I don't know why but I kept forgetting to post this chapter. Like, its been ready for a while I just...kept...forgetting...that I hadn't...published it. My brain is so annoying. Last night I forgot to eat dinner. I'm problematic. Enjoy the chapter!
"Where have you been?" Jace's voice came from behind where Clary stood, observing the mall from the balcony. She turned to face him, leaning against the railing.
"Took a shower in the gym that's connected to the mall and picked up a couple pairs of clothes not coated with six layers of sewer water and zombie intestines," she replied, pointing to her wet hair and new set of clothes. "And you?"
"Pretty much the same, except I knew there was a shower with actual warm water in the employee's quarters. Figured I might as well, since I doubt there's much chance of pulling Isabelle away from the shoes."
Clary nodded, remembering the jarring sight of Isabelle and Max rushing off to shoe and manga stores respectively, weapons strapped across their back. There was something poetic about the scene.
"So…where to? Since you seem to know everything about this place. Weapons store?"
Jace rose an eyebrow at her.
"Why do you automatically assume there's a weapons store in a mall?"
Clary shrugged. "Because this is America. Coffee and guns are about the two easiest commodities to find."
Though on afterthought, she imagined that when the apocalypse had first begun and stores were being viciously ransacked for supplies, more would have tried to get their hands on guns than a cup of Starbucks. Jace smirked at her response.
"Luckily, you're right. But first, come with me."
Clary frowned, staring at him suspiciously. "Why?"
"Just trust me and come on." He rolled his eyes at the stubbornness in her gaze.
"Why won't you just tell me where you're planning on taking me?" She shot back, crossing her arms. He sighed in frustration at her lack of cooperation.
"On my way over here, I passed by a salon."
Clary couldn't help her mocking tone as she cooed, "Aw Jace, did you want to get matching pedicures?"
His glare only added to her amusement. However, his next words caused her smile to fall. "Back in the field, one of the lame brains almost got you by grabbing your hair. Then in the sewers, you had another close call when the lame brain grabbed your hair and dragged you under. One of these days, your hair's going to end up getting you killed."
"I don't like where you're going with this," Clary muttered grimly.
"We need to cut it."
"Yup. I knew I wasn't going to like this," She groaned.
Jace shrugged. "Better than ending up dead."
Clary bit her lip, reenacting the entirety of the fights within her mind. She could still feel the phantom pain in her scalp from her most recent battle. She remembered the way her heart had stopped cold in her chest and fear had taken over. Though she hated to admit it, the past few days hadn't been the first times a zombie had nearly gotten her by grabbing on to her hair. She just tended not to think too hard about how she survived as long as she survived. Slowly, Clary looked back up at Jace's awaiting gaze.
"Fine."
Jace nodded, satisfied, and motioned for her to follow him. Though she could feel pinpricks of dread bubbling up within her, she complied and begrudgingly trailed after him. She silently prayed that she didn't regret letting her newfound companion so close to her neck with scissors.
Ahead of her, Jace made his way through the mall confidently, not even bothering to check his surroundings for zombies or pausing to remember which way to go. His behaviour instantly struck Clary as peculiar.
"Jace—"
Before she could finish, he stopped abruptly.
"We're here," he said, staring at the deserted salon. He strolled confidently inside, making his way to one of the empty work stations. Clary followed more slowly behind him, her eyes jumping from the large stains of blood among the numerous chairs to the shattered bottles of nail polish and broken, bloodstained hairbrushes. Finally, her gaze settled on something behind Jace.
"Jace, behind you!" Her hand subconsciously went reaching for her stake only to be reminded of the nakedness she felt as there was only a pocket of air.
"That's just Phyllis. She's been here and…taken care of for a while," Jace responded nonchalantly without glancing at the decaying corpse who rested a few chairs to his right, with curling pins still in her hair and a large blood stain pooled at her feet, resulting from her torn open stomach and ripped out intestines. The blood had long since dried and cracked.
"Trust me, the only thing lurking in this shop is you," Jace spoke with a grin in his eyes. Holding up a comb and a pair of scissors, he gestured to the chair beside him that had a few rips and tears, but luckily no blood. "You gonna stand there all day or are we gonna get this over with?"
Clary rolled her eyes, but did as asked without her usual biting remarks. She figured that if she was going to get the answers she wanted, she had to play nice. Clary tensed as his hands worked their way through her hair, brushing up against her skin. Breathe, she told herself, forcing her muscles to relax and her suddenly foggy mind to clear. A few moments passed and she looked at him through the cracked mirror. His brows were furrowed in concentration, examing the instruments that had been left over.
"You're hiding things," Clary murmured.
Without pausing from his work, he raised a brow. "Am I?"
Instead of allowing him to frustrate her as she knew he wanted, Clary continued. "Yes, you are. Like how you have more of a history with this mall than you are willing to admit."
"And why," Jace spoke without betraying a sliver of emotion, "would you think that?"
"You know this mall like the back of your hand, even that there was a shower in the employee quarters. You strut around like you own the place, and unless the zombies have started wearing name tags, I can't imagine how you knew that thing's name was Phyllis."
Clary could see the slight tightening of Jace's jaw from the reflection in the mirror. He paused from his cutting to meet her gaze in the reflection.
"What are you accusing me of, Clary?" His tome came out much harsher than she had anticipated.
"I'm not accusing you of anything," she replied, matching the coldness of his tone. "I just don't like secrets and, given the fact that you know the dirty details of my backstory, it's only fair for you to return the favor."
He frowned, briefly looking away from her to the mall outside, before sighing.
"My dad was the head of security here back…before. I spent most of my time here when I was a kid, hoping to be just like him. My dad was getting sick, so I took some time off from school to take care of him. It just so happened that the apocalypse had ideas of its own. I was here when it all went down. There were a few run ins, like with Phyllis, but most people were trying to evacuate the city like the military told them to. Didn't work out too well, for them at least. Made it pretty easy for me to slip in and out as I pleased."
Clary swallowed, unsure how to respond. Not knowing if Jace even wanted her to say anything. His gaze hadn't been on her as he spoke, but far away. Without giving her a chance, he returned to cutting. Clary had thought that the rest of their time together would be spent in silence, but Jace always seemed to prove her wrong.
"Alright, I've answered your question, now you have to answer mine." He seemed to have regained some of his usual smugness. She scoffed.
"I already did my fair amount of share time, if you don't recall."
Jace shrugged. "Not my fault you talk too much. You still have to answer the question. Then, maybe if your answer is satisfactory, I'll let you ask me another question."
"You're an ass," Clary spat.
Jace seemed to take this as a yes.
"How come you didn't hesitate to save me back in the sewers? For someone who's top priority is survival, putting yourself at risk seems kind of against the point."
Clary rose an eyebrow.
"Did you think I wouldn't?"
"No, actually."
The girl paused, feeling guilt gnawing at her without understanding why. The raw honesty of their conversation was immediately seeming like a bad idea. Reflexively Clary remarked, "yeah, well, if I had known that I would lose Mr. Pointy by saving you maybe I would have reconsidered."
Jace looked at her curiously. "That brings me to my next question. Why is that stake so important to you?"
"Whoa whoa whoa," Clary cut the blonde off with a fierce glare. "I didn't get to ask you a question. You can't cut!"
"You already did," Jace argued with a cocky grin that she wanted to smack off of him. "When you asked if I thought you wouldn't risk your life to save me. Not my fault you suck at asking questions."
The redhead glared at him, wanting to argue, but ultimately not wanting to give him the satisfaction. She pursed her lips tightly and responded lowly, "it was my brother's. When Jonathan started getting worse, he carved it with his knife to distract himself from the pain. It saved my life when he wasn't around to."
Clary avoided his gaze, feeling far too vulnerable for comfort and not wanting to see the look of pity he would undoubtedly offer.
"I'm sorry, Clary. I shouldn't have asked."
"No," she responded. "You shouldn't have."
A part of her knew she was being unfair. He had shared his story. Her sob story wasn't even the worst the apocalypse had to offer. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to apologize. She could only sit in silence until the cold blade of the scissors and the warm touch of Jace's hands disappeared. She looked up.
"Done," Jace said as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. "Now all we have to worry about is you getting yourself killed for non hair related reasons."
"That's much more comforting," Clary remarked dryly, taking in the short curly red locks that stared back at her, longer than a pixie cut but not by much. At least, Clary thought, she wouldn't have to pull apart so many tangles with her fingers.
"So where do you—"
Her words were cut off by the sound of a piercing howl coming from somewhere in the mall. Jace dropped the scissors he had been holding and ran from the salon with Clary following quickly behind.
"Do you know where he is?" She asked, her tone frantic.
"No," he called back to her. "But I know where we can find out."
The two picked up speed until Jace's wrist shot out, pulling Clary with him into a well hidden, almost overlooked alcove with a single door at the end. The golden locked man ahead of her nearly ripped open the door, ushering Clary inside before quickly making his way to a panel of tv screens that seemed to show every corner of the mall. Clary walked further inside what she realized was the security room before pausing. Her eyes locked on to a large stain of blood in the middle of the room, a gun beside it but no body. At the top of the stain, like a grave marker, lay a photograph of a small golden haired child with a toothy grin, displaying a chipped tooth, as he smiled at a man who looked nearly identical. The resemblance was uncanny. A new wave of sorrow washed over her, only this time it wasn't for her own.
"Do you see where they are?" Jace called out urgently, bringing Clary back to the present. She tore her gaze away from the blood and scanned the screens.
"No, I…wait, is that him in the Victoria's Secret?" Jace immediately looked to the screen that showed a lithe man with ebony hair and a tattered grey sweater, just older than them, running frantically through the Victoria's Secret with a zombie on his heels.
"Crap," Jace muttered. "Look at the camera outside the mall. If that guy doesn't shut up, every lame brain in the city is going to be surrounding us."
"Okay, so let's get down there and shut him up," Clary spoke, again reaching for the stake that was no longer there. Jace wasn't looking to her, however, but at something else. And whatever it was, he looked spooked.
"You go after the girl. There's something else I have to take care of," he muttered, not giving her a chance to respond before brushing past her towards the door.
"Wait, Jace!" She hissed. "Where the hell are you—"
But he was already gone.
And thus begins the very first of a long series of cliffhangers to come. It's going to be really fun guys, I promise. Well, at least until chapter...nah I won't spoil it. Anyways, I'm so excited for you guys to get the next chapter because that is a HUGE one where the plot finally begins to develop and we get to see some more characters. You might have recognized one that made an appearance at the end ?.
So, what do you guys think of the beginning of Jace's backstory? And what do you think has him so spooked? I'd love to hear your ideas and any general thoughts you have on the story so far! (plus the more you review, the faster I can post the next chapter).
Thanks for reading!
-Anika
