Chapter 18; Failure
Jack's mind shook as she picked up the closest phone. Calling Imam's number, waiting for him to answer. Even waiting for Riddick to answer.
*I'm not afraid of him, am I?*
Trembling she waited for an answer.
It rang...
rang...
rang...
Stopped ringing.
Before anyone could even reply Jack's jumped at the first sound that could be made from a human.
-Imam?
Her wayward voice whispered quietly.
-"Jack, dear child, where are you?"
She burst out into dry tears.
-"Oh God Imam, Skylar she's...."
Imam hushed her down. The harshness and the urgency of his voice quite
so
unusual for this gentle man.
-"Listen to me child, I'm afraid I've done something very unwise."
Jack froze in her steps, a suspicion calling into her as she realized a truth. Even before Imam spoke.
-"I'm afraid that I have informed Mr. Riddick about your whereabouts."
*That feeling in the cooler room*
-"He made me believe he was just going to talk to you child. But the way he looked at me after I told him has given me cause to worry.. I'm sor.."
*The shade I felt like almost touched me on the ship*
Jack's mind left sorrow behind and the survivor in her burst loose.
-"Imam, I love you."
The phone hung down, Imam's voice still calling out for the girl who once was Jack.
Running. Riddick already knew where she was. Now she just had to run away and reach a safe haven.
Too soon she detected another pair of feet running after her. Fear fuelled her. She'd been through so much that she barely trusted anyone at all. Specially not those who'd proven to be violent. Those who'd locked her up in her room when shed gotten drunk. Let her be when she'd been raped. Thrown her way.
In one word: Riddick.
Her trust had been smashed the moment she'd seen her father's blood on his hands.
*He's not a monster*
The thought surprised her.
The thought made her slow down.
*He's not a monster*
Made her stop completely and wait for the stranger heading towards her.
********************************************
Jack cried violently as she pulled the shiv out of her thigh. Tears of all sorts of pain.
He'd really gone psycho on her.
He'd looked pretty damn normal to her at first, but when he'd gotten closer...
She'd tried to talk to him but it was as if his mind were oblivious to
that. He talked of betrayal.
Talked about seeing her with the Johns. It drove him crazy.
Worst of all, the same calamity had been over all of it. Until he'd decided to strike.
Holding the tears inside she wrapped some bandages around her thigh. Damn this hurt.
He'd aimed for her stomach, knowing that it would injure her more. She'd reacted with complete logic. Kicked her leg up so it hit her thigh.
Then knocked him out. Amazing that she'd managed to do it. Had his logic disappeared along with his humanity?
She'd reacted so quickly after the knife had thrust into her body. The kick had almost been in the same move as she'd used to protect her stomach. Kicked him in the head.
She hadn't waited to see if she'd killed him or not.
A part of her felt terrible as she sat in the dump amongst other beggars. She'd hurt him.
He had an excuse, he was a borderline psycho and a sociopath. Se didn't.
Reluctantly she could now admit that she wouldn't go crazy like mom and Skylar. She was fully and completely sane.
And that made all of it hurt even worse.
Jack leaned her eyes back. She'd have to find a way out of this. Somehow, on her own.
Preferably get Riddick out of this trance of insanity. Or perhaps she wanted to keep him this way? Perhaps she wanted a reason to hate him for all that he'd caused, for destroying her entire family.
Her heart kept on beating although it was crushed.
*******************************************
Days had passed, she didn't really know how many, but most defiantly a
few. Perhaps a week or two. Jack really didn't give a shit. She'd checked
the cash in the account Skylar had set up.
Still ten mils there. She'd taken a great amount out, but it was within
five percent of the total amount.
It'd do, just a few more days and Riddick wouldn't be all to eager to look at the space flights.
Jack planned on going to one of the more legally strict places. Somewhere tidy where Riddick wouldn't be able to set a foot without being detected.
The Mars colony sounded like a good place to her. Close enough to earth but far away as well.
Anxiety settled deep into her guts once again. Hr stomach hadn doing all those weird things since Skylar..since... she couldn't think about it.
*I'll mourn when I have time*
She put some necessities into a backpack, then giving the mirror a last glance. She'd had her hair grown out, it was down to her mid back. Curled as well, red. Her clothes made her look a little older, and the make up she used helped to give her the looks of a twenty five year old.
-"Marsha William."
A brand new fake Id in her pocket, one of those things she'd made herself. The knife within her reach, just in case, and a gun at her other leg.
*Please, don't find me*
She closed her eyes as if she were praying, then walked out the motel doors.
******************
Dark, terribly filthy and dark. He didn't notice. His mind out of control. Some part of him looked human from within. The part that told him Jack wasn't to blame.
He didn't like that part too much, wanted it to die and burn. Much like he felt at the moment, a fucking pin cushion for the pricks of pain. Metaphorically speaking, of course.
But it hurt, and he wanted to get rid of the pain. He knew how. It'd hurt her, not him.
The red head with the curls.
-"Red really doesn't become you Jack."
The girl turned around, too see a demon, a terrible grin spreading over his face.
This wasn't Riddick.
This was just some psycho fuck who had temporarily decided to rent Riddick's body for free.
Her eyes looking straight at him.
-"Riddick you OK?"
*Trying to act casual, real good Jackie girl*
He saw her hands reaching down for something.
-How's your leg?
His voice the usual dead tone. She bend slightly.
*Poor kid, put your gun too low?*
-"It's all cool, didn't need stitches."
He smiled, they were alone, sure it was broad daylight but in these streets it really didn't matter.
-"Good, coz you're gonna hurt a fuck load more."
The terror on her face enjoyable, the anger in her face familiar. The expression in over all, expression of disbelief, unbearable.
The pain needed to leave.
Riddick put his hand over her mouth and dragged her to the darkest ally around. His shiv shining in the sun. The goggles hiding the insanity trait in his pretty silvery eyes.
**********************************
She'd fought him, with everything she'd had. Until the dark came. Until he had the upper hand of darkness. Another ally, the same psycho killer and her weak body.
His whispers, she couldn't make them out anymore. Her hands where cut. So far he'd only sliced her skin, talking to her about how often he'd wanted to cut her skinny ass. How he'd restrained himself from killing all those people she loved, just for her, and then she'd gone and back stabbed him. Not a good idea.
She felt the blade cut into her forehead. Going down vertically, diagonally from the middle of her eyes to her lips. It went straight over.
If only she could scream. He'd gagged her at first, then, when the pain was too much for her to even scream he'd loosened the tie and let her whimper all she could.
He talked to her some more.
-"Your father whimpered the same way you do, yours is just so much nicer."
Jack wanted to scream at him to stop. It wasn't just the physical pain. The pain that this was the man that made her heart race at times, the guy who knew her better than anyone. The one who comforted her when she felt like she was going crazy.
All that was left of that man was the mass murderer.
She gave in slowly.
No use.
This was the end. His burning shiv cut into her once again. Leaving the gutting part to the last.
The knife so close, she could feel the blood rise from her skin as the knife cut slightly into her very own flesh.
The world faded away with an angry roar from Riddick's throat.
Chapter 19; WHEN END COMES ´ROUND and HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Standing above Riddick's limps living body.
*I put enough to knock out an elephant, it should do*
Turned towards the black middle-aged woman.
-"Take him to the cops, get some money."
A rusted voice replied with curiosity.
-"Weren't you in for this for the money?"
The woman looked at Kali with the oddest glare.
-"Consider it payment for blowing up some old pals."
She checked the girl's body, the pulse terribly low. The blood covering the scenery was the witness of a dangerous blood loss.
-"Take the fucker away before I kill him myself."
Kali nodded solemnly. This was her friends way of doing things. The rusted voice echoed once more into the darkness.
-"Your plan worked after all. They're probably gonna put him into cryo sleep."
Skylar nodded her head. Dull and emotionless as she gave the semi-dead Riddick a last glance.
-"Yeah, they only do that to the worst."
Jack's lips barely shook. Her energy drained after fighting Riddick. Blood staining a beautiful face, a sacrifice had been demanded for the betrayal.
Darkness.
A slim figure picked the skeleton of the dirty street of Gomorra. Those shaking lips forming words that could barely be made out.
-"Please don't...don't. .I lo..."
NO.
She wouldn't let her speak those words. Riddick had nearly killed this much so loved girl. This spark of sanity in the midst of hell. It had been too much for him to take so he had to destroy it. Like the rest of their family, now they were all gone.
Calm despair settled into her heart, to watch this girl suffer. Suffering didn't go with her carefree life like spirit.
Blood seeping down her body, locking itself into her clothes, threatening to stain forever. It had scarred the soul permanently.
*Isn't that enough Richard?*
Strong stealth ran across the streets, carrying a dying creature.
*I won't let my mistakes be the end of you Jack*
*****************************
A woman in her mid twenties with sweat stroked hair and a figure of great power burst into one of many street clinics, carrying a girl on her back. A girl who barely looked like she'd be hanging together for much longer.
-"GET ME A MOTHER FUCKING DOCTOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The words barely finished as a crowd of people collected Jack of her back and took to immediate care. Words mixing like an ocean just below the surface. She knew them all. She'd heard them.....when Johns had gotten her and Macy to the hospital. Unlike that time, Jack was barely conscious. That little consciousness she held was enough to get the girl to question.
-"Riddick...where is he...Riddick?"
Skylar wanted to carve her heart out when she detected Jack's words.
*How can she ask for him, he nearly killed her*
People in white pulled her sister off into a blur of drugs and the solitude of a surgical room, leaving Skylar to herself waiting.
*How can she remain so human amongst all of us demons*
The long legged blonde sat down waiting. She leaned forwards a little, her elbows on her muscular thighs, her hands clasped.
-"Whatever fucking gods that are out there...don't let her die. Don't let her die."
Thoughts started to swirl. Whether Jack lived or not, it'd all be over. It was no coincident that Skylar had found he little sister. She'd survived the battle, as planned. Getting Riddick and Jack to think of her as dead was just too easy.
*Thought you'd have figure out that I can't be killed, Richard*
Her thumbs running across her forehead in a repeated motion of pure emotionality.
She'd been following them for days now, just wanted to make sure Jack would be OK. But Riddick had gotten to her just when Skylar had put her guardianship on the shelf. She'd gone to see Jackleen...for a last time.
The screeching scream across the street had alerted her, still she wondered why Riddick hadn't finished the girl off completely.
*He does care about her*
-"Skylar."
That voice. That incredibly familiar voice.
-"Hello Jennifer."
A woman with greying hair but aging with elegance. An older Carolyn Fry looked down at the recently born human. Still wet from birth.
Skylar's eyes didn't bother to find what Carolyn's mother felt. She kinda knew. Probably much like herself. Pain, guilt....fuck, it hurts to be human.
-"Riddick."
A strand of hope lay in dr. Fry's voice.
*I can't believe her, is she actually looking for a reason to justify her hatred?*
Running her cold sweat hands over her tired face Skylar replied coldly.
-"No...my mistakes and yours."
Jennifer took that as an indirect agreement with her earlier statement. For a moment it looked as if the woman were to speak some words of useless dying human wisdom, but Skylar never let her get to it.
-"How's she doing?"
Her back hunched and spirit broken, waited for the doctor's opinion.
-"I just checked the report, she's seriously injured. We aren't quite sure if she'll make it."
Skylar laughed. Actually laughed at the doctors words.
*Of course she'll make it, it's Jack and she's a Menski, we're hard to kill*
Jennifer took the sarcastic laughter as one of Skylar's defences, though something beneath the surface told the woman that it wasn't so.
-"Revenge is no fucking good doc."
About five years ago a woman had appeared in the hospital, so badly cut
that it was a miracle she lived. Following her was a black man who seemingly
ignored his bleeding knee. Begging them to help his family first. His family,
a three year old girl who'd arrived earlier that day...
closer to death than life.
Jennifer herself over saw Skylar's recovery treatment. The woman was amazing,
the recovery she made miraculous. Especially after hearing that her daughter
had been killed by Riddick. She'd still kept her distance, drowning herself
in the job after receiving the tragic news. Her daughter, Carolyn Fry, a
pilot, had been killed. The body had never been discovered but the news
that the escaped convict Richard B. Riddick had been on that crash spread
through her like weed. Carolyn was a survivor, that much she'd taught her
daughter. This Riddick fellow must have killed her. Jennifer had never been
close to her only child, but a daughter's loss
was still a daughter lost.
By accident Jennifer got to know the couple. Them and their hate for Riddick,. It seemed to be the very drive force in their lives. Especially the woman's. Also, by accident, she'd detected the leaking restorment liquid. Skylar had reacted casually.
"I'm gonna die anyway"
Then one day it happened, Jennifer approached them, just a year ago or so. The rumors of Riddick being alive started to crawl into her clinic like worms through a dead corps. Anger and hate filled her. So she decided that his life could no longer be. Jennifer Fry contacted one of many criminals she'd gotten to know over tide and time. One of them, Yoko, told her about this crazy assassins that surely would do it.
Her surprise complete when Macy and Skylar had shown up on the meeting place. After that they'd shared a special bond, Riddick being the centre of it all.
She'd supplied them with the money they needed to hire some extras. The Johns. In exchange for keeping their daughter alive, for keeping the shell alive. Nothing rested within those fragile weak limbs anymore.
Back then Skylar's black eyes had shone with nothing but hate and inhumanity. Now there was a completely different glow to her. A more humane one, a broken one.
Skylar rose up from the crowded waiting bench, looked Fry directly into the eyes.
-"I'm gonna go and see Jackleen, let me know when I can see Jack."
Skylar strolled off, ghost like and suppressed with agony. Rambling into one of many rooms. This place looked like maze, but after a few years it ceased to be unfamiliar, most unfortunately.
Opening the doors slowly, the radio on.
-"Breakthrough news, we've just gotten the information that Richard
B Riddick, a convicted multi murderer and thief has been turned into the
local officials of Hershing, Double Helix. He is to be sent to Ursa Luna,
AKA Slam City where he'll await his......."
Skylar slammed her fist down into the radio, smashing it into pieces, the pain shivering through her made her feel slightly alive and she hated it. Life for the last weeks had been hell. Macy gone, no purpose, Jack injured, no hope.
Skylar sat down on her daughter's bed, watching the shell that held her dead spirit. A hand running gently down a dark brown cheek, putting away the blond hair the girl had.
-"Hi sweetie, it's mama..."
Tears shaking a mother's body. A single black tear running down her pale face.
-"Now you can rest in peace."
*******************************
Hours later Jennifer fry opened the doors to Jackleen Macy's room, just to see her insomniac mother staring at her daughter's face.
-"You can see her now, she's stable and the wounds weren't nearly as bad as we thought."
Skylar rose sombrely up from bed. It looked like the mother had gained some peace of mind, as rare as that was. Silently following the doctor. Following her into a room filled with a machines, seeing her sister's body so incredibly mutilated. Worst of all was her face. Just to see the girl that pale and lifeless. Her lips bruised. And that hideous scar! Going across her face vertically.. diagonally.
Skylar ignored the presence of anyone else and started talking as she held her little sister's hand.
Oh god how it hurt.
-"I'm sorry Jack, I'm so so sorry. My own fucked up mistake.. I'm sorry."
All of a sudden it seemed that Skylar couldn't take it anymore. She rose to her feet faster than a rocket and stormed to the doctor. Holding out her hand, a comp disc.
-"Give it to her when she'll leave...I'll be in Jackleen's room."
And she faded out of existence. Her fast paced feet stretching across the hospital, barging into a girl's room. A young nurse stood there, fussing over the sheets.
-"Get out."
Skylar commanded harshly, but like a real stereo-typical blonde the nurse replied foolishly.
-"But ma'am..."
-"Just get the fuck out, I wanna spend some quality time with my daughter."
The nurse back stepped outta the room, terrified of the demonic aura surrounding
Skylar and her plan. The doors slammed, locked.
*****************
A cruel hunch caught Jennifer Fry's mind. With a second thought in her pocket she decided to go after the upset Skylar.
*There's no telling what she'll do*
****************
A gun arriving from her vest. Skylar Menski was always ready for anything. A last look at her daughter's eyes as she whispered.
-"I love you."
The machine supporting the girl's lunges no longer doing so. The child's life slowly flying away as the heart machine started to peep incessantly. The gun to the right of her eye.
Eyes closed.
-"I'm sorry Jack."
A gunshot ran off, stopping time. In a flash Jack opened her eyes then fell back into the depths of sleep. Blackness covered the sheets of a daughter's bed. A gun lay limply in a dead woman's hand. Yes, the Menski's were hard to kill...except by their own hands.
Fry arrived too late, the gothic scenery slamming her down mentally. In
the doorway stood Jennifer Fry, holding a comp disc.
******************************
Skylar....I just saw Skylar...didn't I?
Riddick...why did you do it?
All this pain...why am I all alone? Why am I always alone? Why did you hurt me? Riddick?
My face burns? Why does my face burn?
Did I see Skylar, am I dead.
Fry....Carolyn Fry. Didn't she call me sweetheart? Those creatures, that darkness.
Why am I all alone? Alone in the dark? Riddick, you promised! You promised!
I left you.... you're angry. Sorry Riddick, I was afraid. All those things, all those things Skylar told me about you and about her little girl. Then I saw you, finishing my father off. What do you expect Riddick? What could I have done?
I'm not like you, or Skylar.
I'm just Jack....
But....it's so dark
...I'm not alone.
Why do I think I'm not alone?
Coz I'm not alone....there's someone else here..in the dark. Such a small
light. Such a small light. Light.
****************
Five months later.............
Jack sat on the bed, the doc handing her something. Saying it arrived in the mail. The doc, who's name she still didn't know, had handed it to her just before she was getting ready to sign out. Jack knew it to be a lie but didn't bother to find why this woman, who looked creepily much like Carolyn Fry, would lie to her.
As soon as the healed up Jack was left alone in the room she stuck the comp disc into the near by vid phone.
A familiar voice hummed in the air.
-"Hi girlie..."
Skylar's happy face.
-"Guess what, if you're seeing this I am dead and Riddick nearly killed you."
A pang of pain seeping through Jack's system.
-"I'm sorry about the bluntness, but oh well, I woulda died anyway.. but I'm glad that you're alive, and I'm sorry, I'm really sorry that..."
A heavy sigh and a change of atmosphere. Something insane became human.
-"I'm sorry...I went out on a mission to avenge my family but my ignorance ended up costing me my family."
A long silence as Skylar seemingly picked up her psycho mood.
-"Well, girlie, that's not the issue on this dead comp disc. The issue is your future. I'm not gonna give you a fucking fare well speech, it just ain't my style. I have some friends on a ship called CQ ZION. They do legal piracy, yah know, rescue missions and shit like that. Anyway, I know 'em pretty well, and they always need a pilot, I hear they'd be eager to train ´em as well. It's easy to find, I have their regular travel route attached to this message. Just mention whom you've been fucking with for the last year or so, they'll take you in."
Another silence in the freaked out record. Skylar rubbed her face in a familiar way. IN the back ground one of those oldies echoed. Wasn't Skunk Anansie. Poe...trigger happy jack.
-"Can't talk to a psycho like a normal human being, hey, Jack! So,
I'm almost finished. Just remember who you are hun, don't go off the wall
like me, I tell yah, I think sanity is more fun."
…
"Yeah, that's one of the things I need to tell you. Those doctor dudes
might wanna put you in an institution for some time. I'm kinda ashamed to
say it but, you really oughta do it cuz they actually might help.."
That smile, that beautiful smile. Kinda just like hers...pretty. Something she shared with Skylar. It filled her with happiness and sorrow at the same time.
*I miss you Skylar*
-"So, it's good-bye Jack, girlie...."
Skylar turned around, to turn the recorder off, then spun around quickly.
-"Oh, don't let ANYONE call you Jackie!"
The record over.....
Jack squatted down to the floor, picking up her bag. Putting the record down into it and then swinging it onto her shoulder. A single signature then released her from the hospital for good.
Her and that light of hers.
As she walked out she ran her hand over her swollen belly. Turned out Riddick had left her a birthday present.
THE END
author's notes: thi hi hi...so what do you guys think? Twenty something chapters of crap and this is the way I end it. I'd love some feedback on the story as a whole...if anyone's ever managed to finish it