Page 52 of Alien Haven

Charity had the insight that whatever he referred to, he could have told them to the day exactly how long ago it had been. To the hour. She’d heard herself use the same offhand tone when discussing the moment she’d been told her mother hadn’t escaped. Despite Borey’s and Hope’s frantic coms as they’d boarded the ship taking them from Old Earth’s Armageddon, despite her father’s desperate attempts to have the military get her out of harm’s way, Faith hadn’t been able to leave Paris in time. The same darkness lurked beneath Mitag’s words.

Ilid’s brow creased. He shook his head in answer to the Imdiko’s question. “I’d have been barely a year old.”

“The name sounds vaguely familiar, but Cyret’s a common name. No. I don’t think so.” Detodev’s eyes rose to meet Mitag’s.

“During training camp, you and your fellow Nobeks might have had a class on how to handle a clanmate who goes off the deep end. It would probably be thanks to Clan Cyret.” Mitag’s studied calm never wavered, though a tremor entered his speech.

Detodev’s brows drew together. “It rings a bell. I do recall a few lessons on warning signs of clanmates’ stress and when to seek outside help. There were several case studies. Cyret may have been among them.”

“You’ll have to catch Charity and me up,” Ilid prompted when Mitag failed to continue. The Imdiko’s gaze had gone distant.

He drew a breath. “Dramok Cyret was a territorial councilman involved in a bribery scandal back in the day. He was facing a prison sentence and decided to kill himself. In his suicide note, he said his clanmates and child would suffer too much without him to guide them, so he planned to kill them first. I suppose he was the definition of a narcissist to think in such a way.”

Charity’s heart lurched. “Tell me you weren’t the child in this story.”

Mitag offered her a sad smile. “Unfortunately, I was.”

“How old were you?”

“Three.” Mitag swallowed. “Cyret took out my Nobek father first, since he was the clan member best equipped to stop him. He caught him from behind by surprise. Put a knife in his neck, severing his spinal cord. Then he cut his throat.”

“Fuck,” Ilid breathed.

“It was quick and quiet, based on the official reports. My Imdiko father was also caught by surprise, but he had the opportunity to fight. My mother and I were upstairs while my fathers struggled on the lower floor. The report said she must have thought she couldn’t get past Cyret to escape. She hid me in a drawer in a guest room, hoping to save me. After he overcame my Imdiko father, Cyret cornered and killed her in their sleeping room. When he couldn’t find me, he committed suicide.”

Detodev and Ilid stared at him. Charity guessed they were as thunderstruck as she was. Their sweet, bubbly Mitag had been exposed to an unthinkable horror.

“Do you…you don’t remember any of the actual killings, do you?” Ilid asked. “Please say you don’t.”

“I recall scattered pieces of that night. Mostly my mother whispering to stay quiet and not come out of the drawer, even if Cyret called for me. ‘It’s a game, and you lose if he finds you. Don’t fall for his tricks,’ she said. I thought it was a scary game. I didn’t want to play because she looked terrified.”

Charity grabbed his hand, wishing she could erase the horror on his expression. She clutched Detodev’s too, needing his strength. His return grip shook minutely.

“I remember feeling I was suffocating in my dark drawer while my mother screamed in the distance. Then the urge to come out when Cyret shouted my name and ordered me to.A Dramok’s command is hard to resist…but the image of my mother’s face and her desperate voice telling me to stay put…it somehow kept me where I was.”

“Thank the Mother of All. And your mother.” Charity wasn’t sure if the hoarse utter came from Ilid or Detodev. Her gaze was riveted on Mitag. He didn’t appear devastated or traumatized, but there was a heartbreaking vulnerability in his expression. It tore at her.

“There was a sound I couldn’t identify. I later learned it was the blaster Cyret used to kill himself. I guess he was too much a coward to use the knife. Or maybe he thought using a blaster on the rest of my parents would be heard and bring help too soon. But no one heard anything. Not the screams, not the shot…no one came.”

“How long were you in the drawer before you were found?” Charity’s spoke in a thready whisper.

“The silence afterward went on forever. I finally decided to disobey my mother and search for her. I also needed the bathroom terribly. I don’t know if I saw the bodies. I just remember blood. Lots of blood. Pools of it. My next memory is standing outside in the dark and crying. I don’t think I comprehended my family had been murdered, but I understood something was wrong.”

“You must have blocked some of it out,” Ilid noted. “Which is good.”

“My only other recollection of that night is of a stranger putting me in a bed in a place I didn’t recognize. It might have been a hospital. I think I was given an injection to make me sleep.”

“All this time. We’ve been acquainted for a year, but I never guessed you’d seen anything like…” Detodev’s rumble faded.

“Did your extended family take you in?” Charity blinked to keep tears from falling.

“A clan of uncles and an aunt. They already had children and…well, I guess I was a burden. News media was eager to run stories about the miracle boy who’d survived his infamous father’s murderous rampage. It went on for years and drove everyone around me crazy. My cousins hated the amount of attention I got, though I would have done anything to be out of the spotlight. They saw to it their friends disliked me too.”

“Oh, Mitag. On top of what you’d already suffered, their attitude was horrible.”

“The notoriety followed me when I became an adult. Prospective clanmates would research me, find out I was this monster’s son, and run for the hills. Would-be employers and clients wouldn’t hire me when I started event planning on Kalquor for the same reason.”

“Assholes,” Ilid muttered.

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