Hey, I'm sorry, I know it's been almost a year since I last posted and that most of you readers have probably given up or don't care anymore but, I promise it has been a truly crazy year, not that that is really an excuse. As suggested, I did try to work on my grammar and spelling and I think it is a bit more accurate this time, but I said that last time so see what you think. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the update, even though I am sure it was not worth the wait. Let me know that you guys still care or if you have an opinion with a review or a PM.

All these characters belong to Cassandra Clare

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And so we wait.

It seems like we sit there for hours waiting for something, anything, to happen. Part of me knows that it can't be more than a few minutes, but to my stressed mind, it feels like a small eternity.

Then, Max comes downstairs. "Mum! Mum! Where are you! I need your help with...?" He stops as he comes into the kitchen seeing the scene in front of him, people he doesn't know, the distraught looks on everyone's faces.

"Mum? What's going on?"

Maryse still doesn't look up.

Alec sighs and moves towards him, "Max,"

"Jace!" Max says running over. "Please tell me what's going on. Who are these people, where's Izzy? I've been looking for her for ages... What's wrong with Mum?" So many questions and none of them easy to answer.

"Max, this is Clary, her and her Mum just moved in next door with Luke."

"Oh, ok. What's wrong with Mum?" At this Jace looks so upset that I speak up, just to give him a break for a moment, to compose some kind of answer to that question, and the many, even harder questions, that are sure to follow.

"Hey Max, I'm Clary and, like Jace just said, me and my mum moved in next door with Luke. It's nice to finally meet you, Jace and Izzy have been telling me all about you." I say all this with a forced joviality that makes me want to cry even more.

How is it that my lack of thought has ended with this little boy about to have a breakdown when he realizes that his sister is missing. Why did I choose today to be girly? Why didn't I see this coming? Why didn't I just walk the ten metres back into the kitchen when I heard a noise instead of pretending I hadn't heard anything?

At the sound of her youngest child's voice, Maryse stirs, the fog clearing from behind her eyes, her arms reaching out and beckoning Max towards her. The scared child rushes into his mother's arms and begins repeating all his frantic questions.

With a cracking voice, Maryse begins to explain the situation to Max. Unable to handle the sadness in this room and choking on what feels like a solid rock of guilt, I turn to Jace.

"Is there a bathroom or something in here?"

He looks at me blankly for a second before the words seems to get through to him.

"Right, yeah, toilet. Um, follow me." he forces out, before standing and using our linked hands to draw me along after him.

"Where are you going?" I hear my mother's stressed voice ask.

"Just to the bathroom, don't worry." I say without even thinking. Then I blush when I realise what I just said and who I said it in front of.

I just said don't worry to my mother, who's house was just broken into while her only child was inside. And then there's Maryse and Alec, who's daughter and sister was just snatched from my house, metres away from their own home, when I should have been paying attention. Great.

I think I have foot-in-mouth disease, a nice yet cruel twist on the actual foot and mouth disease, as I always seem to be putting my foot in it.

Burying my face in Jace's arm, I pretend that I never said anything at all, while simultaneously wishing that I was never born.

When this doesn't seem to be working for me, I sigh and open my eyes again. Yep, everyone's still looking at me in shock.

"Sorry," I whisper, still holding out a faint hope that this is just a bad dream and that soon I will wake up in my Ariel room with this day only beginning. "I didn't think."

Luke just smiles sadly at me, and Jace takes this as his cue to leave, continuing to walk across the kitchen towards another door to yet another winding corridor.

"I can't believe I just said that." I whisper, feeling so stupid and upset for not thinking before I spoke. That had always been a problem of mine but I doubt it had ever had such embarrassing consequences.

"Don't worry about it. Maryse will get over it, I doubt she was even listening. As for your mother, she was probably just concerned that she'd birthed a bit of an idiot."

I laugh a little bit at his lame joke and pretend to be indignant, but I really don't mind. He's trying to make me laugh and that fact means the world to me right now.

"I know this may not seem to be the right time to say this, but I did ask Isabelle about the Ariel reference."

I blink, a little bit shocked that he even remembered what I'd said by the time he got home, let alone cared enough about what I was talking about to actually ask. But then again, maybe I'm reading too much into it and it has nothing to do with me. I mean, Jace doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who is happy to go on with his life knowing that there is someone who knows something he doesn't.

"And?" I question, prodding him to finish, refusing to let him feel awkward about trying to break the tension.

"And, she said that she was a mermaid in a Disney movie. But she said that Ariel lived in a gold palace, so your reference wasn't really that accurate."

I snort and roll my eyes a bit, my competitive streak getting the better of my guilt and fear for a moment.

"Yeah right Jace, you've got no clue what you're talking about. If you don't stop insulting me and my knowledge right now, I am going to make you watch The Little Mermaid and I'm warning you now, it's a cartoon Disney musical."

He pretends to shudder.

"All right, I concede. However, no time spent with you is time wasted or time lost." He declares in a comedic tone.

"I'm sure it isn't good sir." I joke back as we finally reach the bathroom.

I'm about to open the door when I freeze. I really don't want to go in there. I don't want to be alone and I know that when I go in I'll start drowning in guilt again.

"Hurry up Clary, we should get back to the kitchen."

I give him a look that he quickly returns.

"You have to go in. You can't magically go to the toilet just by looking at it. Nothing's going to happen ok? The police are next door, our families are in the kitchen and I'm right here. If you're worried, don't lock the door, that way you can make a speedy exit and I promise I won't let anyone in."

I look him over and agree that he's right. I mean I really do need to go to the toilet, and what can happen when he is right outside the door?

"Fine, you're right. But I'm locking the door."

Jace just rolls his eyes and leans against the wall opposie the door to wait for me.

With a huff, I try to push the sick feeling in my stomach to the side, and I open the door.

Before I do anything else, I flick on the light switch and stand outside to do a cursory check of the room before I step in. Once inside, I do a second, more thorough, check of the room before I close the door.

As the door closes, I hear a sort of strangled noise from Jace and my eyes shoot up just in time to see him scrunch his face up with laughter before the door closes.

Pretending that I'm not afraid, I go about my business and take a few calming breaths to settle myself before I open the door. I can't let him see how close to a panic attack I am. He's holding it together for my sake and it's his sister who's missing!

I open the door slowly and a see the stressed look on Jace's face disappear as he turns his head to look at me.

"Come on," he says, attempting to arrange his face into a smile, even though he's clearly upset. "We have to get back before your parents send out a search party for us."

I give him the best smile I can muster and do my best to pretend that I don't feel like I'm about to throw up.

When we're halfway back to the kitchen, (I think) Jace starts telling me about Max and his favourite things (comic and things related to them) and his favourite people, (namely Jace and Alec apparently. Mainly Jace) so that I can keep him occupied while Jace talks to Maryse.

Again I wonder why he doesn't call her 'mum' like the other's and then decide that I'm not curious enough to bother him while he's distracted. I think he let the mask he was holding in place slip while I was in the bathroom and he was alone and now I think he's having trouble pulling it back on.

Jace was right. When we reach the kitchen a few minutes later, Mum and Luke are just about vibrating out of their skin and they seem to be rotating, watching different doors. When we come back in they both jump and make to move towards us, before settling back into their chairs upon seeing that nothing is wrong.

"Sorry I was gone so long. They have a truly enormous house." I say weakly, trying to soothe my mother while also trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah," Jace joins in. "Sometimes I swear the rooms move. I've lived here for years and I still get lost all the time."

I smile at him, and he gives me a faint smile back before he heads over to his family and comes back bearing gifts in the form of Max.

"Hey Max. Do you remember my name?" I ask quietly

"Yeah, you're Clary. You're friends with Jace and Isabelle."

"Yep, that's me. Did your mum talk to you a bit about what's going on?"

"She said that Isabelle was missing and that a mean man who they used to know took her to hurt us all."

Pretty good summary I would say. If I was going to make a joke I'd say that it was a five star summary but it's really not the time.

"Yes that's right, so we need to do something to pass the time until the police come back to tell us what they've found out. Do you like comics?"

At these words his tiny little face lights up and he starts twitching excitedly.

"Yeah I love them! I have a whole collection! Do you want to see them?"

"That sounds like a great idea Max, why don't you go over and tell your family where we're going and I'll go and tell mine and then we can go ok?"

"Ok!" he shouts and dashes over to the others.

Meanwhile, I go over to Mum and Luke and tell them where I'm going.

"Good idea Clary," Luke says. "Keep him busy so he won't worry. Have you got your phone with you?" I nod yes. "Good keep it turned on and I'll call you when the police come back. Turn off the location services too. We don't need anyone else tracking where we are."

Smart thinking Luke. I grab out my phone and turn off the location function, wondering if it would be even safer for me to turn off my mobile data and hook onto the Lightwood's wifi or if it's rude to ask.

Fortunately, Jace comes over then and volunteers the password without me even having to ask upon seeing me with my phone out. Smiling I type in the password and turn off my data, not feeling much safer for being theoretically untrackable. It's not like we're very far away from home after all.

"Thanks for looking after him Clary. Just if you can keep him distracted for a little while that would be a great help for us. We just need to talk and try and calm down Maryse and for that we need her full attention. When Max is in the room she'll just be focused on him."

I nod and give him a small smile. We both open our mouths to say something else and we are both interrupted by Max's return, his excitement at the thought of someone wanting to see his collection so great that it is almost infectious.

Giving Jace a bigger smile than the last and then one to Mum and Luke, I follow Max out of the room.

"What's it like, living with Luke? Is he a cool person to live with? Because he is a really cool person to live next-door to."

I look down at his happy little face, all his worry about Isabelle lost in the face of this new excitement, as is the way with little kids, and I think about it properly for the first time.

"I'm not sure yet Max. it's only been a few days yet but, yes, he has been pretty cool to live with. He helped me paint my room and he bought me things to put in it. And, even better, he always seems to have really good breakfast food in his house!"

He giggles at the last part just like I'd hoped he would. I wasn't really good with kids generally, so it was a nice surprise that I was getting along so well with Max.

"What's your new room look like?" he asks as we reach a staircase, one that looks identical to the one that I saw near the front door and yet the door is no-where in sight. Maybe Jace wasn't joking about getting lost after all.

I answer as we start to climb. "Nothing like my old room. In my old room I had orange walls with white sheets and white furniture. The carpet was grey but that wasn't my choice. In my new room I have ocean coloured walls, with dark wood furniture and grey sheets."

He frowns a little bit.

"You didn't keep any of your old stuff in your new room?"

"No, I left it all at my old house. I only brought my pictures and posters. Maybe you can come over and see one day, I can show you my comics, the ones I brought with me anyway."

"That sounds like fun. But I don't think Mum will let me."

"Why not Max?"

"She doesn't like me hanging out with Jace's friends, Isabelle doesn't like me to either."

I frown, not keen on the idea that Jace hangs out with the kind of people that Max couldn't spend time around. But I guess it's really none of my business.

"Well that's ok." I say pretending to smile as we (finally!) stop climbing and start walking down a corridor. "I'm mostly Isabelle's friend anyway. I can invite my friend Simon over too. He has even more comics than me."

I try not to let my fear show as I mention Isabelle's name, hoping that it won't set Max off, because if he starts freaking out, nothing will be able to stop me from freaking out. Right now I can tell myself that if her little brother is fine then I have no excuse to be crying but if that changes…

Thankfully he doesn't seem to be affected by her name and he goes on with the conversation, grabbing my hand to pull me around a corner I almost didn't see him take.

Letting me go he tells me that that sounds like a good idea, but he doesn't seem too convinced. It's now that we finally reach what I assume at first to be his bedroom. That is until he opens the door and I find myself in what appears to be a library. Seriously? How many people living in suburbia have their own libraries?

Following Max, he quickly leads us to a section in the back that is clearly just for his books, or for kids books anyway. There's a little reading corner set up with brightly coloured bean bags and desks with piles of books stacked on them, most likely from long discarded projects, and large lighting features hang from the ceiling giving off that light that you always seem to find in old libraries. If I didn't know that we were still in the house, I would swear that we were in some lord's library in England or something.

Telling me to sit down, Max quickly shoots off and starts collecting comics from all over the place, most of the places being no-where near what I can tell is their dedicated shelf in the children's section.

A few minutes later he returns with what must be at least two dozen comics, most of which don't seem to be following any specific pattern. There seems to be no more than two or three volumes from any one series and these two or three don't tend to be consecutive stories. It's truly a sight to behold.

"Wow," I say, a little bit stunned, "this is quite the collection you've got here. Maybe even as many as Simon and he's been collecting since he was eight." This isn't true, Simon has way more comics than this, but I figure that I may as well talk up Max's collection if I have to look at it. None of these are my personal favourites, but I recognize most of them from Si's collection.

I tell Max which one's I know and have read and then he quickly sets about telling me everything he can remember about the ones I said I didn't know. He's part way through explaining the second story to me, I think it might be one of the Marvel ones, but he's talking too fast in his excitement for me to be sure, when my phone rings.

I feel my stomach drop as I wiggle it out of my pocket. Unknown Number, the caller ID says. Feeling cold creep through my veins I answer.

"Hello?" I say, holding the phone up to my ear and praying that it is who I think it is.

"They're here." Is all I hear a familiar voice say, before the line goes dead.

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Hey again! I really am sorry about the wait, I hope to get the next chapter up sooner than I did this time, but then again that isn't really that hard I guess. Let me know if you liked it in the comments and let me know what I can do better so that (hopefully) you like the next chapter even more than this one.

FeelsGirl18 XOXO