Acidosis : Within Kirek's Walls (BOOK 1)

No Such Thing as the Perfect School

One good part about the construction is it involved a lot of preparation. It would be a few days before I had to go back to the forest. Especially since Ace won't have to go hunting for a while.

Ace was set on that place to be where we setup. He wouldn't stop talking about it as we walked home. He didn't stop talking until we were back in the kitchen and Ace had a giant rat in his mouth. I looked away, breathing in and out. It's important to savor the silence. It's so rare.

There's a crashing sound from above. The sound of stomping feet down the stairs makes Ace stop eating. Henry is chasing Dad across the house. Henry is in his suit, making a clanking noise with every step he takes. Somehow Henry is almost right on top of Dad.

"If you don't stop I'll fire you!" Dad screams as he notices how close Henry is.

"Nice try Mr. but you have a meeting in five minutes, and you must be prepared for it," Henry says. He's now in front of Dad, holding his hands out to stop Dad from running anymore.

"Henry," Dad says, opening his arms to hug Henry. "Come on, old buddy. Who needs meetings anyways? Instead we should talk about getting you a promotion."

Henry steps back, not excepting Dad's hug, but not making any effort to get Dad to work. It was a tempting offer.

Dad puts his arms down. "I'll give you a promotion if we just forget about all of this. We can do something else."

Henry has a determined look. "No." He points to the stairs. "Up to the office. Now."

Dad shuffles to the stairs, looking at me with puppy eyes. He wanted me to save him. I shook my head, Henry was right.

Henry grabbed Dad's hand and led him up the steps at a faster pace. "Faster. We're already running late. And afterwards you also have a scheduled appointment with me to discuss a promotion."

Dad grumbles, "That wasn't the deal." But he does as he's told.

Ace turns to me. "Well that was something," he chuckles, then continues eating.

I look at him. Then back to the staircase, expecting Dad to come running down the stairs, but he doesn't. Ace finished his rat, looking at me expectantly.

"Well? Building materials and stuff?"

I raise an eyebrow. "and stuff?" I repeat, in a mocking tone.

"You know..." he trails off. "Building stuff," he repeats, giving me a nervous smile. It was a toothy smile, with some rat stuck between his teeth.

I pointed at it. "You have something in your teeth."

Ace used his claw to pick it out. "Did I get it all?"

I just nodded, my lips curling in disgust.

Ace looked offended. "What? How else was I supposed to get it out? Where YOU going to pick raw rat out of my mouth?"

I look down at my feet. "You're right. I'm sorry."

Ace flies onto my shoulder. "I'm always right. Now let's get...building materials!"

I'm starting to think he doesn't know what 'building materials' we need. "Okay. Just one problem."

Ace looks over his shoulder at me. "What?"

I point up the staircase. "Last time Dad got a lot of the building materials. I'll need him to help, and he's a little busy right now."

Ace lifted off my shoulder at flew up the stairs. "What are you waiting for?" he called.