TRUST ME WHEN NIGHT FALLS 20

Twenty

Imam couldn’t see the creature when he left the safety of their room; the eerie green light from the flares he carried cast such a bright glare that he couldn’t see much beyond their sweep. He could hear it though; its claws scraped on the floor as it stayed just out of his light. It made almost no sound and he wondered if the creatures had adapted to the survivor’s ability to hear them. Perhaps they spoke to each other in some other way.

As fascinated as Imam was by the creatures, he didn’t stop on his run through the ship, until he got to the partly open bay doors. The circle of light ahead shook and swung about wildly, which let Imam know where Riddick was. He could hear more creatures outside and he said a silent prayer before he stepped out of the doorway.

He knew he wasn’t a brave man; adventures had never really appealed to him, and he was more afraid now than he had ever been in his entire life before this, but he ran forward anyway.

He swung the flares out in a circle, and made the creatures that were there fall back. For the first time he saw them, and felt himself pale at the sight of the cruel teeth, and their strange hammerheads, weapons in themselves. He wanted to freeze; he wanted to turn back to the safety of the small room at the end of the ship, but he did neither.

While he had sat in the ship he had thought a lot about Riddick, and about what sort of a life he had lived before this. Imam, like the others, had only known him for a very short time; there was no way to be sure that Riddick would come back, but he knew in his heart that he would; that he would do everything in his power to return. For Shazza, and Jack; even for him. He prayed aloud for strength and ran to catch Riddick before he fell, “are you all right, Mr. Riddick?”

Riddick looked up in surprise as Imam grabbed his arm and steadied him before he fell; he hadn’t expected that anyone had heard him, never mind come out after him. He didn’t know what to say at first, he had thought he would die out here, within sight of the relative safety of the ship.

The creatures had swooped above him and got closer and closer with every pass, as though they dared themselves, to see how close to the light they could get without being burned. One flew into the other, whether on purpose or accidentally he couldn’t tell, but the end result was a gash on his thigh as the creature lashed out with a claw before it died.

He thought he would die out here, and never see them again. He thought he would never see Shazza again. “It’s a clean cut, but these fuckers are starting to kill themselves just to take us out, we better get inside. How…”

Imam barely heard the profanity and he grinned from ear to ear just at the sound of Riddick’s voice. “Shazza and Jack are safe, Mr. Riddick.” Riddick turned his head and looked away as he smiled, but he didn’t fool Imam who had also watched the way that Riddick had looked at Shazza.

The green flares cast strange shadows as they entered the ship once more. The creature that had been there before was still there, and it edged closer to the light, drawn by the scent of fresh blood. It hissed through its teeth and followed them closely; occasionally it risked the light of the flares, a light which died a little more the further they got into the ship.

Imam didn’t know if the flares were old, or defective, or if they simply were not meant to burn for a long period of time, but the flares would not last. “We should hurry…”

Riddick leaned heavily on Imam as they stumbled through the ship. The creature fell back further when they were in the narrow corridors, as the flare seemed brighter there, with more surfaces to reflect the light. It edged closer when they ran out into the open bay right before the hatch door, as though it knew that once its prey was behind that door it wouldn’t get another chance.

“Hold it off; I’ll get the hatch open…” Riddick leaned against the door and began to turn the wheel for the hatch. His heart skipped a beat when he heard someone on the other side, as they tried to open the door from their side, and his chest tightened at the thought of Shazza; if he had the time to be confused by it, he would be. Everything about Shazza left him confused.

The creature began to squeal as Riddick swung the door open and it gnashed its teeth and clicked its claws together as it rushed forward. Shazza swung the door open and reached out for Riddick, her face stricken with panic, her heart raced and every exhale was a strangled squeal of terror as the creature rushed forward, its jaws wide open to display it’s wicked teeth.

Riddick tried to pull at Imam, but Imam froze, and looked back once at the wide-open hatch door. It framed Riddick and Shazza, and Jack behind them both, her hands in claws at the sides of her face. So frightened she couldn’t even scream.

No. It wasn’t going to happen; he would not let it happen. He pulled himself free from Riddick’s grasp with enough force that Shazza and Riddick both stumbled backwards into the room. Riddick pulled himself back to the doorway to go after Imam and stared in shock as Imam cried out, “there is my god, Mr. Riddick!” as he swung the last embers of the green flare and smashed the Molotov cocktail he had carried in his pocket the entire time.

Instantly engulfed in flames, Imam threw himself at the creature and drove it from the hatch door; he pulled at the creature, and held on, until they both burned brightly for a moment.

Riddick screamed out for Imam as Shazza and Jack held him back. He had seen hundreds of people die in his short brutal life, by his hand, or others, but he couldn’t bear to watch Imam burn out in the bay with the creature pinned underneath him, dead.

He closed his eyes tightly against the sight; he just couldn’t look anymore. Shazza’s screams had turned into hoarse moans at every breath, without even the strength to scream anymore, and yet she pulled at Riddick with a grip born of madness. She slammed the hatch door closed and Riddick turned the wheel and closed them in.

He rested his head against the metal, his eyes jammed shut, as he whispered Imam’s name, shaken to the core. Imam had died; he had given his life. For him.

He turned and pressed his back heavily into the door; Shazza wouldn’t be able to hold him up, or herself, for long. Her skin was mottled with shock and her eyes were glassy; her mouth wide in a scream that she no longer had a voice for, just a dry rasp that tore at him. Her fingers still gripped his arm fiercely, her knuckles ice white against his skin, as though she was terrified to let him go; blood began to run down his arm where her nails bit in, but he didn’t care.

She trembled in his arms when he pulled her tight to him and he could feel her, even now, as she fought not to cry, but it was no use. She had seen too much and dealt with too much and she couldn’t take any more. He held her tightly as she at first fought her tears and then succumbed to them, not out of any weakness, but out of exhaustion.

Riddick put his arm around Jack too, and held them both as though if he let go they would vanish. The lump in his throat made it hard to swallow and his shirt quickly soaked through with Shazza’s tears, but he wouldn’t let her go, he couldn’t. He pulled them both tighter and buried his nose in Shazza’s hair. He bit his lip, hard, and his breath hitched but he wasn’t about to let either of them go; nothing had ever mattered to him so much.

Riddick listened to Shazza’s breath as it slowed and, as he had earlier with Jack, he stroked her back until she lay still against him. She pulled her head up a little from where she had buried it and pressed her nose into his chest and breathed deeply, as if she needed to prove to herself that this was all real, that it had happened.

Her lips whispered against his soaked shirt, “you came back”, as her hand covered his heart. Riddick realized, as he held her, that he could never have done anything else; that he would have died to come back for her, that he very nearly had done just that.

His fingers tangled in her hair when she finally looked up at him and their eyes held each other for what felt like forever; there was no fear in her eyes, or wariness. It wasn’t the empty gaze of the bought and defeated. There was her fire underneath, and trust, and something deeper, he had no name for it but it made his heart hurt. No one had ever looked at him like that before.

Jack stirred against him as she wiped her own tears on her shirt sleeve to look up at him. He found her radiant smile irresistible and grinned back at her as she beamed at him. “Never had a doubt.” He chuckled softly as he leaned down to kiss her forehead and squeezed her even tighter. His hand ran over the stubble of the back of her head as he turned his head to watch Shazza again.

next…