"This isn't kid-friendly—you guys shouldn't look!"
Cohen hurriedly covered Tom and Jerry's eyes with his hands.
"You're looking too!" Tom growled, trying to pry Cohen's hand off his face with his left hand while his right reached across Cohen to hold down Jerry, who was just as curious and eager to peek.
I can look, but my little brother can't.
"Don't shove me—" Cohen called out, trying to stop them.
"You've been staring for, like, five seconds already!" Tom shot back.
"I wanna see! I wanna see…" Jerry squirmed, struggling against their grip.
Outside, Mrs. Morick let out a pained yelp. The mayor had roughly pinned her to the bed—but whether it hurt now didn't matter much. Worse pain was coming.
The mayor, practically buzzing with excitement, started tearing at Mrs. Morick's clothes. The air filled with the heavy scent of her perfume.
"Easy!" Mrs. Morick gasped. "You're scratching my leg—"
"That's not the safe word we agreed on…" the mayor said with a sleazy grin, already shimmying out of his pants. "Let's just get to it…"
"I wanna see…" Jerry, hearing the commotion outside, grew even more curious and tried dodging the hands Cohen and Tom pressed against him. "What's the mayor doing—"
"Shh, quiet—" Cohen hushed him urgently. "Don't be such a perv at your age!"
"Then why'd you stare so long?!" Tom hissed back, keeping his voice low.
"I'm keeping an eye on the mayor for anything weird!" Cohen explained. "Plus, I'm inv—I mean, you guys are still too young to get invo—"
"The crack's too small—I can't see anything…" Tom took advantage of Cohen pausing mid-argument and darted forward, craning his neck to peek through the gap in the closet door.
All three fell silent.
The noise outside stopped too.
"Well, now no one's seeing anything," Cohen sighed.
The closet door swung open, revealing the furious mayor. His pants were halfway down, his face a mix of shock, rage, and… excitement?
Seriously, how can you still be excited right now, Mr. Mayor?!
On the bed, Mrs. Morick yanked the blanket over herself in a panic, her face flushed, holding her breath as she stared wide-eyed at the three boys in the closet.
Cohen blinked innocently.
"We're screwed…" Tom muttered, despair creeping in.
"You three—what the hell—are you doing?!"
The mayor gritted his teeth, spitting out each word.
"Okay, hear me out—what if, just what if, we were hunting closet elves? Would you believe that, Mr. Mayor?" Jerry asked hopefully.
"You're human, right?"
Tom buried his face in his hands, unable to deal with Cohen and Jerry—who both seemed like they were just here to mess everything up—even if Jerry was his little brother.
"Pretty small down there, huh, Mr. Mayor?" Cohen added fuel to the fire.
Unsurprisingly, things went exactly as Cohen expected. The burly mayor tied them up tight with rope and shoved them into the backseat of his car.
"Bet he's heading back to finish his wild night," Cohen said. He was trussed up like a dumpling, only his head poking out.
After dumping the three cocooned kids in the car, the mayor turned around and went back into the house.
Mrs. Morick hadn't left either—the lights on the second floor were still on.
Tom started yelling at the top of his lungs the moment the mayor walked off.
"The mayor's kidnapping kids!!!"
His voice echoed inside the car, but it didn't seem to carry outside. Despite tons of houses nearby, not a single light flicked on or window cracked open to check what was happening—even with Tom screaming his head off. And the car's windows were still open. It was downright spooky.
"Are all the adults dead or something?" Tom grumbled.
"Nah, it's just that this place has a wizard's spell on it," Cohen said, spotting magical traces on the car. "Sound can't get out."
"Wizards?" Tom said, confused. "No wonder you were chatting with your pet cat today. Your parents must've fed you too many fairy tales—magic isn't real."
"Then keep shouting. Scream your lungs out—no one's coming to save you," Cohen said, shifting into a slightly comfier spot on the seat.
"Why aren't you freaking out at all?" Jerry asked, turning to Cohen. "We're definitely gonna get beaten up…"
"Beaten up?" Tom sighed but didn't elaborate on their fate, not wanting to scare Jerry.
The mayor was clearly planning to kidnap them too.
"Cheer up! At least we've hit our goal," Cohen said breezily. "Didn't you guys want to find your dad? You'll see him soon."
"In hell, you mean?" Tom's eyes dulled. "We're tied up—we can't even get out of this car!"
"If he wanted to kill us, he could've just dragged us to the bathroom and done it there," Cohen pointed out. "But he tied us up and stuffed us in the car. That means he wants us alive. So, once he's done having his fun, he'll take us to wherever they're keeping the missing people…"
"And then what?" Tom asked quickly, noticing Cohen's confident vibe.
"I've got a plan for what comes next," Cohen said. "Relax, I'm a pro at this."
Tom wasn't sure if he should trust Cohen—but right now, he and Jerry were powerless. Believing in Cohen was their only option.
"Wait a sec… so you wanted the mayor to catch us?" Tom suddenly realized.
"Isn't it exciting?" Cohen asked sincerely. "Sneaking a peek, getting caught, then poking fun at the guy's size—"
"You got us each punched in the face!" Tom said, incredulous. "Especially me—I got two punches!"
"You guys took the hits," Cohen replied. "He didn't touch me—"
A quick Confundus Charm had sorted that out for Cohen—he'd redirected his share of the beating to Tom.
"You *****!" Tom fumed.
"This is a lesson not to mess around with dangerous stuff," Cohen said sagely. "Don't sneak into an adult's house in the middle of the night and hide in their closet to spy on them with their lover…"
"You're the one who dragged us into the closet!"
"Eh-heh," Cohen said, running out of excuses.
"What the heck does 'eh-heh' mean, you jerk?!" Tom snapped.
But no matter how wronged Tom felt, at least things were heading in the right direction.
By playing the victim, they'd get taken straight to the Silver Key's little base where they were researching that "special magical substance." Though, honestly, Cohen could've just hit the mayor with a Legilimens spell and gotten the same result…
A muffled thud suddenly came from the car roof.
"Who's shooting?!" Tom yelped.
"Nah, it's just my bird," Cohen said, glancing up and recognizing Earl's soul tag.
"Please don't tell me you got caught on purpose," Earl's lazy voice drifted down from the roof.