Morph

Chapter 19: Q&A

Riddick’s POV

Jack and I debated if we should wake Jason up so he could get something to eat. We agreed on letting him rest for a while longer. After we eat we take a seat in the cockpit. Staring into the star filled space in front of us. Jack is quiet, very quiet. By now she knows, that waiting is her best asset. Whenever I was ready to talk I would. The girl knows me well. The part she doesn’t know is what took place before I met her. Jack kicks her feet up on the console. Looking at her now, I realize how strong she is, how strong she’s always been. She has sacrificed so much for me. I’ll never understand why. Why me? The five years we were apart seemed like a lifetime. She’d grown even more beautiful and graceful if that is even possible. My Jack.

“Bruce Carmine entered my life when I was 8 years old. The orphanage gave him guardianship over me. I remember being so excited because I finally had parents. We actually became close. He took me on my first trip around to the outer rings. They were the most beautiful planet I’d ever seen. A few months later things changed. Immediately I knew something was wrong. My home wasn’t a house, but a laboratory. They made me take tests every day. Visual tests, reflex tests, math tests, communication skills, you name it, they made me do it. Carmine always commended me on how smart I was and how proud he was. By the time I was 12, things weren’t the same. My body began to change; I began to go through psychosis. One time I attacked one of the nurses that watched over me... I can’t even remember doing it.” Jack sits up, her whole focus on me. I can see the hurt in her eyes.

“He used you” she says it as if I was unaware.

I lick my lips and sigh. “He did, but only until I started using him. He’d take me around the compound, showing me off as his ‘son’. Secretly I started using the terminals in the library and educating myself. I even found my old friend from the orphanage, Kurt. Of course I had to hack into the orphanages files, but it was piece of cake for me cooperating with them. Only given them enough to leave me alone, but kept my own ability hidden. Little by little I worked on developing my ‘gift’. I gained more and more control over it.”

Jack has a sly grin, “Until you were ready to strike”

“Exactly.” I sit back in the chair.

“So what did you do?” Jack asks wide-eyed. I can’t help but smile every time I see this side of Jack. Its like she’s a child but not quite.

I shake my head, “No way, it’s your turn” Her eyebrows frown slightly. “I share a story, you share a story... What? Did you think I was going to pour my heart out and get nothing in return?” The truth is, Jack needs to do nothing and I’d give her the world, but I’m also anxious to know a few things about her past. Not that conning her into spilling isn’t fun either, it is!

“Fine. Ask me anything” Jack is the opposite from me. If there’s something I want to know about her I have to ask, because if not she’d shut herself down completely.

Pressing my lips together I linger on what to ask her. I want to make it good, something she can’t prance around.

“Tell me about your mother” suddenly her features change completely. Jack now looks she did back on the planet, frightened and vulnerable. She closes her eyes, as if the thought alone causes her pain. “Jack I’m sorry, maybe you were too young, this isn’t...” she shushes me to my surprise.

“No its OK. I’ve put it off for a long time.” Jack says.

I’m tempted to look into her mind, but decide against it, This is her story to tell and she does.

“My mother and I were so close. She’s was beautiful, long golden hair, the palest green eyes you ever saw. Her skin was so impossibly pale and bright. When my father cheated on her she didn’t even think about taking him back, once she made up her mind that was it. She told me once to always hold my head high and never settle. She was my hero!” she lets out a nervous laugh, “At least that’s what I try to remember of her. After we moved to Earth, things kind of went to hell. I was only 11 years old and she had to work long hours just so we could eat and have a place to stay. We bounced from place to place trying to survive. That life wasn’t meant for her, she couldn’t handle it after a while. She started drinking after she came home from work, to relieve some stress as she said. Then it seemed like she did it all the time, she even went to work drunk. Needless to say she lost her job and we ended up in the street. I had to quite school so I could work at this chop-shop that paid miserably but it bought us food.” Jack stands up and gazes over at the stars then at me.

“It wasn’t her fault kid, she tried.” I try to reassure her. She scoffs and fidgets where she stands.

“Yeah well, by the time I was 13 years old, she’d become a drug addict. She didn’t even look like my mother anymore. Her hair started falling out, her teeth were rotten and her eyes became lifeless. She even stole from me. I’d go to work all day and when I came home I had to give her all my earnings so she could support her habit.

Jack’s eyes are watery. I want to get up and hold her tight, make all her pain go away, but I can tell she’s not done yet. I let her go on. This time her voice is more agitated.

“One day there wasn’t any money left and she couldn’t get credit from her drug dealer. She offered to sleep with them, but they didn’t want that, they’d had her too much. So.... she took me into a bathroom...... and put makeup on my face..... and perfume...on my body. Then she asked me “Do you love your mother?” She knew I’d do anything for her so she took me into a room and laid me on the bed and let that man do whatever he wanted to with me! Every time after that whenever I’d look at her face I would see him!” her tears are flowing freely and her body language is apprehensive.

Without question, without words, I stand and hold her in my arms, letting her cry on my chest. I’d been wrong about her; I thought she was strong before; she’s unbreakable.

“Never again, Jack, no one will ever hurt you again. I promise” and I intend on keeping my promise no matter what it takes.

To be continued...