Claudia awoke in a large bed, dark blanket around her loosely. Sitting up she rubbed sleep from her eyes and yawned. She got up from the bed and hopped down to the floor, landing on her bare feet. The metal floor was cold and she squeaked in surprise. Seeing her small slippers, she put them on and left the room. Metal paneling turned into metal grating as she entered a small hallway. She was suddenly picked up from behind and she squeaked again making the person behind her laugh in a low gravely tone.
"Riddick!" she said and was set down on the floor. She turned and looked up at him, smiling. He picked her up again with his arms around her waist and hugged her.
"How'd you sleep sweetheart?"
"Okay. Are we in your home?"
"We sure are." He said as he set her down again. "Would you like me to show you around?"
"Yup!"
"Okay." Riddick said, smiling at her innocent curiosity. "Are you cold?"
"A little."
"Okay, lets get you something to put on so you can get warm." Taking her small hand lightly in his bog one, he led her back to his room and picked her up, sitting her on the edge of his bed making her giggle. He dug through the drawers of his small dresser and pulled out a faded black hooded sweater. Handing it to her, she put it on and hopped down. He laughed as the bottom hem of the sweater fell almost to her feet. The large hood hid most of her face and the sleeves also ended almost to the floor. She looked up at him from inside the hood and smiled. He pushed the hood back and she shook her head back and forth, shaking her disheveled curls loose.
"Thank you!" she said and he picked her up again, throwing her in the air and catching her making her laugh.
"Are you hungry Claudia?" he asked and she nodded. "Let's get you something to eat then." He carried her, balanced on one hip, out of the room and gave her a piggyback ride as he climbed down the ladder to the kitchen area. Jack was sitting at the table, a mug of coffee in her hands, and she looked up at then as they entered. Riddick set Claudia down in a chair and Jack laughed seeing her wearing Riddick's hoodie, her little white slippers peaking out from under the bottom hem. "What would you like Claudia?"
"Do you have Cheerios?"
"Yeah, Jack's addicted to the stuff so I always have a box around."
"I am not addicted to them, they're just really good." Jack said indignantly.
"I think five bowls a day counts as addicted Jack." He said as he got a small bowl down from the cabinet and the box of cereal.
"Yeah whatever Mr. Steak-and-Eggs for breakfast lunch and dinner. A little variety is a good thing you know." she said and Claudia giggled.
"You guys are funny." She said and Jack chuckled.
"Believe me Claudia, Riddick can get pretty silly sometimes. Like the time he painted his nails black, he said it looked cool."
"That was only one time!" Riddick said in his defense as he poured the cereal.
"There was black nail polish everywhere. I'm still waiting on that new bottle you promised me." Jack said and Claudia giggled again. Riddick poured the milk into the bowl and put a teaspoon in it, setting it on the table in from of Claudia.
"Thank you!" she said and ate a spoonful.
"How could you just let him take her Alex!" Stacy McKane, mother of Claudia McKane, yelled at her husband.
"I was half unconscious!" he yelled back. They had been arguing like this for a while now. Ever since Stacey woke up on the couch with a splitting headache and found her husband on the phone with the police, saying that his daughter had been kidnapped.
"You get her back! You get her back right now! I will not have my baby girl in the hands of that monster!"
"Oh please Stacey, you just want her back so I'll punish her and not you. That's why you were so happy when she was born, so she'll have to live with the bruises and scars. How the hell do you sleep at night?"
"Drunk off my ass, that's how. Besides how do you sleep at night Alex? You beat your five-year-old daughter for the littlest things."
"I punish her for being bad."
"Justify it all you want, its still abuse."
"You're just glad it's not happening to you anymore. That's why you won't call child services, you're too scared of what I'll do to you." He said walking closer, backing her into the wall and putting his face close to hers. "That's also why you won't divorce me. You know that the courts will grant me full custody once they find out about your little drinking problem. But me, I'm a stand-up citizen. Not even a parking ticket. They'll grant me full custody and when she turns 13 I'll…" Stacey pushed him away and hit him making his head rock to the side.
"You won't lay a filthy hand on her." Alex laughed and hit Stacey with a closed fist in the stomach.
Claudia was taking an afternoon nap in Riddick bed when Jack confronted him in the kitchen.
"Tell me why." She demanded.
"Why what Jack?"
"Why do you care about this girl so much? Why are you trying so hard to protect her?" he was silent for a long time. Too long. "Fine." Jack turned to leave.
"Back when I was in the system, back when I was your age, 16, in one of the homes I had a foster sister named Marie." Riddick said and she turned back around. "The cutest little girl in all the worlds. Red/gold ringlets, big blue eyes. When I saw Claudia in that park, I saw Marie. She looks exactly like her Jack, down to the last hair on her head."
"Go on."
"The foster parents weren't really parents. You were lucky that you met up with me right after you ran away from your own psycho-fuck family. I wouldn't wish foster care on anyone. Now the foster parents, like I said, aren't really parents, just overpaid babysitters. The mom was halfway decent, least she actually gave half a fuck about the kids, but the dad was…a drinker. Real quick to temper, you know what I'm sayin? He would beat on us in his drunken fits, the mom couldn't do anything about it she got beat too. I was just this skinny kid then, I couldn't protect them, couldn't protect me."
"Couldn't protect her." Jack said and he nodded, looking down at the tabletop.
"Marie was like real sister to me, I loved that kid so much." A ghost of a smile graced his lips. "I remember when she had nightmares, she would sneak into my room and I'd wake up to her crawling into my bed, curling against me. After a while she'd do this every night, whether she had a nightmare or not. But one night she didn't." his mind went back to that night.
"Richard!" her scream woke him and he bolted out of bed, running out of his room and down the hall to hers.
"Marie! Marie!" he called out and she screamed his name again only it was cut short by a scream of pain, which also was ended abruptly. He kicked the door open and found the foster father beating her, blood dripping down the side of her small face, her eyes closed. "Leave her alone!" he roared and tackled him. The foster father hit him and Richard hit him back. He grabbed a wooden bat that belonged to his foster brother that was leaning in the corner.
Gripping it tightly, he hit the guy and kept hitting him until blood coated his chest and face and the grip on the bat was slippery. He looked back at Marie, whose eyes were still closed. Grabbing a bath towel that had been dropped on the floor, he wiped the blood off his body the best he could and crawled over to her.
"Marie?" he asked but she didn't answer him. "Marie?" his voice cracked in a sob. From school he knew where the pulse points were and he pressed his fingers her to neck gently, but felt nothing. "No." he said and crawled closer, gathering her limp body in his arms and rocking back and forth, crying into her hair. "No. No. No. No. No." he sobbed over and over again. "Come back to me Marie." But she was gone.
"That's how the police found me, on the floor of her room. The tears had stopped, but I was still rocking her body back and forth in my arms. I was arrested and charged for the foster dad's murder and her murder as well. Every time I see Claudia, every time she smiles at me, its like I'm looking at Marie again. There, you have your reason." Riddick stood abruptly and climbed up the ladder.
Riddick leaned in the doorway of his room, watching Marie…no…Claudia sleep. Removing his sweater he got into bed gently and cradled her body in his arms, feeling her slow steady breath through his shirt. Her hair grew damp where he had laid his cheek and he looked down, seeing the wet splotch, putting a hand to his face he found moisture there, tears. He didn't try to stop them; he just let himself cry silently over the memory of his lost sister.