Discloser: I own nothing from Pitch Black, butI do ownRae Lynn. I'm not making anything from this.
A/N: I have been a quite the lurker for some time, and figured, since this story has been ricocheting around in my head for some time now, I might as well share it. This is my first fan fic, so please be honest with your reviews. I can handle the flames. Trust me when I say that there are no flames out there that are hotter than the ones I give myself.
So Please REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!
This story is mapped out in my head and some of it is already typed up, but I want to apologize if my updates are anything but regular. I have a 5 year-old and don't really get much time to myself.
The lyrics to "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" are from the version sung by Israel Kamakawiwo Ole.
Summary: Not too sure how to describe it…I know how pathetic…Anyway here we go…
The Tangled Webs We Weave
Chapter 1.
After flipping the light switch, the woman quickly moved to her oldest daughters' bed. "Rae!" she said as she shook her daughter. " Rae Lynn, get up!" The girl moaned and looked up with squinting eyes. Watching her mother race around the room in frenzy, Rae Lynn instantly knew there was something very wrong.
Quickly sitting up she asked, "Momma, what is it? What's wrong?"
No sooner had Raelynn finished the questions, than she heard the faint noises of gunfire, and screaming in the distance.
Rae Lynn's body was frozen with fear, as she watched her mother quickly scoop up her week-old baby sister, Jacquelyn. As Rae Lynn's mother handed little Jacquelyn to her, she said, "Honey, you have to take your sister and hide!"
The confusion must have been evident on her face, for her mother shouted at her. "Quickly! Now, Rae! They'll be here any minute!"
No sooner had Rae taken her sister from her mother; she was gone, shutting the door quickly behind her. Rae knew her mother was terrified, for her mother never yelled, or even raised her voice to her in all her 12 years of life. She moved quickly when she stopped thinking and heard the gunfire and shouting getting a little louder, not much, but it meant that "they" were getting closer. 'Not Good'.
She looked around the room. She didn't know where they should hide. Their room was at the back of the house. There were only two ways out; the door, which her mother closed on her frantic way out of the room, and the window. She sure wasn't going to go out the window, knowing exactly what was out there.
"Hell," Rae thought aloud.
Jacquelyn moved in Rae's arms, as she unconsciously pulled the infant tight to her chest. Rae Lynn knew the only place they might have any kind of chance would be the closet. She quickly rushed to it, wrenched it open, hunkered down into the corner, and shut the door. There was a pile of blankets at her feet, so she gently set her sister down, hearing her mothers voice in her head, 'Rae make sure to support her head as you lay her down. If your going to hold her, you need to support her that way until her neck muscles are strong enough for her to do it herself' That thought made Rae both happy and sad. Happy, because she remembered what her mother said, and sad, because her mother was out there somewhere, as was her father.
She was terrified…for her sister, for her mother and father but mostly for herself. If who ever was out there shooting, came into their home, she knew that even though her father would fight to protect them, there would really be no stopping them. 'What's gonna happen to me? To Jackie?'
As much as her parents tried to protect her from some of the more cruel facts of life, she had heard stories of girls being kidnapped and sold into slavery. The thought of that made her shudder.
Rae's 12 year-old mind was reeling, spiraling downward into the darkness with every grim thought of what, and why, all of this was happening. Rae Lynn started to cry. She couldn't believe she hadn't started before that point.
The gunfire was even louder now. It seemed as if "they", whomever "they" were, had reached the Biggs family next door, because she heard Mr. Biggs shouting for Mason, his oldest son, to run. Then there was more gunfire.
Rae tried her hardest not to picture Mason falling to the ground from the hail of bullets, but to no avail. Soon, the guns went silent. That is when Rae Lynn noticed little Jacquelyn's crying.
"Shhhhhhh! Jackie. Shhhhhh!" Rae Lynn whispered as she lay down next to the wailing infant. "Please stop Jackie. Shhhh! Please!" she begged through her tears.
Suddenly there was a loud crash at the front of the house. Men shouting "GET DOWN!" "DON'T MOVE! I SAID DON'T MOVE!" Then the RATTA, tat, tat, tat of a gun. All the while, Rae Lynn's mother was screaming.
Rae Lynn shuttered violently, knowing that her father was dead.
"Riddick shut that screaming bitch up. She's giving me a headache."
A single gunshot rang out, and Rae Lynn felt it go straight through to her soul. She silently whimpered in agony, mourning the loss of her mother.
Suddenly she realized, she couldn't hear Jacquelyn's cries any longer. Fearing she had smothered her own sister, she looked at her. Jackie's mouth was still quivering, but yet the only sound Rae heard was her heart pounding, her blood rushing in her ears.
Then the closet door opened…
A hand reached down and grabbed Rae Lynn by her hair. Pulling her up and out of the small closet in one fluid motion. She cried out in pain as the man slammed her against the wall, a hand against her throat.
"Stop crying" the man demanded.
Rae could hardly see the man through her blurry and tear-swollen eyes, but she quickly tried to stop, knowing what they did to her mother for her incessant howling. Slowly her vision started to clear, she tried not to look the man in the eyes. Instead she looked down towards the floor, taking note of the military type fatigues and boots he was wearing. 'Military? What? Why?'.
She caught a whiff this man as he moved his face closer to hers as her whimpering subsided. He stunk unbearably bad. 'Like he rolled in a diaper.'
Stinky Man sneered at her, making her notice that his lip had been split open. She hoped that it was a result of her fathers fist connecting with his face.
He ran the knuckles of his dirty hand down her tear stained cheek. Rae shuttered as her mind raced to the thought of rape and slavery she had had minutes ago.
"SHUT THAT FUCKING KID UP! FOR FUCKS SAKE! " Stinky man shouted, releasing her throat and shoving her towards the closet.
Rae had almost forgotten about Jackie. She quickly picked Jackie up and held the tiny baby to her chest. She gently rocked back and forth, and bounced up and down, all at once, while gently hushing in Jackie's ear. Just as she had seen her mother do earlier in the day. Silently pleading with her sister to stop.
" I SAID SHUT IT THE FUCK UP!"
Jackie's crying only got louder when he shouted. In frustration, Stinky Man raised his hand to hit Rae. She closed her eyes and braced herself for the blow, but it never came.
Slowly she opened her eyes and noticed a different soldier starring at her instead. His jaw locked in irritation, no doubt because of Jackie's crying.
'Where did this guy come from? Did I go deaf again? Where did Stinky Man go? Do you really care where He went?'
Rae tried the rocking, bouncing, hushing thing again and hoped it would work this time. "Please, Jackie, please." Rae quietly whispered in her sisters' tiny ear.
As Rae worked to quiet the baby down, she watched the quiet soldier cautiously. He just stared at her. His eyes were calm, his face dead pan. 'Well, I think I like this one better. At least he's not looking at me like Stinky Man.' As she looked at him, she realized he wasn't a whole lot older than her. 'Maybe he joined right after school.' He appeared a little taller than her father; his baldhead had a slight sheen of sweat covering it. She couldn't help herself when the thought of had this man lived around here he definitely would have every young girl after him. His deep brown eyes, seemed so engaging, and she was certain that had they met under other circumstances she would have wanted to see him smile.
'Your mother and father are dead. Killed by this man. You and Jackie are probably next. How can you possibly think of him like that?'
Taking her eyes off the soldier, she looked around her room. They destroyed it. Some of her clothes had been ripped out of her drawers, and strewn about the floor. The porcelain ballerina her parents gave her for her last birthday, which sat on her dresser, was now in pieces on the floor. The photos she had of her parents had been knocked over. And the books that her father used to read to her had spilled to the floor in a domino type fashion. 'What are they looking for? We're farmers for crying out loud. We don't have anything worth stealing. Except maybe vegetables.'
Her legs and lower back were getting sore from rocking Jackie. She very slowly, as to not startle the soldier, made her way to the bed, which surprisingly hadn't been overturned, to sit down.
"They ain't got shit," Stinky Man shouted from the front of the house, sounding rather disappointed.
Rae watched Quiet Man clench his jaw at the sound of the other man's voice. She wasn't sure if it was what Stinky Man said or rather just the man himself, but it made him growl. Rae had heard him, and smiled a little. His stare faltered a bit when she smiled, but both quickly recovered as they heard Stinky coming down the hallway towards the room
"Riddick. You find anthin' worth taken?" Stinky asked Quiet Man as he walked in the room.
Riddick, turning his head to look at the man, said "No. Just like you said Sir, they ain't got shit."
Riddick slowly moved from the doorway towards the bed where Rae sat holding Jackie, who had finally drifted off to sleep,
"What's your name kid?" Stinky asked, standing in the doorway.
"Ra…Rae Lynn, Sir " Rae managed to barely choke out. "What's yours?"
Stinky smirked slightly at her boldness, and said "Lieutenant Wiffman"
Given the severity of the situation, Rae tried really hard not to laugh at him. He could turn and shoot her in the head and not think twice about it, but knowing her name for him and hearing his real name, it had to be a joke right?
Storming out of the room, Wiffman commanded, " Kill her! Leave the baby alive. And move out!"
"No! Please! I'm sorry." Rae yelped, unable to control herself.
She looked up at Riddick with teary, pleading eyes. He had turned his head sharply towards the door to the room. Rae thought she saw panic flash across his face, but swept that thought out of her head as fast as it came in. Slowly, Riddick turned back to look at her, but still didn't raise his gun.. There was a sadness written in his deep brown eyes, one that she had seen in her parents' eyes-only after they fought, and were getting ready to apologize to one another.
"That was an order Private!" Wiffman shouted, appearing in the doorway again from out of nowhere.
"Sir, the baby can't survive by itself. There will be no one left to take care of it if I kill her." Riddick stated
"That's the point soldier. Our orders were to leave no one alive. Her knowing the baby is going to die slowly is the little bitchs' payment for laughing at me." He said as he retreated back to the front of the house.
Still staring at Riddick, trying to hold back the flood of tears that threatened to fall, she shook her head franticly, silently begging him not to listen to the lieutenant.
Riddick moved so that he stood directly in front of Rae Lynn. Staring down at her, then at Jackie. He brought his hand to the top of Jackie's head and gently brushed the fuzz on her head, he quietly asked "What's the baby's name kid?"
"Jacquelyn.
"Mr. Riddick? Sir? Please? You can't do this. She's only a week old. Please?" Rae Lynn whined, begging him to do the right thing.
Riddick slowly raised his finger to his mouth, silently telling her to shhhh, as he removed his gun from its holster on his hip. Rae Lynn could not stop the river of tears that fell from her eyes. Slowly she closed her eyes, shifting Jackie up a little higher on her chest and started rocking back and forth, softly singing the only song that had managed to come into her head.
Someday I'll wish upon a star
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where trouble melts like lemon drops
High above the chimney tops that's where you'll find me
Somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly
And the dreams that you dare to, oh why, oh why can't I?
Well I see trees of green and
Red roses too,
I'll watch them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
Well I see skies of blue and I see clouds of white
And the brightness of day
I like the dark and I think to myself
What a wonderful world
"GOD DAMN IT! PRIVATE, I GAVE YOU AN ORDER!" Wiffman roared, rushing in to the room.
BANG!