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darker_london2014-06-29 10:12 pm
indirehope.insanejournal.com) wrote in darker_london2014-06-29 10:12 pm
Entry tags:
Reinforcements (Indigo, Cai, Alex, Danny etc)
For as long as she could remember, Indigo had known as much as she needed to about her family.
When she was very little, she lived with a big group of them, a few other cousins older than she was, a few aunts and uncles who were also cousins. It was one of them – it must have been one of them who told her that her parents were cousins, and two of her grandparents were half-brother and sister. She’d known that, and known that it was a shameful secret, for as long as she could remember.
Her mother had moved out of the house before she started school, and they’d lived with Indigo’s father in London till Indigo was strong enough to make it hard for him to beat up her mother.
It was kind of… liberating, knowing that she should have never been born. Especially after puberty hit and things started to… manifest. She’d horrified both her parents, and herself, to begin with. But horror only lasted so long till it turned into a dark fascination. Most kids hit puberty and started to turn into adults.
Indigo hit puberty and started to turn into an abomination.
That was her dad’s word for it. And as much as she’d hated him, she didn’t hate the word. It made her feel powerful.
That was one of the reasons she and Alexandria got on, Indigo thought. Neither of them should exist, and they both knew it. Xan was only a human, of course, and the circumstances were different, but it boiled down to the same thing; by rights, if things were fair, neither of them should have been born.
Lucky for their existence, the world wasn’t fair at all.
If things were fair, then Imogene wouldn’t keep ending up with butthead men. First her dad, then two more boyfriends who she was obsessed with trying to fix, then Rachel’s stupid father, who fell under the same category, but had inexplicably been promoted to husband. Imogene was certain she could make people better, but her techniques included ignoring any wrongdoing on the part of the men, which sucked for Indigo, because she was the one bright enough to see that anyone would take advantage of her mother, her rich, pretty and kind of stupid mother, given the chance.
Right now, Imogene was having a lie down.
It had been a big day for her.
Butthead husband was unconscious in their king sized bed. He might have even been concussed from when Indigo dragged him up the stairs. Maybe even irrevocably brain damaged. Indigo lived in hope.
(Except Imogene would probably love caring for a brain damaged husband. Someone utterly reliant on her. Gross. Indigo never wanted anyone reliant on her, just like she never wanted to rely on anyone else.)
While Imogene had her lie down, with her scented oils and infusions and dolphin noises, Indigo had been gearing up to enjoy having the house basically to herself. Rachel was gone now, taken away in a police car, hopefully for good. She'd cried a lot, and had insisted that the police check on her father, but Imogene had worked her magic and when they looked through the house for the purportedly unconscious father, they found no sign of him. Nor any sign of a fight. Imogene was good at cleaning up.
Indigo liked to think Rachel was manhandled into the car for causing that little bit of extra trouble.
Anyway - it had barely been fifteen minutes since Rachel had left and Imogene had gone upstairs, when the buzzer for the front gate sounded in the hall.
Of course it was another man who had to come along and ruin it. Cai’s voice, intruding on her peace. She told him to piss off and after a bit of pitiful pleading, he did.
Then less than five minutes later, somehow he'd convinced Alexandria to join him. Xan! What was that girl thinking? Indigo watched from her window as Xan swung her legs off her bike, leaned it up against the fence.
Indigo stormed outside before Cai had the chance to poison her mind.
Cai came jogging over from his car when Alex arrived, saying "Thank you, thank you," before her feet were even solidly on the ground.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "You've been crying," she commented.
Cai smiled thinly, not denying it. Other guys might have, but Cai was pretty honest about his feelings. Which made it all the more infuriating, and baffling, when he refused to tell her why he'd broken up with her. "It's been a... bad day," he said.
The day was almost over, though. The sun had left a stain in the sky, and streetlights were beginning to come on. Alex wasn't sure what to say, but Cai stepped closer, and said again: "Thanks for coming, Alex-andria," he corrected her name half way through saying it.
"I didn't come for you," Alex said, doing her best to sound aloof. The front door of the house slammed shut and here was Indigo, closing the distance between them. "Is he bothering you?" Alex asked Indigo, as her friend unlocked the iron gates to let her through.
"I'm not trying to bother anyone," Cai insisted, stepping toward the gates, which Indigo had locked again after Xan with a clang. "All I want to know is if Rachel's here - if she's alright."
He wrapped one hand around the gate, but turned, because a car was pulling up just behind him. He recognised Danny immediately, and breathed a sigh of relief. Reinforcements!
When she was very little, she lived with a big group of them, a few other cousins older than she was, a few aunts and uncles who were also cousins. It was one of them – it must have been one of them who told her that her parents were cousins, and two of her grandparents were half-brother and sister. She’d known that, and known that it was a shameful secret, for as long as she could remember.
Her mother had moved out of the house before she started school, and they’d lived with Indigo’s father in London till Indigo was strong enough to make it hard for him to beat up her mother.
It was kind of… liberating, knowing that she should have never been born. Especially after puberty hit and things started to… manifest. She’d horrified both her parents, and herself, to begin with. But horror only lasted so long till it turned into a dark fascination. Most kids hit puberty and started to turn into adults.
Indigo hit puberty and started to turn into an abomination.
That was her dad’s word for it. And as much as she’d hated him, she didn’t hate the word. It made her feel powerful.
That was one of the reasons she and Alexandria got on, Indigo thought. Neither of them should exist, and they both knew it. Xan was only a human, of course, and the circumstances were different, but it boiled down to the same thing; by rights, if things were fair, neither of them should have been born.
Lucky for their existence, the world wasn’t fair at all.
If things were fair, then Imogene wouldn’t keep ending up with butthead men. First her dad, then two more boyfriends who she was obsessed with trying to fix, then Rachel’s stupid father, who fell under the same category, but had inexplicably been promoted to husband. Imogene was certain she could make people better, but her techniques included ignoring any wrongdoing on the part of the men, which sucked for Indigo, because she was the one bright enough to see that anyone would take advantage of her mother, her rich, pretty and kind of stupid mother, given the chance.
Right now, Imogene was having a lie down.
It had been a big day for her.
Butthead husband was unconscious in their king sized bed. He might have even been concussed from when Indigo dragged him up the stairs. Maybe even irrevocably brain damaged. Indigo lived in hope.
(Except Imogene would probably love caring for a brain damaged husband. Someone utterly reliant on her. Gross. Indigo never wanted anyone reliant on her, just like she never wanted to rely on anyone else.)
While Imogene had her lie down, with her scented oils and infusions and dolphin noises, Indigo had been gearing up to enjoy having the house basically to herself. Rachel was gone now, taken away in a police car, hopefully for good. She'd cried a lot, and had insisted that the police check on her father, but Imogene had worked her magic and when they looked through the house for the purportedly unconscious father, they found no sign of him. Nor any sign of a fight. Imogene was good at cleaning up.
Indigo liked to think Rachel was manhandled into the car for causing that little bit of extra trouble.
Anyway - it had barely been fifteen minutes since Rachel had left and Imogene had gone upstairs, when the buzzer for the front gate sounded in the hall.
Of course it was another man who had to come along and ruin it. Cai’s voice, intruding on her peace. She told him to piss off and after a bit of pitiful pleading, he did.
Then less than five minutes later, somehow he'd convinced Alexandria to join him. Xan! What was that girl thinking? Indigo watched from her window as Xan swung her legs off her bike, leaned it up against the fence.
Indigo stormed outside before Cai had the chance to poison her mind.
Cai came jogging over from his car when Alex arrived, saying "Thank you, thank you," before her feet were even solidly on the ground.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "You've been crying," she commented.
Cai smiled thinly, not denying it. Other guys might have, but Cai was pretty honest about his feelings. Which made it all the more infuriating, and baffling, when he refused to tell her why he'd broken up with her. "It's been a... bad day," he said.
The day was almost over, though. The sun had left a stain in the sky, and streetlights were beginning to come on. Alex wasn't sure what to say, but Cai stepped closer, and said again: "Thanks for coming, Alex-andria," he corrected her name half way through saying it.
"I didn't come for you," Alex said, doing her best to sound aloof. The front door of the house slammed shut and here was Indigo, closing the distance between them. "Is he bothering you?" Alex asked Indigo, as her friend unlocked the iron gates to let her through.
"I'm not trying to bother anyone," Cai insisted, stepping toward the gates, which Indigo had locked again after Xan with a clang. "All I want to know is if Rachel's here - if she's alright."
He wrapped one hand around the gate, but turned, because a car was pulling up just behind him. He recognised Danny immediately, and breathed a sigh of relief. Reinforcements!
no subject
Indigo was still high from draining her step father, not more than an hour ago, otherwise she wouldn't have dared. But her mother was right there, this untapped source of power she knew would make her strong enough to make a difference. And she was angry and insulted and he had Xan and he was laughing that was not okay.
It was an instinct, reaching for that power; an instinct as well as a skill. A little like walking - you learn how, and then your instincts kick in when the ground starts to slope sharply downward and you find yourself speeding up, faster and faster as gravity and momentum team up against you, till your brain couldn't keep you up if it wanted to and it was all up to your reflexes to keep your feet underneath you.
Indigo's brain couldn't have figured out how to drain her mother; she couldn't have done it consciously, but right now, in her rage, it was instinct. Imogene felt the yank and stumbled forward - her hand clutching her robe to keep it closed - and -
And hadn't grown up a Dumitra to let that kind of shit get the better of her. Indigo was still practically a toddler - she had four years of being an active demon, that was nothing, especially compared to Imogene's age. Toddlers could still be knocked right off their feet with a well aimed kick.
So Imogene kept her soul, Indigo kept her impotent rage, and Alex (who was discovering a new kind of terror in Razvan's iron and immovable grip) kept trying to fight, using her long nails to try tear him up. "Razvan," Imogene said in a cold, authoritative voice. "Release them both."
The voice didn't seem to have much effect on Indigo, but it stopped Alex in her tracks. Suddenly, Imogene was as terrifying as Razvan. Terrifying and almost too bright to look at, she commanded the street - or at least she commanded Alex, who froze completely, like the most primitive part of her suddenly realised how dangerous the predators surrounding her actually were.