The Clean Ones

Chapter 19

"Oh come on, Cale, loosen up a bit!" Lu whined. "Can't we have fun for once?"

I tapped my against my chin and peered up at the ceiling. "Hmm, why have I not thought about that before? Oh yeah, because the answer is no."

"But why?"

"Are you really going to sit here and complain? Look." I commanded. I wasn't quite sure what exactly I expected them to look for. I guess I just wanted answers. To know why exactly the Mayor brought us here, rather than just throwing us in jail. To understand why he had such an interest in Perri. I couldn't blame him, though. She was hard to overlook. It was like she was a priceless piece of art hanging on your wall. You couldn't not stare at her. Except, she was better than any art piece painted by some dead guy hundreds of years ago. Nobody in right mind paid attention to those anyways. I can guarantee that if any guy was given the choice between a stupid painting of a woman or Perri, an actual, beautiful human, they would choose her. Well, at least I would.

My eyes flickered over to the boys. They were both, grudgingly, at work. I snorted a little. They were probably cursing me silently. I wouldn't be surprised. They'd cursed me out loud more times than I could count. It only made sense that the little mongrels would do so, silently, as well. Maturity and respect for elders were not their strong points.
I walked over to the trashed desk and began to remove everything from it. Books and papers fell to the floor along with ink pens. They exploded all over the papers, staining them a black liquid as thick as blood. I'd hoped they were legal documents, or something that would make the Mayor cringe if they were destroyed.
Nothing. That's exactly what I found on the top of the desk. Absolutely nothing. The boys were underneath the hunk of wood, tag teaming to try and read every single document I tossed onto the floor. I laughed a little, under my breath, as I caught glance at them scurrying about from document to document. Their attempts at sleuthing were a damn waste of time for several reasons. First, my not-so-deductive reasoning was able to figure out that the documents were unless to us by just scanning them. Second, the two of them were too dim-witted to keep up with my not-so-deductive reasoning, and therefore did not see that they were pointless. It wasn't that the boys were dumb or that they should be degraded when in comparison to moi, but really, it was self-evident. It didn't take a mind reader to keep up with me.

Two drawers lay embossed within the wooden side-panels of the desk. I had to admit, for a man of such mediocre taste, the Mayor did have an apt for picking out fine desks. The handles of the drawers perfectly matched the bronze claw feet set at the bottom. They were also incredibly shiny. He'd probably hired one of his little slaves to spit-shine them for him. I certainly wouldn't put it past him to do as such. I placed my hands on either one and yanked them open. I snorted as I did so. Of course the man who ran our town wasn't even smart enough to have locks installed in his damn desk. The drawers were stuffed as full as they possibly could be. Random knick knacks flew from the premises, with one even hitting Lu square in the face. His face turned a bloody shade of red as his eyes narrowed at mine. The little twerp's facial expression didn't help suppress the laughter that shot out from both Benton and I.

"Oh, pipe down!" He whined as he rubbed the small bruise that was forming on his forehead.

I shook my head and laughed. "Nah, I don't think so."

"Yeah!" Benton chimed. "Sorry, little brother, but it was rather hysterical."

"Come on, it wasn't that funny!" Lu cried, throwing his arms down. Then, as an afterthought, added "Plus, you're not that much older than me."

"I don't know, five minutes really does make an insurmountable difference..." He said with a shrug.

I cleared my throat. "While you two continue this riveting conversation about whether or not the time of your birth really matters, considering you two are twins, if you've forgotten, did you even bother to look at what hit you?"