Indomitable

f o r t y - s e v e n

Beads of sweat trickled past Remi's hairline down the sides of her face. Her clothes were sticky against her body. She'd bound her hair in a tight french braid down her back earlier that morning when she was still on the passenger ship and was searching for a way to pass the time and distract herself from her troublesome thoughts. Now, her braid thumped like a whip against her back as she ran, up and down, up and down.

Tears streamed down her face, blown away by the breeze as soon as they fell from her eyes. Wind—or anything that deviated from the usual blistering heat and humid air—was highly unusual, which only made Remi more certain that something dreadfully wrong was happening.

Faye was vain and she and Remi often argued, and Faye may have tried to have Remi killed, but she was only angry, and didn't deserve to die.

Caede was equally vain and often snappy with Remi, and only ever really tolerated her, but he deserved to live.

Baby Kareem . . . he was only a child. Two years of life was all he'd experienced so far. No one had the right to tear the rest of his life from him.

Blue and Bliss . . . Remi felt her blood boiling with rage. If any harm came to them . . . well, she couldn't guarantee her sanity would remain in tact.

As Remi flew forward through the shaded path between the trees, sending pine needles and dirt flying behind her every time her feet pounded against the ground, the putrid, metallic scent in the air was the first indicator that all was not well.

Hot, humid air always carried smells in preserved states of boldness. The things that you couldn't smell during the chilly night were extraordinarily strong during unbearably hot afternoons. Right now was no exception.

Blood. The terrible scent invading her nostrils, contaminating and clawing at her lungs, was blood.

Who did it belong to?

Remi shook her head back and forth so hard that it caused her pain. She couldn't think like that right now.

She just had to . . . get there. She hadn't really figured out what her exact course of action would be after she arrived at her house, but she knew she had to stop whatever was going on, and fast, before it was too late.

Her Uncle Fahrem was not a kind man. He was a scientist who felt no remorse when he experimented on vulnerable, helpless slaves, and held no family sentiment.

When Aunt Colleen gave birth to Blue and Bliss, Uncle Fahrem didn't even bother to leave the basement and show up. Later, when he'd been unable to get any sleep due to his children's wailing throughout the entirety of the night, and had come to the dinner table with bags under his eyes, he announced to his wife, ever so casually, that he had forgotten how difficult it had been on them with Caede a couple years previous, and that he refused to put up with the wailing every night. He then proceeded to inform his wife that she was looking worse for wear and less attractive than usual, which was hardly very attractive to begin with. When Aunt Colleen snapped at him, sarcastically asking what he suggested they do, Uncle Fahrem calmly stated that he had yet to study the full extent of an infant's brain, and the connection between twins, and felt his children were of better use to him down in the lab. When that suggestion was met with a chorus of horrified gasps, he demanded that the least they could do was allow him to freeze his children for a few years and raise them later when it wasn't such an inconvenience to him. No one agreed to that, of course.

Remi didn't personally overhear this conversation due to being an infant herself at the time, but her older brother Falkor, who was only five then, did. He'd always said that it had left such a foul taste in his mouth that he was able to remember the conversation practically word for word years later.

He'd also told her of what he'd witnessed a few nights later, when he'd gotten up in the middle of the night to go find something to eat. He'd stopped short when the ever-present sound of Bliss and Blue's wailing quieted slightly—as if just one of them had simply stopped crying.

He would have thought nothing of it, and was ready to continue his stroll to the kitchen, when he saw his Aunt Colleen dash past him down the hallway, a scream ripping from her throat as she bolted towards her infant children's room.

Filled with child-like curiosity, and still half asleep, Falkor had wandered to the twins' room behind her at a much more leisurely pace, his blanket clutched in his small hands.

What he saw shocked him like a jarring bolt of lightning. His Aunt Colleen was scratching and clawing at Uncle Fahrem, screaming out a myriad of profanities, many of which Falkor had never even heard of before.

She'd kept screaming at her husband, saying What did you do? What did you do to my precious daughter? over and over again.

Falkor had told Remi that he'd always remember his uncle's callous response to his wife. I shut her up. And I would have done the same to this other worm if you had just minded your own fucking business, wretched woman.

Falkor had told Remi about all this once, then never again.

Whatever her Uncle Fahrem had done, it had affected Bliss's vocal box in a way that made her unable to speak or make a sound ever again.

Remi remembered how—years ago—she'd tried to fix her cousin's vocal box. When she'd sent her energy into her cousin, she hit a block of dark energy that she couldn't penetrate. It was as if her uncle had somehow left part of his consuming energy inside of his daughter so as to prevent anyone from going behind his back and bringing back her voice. In fact, his dark energy even seemed to suck Remi's own energy right out of her, emboldening his.

She hadn't tried since.

If Remi didn't get home in time, there would only be memories left. Her uncle had no qualms about hurting his own family members.

Remi burst into the opening of the meadow where her gigantic yard was, and dashed down the smooth stone path that led to her house.

Nothing seemed amiss from the outside—the yard was as perfectly groomed and the same luscious green as it always was. Out of the corner of her eye, Remi noticed that even the flashy fish still swam around delightedly in their pond.

A spark of hope bloomed in Remi's chest. Perhaps she had made it before the bloodbath after all. Perhaps she wasn't too late.

Remi flew up the steps to her raised marble porch and its marble pillars, then rammed her shoulder into one of the double doors without stopping.

Her shoulder stung painfully, but the doors didn't open. Huffing an angry sigh, Remi grasped a doorknob and pushed it inwards.

Her house was coated in a thick spread of crimson red, and a mess of strewn limbs.

A/N: Sorry, this chapter was a bit shorter than usual. But things are starting to come together. Questions will be answered, and bombshells of information about why things are the way they are will be dropped!! 

There's about thirteen chapters left. I'm trying to make sure Indomitable doesn't have more than sixty chapters. Sixty is a lot, haha. 

There WILL be a sequel, continuing Remi's adventures. Don't worry. (; 

Anyway, lemme know what you thought! (: