Discovery at Nerwolix (19 page)

“He was a wounded soldier, on the verge of
certain death and she
begged
me. Promised her life would end
if his did. I knew what it meant to leave Earth, knew what he’d
have to endure—same as Mary—but I couldn’t lose my daughter. So I
saved him. But he wouldn’t leave his wounded brothers,” Clarence
exhales, running a hand through his hair. “So I saved seven more.
We returned and like Anne, like Mary, they wanted to go back, to
check on their families, their loved ones. Each time we returned
there was another to heal, another to save. We kept bringing more
back and soon, our little Ellae had blossomed—a second chance for
so many.

“I hadn’t realized what I’d done—what I’d
created. I just wanted to save my daughter from certain heartache.
And yet… I’d altered so many lives by giving second chances. Was it
wrong? Was I costing them more pain than hope? How could I tell?
But Virginia was happy and that’s all that mattered. She married
Matthew in the same place Anne and I did,” Clarence nods to
himself. “Matthew was a good man. He and Virginia gave me my only
grandchild. One of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen after my
wife and daughter. She was the tiniest little thing and absolutely
precious.

“Ruth,” he inhales, the corner of his mouth
lifting, “my special angel. I wanted…I wanted more time. I wanted
to watch her grow up like Virginia, to see her learn things,
discover things. She was so curious, even as a baby. She had these
eyes that would follow you, study you. Like her mother and
grandmother, she was absolutely perfect, the most perfect thing I’d
ever seen,” he gulps, his smile turning down as a dark shadow
crosses his face.

“They came at night. Anne was asleep next to
me. Virginia and Matthew were at home with Ruth. The screams woke
us. And then the smoke. Anne started coughing—she couldn’t take it.
She was older by that point and her body… it was weak. I carried
her out of our home that was in flames just like the rest of the
town. Everywhere you looked… black. Or orange. I couldn’t believe
what was happening—that the Leaders had discovered us. I didn’t
know what to do… where to go. Anne was choking in my arms. I had to
get her away. But Virginia and Ruth… I had to find them. I had to
make sure they were safe too. So I took Anne deep into the jungle
and hid her far from the fire, somewhere I hoped the Vermix
wouldn’t find. I rushed back to my daughter’s home and…” his face
falls, paling as he stills. A lump rolls down his throat.
“Everything was in flames. I rushed in but…” he shakes his head,
his pained eyes staring off into the distance. “I thought I’d lost
everything. Then, by some miracle, I heard Ruth crying. I grabbed
her and raced for Anne, pushing past the cries and slaughter of our
neighbors, people I’d known well. But I had to get Ruth out of
there. I had to get her and Anne to safety. I didn’t know where
that was—I didn’t know anything—just that I had to keep moving, and
get them both away from there. But when I finally reached Anne…” he
takes a deep breath, another lump rolling down his throat. A long,
quiet moment passes as a single tear rolls down Clarence’s cheek.
He doesn’t bother wiping it away. “There wasn’t enough time. There
wasn’t
any
time… I had to leave her body. I had to save
Ruth. I tucked her close and went back to Earth once more.

“I considered finding Anne’s parents but
they’d long since passed. I wasn’t sure what to do. I couldn’t stay
with Ruth—the Vermix would find me and kill her. I knew they would.
I had no choice—I had to leave her; the last of my family, the last
connection to Anne and Virginia.

“I considered ending my life right then,
joining them wherever they’d gone… but I couldn’t. I had to survive
for my granddaughter. She’d be in danger for the rest of her life
for what I did. I needed to stay alive to watch over her, to
protect her. So I did.

“I left her at an orphanage. It was 1946 and
I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to see her again. I knew the longer
I stayed with her, they’d come looking for me. So…” he inhales, “I
kissed her, looked into her eyes that reminded me so much of her
grandmother’s… and left.

“The Leaders didn’t believe I’d simply run.
They knew I’d gone somewhere, done something, but I never
confessed. So my escape was treated as a simple fleeing. They
assumed my entire family perished in their raid. I was called a
coward for abandoning everyone, but I never said a word. I
couldn’t. I had to protect Ruth. I saw what they were doing to the
other humans—what they did. They called them contaminated; a
plague. Everyone they didn’t kill in the raid was slaughtered
afterward. Until Blovid stopped it, of course. But by then there
were only a handful left. Sampson and me and the other Arizals who
had come to live with us were presented in front of the Leaders.
Because Sampson was a Fychu at that point and the son of a great
Vermix Leader, he was spared the Vermix prison and instead, ordered
to a life of imprisonment at the Harrizel prison we created. We’d
hoped to never use it, hoped it remained abandoned… but… as it was
a ready alternative for them…

“You see,” Clarence shifts, “the Ellae
massacre didn’t sit well with half of Dellapalania. Sure, everyone
knew about the prophecy. They knew what we were doing was wrong on
some level but it was a
massacre
,” he whispers the word, “of
everyone. Humans and Dofinikes and Nerwos and anyone who came
seeking refuge. Ellae had become an escape. For those who’d learned
of it, they were able to flee there quietly and safely. And in the
raid, practically no one was spared. Elders and children…” he
shakes his head, lowering it. “Such a heinous crime. They knew what
they’d done, and so had the Three Worlds. The Leaders had dragged
some of the Dofinikes back to Dellapalania but Sampson here,” he
gestures to him, “was a high profile. They didn’t want to fan the
flames of what they’d done. Me? I wasn’t nearly as important, but I
was known. And persuasive. They knew if I returned, it’d only do
them damage. So I was originally kept here with him and Vix, who is
the daughter of a high general. They wanted her to return as well,
but as he was so respected, they dared not darken his name by
imprisoning his only daughter. So they kept the three of us here
and the rest were sent back.

“The humans—the final few they’d spared—had
their memories wiped and we were kept on Harrizel for nearly sixty
years. Of course the Leaders wanted to keep an eye on Earth. They
wanted to make sure the humans weren’t onto us, weren’t mobilizing
for this great, prophesized attack. So they had me travel there a
few times a year, assuring them our actions hadn’t caused some
great ripple to trigger the catastrophe. Of course I’d contemplated
fleeing, but I was warned that if I never came back, they’d kill
Sampson. An empty threat, I’m sure, but I couldn’t risk it.
Besides, it was all my fault. I couldn’t let him pay for my sins.
The bright side was that I got to watch over Ruth, see her grow. I
was still terrified that if I made some sort of contact, someone
would know. And she’d be killed. So for fifteen years I stayed
away, until the time I came back and she was pregnant.

“Still just a child herself, I couldn’t do
nothing. So I told her. Who I was, who
she
was, and what
happened to her parents. Of course she didn’t believe me—I was some
strange man telling stories. But I kept coming back, kept telling
her the same stuff and I guess… finally…it fell into place. How
slow I’d aged, how I knew things about her, about her childhood in
the orphanage, how I could hear her thoughts. And one day, she
believed me. Every trip back to Earth I’d check in on her and
Helen, give them what I could, help them how I could. Ruth…” he
takes a breath, staring off, “Ruth wanted to come back with me so
badly. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t. I tried explaining,
tried telling her about the danger she was in. But she couldn’t
understand what was waiting for her. What they’d do to her if they
found her.

“So she stayed on Earth and every time I
would come back, we’d talk more and more about Ellae, about her
parents and what happened. I was still so afraid I was being
followed, that they’d find her, kill her and Helen and I’d have to
watch my life destroyed all over again. I…” he takes a deep breath,
“I couldn’t bear it. So, for a while, I left again. I thought it’d
be best if I vanished from her life. Give her a shot at a normal
one. Her and Helen. But then she called for me during one of my
trips. I came back, showed up when Helen had turned twenty-five,”
he gulps, finding his words. “Ruth was terrified. She’d found out
she was ill… cancer… and Helen…” he gulps, “Helen was pregnant.
Ruth didn’t want her daughter to grow up without knowing the truth.
Ruth also swore she was being followed. Maybe it was the
illness…maybe it was true. I-I don’t know. And I didn’t know what
to do. So, we talked about it and decided to tell Helen. It was
time. I knew I’d told Ruth too early, knew that if the Vermix had
known about her, they’d be able to access her mind quite easily.
But Helen, she was already a quarter of a century. It’s easier to
train the mind, block untrustworthy connections at that age. So we
told her.

“Naturally she didn’t believe us, but at
least she had the truth. But then…” he blanches, “the birth was
difficult and,” a gulp, “you came out of the hospital… and your
mother didn’t. Ruth was heartbroken. She blamed herself. She
thought we’d put too much stress on Helen by telling her. When she
took you home, she decided she wanted different for you—she wanted
a clean, uncontaminated life that had nothing to do with Harrizel
or Dofinikes… or me.”

Clarence lowers his head. A long, silent
moment passes. “So I stayed away again. When I traveled to Earth,
it was always to different continents. She knew when I came to
visit, when I was near, but she never called to me. Not once.

“Years passed like this until Beshib started
requesting humans. I had no idea… no conception of what they meant
to do to you, but I had no choice. I was to collect you or the
Fychu dies,” he glances briefly at Sampson. “So I started bringing
you back. One at a time, under the cruel lie Beshib had crafted
about the World war. Every time I took a human I…” he inhales, “I
couldn’t help but think of Anne. My Anne. I couldn’t help but see
her face. Think of the first time I saw her in that lavender
dress—the most beautiful thing I ever saw. I wondered if she’d
still love me, knowing what I was doing. I’d lost count of the
humans I was taking, distracting myself with the memory of her
smile. It was all I could do.

“And then, one time, I heard Ruth call to me
again. But just once. And then her voice went out. I raced to her…
but found you,” Clarence looks at me, a tear rolling down his
cheek. “It was the first time I’d seen you since you were born and
you were on the floor, dying. I-I didn’t know what happened… how
you…” he shakes his head with a sniffle. “Ruth was gone and I knew
you didn’t know a thing about me. But I couldn’t leave you. It
wasn’t what Ruth wanted, but I had no choice. I gave you a second
life—I had to take you back with me. So I told Sampson that you
were coming and he promised to keep an eye on you.

“I wanted
so
much to tell you; I
wanted you to know the truth—but I couldn’t endanger you. I
couldn’t lose you. You were the last of my living family. You
are
my last connection to her… to my Anne,” he reaches out,
grasping my hand between his. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you,
Fallon. I’m
so
sorry,” he squeezes me, another tear rolling
down his cheek.

I don’t know what to say—to any of it. My
head is clouded, my heart breaking at his story. Staring down at
our hands, I try to make sense of it. Try to piece together a
history too unreal to be true. “You’re my
great-great-grandfather?”

Clarence nods.

“And you…” I try to ask, but I’m not sure
what I want to know. He broke the entire thing down, told me the
whole story. What left is there to question?

“I’m sorry,” he repeats, still squeezing my
hand. “I wanted to obey your grandmother’s wishes. I really
did.”

“She never said…” my thought trails off,
memories of her uncanny insight into my head racing to mind. She
always seemed to know what I was thinking, always knew when
something was wrong or if I was lying. But it couldn’t be true.
Granny Ruth would’ve told me—she would’ve told me! We never kept
secrets! We were always so close, so in tune with one another. My
heart thumps hard in my chest when I think of why. But no… it can’t
be true. I’m
human
. I look like a human. I
am
human.

But… but what if I’m not? I knew Ellae was
familiar. I knew I’d known it from somewhere. Not my memories but…
but my great-great-grandmother’s. My great grandmother’s. It was
their
memories I was recalling, not mine. My heart speeds
up, my mouth suddenly dry.

“I need a minute,” I stand, my legs like
jelly beneath me. Reid sits paralyzed on the bed, still trying to
process the entire thing himself. Sampson and Clarence look like
they want to say something—or stop me maybe—but neither speaks.
They simply watch as I push past the curtain.

Outside, the cool night air hits me and I’m
able to breathe again.

Somewhat.

You are my last connection to her…to my
Anne.

I’m the last of Clarence’s family and he’s…
he’s the last of mine. I only ever had Granny Ruth and now, now I
have a great-great-grandfather I never knew about. I’m in shock,
still finding it all hard to believe when I try racing through the
details. How he fell in love with a human, my
great-great-grandmother, and how all this started. What he must’ve
gone through, losing her, Virginia, Ruth and Helen. And then me.
I’m all that’s left from what he started in 1910. A hundred years.
It’s been a hundred years since he first saw her. And everyone’s
gone except me.