Title: Even the Day Can't Destroy Every Shadow
Author: Harley
Fandom: Priest
Rating: T (for this chapter)
Length: 2,306
Warning(s): Just some nightmares, nothing TOO scary though, just stuff really
Pairing/Characters: No pairing for this chapter, characters are just Priest and Blackhat, and Lucy and Hicks in passing. Well, ok then you could say hints at Lucy/Hicks cause I mention them getting married, but they aren't the MAIN pairing or nothing.
Disclaimer: Don't own the movie, not yet at least *evil laugh* Jk, jk. I don't own the movie, gonna buy it so fast when it comes out though! Oh, I also don't own the quote (obviously) I put who said it too, like a good girl. I wanted to come up with a quote myself, but my brain didn't want to XD
A/N: Alright, part one of two of, sorry if the title sounds kind of lame, I wanted something that works for the first chapter being Day and the second being Night. Anyway, aside from that... My first story that actually is a two parter without being prompted too hard for! D.A.V.I.D said she wanted a story where Priest lives with Lucy and Hicks and has nightmares of something lurking in the dark, and at the end... you find out what it really is. So, that's what I did. I gave it to her and she said "well, that can't be the end, what happens next? and add sex." SO! I started on a second chapter and it will be up whenever I finish. If you came into this because you follow our other stories then thank you so much for risking a tiptoe away from our usual Riddick stories to read this, hope EVERYONE likes it, I don't think it spoils the movie too much, but it would help if you have seen the movie! Alright, enjoy, have fun, and drop a comment if you see something wrong!
EDIT: I did some edits into the chapter while working on the second chapter. Nothing too big I don't think, just some small things. Thanks for being so patient with us. The second chapter will be up in a sec.
"Your nightmares follow you like a shadow, forever."
— Aleksandar Hemon (The Lazarus Project)
After the incident, he moved a lot, wandering here and there, finding hives trying to rebuild themselves. He'd slaughter them, take them apart with the Priestess by his side. He still prayed over their soulless bodies as usual, he still whispered passages of the holy bible to himself at sunrise when he lay in the darkness of his room trying to sleep. Despite the constant moving, he still had to return somewhere for rest. The cities would not take him back, but that was fine. It had always been dark in the cities and he had lost track of when it was really day or night after a while. Augustine was his home now, with Lucy and Hicks. They played house, and did a good job at such, marrying soon after the fear and adrenaline washed away with the flames. Lucy was happy, and that's all he could ask for. But, for some reason, it did not alleviate the pain at the betrayal of his fallen brother.
Or stop the nightmares.
-v-v-
The first one was natural, he'd had them after trying to come back to society after the war. So when he closed his eyes the night after the train, he knew to expect some. But it didn't lessen. It didn't slowly get better. It didn't stop. He'd wake with the image of flickering flames burned into his eyelids, and the sounds of creatures scuttling beyond a ring of it. It was several months later when he finally, finally realized it was more than just nightmares. He knew there was something that was causing them, somehow he knew in the back of his head and it was coming out through his dreams. It was five months of nightmares later, that he closed his eyes and realized that he knew.
Flames were everywhere, and he could taste blood in his mouth. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew it wasn't his. He tried to spit it out but it only slid across his tongue and burned his lips. It didn't help that somehow his mouth felt dry, despite the sticky liquid in his mouth. He ignored it, as he had trained himself to do on the battle field. Instead he surveyed the rest of his body. His clothes were tattered and his feet hurt from the rough terrain he'd walked after so long of smooth city roads. His hands were stained red, and it felt like it was being scorched. Wiping it on his pants, trying to get rid of it, his skin peeled from his hands and now he was bleeding. He tried to wrap his hands but the sounds of vampires circling around the flames told him it wouldn't matter. Standing up straight he tried to clench his fists only to grimace at the feel of bloody muscles moving against each other without hindrance of skin.
It was the sudden and quick silence that had him feeling… scared. He wasn't used to fear, only when he first became a priest had he felt fear. Now, this was a different feeling curling in his stomach. It was the feeling that beyond the circle of flames the vampires had gone, but something else was there, something more menacing. Something infinitely patient, and incredibly strong. Something that knew his every thought, and his next move. That knew when he would turn to try and escape the flames, and how to kick him just right to knock him back to the center and push the air from his lungs. He could hear the footsteps of something approaching but despite the light of the flames he could not see what it was. It was standing next to him, over him.
Even then, he couldn't see what it was. He stared at where it should be, and he could feel it sneer as something pushed against his chest, stopping it from heaving in the air it needed. He gasped, eyes widening trying to grab a hold of whatever it was, but it was like a shadow with no form or mass. He closed his eyes tightly, trying to ignore the pain of his chest slowly compressing down on itself.
He woke up gasping for the air deprived from him in the dream, unable to move from his spot on the bed. He lay there, in a cold sweat, shivering and blinking into the dark. The only light a sliver under the door. He held his breath and listened. Lucy was setting the table for dinner, Hicks was talking about something that had happened on his patrol today. The soft laugh Lucy gave allowed him to let out a sigh of relief. He sat up rubbing at his face. Something fell with a clatter to the floor and he stiffened. It lay at his feet, having slid from his chest. With shaking hands he reached for it in the dark. Cold sharp metal met his finger tips and he pulled them back when one was cut open. Slower this time, he reached and picked up whatever it was. In the impossibly dim light he made out the shape of a cross. But this wasn't any cross. He remembers the dagger, the one he used to stop his once brother from hurting his daughter any further. The one that imbedded into the other man's neck. The one that he had ripped from his throat and loomed over the priest as he prepared to kill him. The one that had been lost in the explosion of the train along with the man who had caused so much pain and anger and hatred.
There was a long stretch of silence in the other room and then Lucy was knocking at his door. He put the cross aside as he stood, lifting his finger tips to his mouth. The bloodied finger throbbed and he stopped. The warm liquid sluggishly slid down his finger, making a trail down the palm of his hand. The smell of blood filled his mind, and in the dark he saw remnants of his nightmare. There was another, slightly louder knock. He dropped his hand, quickly wrapping the small wound in a bit of cloth before joining the two for grace and the small meal Lucy had prepared.
It was then that he knew, he was being followed by something. And he wasn't sure he was ready to admit that it could only be one thing. One person.
-v-v-
It had to be fate, that Hicks would learn about the dreams. He'd been home when the gasp of pain came from the darkened room and he had burst through the door to see what it could have been. They only talked about it that one time, but Hicks still gave him a glass of something strong after he woke up from such dreams. Hicks wouldn't tell him what it was, and he wouldn't ask. It was sin by ignorance, but he already felt like his sleeping in the day and walking at night was some sort of betrayal to his god. So it was understood, without being spoken, that it didn't matter anymore.
And it was never spoken of that Lucy wasn't to be told. They both silently agreed on it. She didn't need the fear of knowing that the man that had haunted her own dreams, but not for nearly as long, was still out there. It was almost a year later, with nightmares still very present in his life, that he got his answer.
-v-v-
In the dreams, they slowly spiraled closer together, felt more painful and lasted forever. The creature would get closer, and soon he could see a faint outline of it. It never spoke, but it sneered with sharp teeth, and laughed a long almost sorrowful cackle. It loomed over him, and caused pain, but only once did it leave something. The scene varied, it could be black nothing beyond the flames, or the wastelands, or even once a rickety train car, and what happened always changed as well. He never had the same dream twice, but always the fear, and the knowing that something was out there in the dark beyond the flames and for some reason he just couldn't see it.
This one he was walking through the narrow passages of Sola Mira, reminiscent of dreams he had before. This was different. It was empty, silent, making his way up to where he and the priestess had encountered the hive guardian he stopped in the center flames erupted around him and shadows flickered through the room. Something warm landed on his cheek, dripping down and over his lips. He didn't need to taste it to know what it was by the texture. He glanced up, to find his old friends and his current family hanging by their feet, torn apart. He gasped looking up at them. Another drop hit right below his eye, mixing with a tear that beg swelling over at seeing Lucy, his Lucy. He looked away quickly. He couldn't watch the blood drain from her, and drip to his face any further.
He shuddered when he was suddenly showered by their blood, falling quickly and drenching him. He tried to clench his eyes shut but it was too late. He wiped, almost clawed, at his face as the rain of blood stopped, he tried to get it out of his eyes, away from his mouth, tried to breathe properly. He looked up and there were eyes, right in front of him. The creature was right there, staring at him with only enough room to allow them to breathe without touching. In his dreams there were never eyes, nothing distinguishable, it was only a guess as to what-to who- the creature was.
But now, those hauntingly beautiful eyes were staring at me. A hand ran through the gore covering my face and down to my throat. Nails gently probed at where the vein was, feeling the blood slide through tubes, and my heart stutter in its place. The touch turns almost gentle running down the muscle of my throat across my clavicle, over the bone and moving cloth out of the way. He presses his palm to my chest to be closer to my beating heart, and the eyes burn into my head and through my soul and out the other side.
But he moves slowly as he tilts closer and I suddenly can't look. Closing my eyes tight I feel it wash away and I open them quickly knowing that I am waking from my dream. I was right… and I was wrong. In the dark of my room I see his eyes staring down at me. The hand over my chest having slid up under the hem of my shirt. It isn't pressing down, or even ripping my heart from me like I know he can. It's just sitting there, and I don't know if I should be scared, or worried, or mesmerized by the surprising warmth filling my chest from where his hand rests, and the oddity of beauty that glow in the eyes that really shouldn't with no light.
My wits come back to me and I hold my breath as quickly as I realize it. Listening beyond the thundering sound of my heart to the other room. Lucy is there, I can hear her breath and the sway of her dress as she hums over the stove. I hear the low rumble and the beat of two hearts as Hicks asks her if she has gone to the doctor yet about the baby. My senses relax as my worry for my family dims. They are alive, they are safe. That's all that matters. I turn my whole attention back to him. And he stares down at me with a hint of amusement knowing that I was content with being killed here and now if only Lucy and Hicks are alright… and the baby.
The hand on my chest curls fingertips pressing gently, not harsh, against the skin and I feel like I'm being burned. I don't flinch from the nails leaving crescents in my chest, and he knows I won't make a sound if he were to dig in and shift my ribs to get to the fluttering organ beneath. I'm vaguely aware of a sound at the door but I keep my focus on him, telling him with the eyes I know he can see in the dark room, that I will not let him hurt my family. I can sense him smile
"Father?" I'm drawn from our concentration as Lucy knocks again. "Father, dinner is ready, will you join us for grace?" The hand lets up on the pressure, slowly drawing down my torso, over my abdomen, he lingers for a moment, as if not ready to draw our warmth away from each other. But the hand lifts away and I can still see his eyes staring at me as I stand and move to the door. I open it for my daughter glancing back out of the corner of my eye, but there is nothing there. I almost sigh, and I'm not sure if it's in relief or… disappointment. It had to have been a dream, the creature in the dark having been a half awake dream. I smile to my daughter, her worried look smoothed into a smile when I assure her I am fine. Moving into the dining room, I turn as I close the door.
And in the dark, a glow of eyes and a sharp toothed smile flash at me from the creature that stalks my nightmares.