Chapter 2 - 1965 (1/2)

A man frowned as he stared at the horrific sight that laid in front of him. ”Pogerly, are you getting all this?”

”On the contrary Max..... I don't think I can get rid of it. What ghastly monsters would do such a thing?”

Max sighed before taking out a cigarette and lighting it. ”Monsters in human skin I suppose, a new sort of dark spell.... that or a bad case of a manticore running wild.”

”I don't believe that there is a manticore who can do this much damage, not to mention this sadistically.”

Max placed the lit cigarette in his mouth and took a big breath of smoke. ”Damn, what a mood killer. It's my daughter's fifth birthday as well.”

”At least you get to go home and have cake, I have to go to another case after this one.”

Max silently observed the scene in front of him with a heavy look. The house, that once belonged to a pair of wizards, had been utterly demolished. Every window was shattered and decorated the floor in a painful pattern of reflected light. The white walls were painted in crimson red splatter as pieces of-

Max averted his eyes as he felt a sickening urge well up in his stomach. He had seen a lot of things in his years, but this would rank in the top five for the cruelest.

Max was about to take in another puff of smoke to calm his heart when Pogerly called from one of the rooms. ”Oi, Max. There's a kid in here. He is still breathing. God damn.”

Max hesitated before running into the room immediately. ”By Merlins beard, they spared a child?”

”Overlooked him more like it. The kid was hiding under the bed. They must've missed about him. Hell, I barely noticed him myself. Only discovered him after I stepped on his hand.”

Max stared down at the child who was hiding under the bed. It was a boy with raven hair and crimson red eyes. His face was blank and emotionless while his body lay still. The only sign of the boy being alive was the slight tremble in the boy's hands. In fact, the boy reminded Max of a doll.

”....what are we going to do with the boy? We can't just leave him here.... and to place him in an orphanage after what the boy has gone through....” Pogerly said with a grin expression.

Max hesitated before glancing back down at the boy. The boy had a striking resemblance to his now five year old daughter. In fact, while his daughter took after her mother, the boy eerily resembled him. Similar black hair with red eyes, similar face shape but a little bit thinner. This boy could've been his son.

”Hey Pogerly.”

”What is it Max?”

”The people who lived here before, they were wizards right?”

”Yes, they were the Emrys. A very odd but young couple who came in to the ministry to register a couple of months back, no relatives from what they told me. They looked nothing like this boy though. The wife had red hair and the husband had brown. It might've been dyed though.”