Author's Note: I do not own Riddick, more's the pity, however I do promise to return him. At some point in the undisclosed future. With no damages sustained in the time I had him, and his charming personality intact. I did not have any hand in the creation of Pitch Black. I did however create Spook, and the other characters not seen in Pitch Black.
Riddick bent over her, lightly stroking her hair, his brows low over his brooding eyes. In his other hand he held the strap of leather, twisting it around his fingers, thumb resting against a box of metal on it.
Her skin was pale as ivory against the pillows, her dark hair in tangles, her pale throat already striped with a red-purple streak. Her breathing was rasping, shallow. Her silver eyes glowered suspiciously from the shadows beneath her roosting brows.
"This," she croaked, "is the second time since you came into my life that someone has tried to strangle me." An eyebrow quirked up, letting a little gleam of light reflect from the silver surface. "Can we please try to not let it happen again?"
His mouth twisted, his fingers pausing on her hair.
"Hey, I saved you again."
"If moving didn't make my head explode, I would kill you."
A flash of teeth preceded the rumble of laughter from the giant. Again he loomed over her, brushing his lips against her hair briefly before rising from his seat on the edge of the bed. He stooped, a calloused hand catching the limp wrist of the crumpled body on the floor, lifting the form to his shoulder.
"Did you mean it?"
His head turned towards her, his silver eye glinting over his shoulder, a grunt of curiosity snorting from his nostrils. He shifted the weight of the body, turning a little more to look at the thin girl.
"When you told him to ghost me. When you said you'd kill me yourself."
"'He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.' I meant it when I said I'd kill you rather than let him take you back, rabbit. You lost too much of yourself in there, gave up too much coming out." There was a strange tone to his voice, one she hadn't heard before; it was quietly sad, the tone of someone who has seen something they wish they could forget. His eyes darkened as he looked over his shoulder at her.
"'If you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.'" She bowed her head, hair shielding her face from his questing silver gaze. Her fingers worried the thin blanket beneath her; her toe tapped nervously against her other heel. She studiously kept her eyes turned down.
He stayed frozen for another long moment, brows low over his eyes, watching her from the corner of his eye before again resettling the bulk of the bounty hunter's corpse onto his shoulder.
"I'm gunna go jettison this waste in his ship."
His footsteps faded down the corridor before she lifted her face again, staring at the open door, her cheeks damp. She blinked several times, shivering with each breath, her shoulders trembling.
One hand scrubbed over her eyes before she gave herself a vigorous shake and let out a wavering breath. She squared herself, lifting her chin.
"'There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.'"
The room smelled of blood. There was a dark blot on the floor, one that her eyes fixed on with mild curiosity. In the center of it lay a small twist of leather.
Leather with a metal housing on it that was soon in her long hands, being turned before the bottomless eyes. The leather was supple, well cared for, but scuffed. It was wet, darkened and slimy with blood. The buckle was non-locking; whoever wore it would be able to remove it themselves unless otherwise restrained. The housing was dull, tarnished. It had small, dark, coppery-smelling stains on it that were old and dry next to smears of fresh crimson.
She heard the faint crunch of his boots down the corridor. Quicksilver eyes gazed at the hulking man as he entered, holding the collar out towards him.
"Who was he? He knew enough to bring this." The large man took it, looking it over again.
"Inhibitor?" She just nodded, her hair brushing her cheek. "Some merc. His papers said his name was William J. Johns."