Chapter Nine: Behind Those Eyes

Riddick stood in the doorway to the bedroom and watched her for a moment. She was fast asleep, her arms were wrapped round the pillow tightly and she was curling the quilt up in her toes. River started to stir when he stepped into the room, her eyelids flickering as she began to wake from her dream. He sat himself on the chair beside the bed and leant his elbows in his knees, waiting. She took a deep breath and curled into a tighter ball before stretching out and opening her eyes. Riddick's head was down and she could barely see him in the dark, she made the smallest silhouette and decided it was his. Rolling on to her back she yawned, but she never took her eyes off him the entire time. Sitting up, she waited for him to speak, and hopefully apologize, but she had the feeling that would never happen.

"We're coming into land at Kova in five minutes…"

Riddick lifted his head and looked at her for a long moment, as if convincing himself of something that he'd decided. Standing, he started walking for the door slowly.

"… that's where I'm dropping you're ass."

He paused in the doorframe when he heard the slight noise of rustling bed sheets. Turning slowly, he found himself nose to nose with River, who was staring at his eyes curiously.

"They seem so familiar."

Riddick raised an eyebrow, letting her reach up and hand a finger across his eyebrow gently. A flash of recollection passed over her eyes and she stepped back from him with an expression of completely disbelief on her face.

"You… you could have stopped him. You could have done something!"

Riddick turned to face her completely, faintly confused by her sudden outrage with him. River slumped down onto the end of the bed and stared wide eyed at the metal floor, mouth hanging open. After a while she closed her mouth and remembered to blink then looked up at him with anger on her face but sorrow in her eyes. When she finally decided to refresh his memory she looked down at his feet.

"I was forced into a criminal life. I was made to steal and when I didn't he'd beat and rape me."

Her eyes flicked up sharply and fixed on his.

"He would force me to take a hallucinogenic after so that I didn't know where I was or who I was."

Riddick stepped back into the room, leaning on the wall with his arms folded, listening contently despite the frown across his brow.

"I saw you one night when I was planning on running away, stowing away on the soonest leaving ship. He drugged me before I could get away and then he went about punishing me."

Her voice cracked and pain started to slip into her words.

"I can't remember anything after he'd do that to me. Nothing."

Her words started to choke in her throat and she had to stop, taking a few short sharp breaths, trying to control herself so she could finish explaining.

"He'd make sure that I could remember when he'd punish me though, hoping I wouldn't do it again. There was this one time in a bar when I got caught when I was picking some guy's pocket. He kicked the living shit outta me right in the middle of that bar and nobody did a motherfucking thing to help. A few even joined in! And all I can remember from that was these silver eyes staring at me from the corner, just staring as those sons of a bitches kicked me into intensive care."

The slightest wash of regret passed over Riddick's face for a moment as he suddenly remembered. He girl didn't stand a chance against the four guys that were kicking her endlessly, she was barely able to breathe at first but when the others joined in she stopped altogether. Standing, River walked up to Riddick as his frown melted from his face.

"And you just watched."

With that she walked out the door and towards the cockpit.

River sat in the co-pilot's chair with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them, staring out at the vastly approaching planet. It was huge, much larger that the last planet she was on and it had a purple hue about it that made it feel strangely welcoming.

"Kova's a quiet market planet. Plenty of factories and merchant offices to find work in, if you can stomach the fifteen hour days."

Riddick didn't more from the door, instead he just stared over at the co-pilot chair. Turning around the side of the chair, she looked at him then back at the planet.

"What are you gonna do?"

He starting walking towards the pilot sit slowly, hands in his pockets, his fingers playing with the edge of the shiv that was stuffed in his pocket. River spun round and out of the chair to stand directly in front of his path, staring up into his eyes, trying to see through his goggles. Reaching up, she pulled them off slowly and kept hold of them.

"You hide behind those eyes of yours. You think the whole universe is fooled by those silver pools. What are you hiding from?"

Riddick clamped his hands around her wrists and pulled her closer, whispering in her ear.

"I'm not. The worlds' are hiding from me."

Leaning up, she replied quietly in his ear.

"You think that things are gonna change once you kick me off? They won't. You'll still be guilty. You're always gonna be guilty. That's why you're a con."

He turned and pushed her away towards the door, keeping his back to her as he sat down in the pilot chair and started readying the ship for landing. His hands glided over switches as he tried to ignore the fading sound of her foot steps.