by KD Knight
"Dad! Dad!" I shouted as I jumped to my feet and stormed into the dark hallway.
At three in the morning, the house was dark and eerily quiet. The floor creaked beneath my feet as I barrelled down the stairs towards his study. "Dad!" I yelled fiercely into the darkness.
"Son, what's going on?" He appeared at the study door. His eyes were puffy and bloodshot, a sign that I had awoken him from a deep sleep. Had this been two weeks ago, I would have apologized and felt guilty for disturbing him at this ungodly hour. But right now I didn't care. Nothing was more important than the truth.
"Is everything alright?" He adjusted his blue robe.
"You've kept the truth from me for too long!" I said angrily as I paced the foyer.
He stood in silence as his eyes wandered over my face.
"Tell me the truth about my parents. Who were they?" I demanded.
"You stomp around my house demanding information. You raise your voice and slam doors like you the pay bills!" He replied sharply.
"Enough!" I barked. "Stop changing the subject. Dad, I need you to answer the question. Everything I am, everything I ever thought I was depends on your answer."
In the place of the answers I pleaded for, there was silence. My father stood casually at the door to his study with his hands in the pockets of his silk robe.
"Since you're not going to say anything, I'll tell you what I know. I know that you never talk about my birth parents."
His eyes narrowed.
"Whenever the topic comes up you either change the subject or leave the room," I continued. "How does a parent not talk about their only child? Your daughter, my mother, was killed and you never talk about it," I shouted as my hand began to tremble. I quickly shoved them in my pocket.
My father stood quietly with his lips clenched tightly together. His nostrils flared as he took deep breaths. His grey eyes looked like dark pools in the dim light cast through the foyer.
"I heard something," I continued, "something that for the last day, I’ve prayed was a lie."
"Why all of a sudden are you asking all these questions about the past? The past is dead, just like your mother. You are my son. I raised you. I am the only father you need to know!" he said desperately. "I told you to leave that Jane girl alone! I told you that she would bring nothing but trouble for you."
"This is not sudden. Less than a month ago, I stood in your study and asked about my birth certificate. Like always, you changed the subject."
"Look at what this girl has done to you…"
"It's not Jane, it's you," I barked. "The only reason you wanted me away from Jane is because of your deal with Glenroy."
His face fell.
"I saw the two of you by Glenroy's house. I heard what you said about Jane."
"You don't understand. I was protecting you…"
"From the secret."
"Yes. It was for the best." He took a step towards me. "I didn't want you to have a future based on something you could not control. You were innocent and I wanted you to stay that way."
"What Marcus said is true then" I hung my head low, "Aramos is my biological father."
"Son, please…"
"Even now, when the truth is out, you won't admit it!" I watched him struggle for words. "I want you to say it out loud."
"Admit what? Admit that my beautiful daughter decided to marry a Nephilim?" He said in disgust. "She was obsessed with him. I begged her to stay away from him. Behind my back, she ran off and secretly married him. I was furious when I found out what happened to my little princess. The only good thing to come out of that ridiculous union was you, my son. You were months old when they left you on my doorstep. I looked into your grey eyes and I made a decision that I would not let your mother's mistakes ruin your life."
Collapsing on a stair, he sunk his face into his hands. "I did everything I could to keep you out of this life." He was tugging at his robe.
I wanted to be angry with him, but I couldn't. The man that sat before me with his face buried in his hands was not the malicious, conniving man who withheld vital information. He was a desperate father scared of losing another child. I felt sorry for him.
I sat beside him on the step. "Tell me the truth."
"I tried everything," he mumbled softly.
"I want to know everything," I insisted. "My mother, the secret deal with Glenroy, everything."
He sighed. "Your mother, my daughter’s name was Josephine Adina Rhone. Rhone was our family name before I had it changed it to Boothe. I don't know how your parents met. It seemed like their relationship happened overnight. One day she brought him home and said his name was Richard. He tried very hard to hide who he was but it was undeniable. One look and I knew he was a Nephilim."
"Did you know it was Aramos?" I asked.
He shook his head. "We believed his name was Richard. When she told me they wanted to get married, I blew up. She was young and naive. A marriage between an Eshkar and a Nephilim has never happened throughout the history of our kind. Not only are we naturally repelled by each other, it's also legally forbidden, by both sides. The punishment for this crime was death.
"None of that mattered to her. She married him anyway. It didn't take long for the Eshkar Council and the elders of the Nephilim clan to find out about their relationship. She was arrested.
"I pleaded with the Eshkar Council to spare her life. I told them that I could get through to her. I would make her give him up. Because of my rank in the Council, they agreed to give me an opportunity to reach her. But I didn't get the chance. The day after they released her from jail, she was found dead."
"Where did I come in?" I asked.
"I had no idea she was pregnant. No one did," he said somberly. "A month after she died, someone knocked on our door. I remember it was raining that day. It was the worst storm we had in years. When I opened the door, there you were, wrapped up in a royal blue blanket. I took one look at you and I knew you were her son. You had her eyes. I made a vow that day that I would do everything and anything to protect you."
"How did Glenroy find out?"
He shrugged. "I asked him that. He said a friend of a friend."
Glenroy was corrupt. He could have found out about me from someone close to Aramos.
"I did everything I could to keep him quiet," my father said softly.
"It doesn't matter now." I rose to my feet. "Mark, Lisa, and Nadya were there when Marcus made his announcement. They all know now."
"I can take care of them." My father said standing behind me. "I'll call…"
"Take care of them how? Run them out of town? Pay them off? I don't want you taking care of anyone. I'm done with living a lie. The truth is out. Let everything fall wherever it falls."
"Son, this is a matter of your life or death. We have got to bury this."
"You tried to bury it," I said turning to face him, "and it didn't work."
"If the Eshkar Council finds out who you are, they will kill you. You're an abomination to them. I don't want to think of what the Neph clan will do if they find out…"
"So, I’ll stay in the shadows, move to a different country, change my name again, and cross my fingers that the information doesn't spread beyond the people who already know," I read his mind.
"That's not a bad plan." I could see the wheels turning in my father's head.
"No, dad, it's a terrible plan."
"We could move to Australia, New Zealand, or maybe Japan. I could open a new store. It will be like none of this ever happened."
"Are you even listening? I can't outrun this." I barked.
"Do you really want to stay here and experience what happens when this information reaches the top?"
"Whatever happens, I'll face it."
"I hope Jane doesn't have anything to do with this stubbornness," he eyed me. “Do you really think she'll look at you the same when she finds out the truth? I know you hope she will, but let's face reality. She's not going to see the boy I see. She's going to look
at you and see a dirty Neph. That's all anyone is going to see."
I took a deep breath. "I know. That's why I'm going to join the Neph clan. I need to meet my...Aramos. I need to hear the full story. I need to know who I am."
Just then, my mother appeared at the top of the stairs. I could tell from the tears in her eyes that she had heard everything.
~Jane~
Chapter Thirty: Capture
I buttoned the last button on my spray-starched white shirt and slipped into my government issued loafers. I looked around at the four walls of my jail cell. I've examined every dirty splatter and every nick on these walls over the last few hours. With no jail mates and no visitors, there was not much else I could do.
After I left the forest with Dr. Chung, I thought that my ordeal was truly over. I sat with my friends and listened to what happened in the forest. I sat shocked to silence when they spoke of Aramos being Boothe’s biological father. I let them know that even if it were true, it wouldn’t matter. Boothe deserves to be judged by his own choices and actions and not by circumstances he had no control of.
It was in the middle of this conversation that the Council came to my door and put me in handcuffs.
"You have a visitor," snarled the guard.
I've had two guards tend to me since my arrival this morning. One, a middle-aged woman with full hips, was warm and sweet. She spoke to me about her granddaughters and how her heart would break if they were in my position.
The other guard was also a woman. She looked about the same age as the first guard. That was where the similarities ended. Unlike the first guard, she was cold. As an introduction, she tossed my lunch plate on the cell floor spilling some of the food. She sneered, rippling her pale plum lipstick as I picked up the tray.
This guard roughly pulled my mother into view. My mother pulled her arm away and straightened her clothing.
"Hey, be careful!" I yelled to the guard. I looked at my mother's sullen face. "It's not as bad as it seems," I said, gripping her hand through the cell bars.
"It is bad." She was sobbing quietly. "And it's all my fault. I should have told you the truth about what you were. I should have told you the truth about everything. I just wanted to protect you."
"Ignorance doesn’t protect anyone," I whispered.
"I know." She attempted to hold back the tears. "The truth is that I had a hard time after your father died. I was so consumed by grief that I wasn't there for you. I went through the motions but, mentally I checked out.
This was the first time my mother had ever mentioned my father. This was also the first time she had ever shown me this much emotion. I wanted to hear more, but watching her cry just made me want to console her.
I squeezed her hand. "Everything's going to be okay."
"I have to tell you something. I hope you will forgive me."
I looked into her eyes but she quickly turned away. I stretched out my hand and lifted her chin.
"Please don't make this harder," she begged, pulling her face away.
After a few moments, she cleared her throat. "I killed your gran. I'm the reason we had to run."
The words shot like daggers through my chest. I let go of my mother's hand.
"A Nephilim killed your father when you were two. We escaped and relocated to a cabin in the hills. Your gran told me not to take anything from the old home with us to the new one. Any Neph tracker could pick up the scent and find us. She warned me, but I took something anyway.
"My mistakes don't end there. When we moved into the cabin, all I could think about was getting away. I knew that I should have stayed back and been a good parent to you instead of running off to town looking for a new life. But I wasn't thinking clearly. I put what I wanted ahead of what you needed." She began to sob again. "I led Aramos right to our front door."
Looking at tears as they flowed down my mother's face, I realized that she had been punishing herself for this all these years. She swung from being absent to being overbearingly present.
"You didn't kill gran," I reached for her again, "Aramos did."
"Time to go," the guard said as she banged on the bars of my cell. "Your visitor has to leave. The Chairman's waiting." She smiled wickedly.
The guard began to pull my mother away. I clung to her hand as long as possible.
"Look for me in the courtroom," she called back to me as the guard forced her down the hall. "I'll be in your corner."
It was time for my trial.
The Council squashed the Nephilim attack in Milk River, saving me, Lisa, and Mark. After all that happened, the Eshkar Council felt that I should answer for my crimes. They charged me with various Council code violation from exposing oneself in the presence of Normals for the incident at Hellshire Beach and then at the market, finally trespassing. I was rounded up with Nadya, Glenroy, and Dr. Coy. I was then shackled and hauled off to the Eshkar detention centre like a criminal. In the end, the real criminal, Marcus the mastermind behind all of this, got away.
The guard smiled devilishly as she unlocked the gate. "It's time to face your punishment," she said as she pulled me along.
The Eshkar Council Court was held at St. James Church in Spanish Town. The church had an old world charm complete with the traditional stained-glass windows and wood beam vaulted ceiling. By the time I arrived from the detention centre, the small church was filled beyond its capacity. People were perched outside of the church on the steps; they stood shoulder to shoulder in the hallway, and filled every vacant space available inside the church.
I walked up the aisle and took a seat next to my Council appointed representative, a hearty-sized man whose hands trembled as he held his pen and notepad.
I looked back and spotted Dr. Chung, Millicent, Lisa, and Mark who smiled at me warmly. My mother and Aunt Dar sat to my right where they clung to each other. The rest of the hundred or so spectators stood gawking and pointing.
"That's her," I heard some whisper in excitement and others in disappointment. I hated being the centre of attention. Nothing that had happened over the last few months had changed that.
The crowd came to a hush as the Chairman and a panel of three elders entered the room and took their seats at the podium. The Council Chairman, Mr. Menkel, sat in the middle. He was a tall, slender man who stood well above six feet tall. He had a slender face and bushy brows that reminded me of a hairy caterpillar. The stone-faced man we met at the Port Royal head office, named Vice, flanked him. The other elders, one woman and one man, were identical twins. Their similarities went far beyond their full nose and high cheekbones. They walked in unison, breathed in unison, and even tapped their fingers impatiently in unison.
The chairman cleared his throat, which brought the remaining whispers to a halt. "Is there anything you would like to say Miss Miller?" The Chairman asked, only lifting his eyes from the sheets of paper in front of him. "We are prepared to enter your statement into public record."
"No," my representative responded, "there is nothing further."
"You didn't care what I had to say when the attacks happened months ago. Why do you care now?" I asked the Chairman.
The representative looked at me with widened and fearful eyes.
My mother shouted something through her clenched teeth. I didn't hear her exact words but I knew it was a warning that I was pushing the boundary.
"Do you understand the charges for which you have been convicted?" The Chairman continued.
Charged and convicted without a public trial. This Council is unbelievable. I wanted to tell them what they could do with their conviction, but I could feel my mother's eyes at the back of my head so I bit my bottom lip and held my tongue.
"You have been found guilty of trespassing on private Eshkar Council property, guilty of intentionally exposing yourself as an Eshkar in the presence of Normals, and guilty of defying Council code of conduct," Mr. Menkel said coldly. "You still have an opportunity to assist yourself. Give me the names of your accomplices…"
"We are prepared to assist the Council where ever we can…" my representative said.
"I had no accomplices," I spoke over him. "There was no one else involved. I accept the guilty verdict on all charges." My friends had done so much for me already, putting their necks out when they didn't have to. I was determined to make sure that they didn't continue to suffer on my account.
"Although you have vehemently denied that you had any assistance, we know otherwise." Chairman Menkel said, glancing at my friends. "It is impossible for anyone to have done what you have done without some help. Now, if you just tell us…"
"Well," I looked down at my hands, "guess that's why I am the chosen one, because I can do things that you can't."
There were gasps and a few giggles from the audience. Mr. Menkel was not as amused. My mother tugged at my arm feverishly.
"Jane, please," she pleaded.
"Continue on this road, young lady, and you'll make me regret our decision to grant you leniency!" Chairman Menkel's cheeks shook as he shouted.
"Don't do me any favours," I said, releasing myself from my mother's grasp. "You can do whatever you want to."
"Jane!" My mother gasped.
"She doesn't mean any offense," my representative interrupted, standing and bowing before the chairman.
"This whole thing is a sham," I said aloud. I looked up at Council Menkel and my chest began to tighten.
"Your rules were meant to protect people from Nephilims and their evil, yet you did nothing to protect me when I was being attacked at every turn."
The hair on the Chairman's thick brow stood on end. "The rules are there to ensure that order and peace are maintained. Without the rules, there would be chaos. It must be applied with consistency to all."
"If that's the case, why did the commanding officer of your Council Guard, Glenroy Mamos, who is guilty of aiding the Nephilim and endangering not just my life, but the lives of many others, only get three months at a halfway house? The other Nephs involved only got a slap on the wrist. You've called off the search for Marcus. Hasani Boothe, whose only crime is being born, is on the most wanted criminal fugitive list! Where is the consistency in that?"
