VIOLENT HEART

(5/6) Chapter Five: Fevered Pitch

by DesertDragon

1.

Serenity cut through the silence of stars like a fish, swimming all alone in a great black ocean. The glow from her engines fluttered like fins, bouncing off of nothing.

Nothing except for that one sudden reflection off of a hard surface in the distance, all unseen.

A big dark, gray something that camouflaged itself with Serenity's ocean.

Stalking her like a shark.

2.

She had reached for him in the dark later that night.

The rungs on the ladder leading up had a slow glow about them that only made the deepness of Jayne's bunk that much blacker.

She couldn't have know what would be waiting for her; what was seemingly asleep right there next to her.

How much time had passed then, as Serenity swam in space, all unknowing of the black hole that had opened up inside of her, inside the dark little bunk in the middle of the night.

For Kaylee, surprise came first when the thing there in the dark engulfed her in lust.

Then came the blind power of the thing. The ripping, raw power. Its hunger was the only thing in the room.

It bore into her body. Fierce. Hard. Seeking something that was not her. Seeking a way out. Sucking all the strength he ... no, IT ... had given her; the strength that had bound her to him.

She couldn't stop it. Confusion and numbness prohibited her to. 'Lay still', she told herself, conjuring the image of a lizard in the desert. 'Lay still, blend in. Don't fight the thing that is tearing all the love from inside you. Lock it up.'

Because, deep down ... somewhere ... she knew that the thing that had answered her touch in the dark ... Was. Not. Jayne.

3.

Wash couldn't sleep. Zoe was restless. It made him restless. He sat at Serenity's helm and listened to her hum. Everyone was seemingly tucked away for ship-night. No one to play cards with or tell anymore of his sudo-heroic stories to. He glanced at a tiny, old set of plastic action figures on the console to his lef