Family

Chapter 1

By Einna Aroura Du'an

Summery – Kid…boyfriend…read and see.

AN: Riddick POV for the most part. Bit of narrator and possibly other characters later. Most of this is because Jack I can do, OC's I can do, but Riddick is takin a bit of practise.

AN 2: I started writing this before writing the OoME. I realize it has similarities to 'Imaginary friend', but the plot is completely different later on. I also started writing this before imaginary friend, and gleaned no inspiration from Imaginary friend at all. BTW, Imaginary friend is an awesome story. If you like Riddick doin the fluffy dad thing, you'll love Imaginary friend. Go read it. NOW!

AN 3: I don't have a clue how to do italics, therefore, an Imarks my italics.

Disclaimer: As per always, if I owned Riddick, I wouldn't be here writing about him.

III

I know

She thinks I don't, but I know.

Sneakin' off every day almost, givin' me patchy stories of people she doesn't know.

We've been here for three months. She's seventeen years old. I suppose, tragic as it is, it's to be expected.

Jack found herself a boy friend.

I don't give two shits, really. Just so long as he keeps his dick in his pants. And so long as she doesn't come screaming in one evening in tears. I don't do all the daddy shit, she knows that, so fuck if I'm doin' the mommy shit to!

I knew straight away, of course. She went out with Joanne one night, and Cube the next. But each night, she came home smellin the same. And not only was it not of herself or Joanne or Cube, it was very, very distinctly male. Musky, salty...definitely male. See, women smell sweeter than men. They smell like some kind of flower or fruit or shit. Stronger women, more sexual ones smell like the type of shit you mix with your alcohol with. Other ones, weaker ones, smell of roses or Jasmine or some of that watery shit you get in bottles.

Jack smells like Dadanian roots. This spicy shit off Catraka five. Add it with vodka, the old stuff, and I swear, I drop would put you out for a month. Like her.

Hope this boy knows what he's gettin himself in for.

Of course, I couldn't just let them get on with it. If Jack can't tell me what's goin on, there's gotta be a reason for it.

I don't really care what she's up to, just so long as...

Oh, fuck it, who am I kiddin? I'm lookin' out for her.

I've spent the last three years keepin' her safe from Mercs, then Necro's, various bounty hunters and shit. Even now, we're not as safe as I'd like. I guess that even though this punk is just that, old habits really do die hard. I can't help but feel I gotta keep her safe, and I know what a dick some boys can be. Fuck, I should know!

So, needless to say, that is the IonlyIreason I am here. Sittin in a fuckin' park, surrounded by fuckin' IkidsIIf I'm honest, I don't mind half as much as I make out I do, it's just that I got a certain reputation to keep up here.

Certain reputation that'll be flyin' out the window soon.

There are five people in the park across the street from me...Jack, her boyfriend, the boyfriends' two sisters, and another kid. Small, four or five, dark hair in little curls. Kinda cute. Sat all on her own on the round-about. I would think her mom was late or somthin, but she was here when Jack and the boy got here, and that was hours ago. I think someone just left her there while they fucked off to do somethin else. I know I'm commitin social suicide by even thinkin it, but it's fucked up when parents do that. There's a reason I never had kids...beside the part about not havin a woman. I never wanted a family cause I knew I couldn't take care of them properly. My life's been too fucked up, so so am I, and I'm too fucked up to love someone...or to find someone who can honestly love me, and a kid? Fuck it. Jack's bad enough. I love her like hell...she's the one person I'd die for, but she knows me. She knows how fucked up life can make people, after what happened to her five years ago. Gettin slaved out is one of the few things I have no experience with. Torture? Sure. I ain't no stranger to that. But at that age. I never killed that young neither. My first kill was at fourteen. Hers was at twelve. I guess that had a large part to play in it.

There is no one else in this universe that can understand why she is the way she is. No one knew her before, during, and after that planet, no one knew her aboard the Kublah Kahn, no one was there for her first kill. No one but me, and Imam. And he's dead. Besides, even he hadn't seen the nightmares, even he hadn't known what had happened...he hadn't had to hear every fuckin' detail from the mouth of a desroyed child. I have.

Maybe that's got something to do with it.

I've been watching out for her for years now, and I still am.

Only now, there's this other kid to. Who the fuck is she?

I don't know. I don't even know the kids name, but I still don't want to just leave her here alone. So I'll stay, at least until Jack leaves. I'll keep an eye on them both for now.

The other thing that worries me is the only other person in the park besides me. Casual dress, unsuspicous, especially for this time of the year, but to me he stands out like a sore fuckin' thumb. I know this man's a killer. most days, I'd respect that, and walk away, but I know who comes here. The neighbourhood Jack and I live in is not one of the nicest ones for obvious reasons, plus the fact that neither me nor her are comfortable in places like that. This is our natural enviroment.

Unfortunatelty though, most other killers are drawn to the same sort of spot.

The other man is watching the park intently, his eyes searching the faces of Jack and her boy, then drifting across the faces of the children. Well, I don't need to hear it to know what this dude's game is. He's probably workin' out which kids are accounted for and which ones ain't. He probably can tell about me, just as I can about him, that at least one person's blood is on my hands, and therefore, I'm ruled out as a parent.

But whose kids?

Which child is safest to take?

The answer's an obvious one, but he won't move while there are witnesses. Until Jack and the punks' family have left, the other kid's safe.

But when they leave, and I follow?

I know what'll happen to her.

Jack stands up.

Why the fuck should I care? What do I owe this kid, her family? Why the hell should I help someone who hates me, or soon will be taught to hate me at least.

The boyfriend calls his sisters over. The man on the bench across from me starts to pay attention.

He's gonna act. Soon.

The man's quite pathetic, really. It's obvious he preys on children...there's barely any muscle on his limbs, and barely any build to his frame. I could take him easily.

But what's the point? Why should I?

Jack's leaving with the boyfriend. The sisters go one way, towards the boyfriends' house, and Jack and him go another. What the fuck do they think they're up to?

I stand up to follow them, but I stop.

They've left the park now, chattin' happily down the road.

But the little girl?

She's sittin' on the swings, kickin her legs lazily. The man's walkin' over to her, offering her a push...

Jack disappears around the corner.

Shit. I hate it when my conscious shows up.

Carolyn's fault, I promise you right this fuckin' second.

Fuck it.

"Hey," I call out as I walk over to the park.

The guy turns towards me, and I can see the colour drain from his face.

"Y-your kid?" he stammers, and I suppress a grin. Yeah, he's shittin himself here.

I don't answer, don't even nod, he just assumes it is and runs. Very fuckin' fast.

"Hey," comes a small voice from the swings. "Why'd you do that? He was nice."

I turn towards the kid, and I don't have a fuckin' clue what to tell her. 'you should be thankful that I just saved you from the nut case who probably would have sold you like a piece of meat' or 'see how nice you think he is when he's slittin' your throat'.

"I know him," I tell her simply. "He's an as- an idiot. You wouldn't like him once you got to know him."

She slides off the slide as I begin to walk away and follows me out of the park in the direction Jack went.

"Are you nice?"

Are you kidding? Surely he folks haven't avoided tellin her just who her neighbour is. Then again, someone left her in a fuckin park, alone. I wouldn't be surprised.

"No," I tell her. "I'm nasty."

"Oh," she replies. She carries on following me though. "So why did you tell him to go away?"

"I didn't," I point out. "He left on his own."

True enough.

I turn the corner Jack turned and quickly double take as I see her heading back towards the direction I'm in. She probably just wanted to get something quickly...come to think of it; didn't one of her friends live on this street? Cara or Carol or -

"Well, I like you."

What the fuck?

I would probably tell her something else, but I'm too busy trying to haul my ass out of the line of sight of the fast approaching teenage.

"What are you doing?" Asks the kid. IWhy oh why did I save this little snot?II ask myself. Jack is gonna kill me if she spots me.

"Playing a game." I tell the kid quickly.

"Yeeeee!" She screams, and I'm tempted to grab her and clap a hand over her mouth. "What kind of game?"

"See them?" I ask, point to Jack and her boyfriend through the hedge I'm hiding behind.

"Mmmhmm," she nods.

"We gotta hide from them," I tell her. "Kinda like hide and seek."

"Cool!" She shouts, and this time, I do press a hand to her mouth.

"Hiding, remember?"

She nods, he eyes gleaming. Within a few seconds, Jack and the walking zit hanging off of her arm are past us, and heading in the direction of his house.

"They didn't see us!" The kid squeals. "They didn't see, they didn't see." Geez, now it has a little dance too.

I start off after Jack again, seriously wishing the kid would just leave me alone. But no such luck...she follows me after Jack.

"Are you walkin me home?" She asks after a few seconds.

"Why?" I ask her, "You live here?"

She stops walking and for some strange, bizarre and utterly fucked up reason, I stop too and turn around.

"I'm not supposed to tell strangers." She tells me.

"Well," I tell her holding out my hand, "my name's Richard."

She beams and grabs my hand...or tries. She has to settle for wrapping her chubby fingers around two of mine.

"I'm Koli," she tells me. "Now that we're not strangers, I live there," she announces, pointing to the house next to the boyfriends.

"Bye, Richard!" She shouts over her shoulder as she skips back to her house.

I really, IreallyIfuckin' hate that name. But then, a guess there'd be hell to pay if she went skipping merrily into the house and told her parents that Riddick had walked her home. Yeah, that'd go down. Like a brick.

There was a serenity spot at the end of the street, perfect for hiding in. It had a pond and ducks and benches...you know, serene shit, but most importantly, it had trees. There was one tree in particular, where you can see the entire street and not be seen at all.

I swing up onto the tree and wait for Jack to leave.