12. The Ways of My World: Second Assassin Descends
The distance from the west wing to Riddick's room was less than a quarter mile, a little walk for Kimera. She felt drained and slumped down in front of the door. Looking up, she saw her dried blood that made up the protection symbol. Raising her had, her fingers touched the rim of the seal. It burned up and smoked off the door. Sighing heavily, Kimera moved her hand to the panel on the side. As the lock opened, she didn't even try to get. She just crawled on the floor to the side of the bed. She cursed herself for being so tired after such a short fight. Finally pulling herself up onto the bed, she lay down beside Riddick and took a quick breather. She'd need a nap after all that. Turning to face him, she propped herself up on one elbow to lean over him. With her hand on his cheek she spoke. "Wake up Mr. Riddick."
His eyes fluttered slowly as he came back to the waking world. "What… Fuck my jaw hurts." He brought his hand up to his bruised jaw. His eyes widened as he recalled the last few moments before he was knocked out. Turning to her, he stared at her for a moment before pulling his arm back and punching her in the exact same place she had hit him. He had expected her to have fallen off the bed from the impact, but her head was merely turned to the other side. "Fucking bitch, the fuck were you thinking knocking me out like that. Huh?" She still hadn't turned to face him. "Answer me Kimera." He raised his hand to touch the slowly forming bruise on her chin, when she slapped his hand away hard.
"Don't touch me. You are a fucking ingrate." She took her hand up to her face, wiped the blood that was falling down her chin from her spilt lip, and put her fingers in her mouth to taste her own blood. "You can't see past what's right in front of your face, can you? I mean come on, do you honestly think I would intentionally hurt you after I went through all that trouble to keep you alive? Geez what numb nut you are." She moved to get off the bed but Riddick grabbed her arms and pulled her to him, wrapping her in a warm hug.
"Fuck me, I am stupid. Thought you'd have figured that out already." He buried his nose in her hair and inhaled. He smelled blood, sulfur and soot, and burnt flesh. He pushed her away from him and held her at arms length to examine her correctly. Moving his hands from her arms, he ran them over her face, turning her head this way and that to make sure that there weren't any other injures.
She was smiling the whole time. "Riddick, stop it. I'm alright. Just a bit drained is all." Then she frowned. His eyes were slightly glazed over.
"Riddick, how much of the anti toxin did you use?"
"All of it. Why? Is there something wrong?" Now she was freaking out.
"You were only supposed to use the amount I left out for you. Too much and you might…" Her breath was cut off ass his hands came around her throat and squeezed. Eyes widened from the sudden attack. She was gasping for air as her eyes turned black.
"I might what, girly? Get a little paranoid? Huh? Or better yet, maybe I'll be weakened enough so that another assassin could use my body." His eyes were glowing likes hers as he grinned at her. She saw the fangs in his mouth. Clawing at his bare arms wasn't working. She pulled back her hands and he saw her claws right before she jammed them in his chest.
"ARGH!" He still had a firm hold on her neck and squeezed harder until he heard a crack. Her eyes slid closed and her body went limp in his arms. Bringing his head close to her face he sniffed before letting her body fall on the floor.
Letting his legs hang by the side of the bed, he poked her in the side with his foot a few times for good measure. She was dead. He hopped off the bed and walked to stand in front of the mirror.
"This one has a good body. I think I might keep it for a while." Back to the matter at hand, the Fake Riddick tapped his right knuckles on the mirror. The mirror turned black before a blurry image of a shrouded man appeared.
"Is it done Utze?" The shrouded figure was leaning forward; its voice cracked and worn.
"I broke her neck sir. Apparently she killed Bhuta in another part of the ship before she woke me up." Utze could see his master's eyes glowing red in satisfaction behind his shroud.
"Excellent work Utze. You shall be handsomely rewarded. That body suits you well my friend. Now, cut off her head and take out the heart and burn the body. Bring me the head and heart in separate containers." Utze nodded his understanding and waited for his master to continue.
"You have succeeded where others have failed. The bloodline has been broken and now the Demonicos will rule." The Shrouded man let out an enormous roar of laughter.
"As you wish Lord Mitigar. I shall arrive on Demura in 36 hours time. Until them my lord."
"Until then my warrior." The mirror went black. Utze turned and looked down on the floor. His mouth nearly hit the ground. The body was gone. All that was there were a few black feathers.
"Fucking Hell! Where did it go?" Running over to look under the bed, he saw nothing but a spare fold out chair. Slamming his fists into his head, he screamed in frustration. He had just confirmed with his master that he had killed the girl and that he had her body. He was so distracted by his thoughts that he did not notice the shadow on the wall.
The shadow moved along the wall to the front of the room and slipped under the door. The shadow figure raced down the hall. Turning the corner at the western wing, the shadow slipped into the shower room. Pooled on the ground, the black shadow changed into a slimy substance. Taking the form of an arm, the slim reached out to the discarded sword of the first assassin, Bhuta. The sword of Black Ore was pulled into the pool of slime. The pool turned back in the shadow. Spreading out, the shadow grew in length to form a body. Arms shot out and legs stretched on the floor. A head popped out from the shoulders. As the head took shape, two small grey pools blinked.
The sword scrapped the floor cutting the shadow hand so that it could move freely. This was repeated for the entire shadow, until a paper thin figure of blackness stood tall in the room. The shadowy figure floated across the floor to the mirror. Lifting the sword to its face, it made a small tear. A mouth with razor fangs smiled in the mirror. The shadow had no voice. It wouldn't need one to kill a man.
Floating across the floor and moving to the wall, the shadow raced back to the room and waited at the door. Raising the sword up and twirling it in hand so that it was up hilt first, it knocked.
Utze jumped up and hit his head on the corner of the desk swearing from the sharp pain. Rubbing the knot that was forming there, he came to his senses and stared at the door. He waited and again he heard a knock. "You gotta be fucking kidding me." He hissed out from clenched teeth. Rising to his feet, he faltered and slumped back to the ground. Utze let out a string of curses in several different languages. Riddick's body was rejecting him along with the Parnaza poison that must not have been completely flushed out of the body. Leaning heavily on his arms his right hand shot up and took hold of his neck squeezing. Riddick was gaining back control of his body.
The knocking on the door was getting louder and soon a small dent was made in the door. The knocking turned into slamming. What ever was on the other side of that door, it was going to get in there no matter what. Utze grabbed hold of Riddick's right arm with his left and pried it hand away only to be punched in the face by his left as he released the right one. He was pummeled in the face continually by the large fists. The door was indented from the outside.
The shadowy figure was pounding away at the door with fists and kicks; its face a snarling vision of razor teeth and blank eyes. The door was almost completely off its hinges. A loud scream of a thousand voices sounded as soon as the door fell. Utze lay bloodied and bruised on the floor. With a swollen eye and busted lip he lifted his head. The lights in the hall were all blown and the ones in the room began to flicker. Thanks to Riddick's vision he was able to see the face of the figure in the doorway and the sword at its side. It glided into the room. As it came into the flickering light, shadow changed into flesh.
Utze saw the markings that winded up firm, toned arms. The head came into view and his heart nearly stopped. It was the girl except her face was distorted. Her sunken face made it look like her eyes were about to fall into her skull. But it was her smile that stole his breath. The largest Cheshire grin of razor teeth and a long black tongue that would snake out of her mouth ever so often. This creature of darkness had eyes only for him. She walked towards him slowly, speaking of horrid things with tongue that spoke with a thousand voices, echoing in his head.
"No kind of sensation is keener and more active than that of pain; its impressions are unmistakable." Leaning over him, she lowered a marked hand towards the blood on his face. Smearing some of it on her fingers, she brought them to her mouth and sucked the blood off of them in a ravenous manner.
"I taste it, I see it, I want it, and I need it, the blood of the weak taste better when you can't have it, within the mind of a cursed child." Utze was drawn by her eyes. He was caught in a vision of an event that had happened before his existence.
Flashback 200yrs ago on a planet in the Ixia System
A small girl no older than 7, ran through the woods trying to evade a group of peasants. Her bare feet were scrapped and raw, but she paid no heed to them. Glancing behind her she could see the shadows from their lamps, bouncing off the dirt floor. Ignoring her fatigue she sped up and ran in between branches and jumped over logs at an alarming speed that no man could perform.
She reached a Rock cliff that spanned higher than her supernatural abilities would permit her in the weaken state she was in. Slamming her fists into the rock in defeat, she slumped to the dirt and grabbed clumps of mud smearing it on to her face.
"Kimera Darklis, Daughter of the High Priestess Kazira Azania Demona, Ruler of the Cursed ones of this world, you have been charged with Heresy in the highest degree…" The large man who stood at the front of the mob of the 40 or so men belted out her unfair sentence. "… Along with the death of 3 stable horses and 1 pig, for which you bled dry in a fit of hunger. You are hereby found guilty of all charges by the people of Bromax and will be executed immediately."
She was still hunched over smearing her face as they moved towards her slowly. Instead of getting up and trying to run or defend herself, she welcomed her end. When the first blow connected with her skull she heard the club snap from the impact with her harder than normal bone. She went down, but rose up on small shaky arms for the next hit. Blow after blow, they pummeled her, and yet she lived. They pulled out their swords when the clubs and bits of large wood did not kill her. Looking up through swollen eyes, she glimpsed her executioners. Men as old as her mother's finest dress to those that were no younger than a sapling in the very woods she was in. The women wore faces of hate and sadness. Mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives; all of them had been affected by what her mother had done. She had wiped out an entire country side in one night all on her own. She had done it when she was pregnant with her. Kazira needed that large feeding to sustain her during labor. Now Kimera lay there, staring at the first blade as it sunk into her stomach with a sickening sound. Eyes widening in shock at the feelings inside her, she finally let out a scream after. Her little lungs let out a blood curdling scream that made some of the men cower back in fear and bring tears to the eyes of all the women.
It was all a flurry of hands and blades after that; coming down in succession upon her without remorse. As the last sword was pulled from her forehead by the hands of a young school girl, they looked down at the little girl who now resembled more a pin cushion than the daughter of a demon. She was missing her left eye, as it had been gouged out during the onslaught. The women huddled into their own little circle and cried over what they had done. The girl was, by all means, completely innocent and they had murdered her, no, butchered her to death for the crimes of her mother. The man from before leaned down to look upon the damned child's face. The traces on one stray tear could be seen through the blood. Opening his jacket reveled the clothing of a priest. Reaching into his coat pocket, he grasped his little bible and began to pray above the little maimed body.
He had barely made it through the second verse when a small hand shot up and took a strong hold of his throat, cutting of his air supply. Gasping for what little breath he could, his eyes dropped to the owner of the hand. Her eye was restored and her wounds healed even though she was still covered in blood. Blinking up at him in anything less than innocence, Kimera's bright green eyes glared at him with an indescribable hate. She pulled her hand back roughly, taking his Adams apple and part of his throat in the process. Pushing the limp body off of her, she pulled herself forward and slowly came to her feet. She studied all of them some had her blood on their hands and garments while others were clean. She assumed they had just stood back and watched. 'They will still meet and end by my hands.'
In a move that would become habit to her, she raised her bloody hand to like the blood of the priest off. "The taste of warm blood on my parched lips; the excitement that's released is like ... Heaven." The sweet voice of the little girl was gone. In its place was that of a grown woman. Withdrawing her hand from her mouth, she flexed her wrist causing small claws to emerge. "I'm really going to enjoy this now." The deep voice of the woman seeped form the little girl's fanged mouth. She sprung on the men first, seeing as they were the strongest and in larger demand. They ran back though the woods as fast as their human feet would take them. The woman remained, frozen in the same spot. Kimera slowed down a bit to give them the feelings of hope. As she cut to the left to run beside them, she let out a small breath and smiled in satisfaction as all the flames in their meager lamps went out. She heard a few of them fall in the darkness of the woods. First come, First serve. She would not grant them the beauty of a feeding. Ripping and slashing out their throats, pulling their still beating hearts and crushing them in front of their faces with her little hands. 30 men running scared and leaving their unarmed women behind, how entertaining. There were only 5 left running upfront blindly through the dark. She sprinted ahead of them and waited for the meeting. A few seconds later the first one broke through the branches to her left.
He saw her standing there as calm as a summers rain with her bloodied hands crossed across her small chest. Slipping in the process of seeing her, he had no time to retreat before her small eyes widened. Some unknown force held him in place. This little devil of a girl was bewitching him. The last 4 came rushing out of the woods as well and saw their fellow man frozen on the spot staring directly at Kimera. She repeated the same trick on them and smiled in satisfaction at their pale, frightened faces. Walking up to them one by one, she ripped their faces off, but not before turning their heads so that the other one could see what was about to be done to him.
She spit on all of their corpses after she had snapped their necks for good cause. Running back through the woods she caught a familiar scent on the wind. Stopping so suddenly that she made a small mound of dirt in front of her feet, she wiped her head around.
"Mother… mommy is that you?" She asked the wind in her regular small voice. She heard a response.
The wind whispered to her on a soft breeze, "Why did you stay her little one? I thought I told you the dangers of a planet such as this one." Her mother's voice spoke to her like sweet ringing bells. How strange that a devil such as her would have a voice similar to that of an angel.
With her head bowed in embarrassment Kimera responded. "Forgive me mommy, I just wanted to see where daddy lived. I didn't think that this would happen."
"Of course you didn't think Kimmy; you never think before you act when it comes to your father. Come to think of it, I never thought either. Now, clean up this mess…" The wind picked up causing a small whirlwind of leaves to twirl in front of her. "… and come home to me and your family. I've missed you dearly these past few months. I mean really, stealing a ship and coming to a planet 2 systems away from us. You've outdone yourself this time girly. You can expect a hefty punishment and at least a doubling in your chores." Kimera's head shot up and shook her head in surprise. Before she could argue, the whirlwind ceased and in its place stood her mother.
Kazira stood before her daughter barefoot as well. At 5'9", she was taller than most women. Hair that seemed to be apart of the darkness itself, flowed freely behind her back and down past her thighs. Long nailed hands that were painted black, tapped against her hip in annoyance. She was dressed in what her people would call simple. A thin layered dress that clung to her frame and flowed at the bottom. Green and black designs laced their way around the dress and merged with the same designs etched into her dark brown skin. "Don't you even try and wiggle your way out of this one Kimmy, your lucky I don't drag you by your hair and finish this up myself."
Kimera gaped at her, "You wouldn't? You saw what they did to me. I didn't do a fucking thing to them and they chase me down and run me through more times than I could count."
"Watch your mouth young lady." Kazira raised a hand and placed on the back of her only child's head and pulled her close. "I understand your anger and I am sorry that they did this to you because of me…" Kimera began to struggle in her arms at the reminder of her pain being the fault of her mother. "… Stop it, I'm not letting go." Pulling her away from her and kneeling in front of her, Kazira was eye to eye with her little girl. "I know that you hate the fact that your father was killed by these people for loving me, and I also know that you want them all dead, am I right?" At Kimera's small nod she continued. "Well then, why don't you."
A small toothy smile appeared on her face. "Really mom? You mean I can destroy the whole village?" The eagerness was clear in her voice. Kazira could not disappoint her child anymore this night. "Of course my dear. You deserve retribution. Her I have am early birthday gift for you." Eyes wide with wonder. Kazira placed a hand over her chest and waited as a small black jewel appeared in her hand. Pressing it to the front of Kimera's chest she chanted an old spell that would bind a part of her with her daughter. "There my dear, now a part of me shall always be with you to protect and serve as you see fit. Neat huh?" Kimera was ecstatic with her new gift. "Um, mommy, how do I use it?"
"Simple dear, you just tell it what to do and it will be done."
"Can I name her after you?"
Kazira smiled at the sweet gesture. "I would be honored, Oh Powerful One." They shared a small laugh together before the happiness was shattered by a fearful scream. "Fucking Hell mommy I almost forgot about the women."
"What did I say about swearing young lady? Now go on to those ungrateful bitches and tear them apart for mummy would you?" she laid a sweet kiss on her bloodied hair.
"Ok mom, anything for you." She reached up and smiled contently as the tall woman scooped her up in her strong arms and held her to her breast. "You should feed before you leave this dreadful place Kimmy, you'll need your strength for your chores." Kimera snorted and snuggled into her mother a little bit more before looking up into her glowing green eyes. "How do I get eyes like yours mommy?"
"You have to kill a few people first dear and then when you are of age you will have beautiful eyes that shine like the moon and in any color your black little heart desires." Kazira placed Kimera back on the ground and walked backwards a few steps. "Hurry up and come home to me dear one, for I have many more gifts for you to receive." She shimmered away right before her eyes. Another scream tore into the night. They must have found the bodies of the men from earlier. Placing a small hand over the jewel imbedded into her chest she closed her eyes and whispered, "Kazira Demona, help me kill them." Her hand dropped away and her eyes snapped open.
'As you wish child. Let my hunger be sated for the first time'
End Flashback