The City of Broken Dreams

Chapter 9

Sasha' s p.o.v.

  I needed to get back at Jace. He hurt me and Clary so badly. I don't think he could ever make up for it. Suddenly, the door opened and Abby came in.

  "Hey. You ok?"  She smiled.

  "Yeah, I'm fine." I agreed.

  "Then why are you crying." I reached up to my face and it was, indeed, wet. She hugged me. I sighed.

  "I just want to be over him. I can't tell you how exhausting it is to be sad over someone who isn't sad over you. And I know that one day, it will be fine, and I will be able to breathe properly once more but.... until then, I have to suffer, and I don't want to. It feels like Jace has put a noose around ny neck, and before I thought it was a beautiful necklace, but now I know what it really is. My hands are tied as well, so I can't undo it. I have to wait for someone who cares enough to set me free by themself. I don't think you can." Tears were streaming freely down my face now. Abby stood up, went into the bathroom and produced a flannel. She wiped my face and pulled me up.

  "In that case, I'll just have to bring you enough air for you to survive until you're free. Come on, breakfast time!"

  Clary' s p.o.v.

   I yawned, rubbing my eyes as I sat up in bed. I swung my legs over the side and stood up. I grabbed my towel and headed into the bathroom to have a shower.

                       ~·~

  As I walked downstairs and to the kitchen, I heard laughter and shouting. When I reached the door, I saw two men holding Abby and tickling her. These must be her brothers, Dan and Josh. They saw me and let her go. The younger one, Dan I think, smiled at me and stretched out his hand.

  "Daniel Redtree, at your service." I reached out my hand, ready to shake his when Josh barreled into him, and said,

  "God man, stop flirting! You just met her. By the way, I'm Josh."

  "Clary Fray. Or Fairchild, or Morgenstern, or... Graymark." I introduced.

  "Don't worry, we already know who you are. Quite impressive, I have to say." What? "You know, the Mortal War, and with the Endarkened and so on." Explained Dan. Oh.

  "I didn't realize people would know me from... that." Dan smiled.

  "Clary, we would all be dead if it wasn't for you. I'm sure we won't be forgetting you any time soon. Or Jace." He obviously didn't know what had happened, because when my face crumple  into tears and I turned to run out of the room, he had no idea what was happening. "Clary? Clary, what's wrong?" He caught up to me as I ran towards my room and grabbed me, pulling me in tight. "I'm guessing you don't want to talk, and even if you did it wouldn't be me you wanted to talk to. I'm not going to make you, because sometimes you just need to cry it out." He held me while I cried and when I calmed down, he led me back to the kitchen. When I got back, Abby, Izzy and Sasha were sitting at the table with a younger boy who I didn't recognize-probably het younger brother. What was his name? Aaron? Archie? Yes, it was Archie. I smiled at them and wiped my tear stained face. I went to sit down, but Dan was there before me, pulling out a chair for me. I thanked him and sat. He rushed over to the cooker and lifted a pan. I peeked over the rim and saw a pancake. He flipped it and put it back on the stove. Then he lofted a second one and tossed the contents onto a plate in front of Archie. He giggled and set about spreading Nutella on it. (A/n. I know I said Archie was 11, I changed my mind, now he's six.) A plate was set in front of me, empty, by  not for long as Josh shot a pancake at it from across the room.

"Eat up! It's almost revenge-time!"