Middle School of Bones - A Mortal Instruments Story

Chapter 7

After dropping that on me, Alec stuffed me in a closet.

"Once the meeting is done, I'll get Jace and we can figure everything out," he said. "Just stay here and be quiet."

"Hey!" I protested. "What about my mom?" Alec sighed like me being kidnapped was my own fault.

"That too," he said. Then he shut the door before I could say anything else and everything went dark.

I got bored in about five seconds. After what felt like an eternity of waiting, I gave up. If everyone was in the meeting room like Max had said, it'd probably be safe to wander around.

I located the doorknob and pushed open the door. I checked both ways to make sure the coast was clear before picking a random direction to head in. This place must have answers somewhere. Though I didn't know what I was looking for, I was sure I'd know it when I saw it. 

I made my way around the halls. I had enough sense not to open the closed doors, but I peeked into all the ones that were already ajar. It was completely silent in the halls, and after a few minutes, I didn't feel as worried someone would catch me.  As I wandered, I realized all the rooms that were usually classrooms in the school were bedrooms down here. I wasn't sure how large this group, the Shadowhunters, were, but if I went by the numbers of bedrooms I passed, there could be more than a hundred of them. 

I darted around a corner that usually led to the library and found that it had the same purpose here. During the day, Simon and I visited the school's library all the time. When we didn't want to go home right away, we'd stay there for hours reading until the librarians kicked us out. Simon liked science fiction, and I was working my way through a fifteen-book supernatural-romance series about a group of teenagers who fought demons and wore all black. Most of it went over my head, but I thought the characters were very edgy, so I couldn't put it down.

"Lost?" I jumped at the sound. I hadn't been paying attention to where I was going, but even if I had, I doubted I would have seen Isabelle where she sat, tucked against a crevice in the wall. She was in most of the same clothes as last night, but she'd switched her black boots for pink slippers. I wasn't even upset that she caught me. 

"Finally," I said. "Can you please tell me what's going on? No one's been answering me, and I need to find my mom. And Simon-"

"That's your little weasely friend, right?" Isabelle flipped a strand of hair behind her shoulder, and it fluttered down her back.

"No. Well, yes." I groaned. "Jace is in the meeting, Alec locked me in a closet, and Max ran away. You're the last one. Who are you, where's my mom and why am I involved in all of this."

"Shh." Isabelle leaned closer to the wall, pressing her ear against it. For a moment, we were both silent. Then she unfolded herself from her spot and stood up. All of her movements were quick and sudden, like the climax of a dance. "The meeting's finished. Don't go anywhere, and I'll bring the boys over in a second." She dragged me to a door, pushed me inside, and was gone, leaving me by myself again.