Pain and Possession

The ringing of her doorbell three weeks later made Caron scowled as she wondered who it was calling on her so late at night. She opened her door to see Detective Masters and her lips pursed with annoyance.

“What the hell do you want--” she began but was silenced when his arm lashed out and he slapped her with the back of his hand in her mouth. A cry of surprise, rage and pain escaped her and before she could do anything he pushed into her house, foed bed by three other men.

Grabbing her by the hair he dragged her kicking and screaming into her living room and threw her into the chair.

“Search the house for the brat, he’s here somewhere” he directed the men who came with him.

“No!” Caron screamed as she realized what he was up to. She knew from the instant she saw him Detective Masters was nothing but trouble. She jumped off the couch and tried to run into the room where her son was sleeping.

“Oh no you don’t…” Masters told her and grabbed her by the waist and threw her back down, this time sitting on her. Caron struggled with him, desperate to save her son.

“Please don’t do this” she begged him unashamedly trying to heave his big body off hers.

“You brought this on yourself” he said to her amiably “I tried to warn you but you didn’t listen.”

The sudden sound of Rick’s wailing could be heard through the house and Caron’s struggles increased as he heard her child’s distress. Lifting her head she bit the nearest part of Masters her mouth could reach and savored the sound of his pain as he bellowed it loudly.

“You fucking bitch!” he screamed drawing back and punching her in the face and with a gasp of pain Caron let go of him. Grabbing his injured body part Master’s got off her body and delivered another slap to her face and another, incensed at the pain she had caused him.

Caron covered her head as best she could with her arms trying to ignore the pain that was shooting through her body. The sound of her son crying was loud in her ear and an excruciating pain in her chest. She didn’t know what hurt more, the fact that he was frightened and needed her or the fact that she couldn’t go to him and comfort him.

When Masters was able to control his anger he stopped hitting her long enough to jerk her to her feet. Shaking her roughly he asked, “Where the fuck is he?”

“I don’t know” she said truthfully. No one knew where Riddick was.

That earned her another slap, she was sure that one loosened a tooth.

“You’re going to put that filthy murdering lover of yours before your son?” he asked in disbelief.

“No…” she whispered, trying to think over the loud ringing in her ear “I don’t know where he is…I swear I don’t”

He struck her again.

“Dad I think she’s telling the truth” one of the young men spoke up uncomfortably.

Caron gazed at him gratefully thr a r a rapidly swelling eye, hoping his father would listen to him.

“Shut your fucking trap Daniel” Masters snarled at his son and resumed shaking Caron. After a few minutes more when he got nothing but the same answer from her over and over again he threw her down in disgust.

“Let’s go” he said to the men who were with him, looking down at her trembling body he told her callously, ‘If you want your son bsendsend your lover to come and get him. Try to report this and you’ll be burying your son…if you can find all the pieces”

“No” she screamed and ran after them but one of the men laughed cruelly and gave her a rough shove that sent her reeling into the wall and she fell heavily.

After they had left it took Caron a few minutes to get control of herself. Weeping uncontrollably she rained curses upon the heads of Riddick, Masters and even Johns who was no longer a part of the mortal world. The departing screams of Rick were replaying themselves in her head unenly aly and she started to fear that she would loose her mind.

She had never felt so helpless and broken before, she was so tired of being the victim, she was tired of it all. Caron had no idea how long she laid there crying her heart and soul out for the only person who mattered most in her life. It seemed like everything inside her had shriveled up and died within her with his abduction. The pain she was feeling was like a hundred pound weight on her and she couldn’t even bring herself to move so she lay where she had fallen and cried helplessly.

When she had no more tears she laid silently staring at the door which they hadn’t even bothered to close behind them. Through the door she apathetically watched as the sun made its presence known in the azul sky and then as it sank out of view to make way for the moon to glisten peacefully down upon the earth. There was no peace within her though, only the empty, yawning ache of a mother who had lost her child, it was ache that ate away at her soul and her sanity.

She felt nothing but a deep yearning for her child and a vulnerability that made her feel useless. She couldn’t even save her own child, she was a horrible mother. Caron ignored the hunger pains her body sent as a signal for her to eat and the soreness of lying on the hard floor in one position all night brought her. The heart ache she felt was so extensive any other pain or discomfit paled in comparison.

It was the shrill ringing of the phone that finally brought her back to her senses and made her move. Thinking that maybe it was Masters calling to tell her he was bringing back Rick, she scrambled painfully towards the instrument, ignoring the stabbing sensation in her s ass as blood flowed through them.

“Hello?” she sobbed into the phone. All she got was silence.

“Hello” she screamed, desperate for some word of her son. Again there was no reply. Caron knew someone was on the phone listening to her, she knew without a doubt.

“Please…” she begged shamelessly, “Please…” her entire being hurt and it wasn’t only from the physical pain she was feeling either. She was begging for her son back, for her life back. She was begging for all of this to be an awful nightmare that she would wake up from any second.

“I want my baby back...I just want my baby back” she sobbed into the phone and then slowly sank to the floor, once more overwhelmed by her grief. She drew her knees up and placed her head on them and closed her eyes at a total lost of what to do next.

She couldn’t go to the cops, Masters had made that clear, there was no one to help her. She couldn’t even go to Riddick; she had no clue how to find him. She had no one. Caron closed her eyes in despondence as she wracked her brain to come up with a solution. In the end her body found one for her. Sleep.

She was so exhausted that she slipped into a deep sleep without even realizing.