Disclaimer - yep, characters and the book series belong to Cassandra Clare.
Chapter One – Missing
There was a bang from downstairs, and Clary woke up with a start. She sat up in bed, holding her head. There was an aching throb behind her temples, and her breathing was slow from sleep. It took her a bleary moment to realize that had been the sound of the front door slamming shut. She looked at the clock—it was just creeping past seven.
It had to be Jonathan. Her mother wasn't supposed to be home until Sunday night. So, he was getting home late again. But when had he left? She'd fallen asleep with her sketch book open in front of her and must have missed him.
Clary pulled herself out of bed, and stumbled barefoot toward the kitchen. She rubbed her eyes and pushed tangles of red hair out of her face. The hallway floorboards creaked under her feet, and they made her bare toes cold. The sun was just beginning to set, sending sideways orange beams through the windows.
"Jon?" she croaked, and peered around the corner.
The kitchen was empty.
"Jonathan?" she looked around. She looked around the other rooms—all empty. There was no way she could have missed him going downstairs. She realized with a sinking feeling that he had probably left. That made a lot more sense the more she woke up. She rubbed her eyes—she was way too tired for this.
She wandered back into the kitchen to get herself a glass of water before heading back to bed. A single sheet of lined paper caught her eye, and she stopped. The table was cleared except for the lone note. She frowned. The kitchen table was usually cluttered with her mother's art supplies, discarded mail, and random bits of paper. All of that was sitting on the floor around the table. All that was left was the piece of paper.
Written on it in sharpie was a message in Jonathan's handwriting: "I've gone to Alicante."
Clary stared at the table, eyes blurry. She shook her head and lowered herself into a chair. She put her face in her hands and stared at the note through the cracks in her fingers. He had to be kidding. He had to be.
He probably wasn't.
He was obsessed. She knew everything about that tiny town in the middle of nowhere. She knew the route to get to there and how long it would take. Five hours without pit stops, if you took the highway. She knew that it was called Alicante after the southern city in Spain by the original settlers. She knew that they were well known for their farming, and beautiful orchards, and the apples that they sold in nearby markets. She knew about a horrible murder that happened there fifteen years earlier, which had brought the town some morbid fame. She didn't want to know all that, but Jonathan had told her. He was that obsessed.
She pushed herself out of her chair and ran up to his room. His closet stood open, empty except for the hooks. One of his drawers was pulled out of his dresser and empty. She leaned against the door frame and tried to take a deep breath. She could feel anxiety creeping in, making her dizzy. She wandered to the bathroom and discovered that his toothbrush was gone too. He had to have his wallet. And probably his phone.
His phone! She scrambled to her room and snatched up her cellphone off her nightstand, nearly knocking off a tin can full of paintbrushes and muddy water. She called him.
The sound of his phone going off in the room across the hall made her jump. She hung up.
"You're kidding me," she pushed her hair back again, shoulders drooping. This was seriously freaking her out. She called him again just to make sure. His phone keened from his bedroom. She hung up, dismayed.
How could he do something so reckless and stupid? Why did he have to go sneaking off while Clary was asleep, while their mother was out of town? She knew the answer. Her mother would never had let him go, especially not on his own. He had to finish school and keep his grades up or he was going to flunk out. He couldn't go running off some crazy road trip.
Why didn't he tell me? That was what hurt the most, she realized. They weren't the closest siblings ever, but... She told him when she snuck out to see Simon's band play late.
She still felt dizzy and it wasn't going to go away. She stared at her phone, and thought about calling her mom. As freaked out as Clary was, she knew that Jocelyn would be much worse. She'd already made it a rule that Jonathan wasn't allowed to talk about Alicante anymore—at least not in front of her. She had practically bitten his head off the last time he'd brought it up at dinner. Clary didn't want to cause her mother any more stress, not with her gone to her first big art show.
It was crazy, but she thought maybe she could find Jonathan and bring him back in time... Their mom wasn't going to come back until Sunday night after all. That gave her a little under two days—she could get to Alicante and drag Jonathan back kicking and screaming before their mom got back from her show. It was crazy, sure, but Jonathan was crazier. Who knew what he would do unsupervised?
She ran down to the door leading out to the garage. She threw the door open. The car was gone. Her heart sunk. Of course the car was gone. How had she expected him to do anything else but take the car?
She let out a long sigh and backed into the hallway. She let the door swing shut and leaned against the wall. She slowly slid down to the floor and sat.
"What am I going to do?" she murmured, tucking her knees up to her chest, "Dammit, Jon."
She rested her head on her knees for a while. Sitting there, close to tears, an idea struck her. She took out her phone and started dialling.
"Hello?" Simon muttered on the other end. He sounded distracted and she could hear a video game soundtrack playing in the background.
"Simon," she said, trying to sound light, "Are you up for an impromptu road trip?"
He was quiet, and Clary worried that the phone had gone dead.
"Simon?"
"Why?" He sounded like he'd just snapped out of a trance. She bit her lip, wanting him to just pay attention to her instead of his stupid game. She was in the middle of a crisis. She needed her best friend.
"I need to go to Alicante," she said, "and I need your car."
"That place your brother keeps talking about? Did he run off or something?"
She took in a breath but the words didn't come out. Just a creak caught in her throat.
"Oh..." Simon said after a pause, "Sorry."
"I'm worried about him," she forced her voice not to crack. "You know him. He'll probably crash the car into a ditch on purpose, and then start a fight with anyone who tries to help him out. I just—"
"It's okay. Calm down, Fray," Simon said hurriedly, "I'll come over. We'll find him."
"You don't have to..." she muttered.
"No, I'll come. Just give me forty-five minutes. I've got to pack if we're going on a road trip... And figure out something to tell my mom."
"Just tell her I had an emergency. Your mom likes me right?" She sniffled a little and gave a halfhearted smile. She wiped her nose with the back of her hand.
"Yeah," Simon chuckled, "I'll be there soon."
He hung up, and it took her a moment to get on her feet again. She smiled a little, as much as she tried to push it down. She went and hurriedly combed her hair and packed a bag of essentials. She took the note Jonathan left and threw it in the trash. Her mom never had to know.
Isabelle opened her door and turned to her brothers, "Okay, what do you guys want?"
Jace and Alec looked at each other.
"I don't know," Jace said, "Fruit?"
"Like what?" Isabelle narrowed her eyes at him.
"Mangos," Jace said with all the confidence in the world.
"Your opinion doesn't count anymore," she turned toward the back seat, where Alec was fiddling with his camera equipment, "What should we get?"
Alec shrugged, "Chips, veggies, candy, maybe some soda. Definitely water bottles. I brought the kettle and the instant coffee so we're good there. Some ramen noodles in case we can't find a good place to eat..."
"See," Isabelle looked pointedly at Jace, "Efficient."
"Anal retentive," Jace corrected, smirking.
Alec shot him an annoyed look and Isabelle laughed. She ducked out of the car and walked off through the parking lot toward the grocery store, heels clacking against the pavement.
Jace turned to Alec, shifting around in seat to get comfortable. "How's it going back there? I didn't break the damn thing, did I?"
"I just wanted to keep it all clean," Alec said, still fiddling. "This was expensive. You should have just used your phone if you were going to shake it and run around."
"The worst I left were fingerprints, and my fingerprints are works of art," Jace smiled sweetly.
Alec glanced up at him, scowling. "I hope we get some good footage. Otherwise, I don't want to go out 'ghost' hunting ever again."
"Well," Jace said, leaning his back against the door and propping his feet up on the driver seat, "the last place we went to wasn't very haunted. It was more just infested with vagrants and junkies. At least it was a little bit thrilling. It made for a great crack-head chase scene."
"I still say that doing a documentary on the homeless would be a much better project than ghost hunting."
Jace shrugged, "We'll do it afterwards. What's wrong with having some fun with film?"
"A documentary would be fun," Alec looked up again.
Jace just shook his head, giving a patronizing coo.
Alec rolled his eyes, "We should be helping people."
"We're helping the dead," Jace said. He made a flourish with his hands, "Helping them rise to fame."
Isabelle returned shortly with a cart full of snacks. She dumped them onto Jace through the window, and he made sure to throw them over his shoulder at Alec, who spluttered and cursed the whole way through.
Isabelle jumped into the drivers seat, whooping. She started the car and pulled out of the parking lot, Jace laughing and Alec loudly protesting for her to slow down.
"Alicante, here we come!" she shouted, laughing gleefully.
Clary and Simon stopped at a gas station before venturing out onto the highway. He filled up the tank while she bought the snacks and paid for the gas. She grabbed some candy and a few bags of popcorn. They agreed that the first thing they were going to do once they got to Alicante was find a hotel and sleep. Despite her extensive knowledge of Alicante, Clary had no idea if they had a hotel. They probably at least had a quaint little bed and breakfast.
She returned to the car, and threw the snacks into the back, and sat in the passengers seat next to Simon. He gave her one of those looks, like he was checking up on her. She gave him a weak smile in return.
"You're really worried," he said once they were on the road.
"Yeah," she said, nervously picking at a hole in her jeans. She focused ahead of her at the road as it flew by beneath them.
"You know that he's a capable guy, right? He can fend for himself just fine."
"I don't know," Clary shrugged. "He's chaotic. He'll get himself into trouble. And Mom's gonna kill us both."
Simon nodded solemnly. "All good points. But we're gonna find him. I mean, it's not like he didn't leave a huge, super obvious trail. Maybe he wants to be found. Maybe this is all just a big cry for help."
Clary gave Simon a sideways look, "A cry for help from what?"
"Maybe he's being bullied at school," Simon shrugged.
Clary snorted, "Yeah no, no one's going to bully Jon. He can get kind of nuts when provoked."
"Maybe he's looking for a fresh start," Simon shrugged again.
She nodded. Maybe he was... But why would he need a fresh start? What was driving him away? She sighed heavily.
"Mind if I sleep?" she asked. It was dark, the car was comfy, and she was still a bit sleepy from her nap.
"Not if you don't want us to crash. I'll fall asleep too. I need you to entertain me. Dance, monkey, dance!"
Clary smiled despite herself. She slumped down in her seat and looked out her window. "Okay, what about a game of I-Spy?"
"Sounds good," Simon said, "I'll start. I spy with my little eye, something that is yellow."
"Is it the lines on the road?" Clary looked over at him, smirking.
"Clever girl," he grinned. He glanced over at her for a quick second.
"My turn. I spy with my little eye, something purple."
"The sky?" Simon said.
"Yep."
"Well this is getting boringly easy," he sighed.
"Yep."
They sat in silence for a long time, just staring at the road ahead of them.
"You're not allowed to fall asleep on me, Fray," Simon said, and Clary snapped awake. She hadn't realized she'd been dozing.
"Sorry," she said, but Simon just shrugged it off.
"Pass the twizzlers?" he said, holding out a hand but keeping his eyes on the road.
"Sure," Clary turned around and reached over to the back seat. She returned with the twizzlers and handed him a few. Simon gnawed on them absently.
"So twizzle me this, Batman," he said. "Why is Jonathan so obsessed with Alicante?"
"I don't know," she said. She had probably asked him dozens of times, mostly trying to get him to shut up about it. "He just thinks about it a lot. I don't know how he heard about it but... He said he has dreams about it sometimes."
"Maybe he really likes apples," Simon offered.
"I guess so," Clary said.
She leaned back in her seat again. It was going to be a long few hours before they got to Alicante. She wasn't sure what she was going to find there. Despite Simon's attempts at keeping her awake, Clary drifted off as they got into the last few hours stretch. She dreamed of white, hollow eyes staring at her from the shadows. Waiting.
Author Note: So there's chapter one. I started writing this way back in October when I was on one of my horror game kicks and I've just picked up working on it again. Hope this is enjoyable. Chapter two will be coming around soon. Thanks for reading!