Deserted Highways

What We Miss the Most

inside of her woke up and she remembered him and she told him why she'd just let this happen why she'd just given everything up, after telling him he couldn't do the same. 
 
He looked at Michael, at Lilith, her dry, clear black eyes, hard with hate and rage and hurt, and he wondered if he would be able to plaster the cracks that Kaelie had left behind. He wondered what would happen if they got Kaelie back, if would ever just be that easy. 
 
And then, he heard the faint click of a lock disengaging. 
 
Chapter 20
When the Ghosts Come Marching In
 
Michael and Lilith were up, standing pressed against the wall so quick Jace thought they nearly blurred, and he stood as fast as he could, tightening his trembling hand around his makeshift weapon, nearly praying it was some other Hunter, and not Kaelie who stepped through the door, he didn't know if he could hurt her, even after everything he'd watched her do. 
 
It was silent for several seconds, the air cooling and still and stale. He glanced behind him quickly, meeting Michael's swollen eyes, raising his eyebrow, and Michael shrugged subtly. Jace heard the shuffle of someone's rubber sole scuffling along the tile and he saw the shadow of their visitor inch farther into the room as the person came forward. 
 
"Jace?" 
 
Jace nearly crumpled under the weight of his relief, his shock, released his breath in a wild gasp and he went to lunge forward, only to be ripped back by Lilith's strong hand on his collar, nearly choking him. He felt her mouth at his ear, her hot breath made him cringe.
 
"Jace don't, we don't know if she's really alone," she said, her voice cautionary, soft, so muted he'd barely heard her. 
 
He wanted to protest, but he didn't have time because the voice was calling for him again. "Jace. Jace, we need to hurry, before Jordan figures out what I've done, please, we don't have time for this," his mother called. 
 
Jace ignored Lilith trying to get him to stop, wrenched himself out of her grasp with a loud tearing noise as the collar on his shirt gave way and she held it in clenched fists, her black eyes burning angrily. "You're going to get us killed," she hissed, and he barely heard her, stepping out around the door and out of the shadows. 
 
His mom stood in the doorway, alone, and she was backlit in the doorway, nearly a silhouette, he could barely discern her features, but he knew her voice, recognized her soft perfume that she'd been wearing since the day he was born. "Mom?" he said, his words drying up in his mouth, he didn't know what else to say. 
 
He threw himself at her, and she wrapped her arms around him, and he felt tears drip into his hair as she shook against him. "Mom, what are you doing here?" he started stupidly. "How did you get out, what did he- did Jordan hurt you? Have you seen Kaelie?" 
 
"I will answer your questions, Jace, I'll try to explain as much as I'm able, but we need to get moving. Jordan wasn't expecting this, but it won't take him long to catch up. We have maybe 15 minutes, if we're lucky, to get out of this building," she said, hurried, worry in her voice as she released Jace and stepped back. 
 
"Lilith, Michael, Sarah, we need to leave. It's time, children," she called over his shoulder, into the room. 
 
Lilith stepped out from her position against the wall behind the door, and Michael followed behind. His mom gasped in shock, her hand flying to her mouth. "Michael, what happened to you? Where's Sarah?" 
 
"Hunters, Mrs. Dae, too many. And Sarah- she-" Michael started, but his voice disappeared, faltering into silence and he tried to speak again, but he couldn't. 
 
"She's dead, mom. Kaelie killed her," Jace finished for him, fighting to keep his own voice steady, barely choking out the words.
 
His mom's eyes finally slipped passed the three of them, looking further into the room, to the piece of floor where they'd laid Sarah's body and he saw the heartbreak in her soft eyes, sadness sinking into the fine lines forming on her face. "Kaelie did what? There's- Kaelie would never- she'd die before she-" his mom spluttered.
 
"It was Jordan, mom," Jace said, reaching out to touch her shoulder. 
 
His mom glanced over her shoulder quickly, cursing softly and Jace looked on in shock. "We're gonna have to talk and move, we're running out of time," she said and as she spoke, Jace could hear the faint patter of footsteps coming towards them from the hall. 

His mom pulled them all out of the room by the hand, pushing them in front of her. They rushed down the hall, turning  the corner and pressing against the wall just as the people coming for them entered the hallway they'd just been in. Jace could hear the huff of his mom's breathing, and worked to keep his quiet, something he'd seen Kaelie do countless times to keep herself silent. 
 
His fingers pressed back against the wall, steadying himself as they inched further back, and he cringed at the squeak of his shoes on the shiny tile. He gasped faintly when his fingers slipped in a small crack, he turned around to find a small door, one with an actual handle. He turned it, relief flooding him to find it unlocked, and then opened it, pulling everyone back to tumble into the dark, cramped room.
 
Jace was pretty sure it was a supply closet and it almost seemed comical to him. "I guess even big bad evil bitches need a janitor," he muttered and Michael smacked him on the back of the head. 
 
"Not the time, Jace," he said as Jace rubbed his head ruefully and tried to glare at Michael in the darkness. All he got was a chuckle as he remembered that while he couldn't see in the dark, Michael could, very easily. 
 
"We need to wait a few minutes, wait for them to turn back," his mom said. "Now, what in the hell did Jordan do to Kaelie?"
 
"He- I don't know, mom, he operated on her or something. He said he blocked all the connections in her brain for emotions, empathy, everything. You didn't see her in there, when she killed Sarah, she was fucking smiling. She was cold, angry, cruel, she looked at all of us like she recognized us but didn't actually know who we were," he said in a rush. 
 
"I just can't- I can't believe Kaelie would do something like that," his mother said, her voice choked. 
 
"Well, she did. Sarah is dead, because of her. She broke her neck, in front of Michael, and then she laughed, and she left us there with the body. Kaelie is gone, and we need to get out of here if we're ever going to find a way to get her back," Lilith said, and Jace could hear some of the blind hate she'd had for Kaelie seeping out of her voice, replaced with a weary sadness, bone deep and old, like she'd been carrying this weight for years.
 
Jace strained his ears, but he couldn't hear anything. "Do you think they're gone?" he asked quietly, and he heard Lilith rustling about behind him as she forced her way through their bodies to press against the door. 
 
Jace's eyes had finally adjusted enough for him to see her nod, and then she clicked the door open as silently as she could. They stepped back out into the harsh light, and continued to move as quickly as they could down the hall. "How do we get out?" Michael muttered. 
 
Jace glanced around him, trying to will his mind to remember some detail, something that would help him find his way back to the elevator that Jordan had taken him in originally. Light reflecting off a clear glass window caught his eye, and he stepped towards the large room set in the center of whatever floor they were on. He'd passed it when Jordan took him down her, he knew it, he remembered Jordan hurrying him passed it, like he didn't want him to see it, not just yet. 
 
He creeped towards it, ignoring the muttered calls of the others, he had a foreboding feeling about what was in there. He knelt below the window sill, where the glass met the cold wall, raising himself up just enough for his eyes to be visible, and peered into the room. 
 
He nearly cursed out lot, clenching his teeth down so hard they ached as he took in the contents. Dozens and dozens of beds filled the room, each filled with someone, artificially sleeping, wires protruding grotesquely. Their skin, all of them had a strange bluish tint to it, almost like they were too cold and the blood had left their extremities. 
 
Almost directly in front of him, slightly off center, sat Kaelie, her back to him, sitting on a cold steel table, one leg propped on the table, the other dangling freely. Her hair glinted in the light, and she seemed almost serene, now that he couldn't see her icy features, studying the sleeping Hunter army in front of her. 
 
Jace backed away as careful as he could, eyes wide, shock holding his words captive in his throat, and his shoe squeaked lightly against the floor. Panic gripped at his lungs now, his stomach sinking, he flicked his eyes back up to where Kaelie sat, desperate that she hadn't heard it, knowing she had. Her head cocked, like it often did when she heard something at the very edge of her range of hearing. And then her head turned, her hair hiding her eyes, and a smirk curved her burgundy mouth. 

"Go, go," he whispered, his voice harsh and rushed as he finally choked