Escape: Through the Fourth Wall

3: Mayor, Mayor, On The Wall, Who's The Shadiest Of Them All?

"It's bigger on the inside," I breathed.

The mayor crinkled his nose. "Of course not! That's physically impossible. Unless it was some sort of pocket dimension in some sort of sci-fi show. No, this room extends into the next two buildings." He waved his hand like buying a couple houses just to create one big room was an everyday occurrence. But then again, this was the mayor so it probably was.

The room was empty, except for a large wooden desk at one end of the room and a couple of chairs. The mayor sat on a fancy chair on one side and snapped his fingers again. Each of the four bodyguards drifted to different corners of the room and the door shut on its own.

I frowned at my fancy chair. It was fancy, true, but it was nowhere near as fancy as the mayor's. It was as if he was subtly reminding me that I- that everyone else- always will be beneath him.

"Now," said the mayor in such a business-like tone that it deserved its own corporation, "I suppose it is time I told you why you are here."

"Please enlighten me, O Great One!" I scoffed.

"The awesome power of recognition."

I frowned again. "What?"

"Tell me, Paladin," smirked the mayor, snapping his fingers, "Why did you really become a... what do the kids call it nowadays... a superhero?"

A bodyguard appeared from nowhere carrying a tray with a very expensive-looking bottle of alcohol and two very expensive-looking glasses.

"Champagne?" he asked innocently.

"I don't drink."

"Of course you don't," he smiled, pushing his glass of sparkling liquid a respectable distance away. I was getting tired of all his smirking. "So," he continued, "answer my question." This time it was most definitely an order.

"I wanted to do the right thin-"

He snorted, cutting me off. It was a small snort, but it took me by surprise because I had never expected a man of the mayor's status to resort to snorting. 

No, not that snorting! Geez, guys!

"The Paladin," he scowled, his cold glare sent a tingling sensation down my spine, "a supposed crusader of justice who suddenly appears to fight 'evil' after years and years of it has been constantly occurring. He suddenly pops up out of nowhere and claims to be The City's protector."

"I wasn't ready to-"

"Is he doing it for attention? Recognition? Perhaps. Does he need the people to use on whim? Maybe. And does he say who he really is? No. Suspicious, don't you think?"

"I'm telling you, I was never trying-"

"Save it. If this..." he waved a hand to indicate 'this' meant my being there, "...session did not require us to tell the truth, I would not have summoned you."

This time I snorted. "Summoned?" I spat incredulously. "Summoned?  Do you think I'm here only because you want me to be?"

"Did you plan on being here an hour ago?" He raised one eyebrow and took a calm sip from his glass.

"No," I admitted, "but that doesn't mean I'm here only  because you ordered me to be here. I could've walked out of here the second I wanted to!"

"Yet here you are."

A moment's silence.

Why was I here? He was right, though I refused to completely accept it. Everyone obeys the mayor.