That night Riddick left the ship and went to Claudia's house, using the skylight in her closet, he entered her room at the top floor of the house and waited for her.
"Night mommy! Night daddy!" he heard downstairs.
"Goodnight Claudia, do you want me to tuck you in and read you a story?" her father asked.
"No thank you, my friend will do that." He heard her father's chuckle and then heard as she ran up the stairs. Her door opened and she stuck her head in. "You came!" she whispered and rushed into the room, closing the door behind her and running over to him, throwing her arms around him. He returned her hug and she lay on her bed, Riddick sitting in the chair next to it.
"Okay Claudia, get the book." He said and she leapt off the bed, going over to her small bookcase and getting a book. She handed it to him and lay on the bed under the white covers while Riddick opened up the book to where he had stuck the marker, clearing his throat. "Chapter six: Eeyore Has a Birthday and Gets Two Presents. Eeyore, the old gray Donkey, stood by the side of the stream, and looked at himself in the water. 'Pathetic,' he said. 'That's what it is. Pathetic.' He turned and walked slowly down the stream for twenty yards, splashed across it, and walked slowly to the other side. Then he looked at himself in the water again. 'As I thought,' he said. 'No better from this side. But nobody minds. Nobody cares. Pathetic, that's what it is.'" Riddick read her the chapter and as always she was fighting to stay awake by the end of it. She found his voice calming and soothing; it always lulled her to sleep.
"One more chapter. Please?" she asked and he smiled at her, putting the marker in the book and closing it.
"You won't stay awake for one more chapter."
"Yes I will, I'm awake I promise." Standing, he put the book back in the bookcase and went to the side of her bed. Bending down he kissed her forehead gently and smoothed back her curls.
"Get some sleep Claudia, I'll read you another chapter tomorrow night."
"You promise?"
"I promise."
"What's your name?"
"I'll tell you that when you're older." He said standing.
"My mommy says you're made-up. Are you made-up?" she asked.
"Last time I checked I wasn't." Riddick said and proceeded to pat himself down as if checking to see if he was real, making her laugh. "Go to sleep Claudia." He said and bent down again, kissing her forehead once more before her blue eyes closed and she fell to sleep.
Claudia's mother listened with her ear to the door as a deep voice talked to her daughter. She had been about to check on her when she heard this voice. Opening the door slowly she saw her daughter asleep on her bed and the closet door closing quietly. She ran to it and caught the glimpse of a black boot leaving through the skylight, running to it she stuck her head out and saw a large man in black walking down the street, the long black duster coat he was wearing fanning slightly in the breeze. As if sensing her watching him, he stopped and looked over his shoulder, letting her catch a sliver of silver glowing from the light of the full moon. The small smile that had been on the man's face fell and he looked forward again, disappearing into the shadows.
"Claudia." She whispered and went back to her daughter's side, shaking her shoulder. "Claudia, Claudia wake up." Her daughter opened her eyes groggily and looked at her.
"Mommy? What's wrong?"
"Nothing sweetheart, I was just checking on you." She'll let her daughter sleep and question her in the morning. "Go back to sleep." She then kissed her forehead and caught the barest scent of male; it was spicy and heady, like cedar. She left the room and went back downstairs, telling her husband the recent information.
The next day it was raining so Claudia couldn't go outside and play.
"Claudia?" she turned around and looked at her mother.
"Yes?"
"Your friend. What's his name?"
"He didn't tell me, he said he would when I'm older."
"Is they're anything about your friend that you like the most?" she asked and Claudia thought for a while.
"His eyes. They're pretty."
"What color are they? Blue, green, brown?"
"No, they're shiny."
"Like mommy's silver candlestick?"
"Yes."
"How did you meet him?"
"I was playing outside, you and daddy were gone and babysitter was on the phone. I saw him standing next to the tree by the fence and I went over to him."
"What did he say to you?"
"He said I was cute and that he knew my name."
"And then what happened?"
"I asked him if he would like to play and he said yes."
"What did you two play?"
"Hide and seek, he was it and he found me, he always finds me." Claudia said smiling joyfully.
"How long have you known him?"
"A very long time, almost two weeks."
"Has he ever hurt you?"
"How?"
"Has he ever touched you somewhere that made you feel uncomfortable?" her mother asked and she shook her head.
"No. He tickles me and makes me laugh."
"Where does he tickle you?"
"Where you and daddy do. Right here." She said and touched her ribs. "He cares about me mommy."
"How do you know that sweetheart?"
"He told me and one time the neighbors dog got loose and was in the yard. It was growling and barking and my friend made it a good doggy."
"How'd he do that?"
"He got real close to it and took off these weird things he has over his eyes, I was watching from the back porch because he told me to go there, he and the doggy looked at each other and then the doggy stopped growling and licked him. The doggy left and he said I could come back out." Claudia said.
"Sweetheart, your friend…he's not a nice man. He's a very bad man. I saw him last night sweetheart."
"Before or after he told read me a bedtime story?"
"He's been reading you bedtime stories?"
"Yup."
"What kind of bedtime stories?"
"Chapters from The World of Pooh. I try to stay awake so he can read me another one but his voice makes me sleepy. When did you see him?"
"Before I woke you up. Sweetheart, your friend's name is Richard B. Riddick. He hurts people Claudia."
"But he doesn't hurt me mommy."
"I know honey, but he hurts other people. Hurts them real bad."
"I don't care, he's my friend." Claudia said and huffed.
"Claudia the next time he comes to you, you have to yell real loud okay?"
"No! You just want to take him away, you and daddy always take everything away from me, that's why he came, because you guys don't love me." Claudia said and burst into tears, running past her mother and up the stairs, her room door slamming closed.
Riddick lay in his room, listening to the rain hitting the hull if the ship. He could hear Jack bouncing around her room yelling at the top of her lungs in German…teenagers and their music. Jack wanted to meet Claudia, demanded that she meet her last night after he got home. But she couldn't meet her, she wouldn't understand why Big Evil himself would want to look after and play with a five-year-old.
He knew he shouldn't have gotten attached, but after he saved her from that pedophile that was going to kidnap her off the playground while the babysitter talked incessantly on her cell phone, he couldn't just abandon her. So he started to watch over her, but the smart kid saw him and approached him. He put up with her childish banter; he thought it was cute as hell.
Then he started noticing the bruises on her arms; true, little kids get their share of bumps and scrapes. But finger shaped bruises? And then he saw a red mark peeking up from behind her collar and he managed to get a good look at it when he had been tickling her. A handprint, still red and angry on her back, as if someone had hit her. When he had asked her about it she had told him that her father had gotten angry that one of her toys was on the floor in the living room.
In that moment he wanted to kill her father for hitting her for something as little as a single toy on the floor, he wanted to kill him just like he had killed the pedophile in the park. Slide the knife in right at the fourth lumbar and watch as he bled to death on the floor from the severed aorta. But he couldn't kill her father, he never had parents and he wanted her to have both of hers.So Riddick started leaving little notes in the fathers car, on his pillow. Notes saying that he knew what he was doing, threats to call child services, to take Claudia away to protect her. The notes were anonymous of course. The bruises and the marks stopped appearing and so did the letters. But he had to admit, he did enjoy seeing that man squirm when he found one of them.
And then the mother saw him; he was too far away for a positive recognition. But how many tall, large, bald guys with shine jobs are there in the universe? She'll assume that it was he, and warn Claudia, some people are just so predictable, and knowing Claudia she'll refuse to hand him over, because he's her friend.
He cared about that kid so much; she was just so innocent and adorable with those ringlets and the bright eyes. But he knew that he couldn't stick around forever, he'd have to leave eventually and it would hurt her but he would say goodbye first. But if he gets sighted one more time, or if something happens to Claudia or Jack. Then the Last Resort Plan would go into effect, he really did not want to go through with that, but he knew that it was the only way to protect the ones he cares about.
He hoped it wouldn't come to that.