulled out a knife." 

I looked to my siblings. They were all staring at the ground. But none of them were in tears or even remotely close. We were Morgensterns. We are tough. We block emotions.

I looked back to our guests who were staring. Isabelle looked ready to cry. "He killed our mother right in front of us." I said. "Then he looked at us, saw the fear in our eyes. Then he stuck his blade into his own heart, and collapsed to the ground. Leaving us with the dead bodies of our parents."

I took a deep breath. "We stayed there for hours. Crying, anger welling up inside us, we had no idea what to do next. Then we realized the Clave would come sooner or later. They would no doubt separate us, saying we would be planning something if we were kept together. They would maybe even punish us for what our father did."

"The Clave wouldn't-" Alec started, but Jace hit him. Alec clamped his mouth shut.

I stared at him as I continued. "We finally decided to run. Me and Jon ransacked the weapons room while Seb tried to take care of Sera and Val who were still crying. We grabbed some clothes, and some food. Stuffing it all into two duffel bags. We had to travel light if we were running. We changed into Shadowhunter gear, and put as many weapons as possible on ourselves. Then we ran."

"Where did you go?" Isabelle asked.

"We ended up in Germany first, because it is so close to Idris. We went to the outskirts of a small town and found an tiny abandoned one-room house. We slept on the floor there that night. The food lasted that day, but the next we were out. Me and Jon decided to rob shops in that small town. So Seb stayed home with Sera and Val while we got food.

"After about a week we figured we should move. We were still so close to Idris. We were traveling east for a while, stopping wherever we could find a good shelter. When I turned thirteen and we had been out there for a year, which had been a very hard year, the strangest thing happened. We hadn't found a shelter, so we were huddled under a grove of trees. Then it started raining, drenching us and our bags. Me and Jon were talking about what to do, Val was crying, Sera was asking if we had any food, and Seb was trying to calm Val. When all of a sudden we all froze. 

"For a moment I thought I was blind, my eyes were open but I saw nothing but darkness. Then a golden rune appeared on my eyelids. It was one I had never seen before, but it was as if it spoke to me. I knew it was a rune to stop the rain, and I knew how to use it somehow. My vision cleared, and I drew the rune on my hand. Then I reached my hand to the sky, and it did nothing for seconds until the rain instantly stopped, and it became sunny. That was the first rune I created. That's my 'power', creating runes." I smiled at the memory. 

"This part I can do." Jon said stepping in front of me. "I was arguing with Clary that we should run through the rain and find better shelter, when like she said, everyone froze. It felt like something was surging through my veins, and it was painful at first, then it dulled and it felt good. I felt powerful. I felt the impulse to punch a tree to my right, and when I did it fell crashing down." He smirked. "My power is that I'm really strong. And I can jump huge distances." 

"My turn!" Seb said. "I was trying to calm Val when, like they said, everyone froze. My whole body was sore, and I looked down to my hand. I freaked out when I couldn't see it. I looked to my legs, and my whole body. I couldn't see it. So my weird thing is that I can turn invisible." He smirked.

"Now me!" Sera said. "I was only six at the time, but I still remember it perfectly. I was really hungry and asking Clare if there was any food left. Then again, everyone froze. One second I was sitting next to Clare and Seb, the next I was at the tree in front of me, turned around looking at everyone. Then I was sitting on the lowest branch of the tree. Then I was really far away, and I could barely see everyone. I don't know how I stopped, but I did, and ran back over to them. My power is that I can transport." She smiled proudly. She loved her 'power' so much.

"Now me!" Val finally said. "I was only four, but like Sera said, I remember it perfectly." She smiled. "I was crying because I was so cold, and I was hungry and wet. When again, everyone froze. I looked to the scrape on my knee I had from falling earlier that day, and something pulled me towards touching it. My hand went on it, and a second later I moved it off, only to see it was completely healed. Then I saw a broken branch from a tree to the left of us, and again I had the impulse to touch it. I scrambled over to it and put my hand to it, only to see it perfectly healed when I took it off. My power is healing any creature with just my touch." She smiled.

There was silence for minutes, Jace's, Isabelle's, and Alec's mouths gaping, taking in all the information. "That's cool." Jace finally said.

"Cool!" Isabelle yelled incredulously as we all snickered. "That is absolutely amazing!"

I smiled. "Well continue the story." Alec said.

"So for the next few days we kept experimenting with our powers. We have no idea where they came from, how we have them. How we all got them in the same millisecond. But we were just glad for something to cheer us up. About a week later, a week we had spent in those woods, too happy to bother looking for a shelter, I saw about my sixth rune. It was for a portal. 

"We were all so excited. We traveled for about a year, going new places about every week. We finally decided to settle down in a small town in South America. We found a three-room abandoned house in the woods about a mile away, and we were happy there. Jon actually got a job, so we didn't steal as much. We trained in the woods, and cleaned our small house, and cooked over the tiny oven. We did it for three years." I sighed. "Then Jon came home and told me he got laid off. Told me he was sick of this town. We all agreed, and all agreed we wanted to live in a big city. So that's how we came to New York. We actually only arrived yesterday."

My family was smirking at the look of processing on their face's. After a few minutes they finally clicked back to reality. "That is the craziest life story I have ever heard." Jace said, smirking.

"Can't disagree with you there." Jon said smirking.