Who: Riddick riddickr What: Observations When: Thursday, September 24, late night Where: Outside Elaine Mallory's home Rating: Audience Discretion is Advised Warnings: Stalker!Riddick is a stalker. Status: Closed/Completed Narrative
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Civilization was a trap designed to cage a man without him realizing he was allowing himself to be caged. Society put pressure on people to get jobs where they had to follow someone else's rules, answer to someone else's whims, spend their time in a way someone else demanded they spend it. No one realized how trapped they were in their civilized little world until they tried to break away from what was considered 'normal' only to experience the backlash of daring to be different.
People never care for 'different.'
They were most comfortable in a world where everyone was cut from the same cloth using the same cookie cutter. None of the civilized little mice wanted to peek out of their holes to see someone wasn't a mouse like themselves---they were a cat. It was terrifying to the norms to imagine their compatriots might turn out to be dangerous; everything different was considered dangerous or lauded to be so by the rumor mill they all ran on with their little mousy feet.
Riddick had never been a mouse. He was the beast who had no name, the predator in the darkness, the animal no one wanted to admit existed.
'Been a long time since I cared who saw me watching in the dark.'
His words echoed in his head. The comment had been thrown away to Elaine when she'd been playing nice with him. It hadn't been something he had planned on saying which meant it wasn't something he'd wanted to say at all. Riddick never said anything unless he'd thought on it first. Words mattered seeing as they were what separated Man from Beast. The fewer words he used, the closer he was to embracing his animal nature.
Elaine Mallory made him wish he could handle civilization for a while. She held the kind of fascination for him which kept him watching night after night. Her looks weren't anything to sneeze at, but it was her essence that attracted Riddick. She was dangerous in the way he was dangerous: a predator in the guise of a person. Her magic could fry him if she wanted to unleash it on him. She'd threatened before and he didn't doubt it was possible.
What would she do if she thought he was really dangerous to her? Would she hit him with a lightning bolt? Rain hail on him from the sky? Curse him? What kind of magic was she capable of when pushed?
He wanted to know all those answers and more. Riddick wanted to know what made her laugh so he could aim for it. He wanted to know what made her cry so he could stop it before it happened. Hearing her walking was enough to make him stand at attention like a devoted guard dog. There was nothing he didn't find interesting about her and it was starting to worry him. She was getting too far under his skin.
Becoming too attached to someone made it too easy to become domesticated and what the fuck did he want with being a lapdog?
Riddick tried to focus on anything other than the sizzle of energy outside Elaine's house which warned him not to step any closer if he didn't want to find out what magic felt like up close and personal. He tried to think about how far he could get from her in a night's hard travel. Money wasn't something he craved though it was an unfortunate necessity he needed to find a way to earn. He could find a way to get paid.
All he'd have to do was leave Elaine.
She was asleep in her house. Safe in her bed. Elaine wouldn't know Riddick had left or was missing until she woke up the next morning. It wouldn't be anything to her if he vanished for a few hours to attend to his own interests. Riddick knew that as easily as he knew what his next breath of air was going to feel like entering his lungs. He also knew how many steps it was to the tree he'd decided to claim for himself and the best way to get up into its branches to put him on eye-level with Elaine's bedroom window.
Settling for the night, Riddick didn't think about how Elaine wouldn't miss him.
Instead he thought about how much he'd miss her and what it meant---nothing good he was sure.