{"id":134,"date":"2022-09-07T18:34:11","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T22:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/?p=134"},"modified":"2023-01-14T14:10:06","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T19:10:06","slug":"the-slow-burn-chapter-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/the-slow-burn-chapter-4\/","title":{"rendered":"The Slow Burn, Chapter 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Title:<\/b> The Slow Burn<br \/>\n<b>Chapter:<\/b> 4 of ?<br \/>\n<b>Fandom:<\/b> Pitch Black<br \/>\n<b>Synopsis:<\/b> This is a reworked version of chapter 4 of <i>The Slow Burn<\/i>, which was my first attempt at fan fiction. It was semi-successful, but I stopped writing it after I found my real calling with Apprentice. Now I\u2019m revisiting it. The story adds an original character to the group of survivors, and this time around I\u2019m trying to strip away any and all Mary Sue qualities she possessed. In this heavily reworked chapter, Fiona deals with the fallout of a shooting, and spies someone spying on her and the others.<\/p>\n<input type='hidden' bg_collapse_expand='6aac0bdadb62f3085255429' value='6aac0bdadb62f3085255429'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-more-text-6aac0bdadb62f3085255429' value='This story has, overall, an X rating, and is derived from an R-rated movie. By clicking on this link to access the story, you are declaring that you are 18 years of age or older, and that this content is not illegal in your place of residence.'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-less-text-6aac0bdadb62f3085255429' value='Hide the story again.'><button id='bg-showmore-action-6aac0bdadb62f3085255429' class='bg-showmore-plg-button bg-green-button  '   style=\" color:#D9ECFB;\">This story has, overall, an X rating, and is derived from an R-rated movie. By clicking on this link to access the story, you are declaring that you are 18 years of age or older, and that this content is not illegal in your place of residence.<\/button><div id='bg-showmore-hidden-6aac0bdadb62f3085255429' ><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;margin-bottom: 20px\"><b>4.<br \/><u>Fiona: Eye To Eye With the Devil<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">\u201cSeriously, Fiona, I\u2019m fine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">\u201cYou\u2019re not, Jack. Your face is turning red.\u201d It was a little hard to tell in the light of the newly-risen third sun \u2014 <i>everything<\/i> looked bluish \u2014 but Fiona was positive that the heat and exertion were overwhelming the younger girl.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">\u201cSo are your <i>shoulders.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Well, damn, they did feel itchy. Of course she was getting sunburnt. \u201cThen let\u2019s <i>both<\/i> get out of the sun. I\u2019m sure Shazza will understand when she sees us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Shazza, who had put the now-notorious cutting torch to work at opening doors in the cargo container, immediately conscripted the two of them to help her in its shade. Fiona begged off for a few minutes so she could hunt up the sunblock and aloe she knew was in her family\u2019s already-open unit, because the itch was starting to turn into a genuine sting. That was how she missed the start of the excitement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">She was still in the process of slathering lotion on her shoulders and back when she heard Jack shout <i>\u201cNo!\u201d<\/i> <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Had Mr. Riddick returned? She set the lotions aside, glancing around the compartment for the pry-bar Shazza had given her just moments earlier. Her own survival still didn\u2019t hold much allure for her, but if Jack was in trouble\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">A man\u2019s voice, one she didn\u2019t recognize, high with stress and definitely not Riddick\u2019s, began to speak. His words were muffled by the compartment wall, but before she could begin to piece together what he was saying, shots rang out.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Fiona ran back into the main corridor, her pry-bar uselessly raised in one hand, in time to see a strange man crumple to the ground in front of Shazza, Jack, and Paris. Shazza, she realized, was liberally splashed with the man\u2019s blood. Zeke stood a short distance from the cargo container\u2019s opening, lowering a gun.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">\u201cIt was just somebody <i>else,<\/i>\u201d Jack was yelling at Zeke. \u201cSomebody else from the <i>crash!<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Fiona barely heard Zeke\u2019s answer, arrested by the sight of the man on the ground. For one horrible moment, she\u2019d thought it was her father. The build was similar, but after a closer look her heart stopped lurching and calmed. It wasn\u2019t. Of course it wasn\u2019t. Her father had died hours ago. A pang of grief skewered her as she realized that she\u2019d gotten through the last several hours by pretending her family was still alive and just off in some other part of the crash site. Whoever this poor man had been, he was a stranger to her. Much of his body was covered in second and third-degree burns, she noticed, wondering if he would have actually survived much longer if Zeke <i>hadn\u2019t<\/i> shot him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">She stood up and moved away from the body, which still had the full attention of the others, and found herself transfixed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Someone was sitting on top of the crash ship, in Paris\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Someone she recognized.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Riddick.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Her breath caught and held. Beside her, she could hear the others still fussing over what Zeke had done, unaware.  As she watched, Riddick raised one of Paris\u2019s wine bottles in their direction in a mocking toast before taking a long swallow. She could feel his eyes on them, on <i>her.<\/i> She almost thought she could make out a smirk on his face and wished her distance vision was better.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\"><i>Hide,<\/i> she thought urgently, the nauseating copper tang of blood catching in her nose and throat. <i>They\u2019ll kill you if they see you. Hide!<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">There was no way he could hear her unspoken thoughts, but almost as if in answer, Riddick stood, stretched once, and dropped lightly to the desert floor. Bottle still in hand, he vanished behind the ship.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">The breath that had been lodged in her throat escaped at last.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">\u201cWell, now you have one more grave to dig, Zeke,\u201d Shazza groused. \u201cLet\u2019s hope it\u2019s the last. Faugh, I need to get this blood off me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">\u201cHey Fiona, you have anything she can use to clean up with?\u201d Jack asked, drawing her eyes away from the ship.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">She nodded, hoping her voice would be steady when she spoke and then realizing they wouldn\u2019t care if it wasn\u2019t. \u201cLet me go grab it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">Her voice, she realized, was entirely <i>too<\/i> steady. She knew she should be shocked. She should be horrified at how casually death had been meted out to a total stranger, a <i>harmless<\/i> stranger. She should feel <i>something<\/i>, but the closest she was able to come was her concern for Jack\u2026 and, surprisingly, for Riddick. As she dug a bottle of astringent out of her locker, she wondered how long she would stay numb.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:.25in\">And worse, what would happen once the numbness receded.<\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Title: The Slow Burn Chapter: 4 of ? Fandom: Pitch Black Synopsis: This is a reworked version of chapter 4 of The Slow Burn, which was my first attempt at fan fiction. It was semi-successful, but I","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"\u201cThe Slow Burn\u201d chapter 4 by Ardath Rekha","bgseo_description":"Fiona deals with the fallout of a shooting, and spies someone spying on her and the others.","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fan-fiction","category-the-slow-burn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions\/139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}