Below The Surface - A Lackadaisy Fanfiction

Hellish Nightmares

"We'll be needin' de rest after all dat. I want you four to stay wit' Nico an' I tonight." Serafine closed the curtains of their suite. Mordecai raised a questioning brow.

"Is that so?" He asked.

"We wouldn' be offering if I didn't mean it, chér." Nico answered. "It's safer for us to be together dan apart. Dat way dey don' pick us off one by one."

Mordecai raised his other brow now. Pursing his lips, he began to ponder.

"You're acting conspicuously wary." He brought up.

"Anyone would be after what just happened..." Freckle kept peeking through closed curtains.

"Petit feu, you don' need to worry when you're wit us." Serafine gently pried him away from the windows, her hands on his shoulders. Freckle ended up flinching at the touch, quickly moving away and accidentally ramming into the wall.

"I, uh...right, right." He was still getting used to the "working together with the people who tried to kill you a while back" idea. Ivy tilted her head at this exchange, giving a small hum in the process.

Mordecai sighed silently, going through a bookshelf out of mere boredom and lack of attention to the Savoys at the given moment. Admittedly, he was impressed with the books the Savoys had on their shelves, albeit possibly being installed in the suite beforehand. His brows rose, and his eyes sparked, just slightly at seeing Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays by Betrand Russel on one of the book's spines. Admittedly, his excitement was limited, but it was conveyed quite well with his tail flicking back and forth. The corners of his mouth curled upward a bit as he took the book off his shelf, opening it up. A pang went through his heart, however, when he ran his hand over the cover gently. Bertrand Russel was his father's favorite author before he passed.

He remembered being little and his father droning on about this kind of literature, on those late nights where Mordecai was unable to sleep, due to whatever plagued his mind. His father was a loving and rather kind man...taken too soon by health conditions. One night he fell asleep and never woke up...

Rocky, while tuning his bow, noticed Mordecai's excitement dim away. The tomcat's smile faded away slightly, and he got up to move over to Mordecai. "Whatcha readin' there, bud?"

Mordecai frowned at him, giving him a blistering once over as he showed the cover of the book. He remained silent, and Rocky tilted his head to the side.

"...what is it about, exactly?"

"Overall the physiological and psychological discoveries of life made into essay form. There are some excellent points made throughout his writings."

"Like what?"

"Well, it is about logic and metaphysics for the first chapter."

"Meta–what?"

"Metaphysics. It's the attempt to conceive the world as a whole. Thoughts are developed, and by the union and conflict of two contrasting impulses. One urges a person to lean towards mysticism, and the other person leaning towards science."

Rocky looked downright confused. Yet his ears flicked up as he listened intently.

"Mysticism?"

Mordecai stared at the other cat. "It's the belief that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth or ultimate reality, can be attained through subjective experience."

"Similar to an awakening?" Rocky gently took the book, flipping through the pages. Mordecai folded his arms.

"I suppose one can align it with that." He let out a small huff.