A FURYON'S MATE

Riddick entered the cockpit and looked at Matt. He was all comfy with his feet up on the console and his head back, eyes closed and music radiating from beside him.

“Come on in Riddick, have a seat.” Matt said never opening his eyes but pointing to the co-pilot’s chair.

“Riddick walked over and sat down. “Brought you a beer.” He said holding it out to Matt.

Matt opened his eyes and glanced at the man holding the beer. “Thanks.” He said swiping it from Riddick’s hand.

They were quiet for a long time before Riddick spoke. “You know, I remember one of the worst days of my life. I was 13 and in foster care. There was a little girl living in the house too. She was about 5 or so. I cared more about her than anyone else in the world. That was the first time I knew what love was. I loved her, she was my princess. She disappeared one night and after 2 weeks of searching I found her in a ditch. She had only been dead about a day. I never had felt pain like that before, never wanted to feel it again.
Riddick took a long drink trying to drown the memory.

Matt looked at him. “Did they find the person who did it?”

Riddick stared at the stars out the cockpit window. “Ya, but he got off on a technicality. So I found him about a week later and beat him to death with a lead pipe.”

Matt looked out the window as well. He knew what Riddick was trying to do and even though he would have told Riddick his story if the man would have just asked; he appreciated the confidence Riddick was putting in him.

“I got a girl pregnant in school, I was 16. I didn’t want anything to do with a child, or her really. Out of guilt I stuck around though, through everything. As the pregnancy went on I sort of started getting attached, the more I learned the more I got into it. Being a father I mean. Lexie, the girl, she died giving birth. We had really gotten a close relationship by then and she made me swear to take care of the child, which I would have anyway. We had a little girl. I named her Alexandria, called her Alex.”

Matt took another swig of beer and looked at Riddick real quick before looking back out into the stars.

“Alex had just turned 2 and I had graduated from school. Alexis and I spent a lot of time together; she helped out with Alex when she could. We were out at a club with some friends when a guy was hitting all over a girl in our group. I stood up to him, pissed them off royally, I was drunk so I smart mouthed the guy and he hit me. I went down; Alexis stepped up and kicked his ass and all his friends’ asses. It was awesome.” Matt said with a smile in his eyes. Then his face got dark. Riddick just watched him, knowing this story was not ending in a good way.

“I got home, paid the babysitter, checked on Alex. She was sound asleep. I kissed her forehead and turned and walked out of her room and went to mine, fell on the bed and crashed out. The next thing I remember was being held down on the bed by 4 or 5 guys. I was pretty fuzzy still at the time, but I quickly came to when I figured out what they were doing. They tore my clothes off me and flipped me over and raped me.” Matt paused at that thought for a moment. He took another long swig and continued. “The whole time all I could think was please, please, don’t wake up Alex. I did everything I could to make sure I didn’t scream. They seemed to be finishing and I sighed at the thought they were going to leave and she was OK.” Matt took another swig and shook his head as if trying to clear the memory. “They flipped me over again and the main guy, the one I pissed off who I could see clear as day then, had a knife. He….he castrated me.”

Riddick’s eyes shot to Matt, a look of shock clearly showing. Matt was looking at the beer bottle in his hand, not able to look at Riddick while he finished most of the story.

“I couldn’t help it, I screamed out, over and over again. They were all laughing and joking when we heard her. “Daddy, daddy, you OK?” They looked at the door where she was standing. I screamed for her to run, run away but they grabbed her.

Matt took a shaky breath, tears clearly showing in his eyes. “They took her and left.” He took another swig emptying his bottle. “She was found a couple days later, buried in a shallow grave about 1 mile from my home.”

Riddick just stared at Matt. “Jesus Matt, I am so sorry. I had no idea.” Riddick didn’t know what to say other than that. He had been witness to some pretty fucked up thing before, hell he had committed some pretty fucked up things but this, what Matt had gone through was more than he could have ever imagined for anyone to go through with their mind still in tact.

Matt took a long deep breath and then shook his head and wiped the tears from his eyes. He looked at Riddick with a small smile. “I told you there was nothing between me and Alexis, I can’t.”

Riddick suddenly felt like a piece of shit, and Matt must have sensed it. “Hey man, don’t feel bad about that. You couldn’t have had any idea. I just thought you should know, so there wouldn’t be any bad feelings or wrong ideas where Alexis and I are concerned.”

Riddick looked at Matt and smiled a little back, then he got serious, “Did they catch the guys who did it?”

Matt grinned looking at the bottle again. “Ya, they caught them and convicted them. They didn’t last a month in prison before the other inmates found out why they were there and took care of them.

Riddick smiled back, “Ya, nothing a real convict hates more than a pedophile. I’ve taken care of a few of them myself.”

Matt nodded and Riddick stood up grabbing Matt’s empty bottle. “Want another?”

Matt looked up and him. “Nah, that’s enough. You should get some rest anyway. We will be landing in a little over 12 hours.”

Riddick nodded and walked out. He took the bottle back to the galley and put them along with the other bottles in the recycler. He left the galley and walked to Alexis’s room. Entering he saw her lying curled up on her side sleeping peacefully. He quietly walked to the bed and climbed on it next to her. He cuddled up behind her and gently put his hand on her flat stomach and smiled. He leaned forward and kissed the back of her neck then closed his eyes to rest himself.