Chapter 3

Clary spent the rest of the day in a state of disheveled disbelief. Becca had confronted her when she returned from her visitor. The guard was still standing behind her, and Clary could almost feel the sadistic grin emanating from him. He wanted to watch her tell her "friends" that she hadn't actually had a visitor. She might have lied, too, if she hadn't felt like he would be more than willing to throw her under the bus at the first opportunity. She didn't need to be known as the liar on top of already being the new girl.

"I don't know. No one showed up," said Clary shortly, trying not to let Becca's slight look of glee bother her. Becca nodded slowly, her eyes light but her expression somber.

"Well I'm sorry to hear that." Clary shrugged and winced slightly as the guard slammed the door to the cell shut. Maybe he had been hoping for some teasing, maybe a small fight for him to break up. She had to smile a bit that she had disappointed him. Becca looked at her oddly and Clary straightened up.

"What do I need to do? I know they said something about chores when I got here." Clary looked Becca dead in her eye and waited for a response. Clary had originally thought that Becca seemed reasonable once she had determined that Clary wasn't a threat. But the look in Becca's eyes told Clary that she hadn't determined that at all.

"We have an hierarchy here. You have to work your way up to the good jobs," started Becca in that sickly sweet voice that Clary was coming to loathe, "I think that we have toilets to be scrubbed." Becca walked away without another word and Clary slunk unhappily into the bathroom to begin searching for cleaning supplies.

"Oh I didn't mention," Becca said in that same voice, sticking her head back into the room as Clary was rifling around trying to find a rag, "we don't have any more cleaning solution. You'll have to just use the soap they gave you for your showers." Clary took in a deep breath and just nodded.

It was going to be a long day.

By the time Clary had finished everything that she had to do, she was exhausted. Becca had waited patiently for Clary to finish with the toilets, and then told her that the floor needed to be scrubbed too.

Clary didn't have any soap left at all for showers.

Some of the other girls had watched Clary with something between pity and amusement in their expressions. She hadn't really paid attention to them—it was fairly obvious that no one had scrubbed the floor in quite some time. It probably wasn't even a real chore.

As she toiled away, Clary had tried to figure out why Becca hated her so much. She had seemed perfectly reasonable until the visitor. Maybe a little bit when Clary had asked about talking to other girls, but she could not for the life of her figure out the sudden hostility.

Clary had showered off (on of the other girls had been nice enough to silently hand her an extra bar of soap) and collapsed into bed. She was glad that Becca didn't sleep in the bed next to her—she didn't want to spend the whole night being terrified that Becca was going to slit her throat.

"Hey. Lights out." Someone banged on the door of the cell and the girl nearest to the door reached up to flip a light switch, sending the room into darkness. Clary felt a sudden pang of longing for some sort of noise. She had grown up in the city for God's sake. She was used to cars and trains and people making random noises at hours that most people didn't want noises. But Clary loved them. They made her feel like she was part of something.

All she was part of at the moment was eleven other girls' breathing.

She turned over in bed, facing the wall, and was met by the glow of a pair of golden eyes.

She let out a strangled cry, before Jace's hand immediately covered her mouth. Her eyes were wide as she stared up at him in disbelief, struggling to get out of his chokehold. She still didn't know who he was for sure—for all she knew, he could have been someone hired to her as some sort of revenge for Dorthea's death.

"What are you doing here?" hissed Clary when Jace finally released her mouth from his chokehold after she had attempted to bite him.

"Geez, watch your mouth," said Jace jokingly, eyes gleaming at the pun, "and I already told you. I'm here to break you out." Joking aside, he seemed genuinely convinced that he was breaking her out of jail. Clary looked up at him dubiously.

"And I told you," said Clary, still not quite believing that he was there, "that it was impossible.

"You said no such thing," said Jace, smirking at her glare, "in fact, I distinctly remember you asking me what you could do to have me break you out? I thought I was quite clear." He seemed to turn that over in his mind, as if assessing whether or not he had been clear. "Did you come to a conclusion?" Clary resisted the urge to smack him.

"Fine. Yes, the answer is yes." Clary sucked in a breath after she heard the words tumble out of her mouth. She hadn't even thought about it, not really, but her subconscious seemed to have decided for her. What did she have to lose, really? Her family hated her and she seemed to be looking at life in prison. But she still had her doubts. "Are you sure—,"

Clary was cut off as Jace yanked her out of her bed and onto her feat. He looked her up and down, frowning. She subconsciously tucked her arms around her sides. Sure she looked like a little kid, but she had never thought she was that bad to look at.

"We need to get you some new clothes," said Jace finally. Clary let out a sigh of relief. She didn't know why, but she wanted him to approve of her. She shook her head—she needed to focus.

"What's the plan?" She asked, eyes widening as he just shrugged. Shrugged. As if he hadn't even thought about it.

"How'd you get in here in the first place?" She asked incredulously, not realizing that her voice was getting louder. Too loud. She heard the muffled sound of someone waking up, and then the not so muffled sound of someone jumping out of bed.

Of course Becca's the one that wakes up, thought Clary, groaning internally at her own stupidity. Why couldn't she have just kept her voice down.

"Well, this does complicate things a bit," said Jace, still seeming as calm and collected as other despite Clary's sudden breaking out in a cold sweat. Jace and Clary stood dangerously still as they waited for Becca's eyes to adjust to the dark. But, when they did, Becca did not say what Clary was expecting.

"Fray?" Becca rubbed her eyes, almost like she couldn't believe what she was seeing, "What are you doing up?" Clary's eyes almost bugged out of her head. Becca must have seen Jace—he was standing right next to her. But Becca just looked puzzled and Jace amused. Clary didn't even bother trying to figure it out, as she tried to think about some reason why she was out of bed.

"I had to go to the bathroom," said Clary defiantly, daring her to disagree with her. Becca just looked at her strangly.

"That's fine Fray. I honestly don't care. Next time just be a little quieter, okay?" said Becca, climbing back into bed with a yawn. Clary nodded curtly and walked into the open bathroom, making sure that Jace was still behind her and attempting to control her breathing.

"Why can't people see you?" Clary asked, but Jace was already shaking his head.

"I already told you. I'll tell you everything after I break you out—if you agree to our deal."

"Well, I already agreed. Are you going to follow through?"

Jace's eyes hardened and his smirk widened at the challenge, "Oh I always follow through. Give me your hand," said Jace, reaching for Clary's wrist without waiting for her consent. She didn't mind though—she was busy ogling the way that the moonlight struck his hair—until he pulled out what looked like a giant knife type thing.

"Oh no, no way," said Clary, yanking her arm out of his grasp and cradling in protectively.

"What?" asked Jace, wide-eyed as if he saw absolutely no reason to be afraid of the giant pointy think he was aiming toward the sensitive wrist area that tended to bleed a lot when cut.

"What do you mean what? I am not letting you slice my arm open," said Clary, folding her arms into her sides as much as she could. Jace seemed to finally catch on and he rolled his eyes.

"You'll be fine," he said, reaching for her arm again and easily overpowering her, "just trust me" There was something about him that made Clary want to trust him, even though every logical bone in her body was screaming against it. She ignored logic and went with her guts, squeezing her eyes shut as the pointy thing neared her arm.

Clary didn't feel anything at first, they a slight burning. She gritted her teeth but didn't make any noise, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth slowly. Finally, the burning stopped.

"There," said Jace sounding pleased. Clary tentatively opened her eyes and saw Jace smiling at her arm and contemplating his work. She looked down, fascinated by the design he had drawn. It looked familiar, but Clary knew that she had never seen it before. A word flashed through her mind—invisible—but it was gone before she could place it.

"All right, all right," said Jace smiling cockily, "I know that my handiwork is beautiful but we really are on a time schedule." Clary might have apologized for holding them up were it not for that last statement. As it was, Clary dropped her arm and steeled her shoulders—she was ready.

"You never told me what the plan was," she said as they slipped out of the door to the cell. Jace had somehow unlocked it and was tapping in a code to lock it behind them.

"I did not." He seemed confident enough, but Clary didn't feel so sure. She liked plans, knowing exactly what course of action she could take if something changed in the scenario. "Did you have anything in mind?" Clary asked, searching for something. She felt bad for asking over and over again, but she thought that she had a right to know. She also thought that it might be important for Jace to know at least. She did want to make it out of jail without confirming a life sentence.

"Yes. Run." He intertwined his fingers in hers and pulled her behind them as they whipped through the halls. She wondered why no one had sounded the alarm yet—there were security cameras, someone must have seen them running, but there was nothing. They made it through door after door, but the jail stayed miraculously silent.

"How have they not caught us yet?" asked Clary in wonder as they walked toward the main exit. Jace just smiled what Clary was beginning to recognize as his signature smirk. The automatic back door didn't open as they neared, and Jace's smile faltered slightly. Clary was confused. She didn't understand why they would lock a door so obviously inaccessible. But, when Jace pushed it open, that was when the alarms went off.

Clary looked at Jace in panic and for the first time, she saw his smirk fall completely.

"Now what?" she almost had to scream to be heard over the sirens.

"Now," Jace said gravely, pushing all the way out the door and letting her through, "we really run."

Author's Note:

Just wanted to say thank you for the reviews-they are much appreciated! I'm trying to update as much as possible :) Exams are coming up but I keep getting distracted with this story, so there should be fairly constant updates. Thanks for reading!