Chapter 5

Campbell was busy twisting some clearly overcooked spaghetti noodles onto his plastic fork when he sensed someone joining him at his empty table in the school's cafeteria.

"Nice to see you finally up and around," he commented, spying Harry out of the corner of his eye.

"Well, you weren't giving me much of a choice," Harry sighed and started to unscrew the cap off his bottle of water. "What's going on with your brother?" he added, nodding in the direction of the deaf, redheaded boy who was sitting across from Becca a couple of tables over.

Campbell glanced over in Sam's direction before turning back to his tray. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know," Harry said, his uncombed hair falling into his eyes. "He looks tired and . . . has he been crying?"

Campbell shrugged, taking a drink from his own bottle. "I've barely spoken to him in weeks."

Harry sent him a scowl. "He's your brother. How have you–?"

"Look, right now my little fag of a brother is the last thing I'm worried about. We need to start planning how we are going to take down Allie."

"So, what's the plan?" Harry asked. He brought a fork full of noodles to his mouth before making a face at the mushy texture on his tongue. "God, and when we do take over, we have got to get better cooks in the kitchen."

Ignoring his friend's last comment, Campbell scanned the other teenagers that were sitting at the other tables in the cafeteria until finally coming to rest on the members of their Guard . . . Well, three of them anyway.

Luke, Clark, Jason, and Grizz had become so close during their high school years and even after everything had happened they still seemed to rarely leave each other's sides. Campbell had hardly given the group of football players any mind during the school years, but even to him, it was weird seeing them without Grizz present.

Campbell gestured towards the boys' table. "Our first step should be to talk to them."

"The Guard?" Harry asked, following his line of sight. "Why?"

"They follow Allie everywhere," Campbell reminded him. "They're like her bodyguards. If we are going to take Allie down, we need to start by getting some eyes on the inside."

"But would they even join us? They seem pretty loyal to her."

"They seem that way, don't they? I overheard them talking the other day. They're about ready for a change as well," Campbell mused, studying the football players as they laughed at some joke one of them had shared. "I don't think it would take much to convince Clark to help us. He's pretty dumb as it is. Jason shouldn't be a problem either. If any of them will give us trouble, it's Luke."

"Okay . . ." Harry resigned with a small nod. "When do you want to approach them with this?"

"It will have to be soon. Before Grizz gets back. That guy is definitely the brains' of their little group. We'll never get them to come around if he's present."

"You know, after lunch, I heard they usually spend a few hours hanging out on the football field behind the school or in that small park downtown before returning to Allie's house," Harry advised. "We could find them then."

The summer before Grizz had started high school, his father had taken him on a trip to New York for a week as a belated birthday present. After living in Connecticut for his whole life, the towering gray buildings, constant traffic, and the flocks of walking people was a bit of a cultural shock. As a surprise, his dad had even gotten them tickets to see one of the plays on Broadway; 'Jersey Boys'.

For as long as Grizz could remember, his mother had always tried to steer him away from things she believed that boys shouldn't be interested in, preferring for him to busy himself with things like football instead of the dance classes he loved as a child. Unlike his mother, his father always seemed to be more excepting of his rather . . . feminine interests and the memories he still held from that trip he wouldn't ever forget.

Which was why, as he and his friends followed the two city girls down the sidewalk, Grizz couldn't help the eerie feeling that seeped through his body at the drastic change in the environment that he remembered from his visit to the big city.

The streets were still crowded with vehicles, only now instead of them moving at the slow crawl he remembered, traffic didn't seem to be moving at all anymore. It wasn't until he started peeking inside the windows of a few of the cars that he realized there was no one inside them. It took him a moment to understand that a lot of these cars must have belonged to the people who had suddenly vanished from this district of New York. Any drivers who had been left behind must have simply abandoned their vehicles. They wouldn't be able to go anywhere with the traffic now at a standstill. Was the subway even still running?

"How much farther?" Mickey spoke up from behind him bringing Grizz out of his head.

Glancing behind him, he noticed the boy rolling his shoulders under the weight of his pack. Grizz could feel his own body beginning to suffer from the heaviness of his own bag and hoped they would be able to rest soon. Gwen and Bean seemed to be dragging their feet more too.

"We're almost there," Isabelle promised before pointing off into the distance in the direction of an earthy brown, rectangular-shaped apartment complex that rested only a couple more blocks away.

Allowing his friends chatter to drift off into the background, Grizz continued to scan the lonely streets of New York. As they walked, they did pass a few small groups of people walking on either side of the street, but it was nothing compared to what he remembered from his last trip out here. And the absence of car horns and the other street noise was so strange for the urban landscape. So much for the city that never sleeps . . . By the time they reached their destination, Grizz was relieved to be able to turn his back temporally from the unnerving quiet of the ghost city.

Gwen and Bean sighed with relief of their own as the heavy door swung shut behind them leaving the cold air outside and started to head in the direction of the elevators that were clearly stationed to one side of the lobby.

"We'll have to take the stairs," Isabelle informed them with an apologetic expression on her face. "The elevators stopped working soon after everything else happened."

"But everything else works?" Mickey asked, unwrapping his scarf from around his neck.

"Besides for the TVs and the Internet, yeah, everything else seems to be working fine," Clary explained, stepping ahead of her friend in the direction of the staircase. "As far as I know, none of the elevators in Brooklyn are running anymore."

"We're only going to the fifth floor. Come on," Isabelle insisted before following behind the redhead.

After already trucking through the woods all day and then down the long stretches of New York's sidewalks, Grizz's legs were starting to feel tired; not to mention the ache in his shoulders. The last thing his body wanted to do was climb up a number of stairs. With a reluctant sigh, Grizz gritted his teeth and began the long climb up the flights. From the soft groans coming from his companies, he wasn't the only one that was starting to struggle a bit by this point.

His legs felt like jelly by the time they reached the right landing and the group slowly made their way down the long hallway. Coming to a stop in front of one set of black painted double doors, Isabelle pushed open the entrance without knocking and held the door open for the five of them to stroll into the foyer.

"You can set your bags and jackets down over there for now," the brunette said, pointing to a small alcove that was to the right of the door as they entered. "Wait here," she continued as she closed the door behind them. "Let me check and see if my brother is home." With that, her and Clary headed towards what appeared to be the living room of the apartment and disappeared around the corner.

Left alone, Mickey and Bean began to explore a little ways into the apartment.

"Nice place," Mickey noted as he walked a few steps down the hallway that was just to the right of the entrance.

"Guys, I don't think you should be snooping," Grizz advised, folding his arms across his chest. "We're supposed to be trying to make a good impression on these people."

"We are in a stranger's apartment," Bean reminded them. She was busy scanning the shelves that lined the hallway between the front door and the living room. "Don't you think we should at least try to learn something about this guy we are about to meet. For all we know, he could be a serial killer or a child molester or something."

Grizz tilted his head as he eyed the back of Bean's head. "You really think the leader of Brooklyn is a child molester?"

He watched as the Muslim girl's shoulders lifted in a shrug without turning to face him. "You can never be too careful. Oh . . . Wow . . ."

Grizz raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in the girl's tone. "What?"

"Nothing . . . Just some of this guy's reading material." Bean's index finger skimmed across the spines of the books that were sitting on the shelves as she read off some of the titles. "'The Secret Art of Pentagrams', 'The History of the Necromancy Map', 'Theories on Apotropaic Magic' . . . There's even, like, ten volumes of an Encyclopedia series on Lesser Demons. Are these people in some kind of a cult or something?"

Before Grizz could come up with a response, Isabelle returned from around the corner, encouraging both Mickey and Bean to return to Gwen and Grizz's sides, feigning innocence.

Isabelle had removed her heavy jacket to reveal the dark blue shirt she was wearing underneath. The sleeves came to a stop halfway down the woman's forearms and the deep V of the shirt didn't leave much to the imagination. Grizz couldn't help but notice similar tattoos covering her exposed skin as the one he had caught peeking out from Clary's coat before.

"Okay," the woman let out in a soft sigh before continuing. "Alec had to step out for a few minutes to go and handle something at the Institute, but Magnus is here."

"Magnus?"

At the sound of his voice, the brunette's eyes turned to lock on Grizz. "Magnus is our other co-leader. He's free now if you want to see him."

Despite Bean's skeptical glare Grizz's way, the group nodded in agreement before following Isabelle farther into the apartment.

Entering the living room, Grizz took in the sight of red brick walls with a pale yellow carpet. A velvet light blue chair and a bright red sofa were set up on the left side of the space while a long black leather couch rested on the other side, all facing the round coffee table that was in the middle of the room. If it weren't for the weird reading material that Bean had found, Grizz wouldn't have expected anything off about the occupants of the apartment.

Turning the corner, the group had to step around a black metal, spiral staircase that led up to a second floor before walking into what appeared to be some kind of home office, yet it was nothing like the workspace his father had set up at their home. For starters, the room was very cluttered. A long, rectangle table had been placed in the center of the space that was covered with different shaped bottles and bowls of different sizes, each containing some abstract colored liquid or powder. On the far end of the room, right up against the end of the table, was a shelving unit displaying more jars. There were several more bookcases placed up against the walls holding anything from books to even more various shaped bottles and jars. The word apothecary came to Grizz's mind.

Hiding in the back among all of this clutter was a young Asian man sitting behind a desk that lay diagonal against the far corner of the room. He was wearing a black and gray plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to just below his elbows and a black button-up vest over top. Grizz couldn't help but notice the man's nails were also painted black, and his hair was even styled up in a mohawk. In the past, Grizz had usually associated mohawks with hardcore punk bands, but he had to admit this guy seemed to pull off the look pretty well. He wished he could feel that confident in his own skin to experiment with his look a little.

The soft click of the door closing behind them caused Grizz to turn to find Isabelle had left them alone for their meeting.

"So," the man who Grizz assumed was Magnus said with a smirk on his face. "You kids think I'm in a cult?"

Bean froze at the words that were clearly directed at her. "No." The man raised an eyebrow in question at the fast reply and the girl's shoulders slumped in defeat. "How did you–?"

"You kids aren't as quiet as you think you are." He leaned forward over his desk. "And personally, I think I would prefer that accusation over serial killer or child molester."

Something about the look in the man's eyes made Grizz think there was more to it than him just overhearing their conversation. Maybe he had cameras set up around the apartment.

"Izzy said you guys were from a town in Connecticut?" Magnus asked, and Grizz could sense Bean relax a little at the subject change.

"That's right," Grizz said, taking a step forward before quickly introducing himself, along with the other members in his group. "We were hoping maybe you could help us–"

That was as far as he got before hearing the door being pushed open again behind them and the group turned as one to find another man stepping into the room.

"Hey, my sister said we had some visitors," the man said as his explanation for the interruption. Closing the door behind him, the new addition to their meeting eyed them.

This man was tall with black hair and had a tattoo on his neck. To Grizz, it looked sort of like a 'Z' with a squiggle through the middle. After seeing Isabelle it wouldn't have surprise him if this man had several other tattoos of his own under his long sleeved shirt.

"Yes, this is Grizz, Bean, Gwen, and Mickey," Magnus repeated the names they had just given him. "Guys, this is my husband, Alec."

Grizz felt his stomach flip at the word. "Husband?" he gasped, and turned to look over the man with the tattoo again.

Alec stared back at him and squinted his eyebrows. "Yes?" The word came out sounding like a question.

Isabelle and Clary must of filled Magnus in on their situation in West Ham since he started to explain to Alec how they ended up here in their city. As the man talked, Grizz couldn't help the warm sense of acceptance that rushed through him.

Growing up with his mom's critical eye on his feminine hobbies, Grizz never felt like he could truly be himself. Because of his mother, he was raised to believe that being gay was wrong and he always felt like he had to hide that part of himself. Even after seeing Sam for the first time in high school and learning that he was gay as well, he still couldn't help the dread that filled him every time he considered what it would be like to give in to those desires and start up a relationship with a boy.

In the small town of West Ham, different sexualities weren't really discussed. It wasn't something that people were very open about, and Grizz was pretty sure he and Sam were the only gay boys in their town. Being raised in such a closed-off section of Connecticut, it was such a relief and highly encouraging to him to came face-to-face with the gay married couple. Getting married and having kids . . . That future really was still a possibility for him, even being gay.

"We were thinking maybe we could set up some kind of a trading system with each other," Grizz heard Mickey say, bringing him back to the present. "Since we're all stuck here, you know, help each other out."

Alec nodded slowly at Mickey's words before turning to look at his husband. "It doesn't sound like a bad idea. We are close to running out of some essential items ourselves."

"Agree." Magnus leaned back in his seat, playing with his pen in his hands. "Why don't you head back with them tomorrow and start working something out with their leader?"

"You don't want to come?" Alec asked, a slight hint of surprise in his voice.

Magnus swiveled slightly back-and-forth in his chair. "I have a meeting with Luke, Raphael, and Meliorn tomorrow that I can't miss." He gave a small shrug before continuing. "Besides, one us should probably stay behind in case we are needed for something here."

Alec nodded again. "Alright, and I'll talk to Jace. See if he wants to come along." He then turned back to the group of teenagers. "You guys are welcome to stay here tonight. The girls can share the guest room. Boys, you'll have to make do with the couches. I hope that's okay."

Mickey shook his head. "Trust me, we've gotten used to roughing it on couches lately."

"Isabelle and Clary are out in the living room. They can show you to the guest room," Magnus explained, gesturing towards the closed door.

Taking this as their cue to leave, Grizz, Mickey, Bean, and Gwen made their way out into the living room.

As Gwen closed the door to the office behind her, Alec was surprised to hear Magnus let out a small chuckle.

"What?" he asked, sending an amused smirk towards the warlock.

"I guess we were wrong." At the confused look that crossed the Shadowhunter's face, Magnus elaborated. "Apparently there are mundanes in this universe."

At this, Alec let out a huff in amusement. "Yeah, just not in Brooklyn."