"Elizabeth?"

What? Who's calling me?

I looked around me and saw nothing. My eyebrow raised as I began walking, looking for something, anything.

"Elizabeth?"

"Who's there?" I shouted into empty air.

No answer. Chills were running down my spine as I kept walking.

"Elizabeth?"

"Who the hell is calling me?!" I shout, my hands turning to fists and my eyes squeezing shut in irritation.

When I opened them, I saw large faces surrounding me. I recognized some of them as a few of the other kids at the orphanage and some of the families that had adopted me for about three days before returning me.

They were all smirking at me with this evil gleam in their eye.

"W-what do you want?" I stutter.

Damnit, Elizabeth! At least pretend you're not weak!

I fixed my face into what I hoped was an intimidating glare.

They all laughed at me, a grating heartless noise. I had to resist the urge to cover my ears, I couldn't let them know that they were affecting me.

"I asked you a question." I growl through grit teeth. They laughed even louder, causing me to cringe.

One of them, an incredibly snobby girl who had harassed me at school when I was younger, got closer to me. Instantly, I cowered back as my eyes widened in fear.

"Still pathetic, aren't we?" She sneered. I made no comment, but narrowed my eyes. "And you've only gotten worse since I last saw you. You would think you'd improve with time, but sadly you haven't."

The words cut me like a knife.

No. Worse than a knife. Harming yourself somehow made you feel better. What this girl was saying was making me feel worse.

Stop letting her affect you! She doesn't mean anything to you so why do you care so much what she thinks of you?

"I see your mental state hasn't gotten better either. Still seeing vampires and talking to yourself?" She gave her a fake concerned look before returning to her smirk.

I stayed silent, no matter how much I hated her speaking to me this way, I was not a liar!

"Don't you have anything to say? Or have you finally come to terms with the fact that nobody wants you?"

My eyes widened and glazed over with unshed tears. Those words, they were the ones that cut the deepest.

"No, you're wrong! Somebody does want me!" I protested. I didn't care if there was no evidence to back up what I had just said. No way was I going to let her say that!

"Oh, please. If that were true, you wouldn't have had to run away from the orphanage. Someone would've adopted you. In fact, your parents wouldn't have left you there. They would've kept you!"

"That's not true! You don't know what you're talking about!" I cried out. The tears were streaming fiercely down my face by now, I could feel them sliding down my cheeks.

She laughed again though it was more of a cackle considering how much of a witch she was.

The stupid ringing laughter was inside of my head, engraving itself into my brain. I brought my hands up to cover my ears in an attempt to make it go away. Instead, it got even louder.

"Shut up!" I screeched, falling to my knees as I squeezed my eyes shut.

She didn't listen, she kept laughing. The others joined in, their maniacal laughter pounding in my eardrums. The tears were much more prominent now, and I was sobbing loudly.

"Please stop! Please!" I begged.

Why wouldn't they listen? Why does no one care?

Shoving my hands into my scalp and pulling at my hair, I lifted my head to the sky and shrieked loudly.

•~•

An ear piercing shriek filled the otherwise silent morning as I shot up from the bed.

I immediately began panicking when I didn't recognize my surroundings.

Where am I?

The memories of last night came crashing back to me as I calmed down.

I was at Alec and Magnus' place. They let me stay the night.

I was breathing heavily and felt beads of sweat bordering my forehead. My hand reached up to cradle my head which was throbbing slightly. The pain was bearable, as it was only a small ache.

The pattering of hurried footsteps caught my attention as I looked to the door.

Magnus, Rafael, Max, and Alec were all standing there staring at me. I stared back and felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to concern you." I apologized, looking down.

"Are you okay?" Rafael asked as he stared at me with concern.

"I'm fine. Just a nightmare." I assured him, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and removing the blankets.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Max asked as he sat on the bed next to me.

His offer shocked me. He wanted to listen to me complain about a dream I had?

"That's okay." I declined, he frowned at this. "I'll be just fine."

"No, you won't." Alec said, giving me a look that was a cross between concern and stern. My eyes narrowed in irritation. Who did he think he was?

"I'm pretty sure I know how I feel." I say through grit teeth.

"And I'm pretty sure you don't. Bottling things up isn't healthy. I know it sounds cheesy, but talking about it will make you feel better." He said.

I rolled my eyes and turned to face all of them. "Fine. If you wanna know so badly, it was just a nightmare about this girl who used to bully me. She was telling my stuff about my biological parents not wanting me." I huffed as I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Wow, sounds like a bitch." Magnus said, casually leaning against the doorframe.

"Tell me about it." I say back. "She would tell me things like that all the time and how no one would ever want me because I was crazy. And what was sad was that I believed her! For a while, I really thought everything she would say to me was true. Isn't that stupid?"

"Feel better now?" Alec asked while Magnus chuckled.

"What?" I ask. Feel better about what?

"Talking about it." He replied casually. I gave him a shocked look. I did feel better. Normally, I had no one to talk to and would spend the whole day mulling over it myself, making myself feel even worse.

"Maybe." I mumbled childishly.

They all shook their heads at my stubbornness and grinned.

"Are you okay with having pancakes for breakfast?" Alec asked me.

"Yeah, that sounds good." I nodded at him as he left the room, Magnus walking after him.

"They'll be done in a little while." He called from the hallway.

Only Rafael and Max were in the room with me now. I stared at them awkwardly, what was I supposed to say?

"I have some clothes you can change into later on if you want. They're in my room." Max said.

"Sure, thanks." I smiled at him gratefully.

"Cool. I'll go get them for you right now." He said as he stood up and left the room, leaving only Rafael.

We sat together in silence for a bit. He was staring at me intensely, like he was analyzing my entire existence.

"Um... Did you want something?" I asked him after a while.

"Yeah, to talk." He said, sitting in the same spot Max had occupied just a few minutes ago.

"Talk? About what?" I asked, staring at him in confusion.

"Before Alec and Magnus found me, I used to think I was crazy too. I know how it feels and I want you to know that even though we just met, you can talk to me." He smiled warmly at me before he stood and left.

I sat there, blinking slowly at him as he left while Max came in and sat the pile of clothes on the end of the bed.

Why do they all care so much about me?

•~•

Alec hadn't been kidding when he said the pancakes wouldn't take long. It had only been about twenty minutes before he called everyone to the kitchen and served us all plates of blueberry pancakes.

Of course, they were absolutely delicious. Damnit, if they kept all of this up, I was gonna have a hard time leaving.

I froze in place as that last word of my thought circled my head.

Leave.

I had almost forgotten. At some point, I would have to go. This wasn't my home, I'm only staying for a day or two before I'm on my way.

"Elizabeth, you okay?" A blue hand was waving in front of my face.

I blinked a few times before shaking my head, trying to come back from my thoughts. "Yeah. Just thinking."

"You looked like you saw a ghost or something." He chuckled softly before going back to his pancakes.

We had all finished up with breakfast and Max had given me the clothes he had promised while Magnus handed me a towel and some other essentials before ushering me to the bathroom to shower.

After a few minutes of trying to figure out how it worked, (don't lie. We all do this when we go to a friends house) I stepped under the warm water and allowed myself to relax.

I scrubbed roughly at my skin, trying to clean off all the dirt and grime. It took a while, but I finally deemed it acceptable and then moved onto my hair. It felt so greasy and disgusting before I lathered some expensive looking shampoo into my locks. As I rinsed it off, the water became tinted slightly gray. I grimaced at that before giving my entire a body a quick second wash before finally stepping out of the shower. I wrapped the towel around myself and ran my fingers through my hair to work out a few knots.

I had brought Max's clothes with me into the bathroom so I wouldn't have to walk outside to change and possibly run into any awkward situations.

The outfit was pretty simple, just a dark blue shirt and some gray sweatpants. Thankfully, I hadn't had to ask and Magnus had proofed up some underwear for me. It would've been so embarrassing if he hadn't.

I stepped out of the bathroom feeling much better then when I had entered. When I exit, I heard voices coming from the living room. Four of them I recognized as Alec, Magnus, Rafael, and Max but there was a whole handful of others.

Curiously, I walked out into the room and immediately everything went silent and all eyes were on me.

There were some new people I had never seen before now standing with the family.

"Um, hi?"

One lady who looked a bit like Alec smiled at me.

"When you guys said there was an emergency and to come as soon as we could, I didn't think you meant there was a thirteen year old girl here." She chuckled as she walked over to me.

"Hi, I'm Izzy, Alec's sister. This is my husband Simon and my two kids, Christian and Stephen." She said as she pointed out three males who waved at me. I waved back slightly at them with a small smile.

"And that's Jace and his wife Clary and their kids." She said as she directed my attention to a blonde guy and red head woman. Standing beside them were two little boys, one was blonde and the other had red hair.

"It's great to meet you." Jace and Clary said as the two boys smiled. There was another blonde girl who was smiling at me happily.

"Hey, I'm Victoria." The blonde greeted, I nodded at this as I allowed all the names to sink in. I stood there, shuffling my feet awkwardly and shoving my hands into my pockets.

Everyone just looked at me expectantly. It took a few tries, but I found my voice.

"I-I'm Elizabeth." I say, rubbing my arm nervously.

Clary walked over to me and gave me a sweet smile.

"Hi, sweetie. Magnus called us last night and told us about you. Me and Izzy brought you some clothes for you to wear." She said, taking a bundle out of her purse. She handed them to me and I smiled at her gratefully as I walked over to my temporary room to change. Izzy, Clary, and Victoria came with and waited outside of the door.

I folded up the clothes Max had given me and mentally promised to give them back later on. The new outfit consisted of a black long sleeve top, some jean shorts, and a pair of converse. They had also brought me a bra that was a bit too big, but it was something. I slipped it all on quickly before stepping out to see Izzy holding up a comb with an excited smile and crazy gleam in her eye.

Before I could even register what was happening, Izzy practically pounced on me and began weaving the comb through my short hair. I could tell she was struggling with all the knots but eventually, she had finished. As a final touch, she placed a black headband in it.

"There. All done." She cheered excitedly, clapping her hands. Clary and Victoria smiled and voiced their approval, causing me to blush.

"Ooh, I haven't had this much fun since we first met Clary." Izzy said, walking in a circle around me to see if everything looked alright.

We walked back out to the living room and Magnus smiled at my newly made-over self. Everyone nodded at me and I blushed. I wasn't used to so many people giving me positive attention.

"I knew they would take great care of you." Magnus said, high-fiving Izzy. "You look great." He complimented.

"Thank you." I smiled back.

Stop it! Don't get attached!

I shook my head slightly to focus my thoughts, but smiled quickly to cover it up.

"Okay, so I know she's already introduced herself but this is Elizabeth, guys. Elizabeth, this is my family." Alec said, gesturing to the people in the room.

I waved shyly at them despite having already met them. They all smiled at me and I felt a bit of my worries melt away.

"Well, Magnus didn't tell us everything so what exactly happened last night?" Simon asked.

Everyone then looked at me, waiting for my answer.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure myself. All I know is I was sleeping somewhere when this really ugly thing came and it was about to attack me when Alec showed up and killed it. I think I fainted and then I was here." I explain.

"When I woke up, Magnus and Alec told me that I was a Shadow whatever and that I would stay for the night and then we ate dinner and went to sleep."

"Wait. Go back, a demon attacked you? Are you okay?" Clary asked in concern.

"Yeah, I don't think it hurt me." I said.

"Well, actually on the way home a forsaken attacked us. You were just unconscious but it did scratch your leg. Magnus used magic to lessen the pain, but it's there." Alec informed me. I looked down at my legs and saw that on the inner side of my left calf, there was a long scratch. It didn't look very deep, but it still looked like pretty bad.

I reached down and pressed my fingers to it and hissed as I immediately drew back my hand. There was a stinging pain in my leg now.

"I thought he used a spell or something." I complained as I sat on the couch and held my leg to my chest.

"Yeah, but that was last night. This is the morning." Alec responded.

I sighed and cradled my injured leg. It was just a scratch so why did it hurt so bad?

"Luckily, I killed it before it could do worse. But it's still a scratch from a forsaken. It'll hurt really bad for a little while, but in a few days you'll be fine." He shrugged.

A few days? I couldn't stay here for a few more days! I have to leave as soon as possible or I won't want to!

"What? But I can't stay that long! I have to leave like tonight or tomorrow!" I objected, shooting up from the couch to stand. My leg screamed in pain, but I ignored it.

"No way are you leaving tonight. You need to heal before you go anywhere. And besides, where will you go?" Magnus asked me.

"I don't know, but you shouldn't be concerned. It's not like we're connected in anyway. Why do you care?" I snap.

I knew I was being ungrateful, but I couldn't help it. He can't tell me what to do!

"I care because I'm not heartless. And you are going to stay at least until you've healed." Magnus said, his yellow green eyes narrowing at me.

I narrowed mine back and we stared at each other, daring the other to give up. His eyes hardened and I did the same.

Magnus clearly wasn't giving up, but I could feel my own gaze wavering. Finally, I gave in and looked away.

"Fine! I won't go until my leg is okay. But after that, I'm leaving!" I huff.

"I win." Magnus smiled happily, holding up a hand behind him for Jace to high five him.

"Now let's go. We're going to the park." Magnus said. He leaned over to grab his jacket off of the couch.

"What?" I asked.

"We're going to the park." He repeated.

"I heard what you said, but why?"

"Well, we always go to the park on Saturday, but we usually go in the afternoon, not the morning. But since everyone is already here, why not just go now?"

"But isn't it like a family thing?"

"Um, yeah." He said, giving me a confused look.

"Then why am I going?" I pointed at myself as I said this.

Why does he want me there? Doesn't he want to spend some quality time with his family?

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm not a part of your family. I don't want to intrude." I say.

"Nonsense! Of course you're going! Come on." He says as he grabs my hand and walks me out the door with everyone in tow.

He doesn't let go of me until we're outside of his apartment complex. Sighing, I decide not to argue with and just walk with them.

It wasn't a very long trip, only taking about five minutes to get there.

Once we arrived, Clary and Izzy set up a few blankets for us to sit on while Jace and Simon immediately grabbed a football and jogged onto the grass to play with their sons. Magnus chuckled as he and Alec sat with Izzy and Clary, Victoria running off to go play with the guys.

The adults were all chatting as I just sat there. What was I supposed to do?

What are you doing? You shouldn't be here!

Why did Magnus insist on me coming? I don't really know any of these people, what was the point of my being here? It's not that I didn't want to be around them, they seemed like really nice people. I just didn't belong with them, I was meant to be forever alone.

I allowed my brain to run on auto-pilot, drowning myself in my thoughts as some sort of distraction.

Suddenly, I saw a soccer ball fly through the air and land near my feet. I heard someone call out to me and looked up to see some guy about my age but maybe a year older.

I grabbed the ball and headed over to him as he jogged up to meet me halfway.

"Here you go." I say as I hand it to him.

"Thanks." He says as I say a quick "You're welcome" before turning to walk away.

"Wait." He calls, making me turn around. "Yeah?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"What's your name?" He asks.

"Elizabeth. Yours?" I reply.

"I'm Ashton." I nod as he says this.

"So what's a pretty thing like you doing here at the park all alone?" He asks, giving me a confident smirk.

Is he... Is he flirting with me? Eh, why not go with it. I've got nothing better to do.

"Just here to be here I guess." I respond. "What about you?" I ask.

"I'm just here with some friends."

"That's cool." I say.

"It would be cooler if I could get your number." He says.

Oh, God. He's not very good at this.

I raise an eyebrow at him and smirk. "Oh, really?" I ask, laughing at his attempt to get my number.

"Yeah, so how about it?" He asks.

"Sorry. Don't have a phone and even if I did, I wouldn't just give my number to some guy I've known for thirty seconds." I say as I turn to walk away. He grabs my wrist and turns me back around.

"Hey, don't leave so soon." He says as I try to shake off his arm. Unfortunately for me, he has a really strong grip.

"Let go of me, you jerk!" I snap, trying to pull myself away from him.

"No need for name calling, babe." He chuckles, pulling me even closer to him so we were practically flush against each other. I use my free hand to push at his chest.

"Don't call me babe." I growl at him through grit teeth as I glare at him. I had managed to put some space between us, but he still kept a hold of my left wrist.

"Ooh, feisty. I like it." He says, using his other arm to wrap around my waist and pulling me to him again. I yelped when his hand traveled lower and squeezed, my face flushing in anger and embarrassment.

"You perve!" I yell, finally shoving him away.

"Don't be like that. I know you liked it." He winked at me and I cringed in disgust.

"Whatever." I roll my eyes and move to leave when he grabs both of my wrists. He pins my arms to my sides and forces me back to him.

"Where do you think you're going?" He says, his breath fanning over my face. I try to squirm out of his grasp, but it doesn't work.

Goddamnit, Elizabeth! You should've seen this coming! You're so stupid!

"If you don't get away from me right now-"

"What?" He asked mockingly. "You gonna cry?" He faked a pouty face at me and laughed as my eyes widened.

What was I gonna do? He kinda had both of my arms and there was no one here to help me.

"Don't worry, babe. I'll take care of you." He says as leans forward to kiss me. I lean away from him and close my eyes as his face gets way too close too mine for my liking.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

My eyes snap open and so do Ashton's as I turn to see everyone walking over to us. Jace, Rafael, and Christian stood in front and had pissed off expressions on their faces.

"Relax, dudes. Just trying to get a little action." Ashton chuckled. "Tell 'em, babe." I shuddered in disgust and tried again to pry him off of me only for him to pull me closer.

"Get your hands off of her. Or else." Jace threatens, shooting a death glare at the guy.

"Or else what?" Ashton gave him a challenging look.

"Or else this." Christian said as he stepped forward, grabbed my arm and tugged me away from the jerk, and punched Ashton square in the jaw. All in like, two seconds.

Ashton stumbled back and held his hand up to his jaw and glared at Christian. "Wow, can't even handle your own fights. Gotta get your brother to help you. Pathetic bitch." He spat before walking away.

Everyone's glares softened as they turned to me with concerned looks.

"Are you okay?" Christian asked.

"Ugh, what's wrong with you?" I yelled at him.

"What are you talking about? I just helped you!" He snapped back.

"I don't need your help! I'm not some stupid girl who can't take care of herself. I had the whole thing under control." I shouted.

"Yeah, I could tell." He snorted, rolling his eyes.

"Whatever. I'm leaving." I say as I storm off angrily.

They were all calling after me and telling me to come back, but I didn't listen. When I heard their footsteps, I broke out into a sprint and took off from the park.

I wasn't sure exactly where I was going, but I did know that I wanted it to be far away from here.

I ran across and down the street until I finally stopped, leaning against the wall of some store to catch my breath.

Slumping to the floor, I closed my eyes and covered my face with my hands.

"Can't even handle your own fights. Gotta get your brother to help you. Pathetic bitch!"

The words kept swirling around and around in my head. Over and over and over.

He doesn't even have to know me to tell that I'm some stupid, worthless girl. Why couldn't I have handled that myself? If Christian hadn't stepped in, that jerk would still have me right now! I'm such a loser!

More stupid tears sprang from my eyes and rolled down my cheeks as my shoulders shook from my sobs.

And you're a total crybaby! Get a grip!

But I couldn't stop. I just sat there on the sidewalk, crying my heart out for all to see. You would think that with how much I cry, I would be out of tears by now. But noooo. I always have more the next time someone hurts my feelings.

I'm not sure how long I sat there, but I felt a soft tap on my shoulder and my body tensed up. I lowered my hands and looked up to see Max looking down at me with sympathetic eyes.

I didn't say anything and he didn't either. It was like that for a while before I became annoyed with the silence.

"What?! Come here to make fun of me?!" I snapped at him, shaking his hand off of my shoulder.

He didn't say anything and just kneeled down before he enveloped me in a hug. I gasped at his actions and stood still for a few moments before I wrapped my arms around him and buried my head into his shoulder, curling up into him. I was sobbing harder then before into his shoulder as he pat my hair soothingly.

"It's okay, Elizabeth. It's okay." He murmured. Eventually, my cries slowed into soft sniffles. I pulled away slightly, rubbing my nose.

"T-thanks, Max." I say.

"You're welcome." He smiled at me and I returned it slightly as I pulled away from him.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been mad at you guys. You were only trying to help." I apologize, looking down in shame as I hugged my knees to my chest.

"That's okay. Let's just go back to the park." He said, standing up and holding out his hand.

It was after I grabbed it that I realized his skin and was no longer blue. His horns were gone as well.

"What happened to you?" I ask, startled.

"Oh, this? Surprised it took you this long to notice." He chuckled, holding up his arm and looking at it. "I just used a glamour to make myself look like a regular human. We all do that whenever we go out somewhere with mundanes." He said as we walked back towards the park.

I tried to stretch the trip out as much as possible. Everyone was probably really mad at me and hated me and they didn't want me to stay with them anymore.

You've screwed everything up for them! They were trying to have a nice time as a family and instead they're spending their morning behind worried about you!

Once we reached the gates of the park, I saw them all standing there. Max walked right over to them while I stood there, not moving an inch.

Taking a deep breath, I walked over to Christian.

"I'm sorry about what I said and thank you for your help. I really appreciate it." I say, looking away from him. He smiled at this, "You're welcome. Just be careful next time."

"I will." I promise before turning to look at the rest.

"And I'm really sorry about snapping. It was uncalled for and I was acting like a brat. I guess I'm just used to no one caring about me. Anyone else would've let that guy do whatever he wanted to me." I kicked at a few rocks that were in front of me.

"Well, that's not the case anymore. None of us are going to let you get hurt." Jace assured me.

Does he mean that? He wants to help me?

"Thank you." I say quietly.

"Well, this is getting way too sentimental and a bit awkward for my liking." Stephen said. He had a goofy smile on his face as he stepped forward.

"Let's head back to the park and away from all this gloominess." He said, grabbing my wrist and taking off back to where we had all been before.

I laughed as I started moving my own feet to run with him. I could hear the footsteps of everyone as they ran with us, trying to make it back before we did.

I guess it's okay to have a little fun before I go.

•~•

Yes, I'm aware that this was terrible but it was something. I'm not a good writer but it was at least decent.

Anyways, I'd love some feedback. I appreciate constructive criticism, tell me what was good and what needs work. Help a sister out!