Author's Notes: This was written for a LiveJournal Community. It's one of the first serious attempts I've made at writing in this 'verse, so please be gentle in the critiquing.
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"If I owned this place and Hell? I'd rent this place out
and live in Hell." -- Toombs, Chronicles of
Riddick
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Such was the reputation of Crematoria. For a Triple-Max joint, it was one of the more diabolical ones. It was a fucking terrifying place, sometimes, especially for a newcomer who didn't know the ropes. For a young girl who had lived through more than her share of hell and had survived, it was just a rest stop on the journey.
Both guards and prisoners had a healthy respect for their home, if not for each other. The temperature differential, the thermal front, the buffer zone and the fate of anyone foolish enough to be caught on the surface are rumours substantiated by the guarded talk of the staff, and the fact that no one has ever returned after being caught aboveground.
Every 52 hours, the convicts are treated to nature's only confirmation that life outside is a joke, as the howling winds of the thermal front reverberate down though the bowels of the half-frozen, half-molten orb that hangs in the Igneon System. The super-heated air is the death-knell to anything on the surface unfortunate enough to feel it, for after only a few more moments, the deadliest sunrise one could ever bear witness to turns everything in its path to slag.
Every 52 hours the hellhounds were loosed and the cowed citizens of Crematoria were treated to a swap of air before being slowly poisoned with sulfur gasses once more. It was the hallmark of a new day on the God-forsaken planet, the reverberations taking the place of an alarm clock.
Today was a new day indeed, for the repercussions that would follow the new arrival would truly shake the foundations of the penal system.
Kyra watched from the shadows, the length of chain waiting by her side, as the one man she loathed, yet loved unconditionally, descended into her life once more. The question was, would this man rock the universe and become her saviour once more, or would he cut and run like he always did?
Kyra didn't know, but she would make sure she stayed alive long enough to find out.
