A Kid Like Her (A Riddick - Jack Romance/Adventure Story)

Haunted

The following morning Jack wasn't herself. Riddick came into the galley and could tell immediately. When the hell are you going to stop lettin' that bastard do this to you? Never fails, next day after a nightmare, you're not yourself.

He walked past her and ruffled her unkempt hair. "Mornin', kid."

She ran her fingers through the locks to straighten them back out instead of slapping his hand like she usually did. "I'll be in the gym," she mumbled.

She always went there after a nightmare. It was her way of fighting her demons. She had her music going, her favorite twentieth century songs from Earth, got on the gloves, and attacked the punching bag.

She was born Audrey Jacqueline Landers to Sophia and Arad Landers. Her mother, a troubled teen, had run away from home and met her father, a man who was a good ten years older than her.  In spite of the age difference, they fell in love, got married and  had her.   But then Audrey's dad passed away not long after her birth, leaving her mother without any means of support.   Sophia returned home to the only family she had, her sister.  That's how she ended up being raised by Jacqueline and Lyle Bennett,  Sophia's sister and brother-in-law. They took Jack and raised her as their own from the age of one.

Although Jacqueline and Lyle already had two children, twin boys who were thirteen years older than Audrey, they had always wanted a third child, but failed to conceive.  Needless to say, when baby Jack came along, they doted on her, especially her brothers, and she idolized them. Her father was her knight in shining armor and her mother was her best friend.

Her life was wonderful until she was ten when she lost yet another father to a massive heart attack. Her brothers, who had graduated college, had moved out, leaving her and her mother alone. In her grief and loneliness, Jacquline turned to alcohol to deaden her pain, then to a man named Marcus.

From the beginning, Marcus made Audrey feel uncomfortable, only her mother never noticed. His more than fatherly touches made her skin crawl from the start. After he married her mother, his attentions grew progressively more vile.

She felt helpless or rather he made her feel that way because he threatened her mother's life if she ever told anyone. That meant going to her brothers for help was out of the question. On her eleventh birthday, hell came to her bedroom, changing her life forever. Audrey decided she had to leave and never return. Getting used to Marcus' attentions, as he told her she would, was the very last thing she intended on doing.  How she could afford to leave was the question.

At an Internet coffee house, where she went for breakfast almost daily, she befriended some older kids and soon found out they were hackers. It took a little while and nagging on her part, but she cajoled them into teaching her. She got quite good at it, too.  Over six months, she had hacked enough credits to leave and start a new life.

Everything was ready.  And then to her horror, Marcus found out.

"Audrey," he sneered.  "What were you planning? You thought you could leave me and what we have? You must have thought you were a clever little bitch. Hiding your bag under your bed? I thought you might try something, so I searched your room. You've really been a bad little girl haven't you? Bad girls get punished Audrey. I thought you understood that."

What happened after that was a violent blur.   Audrey fought him and ran, managing to get as far as the kitchen door before he grabbed a fistful of her long hair. Instinct took over and she seized the first thing she could get her hands on – a butcher knife.  She stabbed him four times, killing him. Without hesitation, she took her bag and left that night.

Being a girl was too dangerous and she would never allow another man to touch her.  Audrey Landers died that night.  With her long hair now cut short like a boy, Jack Landers was born.