"Monster? Stop hiding, tucked away under my pink, pink bed. I can see you oh-so clearly, plain as day. The rain has gone away so come out and play."
Instead of the last face I remember seeing of my very first enemy (besides my father, but who doesn't hate their parents?) Peter, who had been busy tricking me blind and loving every second of it, their was a young girl around the cheerleaders age staring at me with wide doe like eyes and calling me 'monster'.
(the one name that I accepted long ago when all the goodness left and all that was left was pure evil)
Each one of them, the heroes that always need to have a fight every other day, all of ticking clocks deep in their little brains that I could hear with those super-ears of mine (and the repressed clock-maker in the back of my head, waiting), sometimes telling how godly and pure they are, ew, other times just showing that they aren't batshit crazy.
But this strange creature before me, who at the moment was dancing circles around me who had been dragged, fingernails and all, out from under the bed, didn't have any such time or maybe it was so all over the place I couldn't even hear it.
(her eyes still wide, it looks like there stuck that way, and shining were looking at me like Elle once did, like a plaything just for her)
"I won't tell no-one your here, monster (with palms colored with pretty, pretty red), but only if you promise not to go and gut them brain first, Mr. Sylar, deal?"
Her little fingers found mine faster then I could rip them away, knowing full well that with one touch I would trust in her words and see all the pain that was swirling around in that jumbled up head of hers, filled with all sorts or terrors and now some of them were ones I had committed.
"Deal, River."
-
I had never truly known crazy (not in myself, even if I've had my moments, or even Elle) until I saw her, unlike all of the rest of us who had only small amounts of it she experienced the full dose all of the time so much that at some points it even sickened herself but now she had three ways to push it down but never truly cure it.
Simon, the first thing that ever took it all away (the name she says even more often then 'monster'), dancing her little heart out until her toes bleed, and but of course her newest one, her favorite 'monster' that lives underneath her bed, me.
They keep a close eye on her, Simon most of all being the brother that I can't believe I would have been, watching her small hands for guns (which she called 'flowers' and 'twigs') and knifes which she used to 'cut away at the mean men' so she says.
So it's a miracle that I'm still unfound and that is a good thing not for me but for all of the people I could easily kill (with my little pinky finger) and the girl I don't want to.
"Where have you been?"
Not for the first time or the last time the old me (the one that used to come out only to collect all of those shining powers) came snarling out ready to bite at the slander hand that feeds me like her pet monster, but unlike the rest of them she had already seen all the blood that not only stains my hands but the rest of me and the only thing she did was show me her own.
"Flying, up and high, Captain let me look at all the pretty little stars and avoid those mean meteors, monster-dear, are you lonely without me?"
Before I could give my answer ('no!' which meant 'yes! yes! yes!') her little feet went into a now familiar dance that meant food, the scarps of meat, small potatoes, and apples that she hid in the folds of her dress ready to share all of her treasures with me.
(the first time she did this, which had been a feast until she learned better then to take mountains of foods away from the others, she had to say 'I only ever share anything with either Mal or Simon, so be happy, be very happy!')
"Thank you, River."
It was becoming a habit of mine to say all of these things 'thank you, please, I love you' when back in the real world (the one that is filled to the brim with blood) before I had become the monster I am today those words were said on a daily basis, 'thank you, mother, I love you, mother' but since then it's been forever since I had anyone to say those words to until now.
"No, no, thank you mad man, thank you for making my life less boring (even if running, running, and running some more is quite fun), oh, and finish you dinner young man or no dessert for you."
-
From the very start of this the moment I started to enjoy this crazy world (living in a far away future which one day I will live to see) all because of only one crazy girl that doesn't shudder at my touch (crawls in my lap like a child waiting for a bedtime story, which I always tell her) or my words that sting every once and a while, I knew that something would happen to ruin it all.
I was more then right but was wrong on how it all would be pulled away from me (not without a fight but of course), I thought all of her watchers would find her stowaway and sent him out the air-lock which I would comply to without a fight, all because of a promise.
But I was so very wrong, we were lucky to stay hidden from all of her other crew mates but we were not expecting my past to come and bite me in the ass, and the one doing the biting was Hiro.
(yes the little son of a bitch that thought it would be fun to one day run me though with a sword, oh his last day is coming and coming soon)
It didn't end in the big fight I thought it would, it ended right in the middle of one of her dances when the time traveler caught up with me and thought it was about time I made it back to my present day and all of this happened right in front of her own, even wider, eyes.
But of course she knew it was coming before my eyes were filled with Peter's face rather then hers, but did nothing to stop what was already set in motion.
"Goodbye, monster, see you very soon."
-
"River, why are you crying?"
Like always (until the last three weeks, when he came) he has been the one to wipe away the tears, straighten out my mind for me when I couldn't even begin to, and protect me from all the evil in the world, the evil that at this moment is searching for me and me alone.
But this time the only one who could fix me up this time was the one that was snatched right in front of me, no goodbye and no other types of monster sounds just nothing.
"Because Simon, because I want my monster back, the one that lives under my bed, smells of copper and flames, and loves me. That's all."
-
"River, come here and meet our new crew mate. River this is Gabriel Gray, Gabriel this is River Tam our co.-pilot, physic and crazy person. River, Gabriel is going to help Kaylee fix up this old girl, be nice."
She was the same as I remembered her (it's been after decades and decades since I last laid my eyes on her), crazy as can be in both her rambling words and the smile that is aimed at me and those wide eyes that are doing nothing but staring at a familiar face that to her only left one week ago.
"Miss your monster, River?"
"Yes, yes, be very flattered I missed you more then I missed Simon when he went off to be a con-man, not of his own choosing but of course. Be happy like I'm happy my monster is again under my bed."
"Well, this time let's hope I get my own room."