Lost and Confused

Chapter 4

Jem Pov

"How can Mady not remember us" Harry asks.

"The better question is how can she have memories that are over one hundred fifty years old? How is that possible" Simon replies.

Everyone turns to Magnus and Woolsey Scott.

"Don't look at me. I'm as dumbfounded as you are. Woolsey do you know anything" Magnus defends.

Woolsey thinks for a bit and then says "I'm not entirely sure, but Madyline told me something about having dreams that felt like memories."

"Why didn't you tell us this before" I accuse.

"She forbade it...I think."

Everyone rolls their eyes. You would think a werewolf as old as Woolsey would have a better memory.

"Alright everyone before we do anything else, we need to do some digging" Alec declares. "We need to gather all documents and reports that were made and or mention Madyline and Madyson. Jem you also need to tell us about the last time you saw Madyline."

"Why" I inquire.

"Mady ran immediately to you last night. Not Magnus and Woolsey tells us she didn't greet the same way either."

I stay silent, looking at the ground. That night was one of the worst times in my life. I don't want to tell them and relive it but I also know that we need all the information we can get. I sit down, closing my eyes and tell them my nightmare.

"Charlotte got a tip, from one of our informants, that a couple of demons had killed a mundane and were going to strike again. She sent Jessamine, myself, Will and Miss Carter to go after them. We tracked the demons down but when the four of us got there we were ambushed. It turned out the tip was a trap. Miss Carter, Jessamine, Will and I were winning at first but soon it was just Madyline and me. She was distracted by another demon and didn't see the other coming towards her with a sword. I ran towards it and the weapon hit me instead of her. I saw her turn toward it before I blacked out" I end starting to cry.

The room's air becomes polluted with sad silence. No one speaks or moves; nothing disturbs the quiet. Finally Clary breaks the ice.

"That's similar to what happened when Madyson disappeared. The difference was that we came after her family was killed by the demons. I-I protected her from a demon, got a severe injury that made me blackout. And the last thing I saw was her turning toward it."

"Now it's even more important to find anything we can" Jace asserts. "Alec go through the New York Institutes archives; Harry, Niall, Liam, Louis go through the archives at the London Institute; Simon use your vampire network to find out anything they know; Magnus, Izzy, Woolsey do the same with your networks; Clary and I will talk to the Silent Brothers; and Jem keep an eye on Mady. Meeting adjourned."

Madyline Pov

"Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do, and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be and owner unless one were cold. And all of them were caught in something larger than themselves. Some of them hated the mathematics that drove them, and some were afraid, and some worshipped the mathematics because it provided a refuge from thought and feeling"

I've been reading one of the books I found called The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I wonder what the author was thinking when he wrote it. I mean the book is rather gloomy. At least it fits in with my mood right now.

"MISS CARTER WHERE DID YOU GO" Jem yells. I sigh and leave my hiding place, with the book of course.

He keeps yelling my name until I come into his sight. It seems like everyone else have gone out.

"You called" I say.

"Just making sure you're still in the house" he says.

"What else?"

"You're to stay in this level of the house within my sight."

"Is this a joke?"

"No."

I walk away from Jem and head in a random direction. This leads me to a little library. There are books on each wall and a desk in the middle of the room. Sitting down in the desk chair I realize that what I thought was a regular metal box is actually this electronic box thing. Involuntarily my hand pushes a button and the black screen lights up. I watch as pictures and words go across it. Again my hands and fingers move on their own. Everything about this is, again, familiar and unfamiliar.

Finally my limbs stop typing and on the screen is a Facebook page. I see a picture of...me? Wait that isn't me! How in God's name is that me?

"Because it is you."

"Who said that?"

"I did."

"Where are you?"

"Look at the picture and figure it out."

I do as the voice says and look at the picture again. I look and look and think and think, but nothing comes to me.

"Don't think so hard. The answer is literally right in front of you."

"Easy for you to say."

"Yes it is."

I look at the name underneath the picture then look back. This person is called Madyson Sue Carter. Wasn't there an argument over whether I was Madyline or Madyson.

"You have got to be kidding."

"Yup I'm Madyson."

"But how can you look like me?"

"Because we're the same person."

"But how is that-"

"Don't know but we need to find out."

I click the red X and turn of the laptop, reading more of The Grapes of Wrath.

Jake Pov

"Sir we've located her" Thraneiel says coming into my office.

"Well where" I ask.

"Magnus Bane's manor near Holmes Chapel; do you want to tell our agents in the are to keeps tabs on it?"

"Yes."

"I'll tell them right away" Thraneiel get up to leave but I stop him. "Sir?"

"Get my car ready. Tell Betta and Klasko to meet me outside" I command.

A few hours later

I arrive at an ordinary looking farmhouse but, as cliche as this sounds, it is not. This is one of my organization's many stations all around the world. It's been keeping tabs on Miss Carter since she's been in Holmes Chapel, before she made her way back to me of course.

"I need volunteers to update all our cameras to record audio as well; as well as volunteers to get cameras of the same ability, to place them all around the exterior of Mr. Bane's manor and its woods" I state to everyone gathered.

Ten of my people volunteer and split them in half to get the job done. Getting eyes and ears on Mady is only the start of getting her back.

Niall Pov

"My God, how is any of this possible" Louis exclaims.

We've been combing the London archives for nigh on six hours. So far there have been about two dozen reports from the 1860's written by Madyline, four dozen mentioning her and two photographs from that decade containing her image.

"Hey...uh...guys you need to see this" Liam shouts.

We all gather around him, in his hands is a birth certificate.

"Madyline Sue Carter; born February 19, 1859; Mother- Liza Ann Carter; Father- Christoph Robert Carter" Harry carefully reads.

This certificate says that Madyline was born 150 years before Madyson. This year just keeps getting stranger and stranger by the day