Hey everyone! I'm sorry it's been such a long wait, but I just got caught up in school and friends and whatever. I know that was a mean cliffhanger but I've cleaned things up a bit, and I think this chapter is better edited than some of the others. Anyway, let me know what you thing with a review! Doesn't have to be long, just enough that I know you're there.
These characters all belong to Cassandra Clare
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I sprint to Jace's house and pound on the door. Unfortunately, it's Alec that eyes widen a bit upon seeing me. "Aren't you supposed to be with Isabelle?" I stare at him in horror. "You mean she isn't here!?" He nods slowly, a strange look spreading across his face.
I push past him and dash into the house. "Hey!" Alec calls after me, but I'm already gone, frantically searching for a phone. I open the first door I come to and luckily enough it's a study. Sitting on the corner of the desk is a phone. I snatch it up and dial.
This time Luke answers on the first ring. "Is she alright?" I'm sobbing so hard that I can barely get all the words out. "No. Her brother says that she left over an hour ago to come get me!" "Calm down Clary calm down. I need you to repeat what you just said a little bit slower." Shuddering with fear at all the time Isabelle lost while I was pottering around in the bathroom, I repeat everything as clearly as I can. "Was it Jace are Alec that said that?" "Alec." I hear a sigh. "Find Jace. He'll help you. I've told the police where you are. Now I'm going to have to tell them it appears a young girl has been kidnapped." Then the line goes dead.
I run out of the office and straight into Jace, literally. "Alec told me you were here. What's wrong? Where's Isabelle?" I recount the tale of this morning to him right down to the second as quickly as I can, ever conscious of the time we are wasting. By the end his golden face is faded and pale. "Ok we need to find Maryse." I'm so stressed and strung out, that I barely register that he doesn't call her Mum like the other kids do. Thinking about the other kids sends me into another nervous fit about Isabelle and I soon forget about it entirely.
It's then that I notice just how big this house is. I swear it doesn't look this big from the outside. It takes us ten minutes just to make it to the kitchen. And it's not because we were doing snail walking like we were last night. This is at a quick pace set by long legged Jace. When we finally find Maryse, the police knock at the door, before we can even explain the situation.
Jace goes to answer the door, leaving me to explain this situation to Maryse. The news registers with her just as the police walk into the kitchen. The officers arrive just in time to watch her face crumple like paper, just in time to see a woman fall to pieces as she realises her only daughter has been kidnapped.
Jace does his best to comfort Maryse, but she's inconsolable. For the fourth time that morning, I recount my story, doing my best not to burst into to tears. This needs to be about Isabelle. No one can afford to waste any time worrying about me, and I know that Jace would, even though his family needs him just as much-more in fact.
When I get to the part when I was upstairs, blissfully playing dress up and doing my make up, make up I now realise must be absolutely streaking down my face at this point, I struggle not to feel like these men are judging me. If only I was paying attention, if only I was waiting downstairs rather than upstairs, maybe Isabelle wouldn't have been taken.
They listen to my story with almost blank faces. Then they ask if we have any ideas of who it could be. Anyone who we know of that doesn't like Isabelle. Then I realise that they need me to recount what happened yesterday. Despite the fact that this is the only hope we have of getting her back, I can't do it. I can't go back over that day, my mind still trying to process the awful details that came to light.
Thankfully I don't need to. Before I can open my mouth to react at all, to answer or to cry, Maryse speaks. "Valentine Morgenstern" As the officers turn their attention to her I break into tears again.
The officers gently prod her with careful questions, trying to coax any kind of answer out of her but she has retreated into a world of grief where she can't be reached. She isn't even crying, or moving. She's just turned to stone. Just as the officers start to turn back to me, Jace speaks up.
I start, almost having forgotten that he was there. Normally he is such a large, vibrant presence but shock and fear have dimmed him. Like the light shining within him has almost flickered out. "He's Clary's father."
Jace tells them as much of the story as he knows, but he wasn't there for everything and he knows nothing of what happened at home, before we came here. It's quite possible his parents haven't told him about the fact that they were friends with Valentine in their youth. Part of his disturbing club. I wouldn't be bragging about it either.
So I'm called upon to fill in the gaps. At this point I can't keep my fear at bay anymore and I sink into tears as I go over everything Jace left out. At some point during my recount, Jace leaves his mother's side and comes to stand next to me, seeing that at this moment I need comfort, maybe more than I ever have before.
He doesn't say anything, but stands right beside me with his arm slung around me, holding me protectively to his side. I don't know what it is but there is just something about Jace that is so calming. He doesn't need to say or do anything but be there and I calm down. A few days ago I had never even met this boy and now he's the only thing keeping me sane in this world, this world that is rapidly falling to pieces.
Everything that I'd ever known had been shaken up a few days ago, and then the life I had started building was shattered again, in the harshest ways possible, and here I was telling this story, my life story, to perfect strangers, in the hope of getting my kidnapped friend back from my father-her kidnapper.
They don't speak, not even to ask questions as I talk, only writing down notes in their little notebooks. When I finish they just sit there, and I bristle with anger and impatience. One of my only friends, a girl who is endlessly kind hearted-who welcomed a perfect stranger into her heart with open arms-is out there, in the clutches of my crazy father, and they're just sitting there.
I'm about to start yelling but, almost as if he anticipates this, Jace tightens his arm around me and says very slowly and clearly, as if he too is very angry but is trying to hide it, "Well? What happens now?"
"Now we look." the older one of the two says. "Do you have a home address? It's unlikely that that's where he will be and even less likely that that's where the girl-your friend-will be, but we need somewhere to start.
I automatically rattle off my old address hardly even thinking. I lived there for the best part of 16 years, and now it means nothing to me, nothing but pain and fear. In my mind it has transformed from a cheery family home into a hideous lair, where my father may be hiding an innocent young girl.
The men explain that normally people have to missing more than 24 hours for the police to step in but considering her age and the situation going on around us, they will start looking immediately.
"You did everything perfectly." They assure me, like they can see the guilt that bends my shoulders under its weight. "You contacted the police straight away, and immediately went to a more secure location, with people who you trust." I nod but don't really believe it.
If I'd done everything right I would have checked the kitchen when I though I heard a noise in the beginning. If I'd done everything right Isabelle would be standing here giving a statement too. Explaining how Valentine almost, but not quite, got her.
Fighting back tears, I watch the officers leave the kitchen-Jace, reluctantly, letting go of me to lead them back to the front door. As they walk out I see Alec hiding in the shadows of the doorway. From the look of frightened anger on his face I know he heard everything, or at least most of it.
He walks in and goes straight to Maryse. "Mum, Mum! Can you even hear me? Mum can you please respond? Your other kids need you too! Think about Max! Think about Isabelle! You doing this isn't helping anyone!" He continues trying to draw her out but she is totally unresponsive, still not crying, not even blinking as her first born pleads with her, just staring off looking-at nothing.
Just as I'm starting to worry, Jace walks back into the kitchen with Luke trailing along behind him. Without stopping or thinking, I run over and force my way into Luke's arms, burrowing into his big warm coat.
Immediately I feel calmer. Not as calm as when Jace holds me but calm. I can tell that having me in his arms has calmed him down some too because I can feel his tense muscles loosen slightly and feel him exhale a heavy breath in my hair.
I move to pull away but he doesn't let go so I just stay there, locked in the arms of a man who I barely know, waiting for something, but I'm not sure what. All I know I'm that moment is that he was worried about me, he barely knows me and yet he was worried about me.
Finally he pulls back and tells me that he's called my mother and that she's on her way also. Then he turns and walks over to Maryse, joining Alec in his quest to make her rejoin our world, to respond at all.
As soon as Luke is gone, Jace steps into his place, standing no more than a foot away. We stand there looking at each other neither of us quite sure what to do. We've done everything we came do, but how do we just stand here and wait? Not knowing what's going on.
I wish he would hold me again but I don't ask. He's going through his own issues right now, I mean his sister has been kidnapped! Plus I also know that if he wanted to comfort me he would. No amount of pushing would stop him from keeping me in his protective embrace.
So I just stand there and stare at him, while he stares at me in return, the murmurs of Luke slowly cutting of the arguments and anger of Alec.
We are finally roused from our stare off, by the arrival of my mother. She comes dashing into the kitchen and comes straight over to me, like no one else is in the room, like I'm her top priority in the world. And that feels nice. Usually something else has to come first. I can understand that. It's can't be easy dealing with a husband like Valentine, a child, a full time job and a secret boyfriend.
I'm never neglected, but I can't remember the last time her eyes sought me out so frantically and she hugged me so fiercely. You'd think I was the one who had been kidnapped and just returned, rather than the girl who failed to notice a kidnapping going on right under her nose.
Jace steps out of her way, but doesn't go far, almost like he's afraid to leave me. That's crazy though. He hardly knows me. And yet at the same time he knows just as much about my life and my family as I do.
As soon as my mother has determined that nothing is wrong with me, she also joins Alec and Luke, but not to help Maryse. No my mother pulls Luke aside and just holds him, the same as she did to me, the two of them frantically whispering to each other the whole time.
The instant the space near me is clear again Jace steps back into it. The way he's hovering around me is almost protective. This time he isn't looking at me, at anything in particular really. He's just looking around, looking for danger that isn't there, just trying to feel effective.
"Are you ok?" His low voice breaks through my day dreams. I'd been staring at Mum and Luke, watching their quite reunion and assessment of each other. I glance towards where I thought Jace was only to be met with a pair of eyes that are much closer than they were before.
I blink in shock and he repeats his question, thinking I didn't hear properly. "Clary, are you ok?" His face is almost feverish as he asks the question, like its vitally important to him. I nod and stare at him.
"Are you?" I ask in return. There is no possible way that he is ok. He just found out some ugly stuff about his parents, just after he found out that his sister had been kidnapped by his new neighbour's possessive and abusive father, as a form of revenge.
He nods, but doesn't take his eyes off me. Then slowly, as if not to frighten an animal, he twines his fingers tightly through mine. Never taking his eyes off mine, he slowly pulls me towards the chairs and table in the middle of the kitchen, using his spare hand to pull out to chairs, one for me and one for him, and slowly sits down, dragging me into the one next to him,
And so we wait.
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A/N: Hey guys, I'd really love it if you could chuck me a review. I really like knowing that you like it (or if you have constructive criticism that's great too). Also tell me if you think I should continue with the story. It's lots of fun to write, but if you readers don't like it... Anyway let me know in the comments or with a PM
FeelsGirl18 XOXO
