The Games We Play

Ally_Ranger


Chapter Nine

"Can’t say I’m pleased to meet you," Riddick said through gritted teeth. Casteel was sitting directly above his two broken ribs and her legs were forcing his arms to push against them, causing him a great deal of pain.

"And just who might you be?" he asked.

"You’re worst nightmare, it would seem," she said squeezing her legs slightly. He grunted at the pain. "But you can call me Casteel."

Now it was Riddick’s turn to be surprised. "Casteel?" he said, seeking clarification. He could not believe what he had just heard. It simply wasn’t possible.

Casteel smiled cheekily, leaning closer to Riddick, until her face was just inches from his. "Heard of me? Hmm." She paused, "I hope not all-bad things."

Riddick felt cold metal touch his neck and he realised that his own shiv was poised to draw blood. His blood. *Dammit, she could be Casteel,* he thought. *No Merc has ever held my own god-damn shiv at my throat before, not even Johns. And she was so FAST.*

"You’re not what I expected," he said. He’d heard of Casteel. Personally he thought that he, *she, now*, he amended, was a figment of the imagination of Slam’s loonier inhabitants: a Merc so good that it was said that if Casteel had you in his sights, you were better off surrendering peacefully to the law. Nobody escaped Casteel.

And this woman, this girl, sitting on his chest, claimed to be Casteel? Despite her obvious strength and ability, Riddick wasn’t entirely sure. But he wasn’t going to test her, not with the finely honed blade of his shiv touching his carotid artery. The girl claiming to be Casteel shrugged her shoulders, "you expected a man? They all do. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a ‘boy’s universe’. Anything done well," she said, lowering her voice to be manly, " ‘must have been a man’", she smiled again, " therefore, a successful Merc must be a man." She shrugged and sat back up, "of course, having people expecting you to be man has its advantages, but we won’t go into that here."

The shiv tapped lightly against his neck. Riddick needed a break of some kind. He had to gain control of the situation, Casteel or not, this girl was dangerous to his health, not to mention what she might have done to Jack. He looked up at the monitors, afraid that Jack might have been hit in the tussle. They were beeping all clear.

Casteel followed his gaze. "What exactly is your interest in this girl?" she said, her face now impassive.

Riddick returned the gaze steadily. "Why don’t you go first, ‘Casteel’," he said snidely, "why don’t you tell me what you did to her and then I’ll tell you about my ‘interest in the girl’". She raised her eyebrows at his tone, but otherwise appeared to be completely unruffled by his implied threat.

"Hmm. My snarkish meter has just gone through the roof. You harbour a large amount of hostility, Riddick, or would you prefer Richard? Dick, perhaps? Did you suffer an immensely traumatic childhood? ‘Cause I’m sensing Uber crankiness."

Riddick struggled, rage coursing through his body. Not even John’s had talked to him like that. Casteel squeezed her legs to quell his physical tirade and he tried not to cry out in pain. He stopped moving and Casteel stopped squeezing.

"You’re just going to have to accept that you are not in charge of this situation, Dick," she said, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, "I am. For your own safety, I suggest that you keep that thought foremost in your mind." She paused to think, then continued, "I guess you won’t be cooperating unless I answer your question. What did I do to the girl? I saved her life," Riddick looked away, not believing her for a second, "when I got to her she had been cut up rather badly, diced is probably a more accurate description, but alive. I brought her to this hospital and ensured that she got treated. End of story. Now it’s your turn," she grabbed his chin firmly with her hand and forced him to look into her eyes, "what is your interest in the girl?"

Riddick tried not to look at her, the bright lights from above irritated his eyes. It hurt to look at her and he knew that she knew it. "I don’t have an interest in the girl, I just like to hang out at hospitals. It’s one of my quirks of my deviant behaviour."

She leaned back and put her hand into the pocket of his trousers. Riddick flinched, expecting the worst, but instead she brought her hand back out and with it his newly acquired police ID.

"No, Dick, or should I say, ‘Officer’ Dick, it really IS just a quirk in your oh-so-deviant behaviour that you happened to be masquerading as an officer of the law, going around asking staff about the very same girl that you claim to have no interest in. Wrong answer, try again."

"Fuck you," he said.

"Only in your dreams, Big Boy. Only in your dreams."

Casteel ran the shiv slowly along the path of his artery as she said this. She raised the knife, as if to plunge it into his neck and Riddick was sure that she was going to kill him.

Instead she clasped her hands together and swung them like a baseball bat at his head, knocking him unconscious, the blade of the shiv held securely between her palms.

"Nice chatting to you Dick, but if you aren’t going to cooperate, I have no use for you." She grabbed him by the feet and dragged him into the bathroom. She left him on the floor and shut the door firmly.

A quick glance around the room to confirmed that it didn’t look like the site of a bar brawl. She marched to the door and opened it roughly, "You, Guard," she said, startling the boy awake. She pulled her ID out and tossed it at him, "get some orderlies here now, the girl is being moved."

The boy looked at her, flustered, "but Maam," he started, but Casteel wouldn’t let him continue "but bloody nothing, you little rodent. I’ve given you an order, instead of debating it, follow it. Orderlies now."

He pulled out a communicator and stuttered her request. Casteel left him in the hall to quiver. She moved to Jack’s bed and grabbed a pillow, taking it into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her. She divested it of its covering and used Riddick’s shiv to slice it into strips, which she then bound his wrists to the toilet seat with. She bound one arm loosely, so that he could move enough to free himself when he woke up, but with difficulty *can’t make it that easy for you Big Boy,* .

She stood up and surveyed her handiwork. Smiling, she knelt down and added one last touch to her little scene - she tied his bootlaces together.

"Let it never be said that Sarah Casteel doesn’t have a sense of humour", she said, before she took his shiv and rammed it into the doorjamb.

"Maam?"

Casteel turned at the sound of the boy’s voice from outside the door. She looked at Riddick again, then at the door.* Will he wake up before I can get the girl moved?*, she thought, *should I just kill – no, I don’t do THAT*. She whispered softly to him, "don’t cross paths with me again Riddick unless you’ve got a real death wish. I might not let you live if you strike out at me again."

She opened the door slightly and slipped through it. The boy had orderlies with him, and a rather irate looking Doctor. She sighed and closed the bathroom door, not seeing Riddick twitch as he began to regain consciousness.



 

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