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| CHAPTER 13 Jack stared at the man who had made and broken her world. He looked tired. And older. All her sorry existence she had looked for someone to protect her from the ugliness and sickness that was life. She thought she had found that in Richard B. Riddick. A man whose soul was supposedly uglier and more sick than life. When she had first learned about him after the crash of the Hunter-Gratzner, she had felt only fear. But after overhearing the others talk about his crimes, seeing their fear and healthy respect of his abilities, she realized that here was someone who could teach her everything she wanted to know about survival. No more Jack the slave. Jack the weakling. Jack the unlucky. She would be one bad mother fucker...just like Riddick. So she watched and imitated him. Soaking up his personality, making him a hero as only a teenager can do. And it gave her courage to deal with the crash. The courage had lasted until Shazza’s brutal death. Not that Jack hadn’t seen her fair share of death before. Hell, her life had been one long funeral it seemed like. It was HOW Shazza had died that put the fatal crack in her shell. Screaming and bloody. A victim of an animal that you couldn’t reason with, con, outsmart or outrun. That had terrified Jack. Always before she’d been able to beat death by finding it’s weakness. But the creatures on Taurus 2 had only one weakness, light. And when light got into short supply, there was nothing to stop them from doing what nature intended them to do. No amount of bullshitting or fighting or screaming or running could alter their course. And with out those advantages, Jack knew she’d be an easy target. Especially since she was menstruating, giving off the blood scent the creatures gravitated towards. But then there was Riddick. Saving her from Johns cold blooded plan to use her as chum to keep the creatures off the rest of the groups back. Telling her not to waste her tears on the creep. Saving her from an attack by one of the creatures. Finding them shelter in the rock face. Coming back, albeit with a crap load of persuasion from Fry, for her and Imam. Getting them to the safety of Polaris Station, staying with them even after Zar took them in. Jack had been overjoyed when Zar and Riddick had become involved. It meant Riddick would stay around. It meant having a family, not of blood, but of something even more important. Caring. But then Riddick couldn’t seem to leave well enough alone. He had to go after Elson Brenner. For no good fucking reason! Well, maybe a good reason, but he still didn’t have to DO it. Zar hadn’t asked him. Brenner probably would have moved on, none the wiser, sooner or later. But no, Riddick had to be the bad ass and set her world on fire. Burning it down to the rubble she woke up in each day. Not that she wasn’t grateful for Zar. She was. Every fucking day of her life she was glad Zar had kept her. And though Zar was a strong woman, she had her weaknesses like everyone. Therefore she wasn’t the one Jack could have total confidence in. Only Riddick could be that person. The one who would always know what to do, where to go, how to fight the inevitable crap that always found it’s way into her life. Then he’d abandoned her. It was just so fucking unfair! Riddick watched the emotions flow across Jack’s face. He tried to maintain impassivity, but he felt his prison face slipping. Turning his back to her, he went to a dresser, pulling out a shirt and putting it on. He needed the time away from her accusing eyes to get a grip on his quickly rising emotions. He knew the only way he was going to get her out of his life was to convince her, once and for all, that he didn’t want anything to do with her or Zar. It was the best for the both of them. Be cruel to be kind. He gave himself a small laugh inwardly. Being cruel was a natural for him, but doing it to be kind was truly a first. Keeping his back to her, deliberately disrespecting her, he started the job that would drive her away forever. “Listen kid, you didn’t really think I was going to baby-sit your pathetic ass forever did ya? I did more than most would. I got you to someone who actually wants you. You should be down on your knees thanking me. Not giving me crap!” Jack felt his words slash across her heart. All the camaraderie that she and Riddick had shared through the ordeal on Taurus evaporating. “What about Zar?” “What about her?” “You telling me you went after her family’s killer just for the hell of it? You have to care something about her to do that kinda thing!” Riddick was impressed with Jack’s logic. She wasn’t going to be easy to get rid of. Mentally he stiffened his resolve to do what he had to do to sever any kind feelings Jack had for him. “Ha! Zar was a decent fuck. And yeah, as much as I’m capable of, I liked her well enough. But after I ghosted Brenner, I remembered how much I miss this life. I don’t need no emotionally weak woman dragging me down. Trying to make me into some sort of working slob with family responsibilities. You too! I’m not your daddy Jack! Get over it!” He knew he done a fine damn job of wiping out all tender feelings Jack had for him. He’d hoped he made her enraged, it would help with the feeling of isolation and desolation she had to be going through. He knew he’d succeeded when he felt her move up behind him. She was going to attack him. He could’ve stopped her with his lightening quick reflexes, but he figured she deserved to get a few good licks in. She was sobbing and yelling every obscenity she knew as she punched and kicked at his back and legs. Of course she wasn’t hurting him. Her blows like the dashing of insects against a windshield. It hurt the insect a hell of lot more than the windshield. His body was too desensitized to pain to notice some skinny kids puny efforts to inflict harm. What did hurt was the emotional devastation rolling off her in waves. He felt them as if they had a physical presence. And he knew an almost irrepressible urge to turn around and take her in his arms. Soothe all the hurt he’d done to her heart. Tell her that he was sorry and that everything was going to be okay. But everything was not going to be okay. Not as things stood with him now. He was already feeling the old Riddick’s impatience boiling up in him to get all this hokey emotional shit over with. As they were escaping Taurus 2, he had told Jack and Imam to tell whoever they ran into that Richard Riddick had died on that planet. And at the time he had believed it. That the psychokiller in him had expired under the weight of unselfish actions of Carolyn Fry’s sacrifice. She had died for him. FOR HIM! No one had ever done anything for him. Except to give him more fucking grief. But when she had come back for him, refusing to leave him even though she knew he would’ve left her, that selfless act had pierced through the shield of indifference that he had hid behind for all of his life. He truly had felt reborn. That rebirth had let him enjoy being part of a family. Allowed him to let the love of a good woman into his heart. But evidently the old Riddick wasn’t ready to die such an easy death. He’d just been waiting for a chance to gain a foothold. And the new Riddick had given it to him by going after Elson Brenner. He was too honest with himself to say he only did it to protect Zar. He, or rather the old Riddick, had made him want to enjoy the thrill of the hunt, the anticipation of the bloody kill. He should’ve known the minute he’d vowed to kill Elson Brenner. The psychokiller wasn’t dead. Just momentarily unconscious due to the blow Fry’s gift had dealt it. He should’ve killed it when he first felt the need to kill Brenner. But he hadn’t. He just gave it more fuel to feed on. And it had come back. Maybe not as strong as it once was. That was evident in the way Jack’s sobs were tearing his heart apart. But who was to say that it wouldn’t grow even stronger? He couldn’t take the chance of hurting Zar and Jack even more. He had to get them out of his life permanently. He braced himself to do what he had to do. He felt Jack weakening in her blows, having worn herself and her rage out. He knew what his next move would have to be. Whipping around to face her, he cruelly grabbed her heaving shoulders. “Listen you little bitch! I’m through putting up with your snot nosed hero worship! Get out!” Jack couldn’t accept that this was the same man who had saved her life on Taurus 2. She wouldn’t accept that he was gone. In desperation she tried to wrap her arms around his waist. “NO! Get the fuck out!” Almost as if it was in slow motion, Riddick watched himself drag her over to the door. It opened as it felt his approach. He tightened his grip on her arm and shook her to get her to look up into his face. She would have bruises later. As cold as ice his silvered eyes bore down into her wide blue ones. Quietly, deadly, he delivered the death blow to her hopes and dreams. “If you ever come back here again, I’ll do you. I’ll make what Johns had planned for you look like a birthday party. I don’t want you. I don’t need you. I will not suffer your presence. Understand me little girl?” He saw the fear bloom in her eyes. Felt the trembling start in her slight frame. He had convinced her that he meant business. Now for the final and irrevocable act that would ensure the severing of all ties. He threw her out of the apartment. Crashing her against the opposite wall. Hearing her grunt of pain as her body made bruising contact. Moving slightly forward to let the door close, he turned to voice activate the lock to the rooms. Turning back to Jack, he saw she had crumpled to the floor in a sobbing heap. Fighting with every muscle in his body the urge to go to her, comfort her, beg her forgiveness. He stared down at the little girl who had first wakened his better instincts. That part of his life was over forever. He knew it, it was best if she accepted it also. He turned his back to her and the death of her dreams, on her pain, and walked away. |
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