8) A Past No One Wants To Remember

***WARNING! Depictions of parental abuse and intense PTSD in following episode. May trigger some audiences, viewer discretion advised.***

Lightning streaked across the sky. Wind howled and rain slammed against the walls of the house, yet Kairo couldn't hear it. He was huddled in a corner, covering his ears.

The pleading of his mother for mercy, smashing furniture, and the drunken screaming of his father permeated his hands and slammed against his ear drums.

"You look down at me like the rest of them! I WONT HAVE IT!!!"

Each word was punctuated by the sickening thud of fist hitting flesh.

"Please, Eron, I promise I don-"

"SHUT UUUUUPPP!!! It's supposed to be me! I saved THEM! WHY DO THEY LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT?!?!?!"

Getting only whimpers in response, he kicked a chair across the room and it broke against the wall next to his child. A whimper escaped his lips.

Eron rounded on Kairo. Blood dripping from his fathers hands.

"They look at me...they look at me...WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT?!?!?!?!?!"

He stomped over, picking Kairo up by the collar and pinning him against the wall. The stench of alcohol flooded the boys nose as his father glared at him with a vehemence.

"Don't look at me like that! I AM NOT A MONSTER!"

His open palm slammed into Kairo's cheek. Ringing filled Kairo's ears as his shirt tore, freeing him from his fathers grip to fly across the room.

He tumbled to the floor. Splinters of wood entered Kairo's skin. His face was numb.

'Why is this happening? Is this how all dads are?'

"No! Kairo!"

His mother ran over to him, cradling her child in her arms. Her beaten and bloody face swam into Kairos vision. It brought a peace to the boy, despite what was happening.

She turned to the raging man, hesitated, but couldn't hold herself back.

"Eron, you say you're not a monster? Only the most vicious beast would treat his child this way! You're no hero, you're an animal! A savage! A-*hrrrk*!"

Kairo's father had grabbed her by the throat, the veins in his arms pulsing as the muscles bulged.

"I! AM!! NOT!!! I AM A CHILD OF VEL-*ehulgh*!"

The rage filled man looked down to find a knife sticking out of his heart. Small hands held the handle, shaking from both fear and rage.

"Leave mommy alone!!"

Warm fluid ran down Kairo's hands as his father looked at him with wide, tear filled eyes.

"Kairo, my boy, how could-"

He stumbled forward a few steps before falling sideways and crashing to the floor. Kairo's mother gasped for breath, looking around with a hazy gaze before realizing what had happened. She looked at her child in horror, unsure of what to do.

Eventually, she ran over and hugged her son, rocking them both back and forth.

"It's okay, it'll be fine."

As she did this, a screen popped up in front of the boy.

{Congratulations! Quest: Defeat Abusive Father Complete!}

{Rewards: 500 exp, +3 Strength, -3 Fortitude}

Kairo looked down at his hands as he realized what he had done. His fathers blood covered his finger tips all the way up to his elbows. His mother suddenly disappeared as a fountain of blood erupted from Eron's chest. The room started flooding with the crimson liquid.

"Mom?! Mommy, where are you?! WHERE ARE YOU?!?!?!?"

The blood filled his mouth, gagging and choking him as he searched for the only source of kindness in his life.

*GASP*

Kairo shot up in bed, a scream nearly erupting from his vocal cords. Tears stained his face. He glanced around his room at the Rogue mansion. The fact he wasn't back in that house allowed him to stop panicking.

"It's ok, it'll be fine. It was just a dream."

He said these words while taking deep breaths. His uneven breathing became calm, even though he knew it was anything but a dream. Some of the events may have been exaggerated, but it was a memory.

***

Burch was hunched over a desk, sifting through stacks and stacks of books. He had returned to the Guild Hall in Differentia for the night seeking out one thing.

"Ah, here we go."

As was his habit, when doing investigations Burch talked to himself. His finger traced each line of the report, his shock gradually growing.

"Holy shit...his father was the one that went on the rampage? How did he have the strength if he wasn't a registered adventurer?"

Years ago, a small group of Orcs had breached Differentia's walls. They had timed it so most of the high tier adventurers had been out of the city, and the Orcs killed indiscriminately. Until they reached one house.

Eron, Kairos father, defended his family from the orcs. After a brutal battle, he killed all six orcs that were attacking his house. Higher tier adventurers arrived and picked off the few orcs that separated from the main group, but it was fair to say Eron saved more lives than any of them had.

"But at what cost?"

Afterwards, it was reported that he had gone mad from his wounds, entering a Berserker state. Any one that approached the scene was murdered, until he gradually came to his senses.

"And it was to late at that point. He was pardoned since he had stopped more deaths than he caused, but no one trusted him. They called him a monster despite the fact he had helped to end the assault on Differentia. Shunned him and his family. And then this."

He finally came upon the report of Eron's death. Kairo's mother, Patricia, claimed to have been the one to stab him. With her wounds the guards had writ it off as self defense, and didn't look further into it. They had even granted her request of removing Kairo's surname from the town records.

Burch wasn't satisfied with this.

With a mixture of water and plant magic, one could replicate something they had seen onto a parchment. The report had dozens of these photos, and Burch meticulously went through them all until he came upon the murder weapon.

"Those hand prints, they're to small to be a full grown woman's. So it was the kid? Fuck...makes sense why he didn't want to talk about it."

There was more to the file, and Burch wasn't one to quit without knowing everything. However, the last little bit even had him stumped.

"A month later...Patricia disappeared? But to where? She couldn't just vanish."

He flipped the page but found that the section for that family had ended. Burch rubbed his temples, a long sigh escaping his lips.

"Guess I've got my work cut out for me. The kid will have a plethora of trauma responses. Thanks, Eron Vel, now I have to tidy up your mess."