Page 13 of Remi's War (Four Dark Horsemen 2)

Seven hundred thirty days.

He comes to me every single night, tapping on the door as if announcing his entry before he forcibly takes me despite my cries and struggles.

And every single time, my mother ignores it, sleeping soundly and allowing the monster to feast on my flesh as long as it gives her what she wants.

I tried speaking to someone at school, asking them to save me from this nightmare. But the minute I opened my mouth again, Beatrice warned me that she would place me in an asylum, and I needed to stop making up stories to separate her from her husband.

She knows. My mother knows. It’s impossible not to hear my screams and begging for him to leave me alone, but she lets it happen.

What ensures her peace matters the most.

I still ignored her warning and told my teacher about the abuse, hoping that maybe she could alert someone, and they would take me away.

But it turned out Jonathan is a big sponsor of my private school, and they told him everything, advising him to find professional help for a difficult teenager.

My back still has several dark bruises from the expensive leather belt, Beatrice’s favorite, since she delivered blow after blow to my back, hissing that I needed to know my place and to do what I was told.

Sometimes, my eyes linger on the kitchen knife, imagining it slicing through his throat, or mine, to finally end this torture from where there is no reprieve.

However, despite everything happening to me, I want to live so badly.

So, so badly.

Because every new day gives me another chance to find her.

My twin.

Although I know very little about her, my Penelope, my whole soul yearns to wrap my arms around her and never let go.

Beatrice loves to say Uncle Asher wanted nothing to do with me and chose Penelope because she was prettier, and she ended up stuck with me. But I don’t believe her lies.

Maybe Uncle Asher and Penelope actively search for me. Based on all the stories Beatrice loves to spit when she’s drunk, he is a good man.

A painter with a romantic soul and love for everything pretty, according to her, who ignored her when she tried to make a move on him.

They are my only hope in this world, the only people keeping me alive during the torture. Because when I close my eyes, I imagine them bursting into this horrible house and snatching me away from the evil clutches.

Sometimes though, lying on the bed after Jonathan visits, with my body hurting and blood oozing from my wounds, I hope she never comes to see me.

What if Asher is weak and the monster who destroys my life turns his attention on Penelope, who must be the spitting image of me?

Beatrice once bragged that if she so wanted, she could get Penelope back, because removing my uncle from the equation shouldn’t be too hard.

In these betraying moments, fear unlike anything fills me, poisoning my blood while my heart creates various images of my poor twin crying.

If they put me in the asylum, would she bring Penelope as my replacement?

Jonathan loves to repeat that he is a man who no one can go against, and all my attempts are useless, because no sane man will challenge him.

Least of all, some painter living in the clouds.

Maybe instead of praying for all the suffering to stop, I should pray for someone extraordinary to come and squash the monster, someone who is so powerful and evil he will torture Jonathan in the most horrible ways.

So no one else will ever be at the receiving end of his cruelty.

And then I will finally find my Penelope.

Nothing and no one will ever separate us again then.

---