1 Section 6: Sleep
Elise stood with her ear to the door, listening to the small moans of Manny as he wavered dangerously with fear. Riddick stepped from the wall and up close to Manny until he was close enough to whisper in Manny's ear. He didn't say anything, he just immobilized Manny with fear and the feeling of being inferior. Finally he spoke. "Where is my knife?" His voice was calm, controlled. He knew she would be listening, and he didn't want to make a big scene.
"I…I…I must of left it in her room…I d…didn't have the opportunity to grab it." He was so nervous his voice quavered as he spoke.
"Did I really let you borrow this Manny? Or did it appear to just be missing?"
Manny's natural hotheaded personality was starting to surface. He felt his actions were well justified. "That little bitch nearly broke my wrist, I had to do something Ri…Brock." He'd stopped himself before he said Riddicks real name.
"Shhh…come with me Manny." Brock led him in the direction of the engine room.
Elise threw open her closet door to find everything perfectly placed and hung. Where there were none before, there were extra blankets on the shelf. She went over to her drawers and opened each, one at a time. All of her clothes were already separated. She knew that Brock had already been in her room to retrieve her bag. The thought that it might have been Brock who had organized everything was too much to bear for the moment, so she took out some nightclothes and placed them on the counter. She proceeded into the bathroom to take a shower. The day had been her worst ever. It would be at least 3 weeks before the next stop, and that meant 3 weeks of working in close proximity to those two. Even the burning hot water couldn't ease the tension in her body.
When she crawled into bed she expected to be up half the night thinking over the day, but she went to sleep almost immediately. Her last thoughts were about Brocks eyes, that they were the key.
That night she dreamt about a traumatizing event that had happened years before, when she was 10. In her dream she was walking down a hallway much like the one to the engine room. She had her bag with her books for classes in it. The whole ship was experiencing major engine malfunctions, and so she wanted to go see her friend in sector B-17. He was a whole year older and was bound to protect her. In her naïve youth she had forgotten that all locks in the ship would be disengaged if the power went off. Our young Elise didn't know it, but at that moment all the authorities on the ship were trying to warn the children to stay in their rooms.
A few of the prisoners aboard the ship had slipped past the guards and were nowhere to be found in the ship. The thing was huge, and with the cameras and lights malfunctioning it was nearly impossible to know where they were.
As Elise slept she began tossing and turning, in her dream the moment when they reach out and grab her is about to come up.
Young Elise is walking past the open door to a storage closet, but she trips over a broom that has been stuck out by one of the 3 prisoners. She's grabbed up by her book bag and then a large warm hand is placed roughly over mouth. She has been trained for the last 2 years on how to deal with this if it ever occurred. The man bear hugs her so that one arm is wrapped around her arms and chest. The other hand is across her mouth. She doesn't struggle, like the teachers taught her not too. Instead, she pretends to listen to on of the other men telling her not to scream. Meanwhile her hand is reaching behind her to the back pocket of her pants where she has a small pocketknife.
"Now we're not going to scream are we?" He had a funny accent, like he came from a far different galaxy.
She shook her head furiously. The man holding her took his hand away and set her on her own two feet. He had a heavy hand on her shoulder though. He was squeezing so hard his knuckles were white and that she grimaced a little from the pain. Elise remembers looking down at his hand and seeing that the nails were all bitten away. She knew he was a nervous man, which made him a dangerous man. The one that hadn't done or said anything yet stepped out of the closet. He had a knife of his own that he flicked open and placed delicately to the ginger skin of her neck. "Don't move." His voice was heavily slurred, but he spoke so slowly that it was difficult not to understand what he was saying. His hand shook slightly, Elise realized he must have just taken his meds before the escape.
He took a shaky step back which brought the knife far enough back so that Elise could knock it away and stab her own knife into his chest. The man behind her was startled into letting her slip away. She pulled the knife out of escape convicts #3's chest and crouched down low to stab at the man that had held her shoulder. She took out his knee and then pounced up to get the other. He was somewhat quicker to react than the others and had managed to get a hold of the broom while she dealt with the others. The man whose knee was slashed was on the ground holding his leg. He reached out for her leg but she kicked out with that leg at the same instant. One of the bones in his jaw broke where she got him.
The one with the broom decided he ought to run, and was off before she could do anything about it. At the age of ten she had took down 2 men who were both twice as large as her, and scared of another. Since this was a flashback dream, it was an exact replica of what had really happened, up until the end. In her dream young Elise turns around to run the other way, but knocks into Brock.
Elise sits up in bed with a scream rising in her throat. It took her nearly 10 minutes to become calm again, but she managed and lay back down. Sleep didn't come for many hours after that. This same dream will revisit her again and again for the next 2 weeks.
Elise stood with her ear to the door, listening to the small moans of Manny as he wavered dangerously with fear. Riddick stepped from the wall and up close to Manny until he was close enough to whisper in Manny's ear. He didn't say anything, he just immobilized Manny with fear and the feeling of being inferior. Finally he spoke. "Where is my knife?" His voice was calm, controlled. He knew she would be listening, and he didn't want to make a big scene.
"I…I…I must of left it in her room…I d…didn't have the opportunity to grab it." He was so nervous his voice quavered as he spoke.
"Did I really let you borrow this Manny? Or did it appear to just be missing?"
Manny's natural hotheaded personality was starting to surface. He felt his actions were well justified. "That little bitch nearly broke my wrist, I had to do something Ri…Brock." He'd stopped himself before he said Riddicks real name.
"Shhh…come with me Manny." Brock led him in the direction of the engine room.
Elise threw open her closet door to find everything perfectly placed and hung. Where there were none before, there were extra blankets on the shelf. She went over to her drawers and opened each, one at a time. All of her clothes were already separated. She knew that Brock had already been in her room to retrieve her bag. The thought that it might have been Brock who had organized everything was too much to bear for the moment, so she took out some nightclothes and placed them on the counter. She proceeded into the bathroom to take a shower. The day had been her worst ever. It would be at least 3 weeks before the next stop, and that meant 3 weeks of working in close proximity to those two. Even the burning hot water couldn't ease the tension in her body.
When she crawled into bed she expected to be up half the night thinking over the day, but she went to sleep almost immediately. Her last thoughts were about Brocks eyes, that they were the key.
That night she dreamt about a traumatizing event that had happened years before, when she was 10. In her dream she was walking down a hallway much like the one to the engine room. She had her bag with her books for classes in it. The whole ship was experiencing major engine malfunctions, and so she wanted to go see her friend in sector B-17. He was a whole year older and was bound to protect her. In her naïve youth she had forgotten that all locks in the ship would be disengaged if the power went off. Our young Elise didn't know it, but at that moment all the authorities on the ship were trying to warn the children to stay in their rooms.
A few of the prisoners aboard the ship had slipped past the guards and were nowhere to be found in the ship. The thing was huge, and with the cameras and lights malfunctioning it was nearly impossible to know where they were.
As Elise slept she began tossing and turning, in her dream the moment when they reach out and grab her is about to come up.
Young Elise is walking past the open door to a storage closet, but she trips over a broom that has been stuck out by one of the 3 prisoners. She's grabbed up by her book bag and then a large warm hand is placed roughly over mouth. She has been trained for the last 2 years on how to deal with this if it ever occurred. The man bear hugs her so that one arm is wrapped around her arms and chest. The other hand is across her mouth. She doesn't struggle, like the teachers taught her not too. Instead, she pretends to listen to on of the other men telling her not to scream. Meanwhile her hand is reaching behind her to the back pocket of her pants where she has a small pocketknife.
"Now we're not going to scream are we?" He had a funny accent, like he came from a far different galaxy.
She shook her head furiously. The man holding her took his hand away and set her on her own two feet. He had a heavy hand on her shoulder though. He was squeezing so hard his knuckles were white and that she grimaced a little from the pain. Elise remembers looking down at his hand and seeing that the nails were all bitten away. She knew he was a nervous man, which made him a dangerous man. The one that hadn't done or said anything yet stepped out of the closet. He had a knife of his own that he flicked open and placed delicately to the ginger skin of her neck. "Don't move." His voice was heavily slurred, but he spoke so slowly that it was difficult not to understand what he was saying. His hand shook slightly, Elise realized he must have just taken his meds before the escape.
He took a shaky step back which brought the knife far enough back so that Elise could knock it away and stab her own knife into his chest. The man behind her was startled into letting her slip away. She pulled the knife out of escape convicts #3's chest and crouched down low to stab at the man that had held her shoulder. She took out his knee and then pounced up to get the other. He was somewhat quicker to react than the others and had managed to get a hold of the broom while she dealt with the others. The man whose knee was slashed was on the ground holding his leg. He reached out for her leg but she kicked out with that leg at the same instant. One of the bones in his jaw broke where she got him.
The one with the broom decided he ought to run, and was off before she could do anything about it. At the age of ten she had took down 2 men who were both twice as large as her, and scared of another. Since this was a flashback dream, it was an exact replica of what had really happened, up until the end. In her dream young Elise turns around to run the other way, but knocks into Brock.
Elise sits up in bed with a scream rising in her throat. It took her nearly 10 minutes to become calm again, but she managed and lay back down. Sleep didn't come for many hours after that. This same dream will revisit her again and again for the next 2 weeks.
