Forgotten Past: Chapter Twenty-Change is Bad

   Carolyn was relieved to see the cut on her finger had scabbed over in
the normal color; a sort of reddish brown. The thought that maybe
she’d merely imagined the blue blood was trampled when she examined
the cloth she’d used to tie the wound with the previous day. It was
tinged with the bright blue blood and mingled with the red.

If she needed any more confirmation about the changes happening to
her, she got it when she caught her reflection in the tiny magnetic
mirror on her wall. Her usual silver eyes with their bright whites were
changed completely.

The whites were dark blue and the pupils were completely blacked out.

As she stumbled into the tiny lavatory sleepily, she thought about what
frog/man had said. Animal DNA crossed with liquefied aluthium caused
mutation if injected into the blood stream. But what if she’d gotten
some blood of the creature that had stabbed her mixed with her own?
And when she’d been sprayed with the aluthium...

A shudder wracked Carolyn’s body as she realized that was probably
the case. But that didn’t explain the changes before.

It didn’t explain why her hair had started to grow so quickly or why
she’d gone crazy. At first she’d thought the animal nature had taken
over because her life was threatened. No one to talk to. No real food.
Easy to lose one’s mind. But things still didn’t add up.

Did the blood of those creatures have mutation properties of its own?
The thought horrified Carolyn. What was happening to her? Or rather,
what was she changing into?

~~~

*

Two Weeks Later

*

“Reed.” Reed lifted his head to see Mark. “Our guy says Creed’s gone.”

Reed pushed away from the table and stood abruptly. “What did you
say?”

Mark nodded slowly. “Yeah. She disappeared about three weeks ago.
Probably right after we left.”

“Shit!” Reed cursed loudly and Mark stood silently.

“We’d better pick him up,” Mark stated finally.

“Pick him up? Why?”

“He’s no good to us down there. That hint on Creed was all we’ve
gotten from him in a year. I want to pull him out. Plus, his brother
misses him.”

Reed sat back down silently then nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, okay. We land
in twenty minutes. Radio him and tell him we’re pickin’ him up.”

Mark smiled. “Don’t worry about it, Reed. I bet I know where she is.”

“And where’s that?” Reed wanted to know.

“With the aluthium. This is Creed we’re talkin’ about here, isn’t it?”

Reed smiled without humor. “Yeah. It is. Go contact our guy, Mark.”

Mark nodded and headed for the com room. He picked up the line and
punched in the numbers.

“Yeah,” came the reply.

“Be ready for pick-up,” Mark said to the voice.

“All right. How long?”

“Twenty minutes. Be at the spaceport.”

“All right. This is Sly Waters, signing out.”

~~~

“What’s wrong?” Riddick questioned as he sat beside Carolyn.

She was scratching at the back of her hand. Welts were raising on her
skin and it was turning red from the abuse. When Carolyn didn’t
answer Riddick grabbed her hand, forcing her to stop. He realized he
hadn’t seen her without her dark glasses in two weeks, and wondered at
it.

“What’s wrong?” he repeated as she tried to yank her hand from his
grasp. There was a sort of desperation about her he didn’t recognize.

Carolyn finally yanked her hand away from Riddick’s, knowing she’d
only been able to get away because he’d allowed it. “Nothing,” she
gritted out, continuing with her scratching. The skin was angry and
swollen, but she didn’t care. Something was beneath the surface and she
was going to scratch at it until it came out.

Riddick could see that the other hand was equally red and swollen,
probably from more scratching. An impatient growl came from
Riddick’s chest as he grabbed Carolyn’s shoulders and forced her
around to face him. “Stop it. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

“To late,” was the heated reply and the scratching continued.

“Show me your eyes, Carolyn.”

The scratching ceased and Carolyn tilted her face up to look at Riddick
through her dark glasses. Her eye sight had changed. The rainbow of
purple and blue light that used to surround everything she saw was
gone. The color’s were back, but she could still see perfectly in the dark.
So, in a way, her vision was improved, but her eyes were freakier
looking than ever. The whites were completely black now and blended
in with the pupils, which had an eerie blue glow, different from that of
her shine job.

“What?” she finally managed, her breath catching. Carolyn still
remember that day, back on the Hunter-Gratzner, standing before
Riddick, asking him this same question.

“Show me your eyes,” he said again and reached slowly for her glasses.
The room was dark, and his goggles were slung around his neck.

Carolyn was entranced by the strange look in Riddick’s eyes. It was a
mixture of concern and regret, as if for something lost. His hand was on
the glasses when she finally regained her senses and jerked away. But
Riddick already had a hold of the glasses, and as Carolyn pulled away
the glasses stayed in Riddick’s hand.

Fear clutched at her heart at the thought of someone seeing what had
happened to her, and she turned away, closing her eyes. “Give them
back,” she demanded, holding her hand out, palm up, to Riddick.

Riddick had seen the fear etched on Carolyn’s face and could smell it
coming off of her in waves. Her blood was racing through her veins and
her heart was pumping a million miles a minute. “No. Not until you
show me your eyes.”

Very, very slowly, Carolyn sat back up, turning to Riddick. She knew
he wouldn’t leave her be until he got what he wanted. He could be like a
bulldog on a bone. When her face was directly in front of his she raised
her eyelids, showing him her black, blue tinged eyes.

Riddick’s breath caught in his chest, but he kept his face impassive.
“What is this?”

Carolyn saw her opportunity and snatched her dark glasses out of
Riddick’s limp fingers. She quickly covered her eyes with them again
and went to stand up, ignoring his question.

Hard fingers clamped to her wrist pulled her short. “I asked you a
question, Carolyn.”

He was standing now, and she hadn’t even heard him move. Pain and
confusion washed over Carolyn as she looked into his silver eyes.

“I don’t know! Something’s happening to me and I can’t stop it.” Utter
anguish twisted Carolyn’s features and Riddick pulled her against his
chest. She burrowed her face against his shoulder. “I can’t stop it,” she
repeated into his shirt and he stroked her hair soothingly.

A woman’s tears weren’t something Riddick was used to dealing with
and he found himself feeling helpless as he stood there, incapable of
thinking of what to say. So, Riddick opted for logical over comforting.

“You have to have some idea what did this,” he started easily.

Carolyn nodded then grabbed the torn edges of her composure and
calmed herself with a physical effort, pulling out of Riddick’s embrace.
She pulled off her glasses, no longer needing to hide from him behind
them. “Yeah. I think I need to sit down. Come with me, and I’ll tell you
what I know.”

Something her father used to say came to Carolyn as she led Riddick to
the room that branched off the captain’s suite in the bowels of the ship.
“Change is good,” he used to say. He’d said it when they’d moved away
from home. When she’d cut her hair short. When she’d changed her
mind about being a doctor, instead opting to be a pilot.

Shoulda been a doctor, she thought scornfully. If I’d been a doctor I’d
be back at Lunar Six, helping sick kids. But here I am today, a fugitive
space pirate that’s literally changing into a monster.

And yet, he’d always told her that. “Don’t fret about it, darlin’ girl,”
he’d say. “Change is good.”

Carolyn tried to tell herself that, repeating it like a mantra. Change is
good, change is good, change is good...

But not always, Daddy, her mind whispered. Sometimes change is bad.
Sometimes it’s very bad.

***

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