Hello again! As always, infinite thanks to my reviewers. I love you all. You guys light up my day! HUGS
Alas, this story is coming to an end. I'm thinking like two more chapters, maybe an epilogue. We'll see. This has been such a journey for me, as well as our characters, and I want to thank everyone for hanging in there with us. You know what I mean. Ok, before I get too mushy, here it is. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Whatever's not mine is someone else's; so I don't own it, so don't sue me.
The first thing Kyra noticed upon her consciousness beginning to surface was comfort. She was comfortable. She hadn't been when she'd passed out, but now she was gripped in a very familiar coziness that led her to wonder… 'What the shit!'
She sat straight up and looked around, hardly able to believe what she was seeing. She was home. Well, the only place she'd ever thought of as 'home', anyway. She was back in New Mecca. Back with Imam and his family. She was in her own bed, in her own room. She looked around to see her lamp and the few pictures and trinkets she'd had were all still intact and in their proper places. It was morning; the sun was shining softly through her bone colored curtains, as it always did. The house was still, as it always was in the morning. She pushed back her covers and walked to the bathroom on shaky legs. She held her breath as she looked into the mirror. She was younger now. Same green eyes, same defined features… shaved head? She was back at twelve! The pit of her stomach dropped out and her body went on autopilot as her mind whirled past one question after another. She walked down the stairs automatically, still in shock. Imam was sitting at the kitchen table with the newspaper in hand, as he always did in the morning. She sat across from him staring blankly off into space, and he peeked over the top of the newspaper when she said nothing.
"What is wrong with you child?" Imam asked lightly seeing the look on her face. Slowly she looked over at him, his words barely registering in her mind, "You look as though you've seen a ghost."
She simply stared at him for a moment. When his clothing finally registered in her mind she realized he was wearing his thatched gray robes. He'd torn those robes just after Riddick left and had to throw them out. That must mean…
"Where's Riddick?" she asked quietly, as though the words would let loose some sort of chaos if spoken too loudly.
"He's in his room, I suppose. I haven't seen him all morning, so he must be there. Why do you ask? Is everything alright Jack?" Her eyes were wide. Jack? The name rattled her a little. It had been far too long since she'd heard it. She shook her head and stood to run down the hall away from the kitchen to the guest bedroom that Riddick called his. She hesitated for only a second, then knocked on the door. No answer, so she went in. He was lying face up on his bed, goggles off, staring at the ceiling.
"Don't you know that no answer means 'leave me the hell alone'?" he growled not taking his eyes off the ceiling. Something black caught her eye on the floor and she looked to find a stuffed black duffle bag sitting in wait at the end of the bed.
"You're gunna leave, aren't you?" she stepped forward daringly, keeping her voice low to keep him from hearing the emotion there, "Aren't you." It didn't matter what he said, she knew the answer. She remembered this well.
He sat up and stared at her. He seemed amazed at her sudden gumption but managed to hold his tone relatively even.
"Yeah, kid, I'm gunna leave. I have to." He stared at her with those fantastic eyes. He reached for his goggles and snapped them on so that she couldn't see the speck of regret he had there. She instantly missed them. 'This feels familiar,' she thought absently.
"No you don't. You can stay, we'll hide you. You can-" He stood suddenly and towered over her like a great goggle clad menace, and his voice became an ominous growl.
"I can't stay. The mercs will come for me like they always do and I won't put you and Imam at risk like that so I have to go."
"What about me! Did you ever think about what it'll do to me if you go?" She was starting to lose her composure. She could feel her calm slipping with each word that she uttered.
"You'll be fine, Jack. You're strong, you're a survivor." He turned away from her. She felt crushed in that split second. She turned to leave in a huff but his voice stopped her.
"You still got that necklace I made you?"
"Yeah, why?" she asked, keeping her back to him.
"Whenever you feel… I don't know, weak, I guess, take that necklace out and remind yourself what you've already survived. What we survived." He grabbed the bag and walked out of the room, brushing past her. It took her a second but she followed him out to the kitchen.
"Imam, tell him he doesn't have to leave. Tell him he can stay here, that you-" Imam only looked down. She felt the sting of tears beginning to form in her eyes and the ache of the lump rising in her throat. "Imam, tell him. Please." She was whimpering now and she couldn't stand it. Imam sighed heavily.
"Child, he cannot stay with us. It is too dangerous."
Those words, those ten words, broke her twelve-year-old heart. She looked between the two men, hoping beyond hope that someone would take pity on her. That she could make him stay with the simple dejected look on her face. Imam and Riddick exchanged nods and he walked out of the kitchen toward the front door. She ran after him and Imam ran after her.
"No! You can't leave me here! Please don't go!" the tears ran freely now, but she didn't care, "Riddick! You can't go. Please." She pushed past Riddick and spread her arms across the door, eyes burning with fear and anger.
"Move," he growled. She shook her head boldly determined to her ground.
"I won't let you go. You can't leave me here! Take me with you if you won't stay! I'll be good, I swear. You won't even know I'm there. You can train me and everything if you want, please!" she shouted at him. Riddick looked to Imam.
She suddenly had a flash of what was going to happen next. She remembered. This was the part where he whispered to her that he would be back for her someday. That he would come back and get her when he knew it would be safe. Those words would calm her enough to take his leaving in stride.
He bent down close to her ear.
"I hate you."
Her blood ran cold. She could feel her face pale out and her whole body began to tremble.
"What?" her voice came out in a broken whisper. Imam had vanished, the whole house was gone except for the door and Riddick and her. This isn't what happened. That's not what he said the first time. Suddenly he took on an evil look, like some sort of demon thing.
"You heard me, I hate you. I'm leaving because of you, and I'll never be back for you. Ever." His voice echoed darkly around her, the words repeating over and over again. He pushed her roughly, making her crumple to the floor. He opened the door but hesitated before walking through it, looking down at her with a nasty sneer.
"You're fucking pathetic and I hope you die." He spat at her and then walked out the door. The door disappeared as he closed it behind him and she was left in the nothing that surrounded her, his words still echoing in the dark. She felt so cold, so alone. There was no point anymore, if Riddick wouldn't save her. She was crushed, she was giving up. She curled up in a tight little ball and began to sob as the dark closed in the rest of the way.
"What the fuck is going on here!" His voice only echoed back in answer.
Riddick had been through what seemed like miles of hallway but was getting nowhere. He kept seeing the same doors over and over, but the rooms led nowhere. He had been following his nose the whole time, following the scent of decay that he'd picked up on, but that was getting him nowhere, too. It was like the whole place led… well, nowhere. He was about to start punching holes in random walls to mark his place (and out of sheer frustration) when he heard footsteps. He pulled himself around a corner and waited until the footsteps got close enough then reached out and grabbed for the neck of whoever it was.
"Holy shit!" Jonas let out a strangled expletive. Riddick dropped him with a grunt. "Jeez big guy, I'm so glad to see you too." Jonas rubbed at his throat. Riddick only growled. "Where's Kyra?" Jonas asked when he didn't see her.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out, but I can't make any headway. Where did you come from?"
"I came from a room down the hall and around the corner. Where did you come from?"
"I chased Kyra's evil twin down here, and I've been going around in circles ever since."
"Her evil twin?" Jonas looked at him skeptically, "I told you not to drink the wine at-" Once again Jonas found his neck in the crushing grip of the other man. 'This is getting old,' Jonas thought to himself. Riddick pulled Jonas close to his face.
"Look, something fucked is going on here, and I've got to find Kyra and get us the fuck out of here. You're welcome to come if you can help, if not, stay the fuck out of my way."
"I…ach can help… hee." With that Riddick dropped him again and began walking down the hallway once more. Jonas caught his breath then hurried to catch up. "You're right, something fucked is going on, Tobias and his intended aren't human, they're something… else. I dunno what but-" Riddick stopped in his tracks.
"Shh." Riddick was listening. He'd thought he heard some muffled sound like singing. He backed up to the door they'd passed meters back and sniffed. It looked like the exact same door he'd been seeing, but the scent he'd been following was much stronger here now.
"What are you doing?" Jonas whispered.
"I smell death, and it's coming from in here." Jonas' eyes went wide. They opened the door slowly and the scent blistered Jonas' nostrils and made his stomach turn. They were faced with another short hallway, dimly lit by sconces along the wall every few feet, which led to a stairway going down.
"Go on, Jonas. This is your damned hometown."
"I'd rather piss glass." Jonas retorted, wondering at the stairway. Riddick snorted as he thought of the last person he'd heard use that term. They heard a sound from what they each guessed was the bottom of the stairs. Jonas motioned with his hand as if to say 'after you', and Riddick scowled as he went forward. The hall was bare stone except for the sconces on the walls. The smell was wafting up from down the stairs. Silently the two men edged their way down the stairs until they heard another noise then they stopped. Humming. Someone at the bottom of the stairs was humming. Jonas and Riddick looked at each other. The humming went further and further away until it stopped altogether and was followed by the slamming of a door. The two men inched cautiously to the bottom of the stairs and, after making sure it was all clear, turned the corner into the room.
What they saw would remain etched in each of their minds until the day they died. It was a huge room with a high ceiling, drab stone walls, a door at the other side, and no decoration at all, contrary to the rest of the house. The remarkable thing were rows and rows of oddly shaped chairs that resembled ancient massage chairs, about half of which had people in them with wires and cords coming from their heads. The cords and wires led to monitors attached to the chairs that displayed vital signs and brainwave activity and some other device attached to the monitors.
"Good gods!" Jonas gasped.
"What in the name of hell is this place?" Riddick considered himself a pretty desensitized man, but this gave even him the heebie-jeebies. They walked closer and Riddick realized where the smell had been coming from. These people were all in different stages of physical decay. Their bodies were rotting in places, muscles atrophied to different degrees and open oozing sores everywhere, though their brains and minds seemed in tact from the readings on the monitors.
Both men heard a noise suddenly and both ducked for cover, Jonas behind a console against the wall, Riddick in a darkened corner barely big enough for his whole body. The door at the other side of the room opened and a short, squatty little bald man entered followed by Tobias.
"You were right about that new one, sire. She's a veritable well of suffering. All we had to do was prompt her and she-" the little man was cut short.
"Shut up, I know I was right. I told you what Sariah saw when she looked into her mind earlier. How much longer does she need before she is ripe enough?" Tobias asked impatiently. They were talking about Kyra. Riddick couldn't prove it, but it had to be her.
"Perhaps a few more hours, my lord, to ensure she is at her best for your first taste." The little man was terrified of Tobias, Riddick noticed. He was jittery and restless in the presence of his High Lord. "Perhaps, if your highness wishes, I could recommend another to satisfy your thirst until she is ready?" Tobias seemed to ponder for a moment.
"Which one did you have in mind?" The two men walked to one of the chairs near to Riddick and Jonas' hiding places.
"This one's readings have been off the charts today, sir. He should prove agreeable to your palate." The squatty man motioned to a chair holding an appallingly withered man.
"Show me." Tobias commanded. The little man pushed a green and then a blue button on the monitor and an image flashed to the screen of the man huddled over what looked to be a dead child, presumably his own dead child.
"Fine, he's looking a bit… ghastly anyway. Dispose of him when I've finished."
"As you wish, my liege." The squatty man bowed deeply and backed away, leaving Tobias to himself. Riddick watched as Tobias reached into the neck of his robe and removed a little golden talisman on a chain, which strangely enough resembled the mouthpiece of a hookah tube. Tobias pulled a thick cord loose from the monitor and placed the talisman on the end, then put it to his lips and began to draw on it. He took a large drag and Riddick watched as the tube began to glow.
It was the mouthpiece of a hookah tube, and the tube was connected to this poor man's brain! Jonas made a noise behind the console, probably coming to the same realization as Riddick, and Tobias lifted his head. Content that he was hearing things he went back to siphoning from the poor man in the chair. The man twitched a little, and the monitor showed in repetition the child being shot in the chest by some sort of energy weapon. Tobias was teetering a little like he was drunk. Riddick put it together then: he was drunk. He was sucking up the man's misery, getting high on his pain and suffering. These living corpses were kept in a constant state of depression and terror so that Tobias and his lady fair could come and get a fix of fear whenever they wanted. The realization made Riddick's heart skip its rhythm, as he knew Kyra was in among these poor souls. Suddenly the man in the chair began to convulse violently, and his readings on the monitor went erratic before they flatlined. Tobias removed the talisman from the end of the tube, replacing it inside his shirt, and yelled for the squatty man.
"Geom! Geom, come at once. This one is failing." He reconnected the tube to the monitor as the little fat man came scurrying along. Riddick got a good look at Tobias' eyes and they were as dilated as any hype's he'd ever seen. The little fat man grimaced.
"Oh well, he lasted longer than I thought he would." The little man, Geom, yanked all the lines and cords out of the man's head, pulling little bits of gray matter with them, and turned off the monitor. The man's convulsions had tapered off into twitches every few seconds. Death throes. Tobias straightened his robes, obviously trying to regain his composure from his inebriated state, and addressed Geom.
"Inform Sariah and I when the new one is ready. I have a ball to get back to." With that he strode off and slammed the door on the opposite wall. Geom stayed for a moment, muttering to himself and looking around, then followed the way of his master.
Jonas stood from his hiding place after a moment and Riddick stepped out from the shadows. Jonas' face was about ten shades paler than it had been and he looked positively sick.
"He's a monster," Jonas whispered to no one in particular. He was rapt as he walked up to the dead man in the chair. "He's got to be stopped." He turned and looked at Riddick.
"First thing's first… we find Kyra."
