Ready to run

Do you still care about me?

"Okay, we're there." Blake said as we stopped in front of a small house. It looked pretty peaceful.

"Do I have to take care of anything?" I asked. After all, I didn't want to do anything wrong. At least not again.

"Not really, these people left voluntarily, so we're not going to use violence. These people are innocent and that's why we're going to stay friendly. We'll do it." Blake explained to me. Okay, it didn't seem difficult. I nodded and he ran the doorbell.

We waited a while for a young woman to open the door. She had long blonde hair and lots of tattoos. Some piercings too. She looked at us in confusion.

"Can I do something for you?" she asked. Blake nodded.

"Are you Mary Reed?" Blake asked and she nodded hesitantly. Blake pulled his shirt down a bit so that she could see his tattoo. I glanced at her wrist and in fact she had tattooed a sword. "We have some questions for you, do you have time?" he asked. She grinned.

"Shadowhunters. I understand." she said. "Come in." she said and stepped aside. We went in and she closed the door behind us. "Come into the living room, I'll bring you something to drink." she said. We followed her and then took a seat on her sofa.

I didn't think it would be that easy. I expected that if she voluntarily gnawed away, she might not want to talk about it anymore. Shortly afterwards she came back with four glasses with Cola. She gave each one and I nodded my thanks.

"I knew you would show up here sometime." She said. "Aren't you normally four?" she asked. Blake nodded.

"We are five now. He is new." he said, pointing at me. "The other two are with other former gang members." he explained. She nodded and sipped her water.

"I didn't know you were going to add new people." she let us know. Blake shrugged.

"We don't, he only stays for a while. Complicated." Blake replied. She nodded and put her leg over the other. "So, as you know, we're looking for Liam." Blake noted. Mary nodded.

"Yes, you were my enemies." she said. "And I assume that you still didn't find Liam, otherwise you wouldn't be here." She said. Elliott nodded.

"He's in New York, but we don't know more. We thought you might know something that could help us." Elliott said now. She sighed and leaned back.

"I left a while ago. I couldn't stand it all mentally anymore. What they do is not human." Mary let us know. I can imagine that. "I've only seen Liam once. You know the Mortal east side is huge. It's everywhere in the world. The last time I saw him was in California." She said.

"Do you know of any patterns in his hideouts?" Blake asked. She considered.

"Most of the time it's not really hidden. It's often right in front of someone's eyes but you don't see it because you don't expect it. So it may be that he lives in the middle of New York City and not on the edge of a remote street. " she explained. That made sense and was smart. Our apartment was not what you would expect from us either.

"Okay, we'll start there." said Elliott. She smiled and nodded.

"But take care. Liam is really dangerous and not easy to stop." she explained. "I hope you can manage that because Liam needs to be stopped." She said.

"What makes Liam so dangerous?" I asked now out of curiosity. I didn't know anything about him. I didn't even know what he was doing.

"You are really very new." she said. I nodded. "His scrublessness. He doesn't do much himself. He only gives orders. He has had some people murdered and they would kill you if he could." she explained.

"That's exactly why you can't leave. They would murder you immediately." said Elliott. Oh, okay. We got up. "Thank you for your help." Blake said.

"No problem. I'm counting on you." she said with a smile. She was nice and didn't fit in this hall. Good thing she's outside.

We were out all day, but some didn't want to talk as expected, or they told us the same thing as Mary. One even insulted us because he thought we were scum like everyone else. Maybe we were. I don't know.

In the evening we came back home. We entered and Nick and Alec came up to us. We got rid of our shoes.

"What took you so long?" asked Nick. We had a full list. Do they think we're done in two minutes?

"We had a couple more than you." Blake said annoyed. "What did you find out?" he asked and the two sighed.

"Nothing useful. How can a man hide so well?" Alec asked. Blake shrugged. "We know that it's probably more of a city center." he said. We knew that too.

"We didn't find out more either." Blake said. "We'll find him." he said. Alec nodded and turned back. I went to my room because I had nothing else to do.

I sat on my bed and dropped back. I thought about what Blake and Elliott said. Alec still cares about me. Then why doesn't he treat me like this? Why is he pretending not to? What have I done?

I wanted to go home. Home to Celine. I missed her and she would now have the perfect advice for me. We'd probably be sitting on the sofa and eating sushi. We would watch a show that we both find bad, but would not stop since we already started.

She would make nasty jokes about Alexander to make me laugh, and even if I didn't find the jokes funny, I would laugh. I was so unhappy here. I had no person here that I can actually trust with all my heart.

"Movie night!" I heard Elliott shout from outside. Shortly afterwards I heard a knock on my door. "Come in," I said, and Alec came in.

"Would you like to watch with us?" he asked. I shook my head. I didn't feel like it. I just wanted to be alone.

"No, um, I'd rather stay here." I said. Alec nodded and turned. He was about to close the door again, but didn't, and turned back to me.

"Are you mad at me?" he asked. I looked at him confused. What's his definition of mad?

"Because of what exactly?" I asked. Yes, I was angry with him. Although, you can't call it angry. I was sad. Sad that he didn't want me anymore. Sad that it couldn't stay the way it was back then.

"Because of this morning." he said. What did he mean? "Listen, I don't think you are my property. I know you are not." he said. Oh, that's what he meant.

"No I'm not." I said. He nodded in relief.

"Is everything okay?" he asked. I nodded. "You lie." he said. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Do you still care about me?" I asked out of nowhere. Probably not the smartest move but it just came out of my mouth. He looked at me in surprise.

"Why do you ask that?" he asked. I shrugged my shoulders.

"You can't just switch off your feelings, can you?" I said. He sighed. "Unless you never had feelings." I stated. I felt the lump in my throat. I didn't even want to think about this option.

"Magnus, there's nothing between us anymore." he said and my heart broke again for the hundredth time this week. I nodded and looked down. Maybe Elliott and Blake are just wrong.

"I know." I said softly. "I'm sorry." I added.

"You don't have to apolog-"

"Can I be alone now please?" I asked, interrupting him. He sighed and then nodded. He turned and closed the door behind him. Once it was quiet, I couldn't hold it back. The tears flowed and I sobbed softly. I put my hand over my mouth so that they don't hear it as loud. Everything is fucked up.