The Illusion of Danger

Chapter 4

Since the incident in the college library a few days ago, Mordecai had some difficulties with keeping his focus during his working hours. Not because of the cat the events occurred with, but more because he was down a coat and handkerchief.

Due to the fact that he'd forgotten to take it back before leaving, he was left with an odd number of coats in his wardrobe that didn't match up with the number of other garments he had.
Eight vests, eight blazers, eight pairs of pants, eight pairs of socks, eight sets of undergarments, but only seven suit jackets and seven handkerchiefs. It was infuriating, knowing that his wardrobe was so out of order.
Everyone knew that from numbers one to nine, eight was the only number with perfect symmetry whether you set the line vertically or horizontally. Of course, the number one was debatable depending on how one wrote it, but that was completely based on opinion.

Of course, he couldn't let that stop him in his tracks with work and other daily tasks, but it did make him itch and the voice in the back of his head wouldn't stop poking him about it.

Now that he'd finished a job with two of his incessantly irritating co-workers, the black and white tuxedo cat was walking down by the river late in the evening, his sense of hearing purposefully elevated to help him detect anyone or anything that could have been lurking about.
As he walked down the hill beside the bridge to dispose of a few items that would immediately be linked to the crime of the evening, he took one more careful look around before reaching into his jacket and removed a bloodied ax.

It wasn't the cleanest of jobs he'd ever participated in, but it was finished and it wouldn't be spoken of again.
Mordecai made sure to wipe the handle off with a rag he had before taking another quick look around with his green pools for eyes, pupils dilated to allow more light in, then turned toward the rushing water again, reeled the ax back, and cast it as far out as he could, leaving it to be forgotten with a final splash.
He stood silently for a few moments, simply watching the water run its course.

Rocky sat alone in his vehicle, rummaging through a box of all his old precious belongings. A lock of his mother's hair, a photograph of his mother and her sister together when they were younger by a river, dressed in their Sunday best. A tear fell from his eye; he was feeling rather lonely tonight. Freckle was busy helping his mother with chores, Ivy had exams to study for. He still had not gotten over the fact that he really wanted to see Mordecai once more. To prove to his heart and brain that these feelings were in fact caused by the tuxedo cat.

Now parked beside the river and bridge he and his cohorts frequented whilst running hooch, instead of being settled in front of the cafe, he felt the breeze from the water would do him some good. The tabby was still wearing the coat that was supposedly Mordecai's. He didn't want to take it off, even though it had been almost a week since the incident. Admittedly, it was getting a bit ripe, but Rocky couldn't care less. The second he took the coat off and threw it in the back seat, he immediately felt naked and needed to return the coat to its proper home on his own shoulders. He could still smell a bit of Mordecai on the coat and didn't want to go a minute without that smell. Not that he would admit that to anyone else.

*Splash*

Rocky's ears perked up and whiskers stood on end. There was a loud splash that came from below the bridge.

"Most people are asleep by now... and that was too large to have been a fish."
Rocky was speaking to himself as he got out of the car. He was one of the foolish enough cats that weren't given the warning as a child 'curiosity killed the cat', so he decided to investigate where the sound was coming from to acquire a source.

The tabby looked over the bridge and ducked as soon as he saw a dark figure.

"Must be someone disposing of a dead body... or... THE BOG WITCH. I WAS RIGHT!"
He thought to himself. He shuffled back to his car to grab a gun, but all he had was a plunger. He rolled his eyes at himself and snagged the toiletry out of the vehicle and put his back against the wall once again.