Xylus opened the door to the run down building. He closed the door behind him and quickly locked it. He clutched the bread in his right arm as he spun around to access the situation.

  His home was a mess like usual. Chairs weren't on their legs but lying on their sides. The table wasn't flipped over for once and it kinda reeked. The only other door in this house led to a bedroom. That's where his father probably was in this dark home.

  "Dad, I'm home." Xylus called out. He set the bread on the table and wandered over to the cracked door. He opened it and screams came straight for him. Xylus quickly backed up, grabbing his father's arm and tossing him into the ground. The older Alex groaned. Xylus forced the dull knife out of his father's hands and shook his head.

  "Do you have to do this all the time, Dad?" Xylus asked. He tossed the knife into the table. It rattled as it bounced across the table and bumped into the large loaf of bread. "You wanna eat something? I got us bread." His eyebrows raised as Alex immediately sat up and looked at the bread.

  Alex leapt towards the bread as his son tackled him.

  "No! We're gonna eat it with the soup from yesterday!" Xylus shouted. The adult man elbowed him in the face and shoved him. He went straight for the bread and started to wolf it down.

  Xylus touched his eye and felt a sting. His dad had hit him hard. It would probably leave a mark for awhile.

  "Dammit, Dad. Why can't we just share the food? Why do I always have to watch you eat it?" Xylus asked. His father mumbled something with his mouth full of bread. Xylus sighed and stood up. He could feel his anger growing.

  'No, don't.' He reminded himself. 'That gets us nowhere with him.' He could feel something oozing out of his hands. He looked down expecting blood to be there, but instead he saw pure black darkness oozing out of his hands.

  "Oh my gods!" He jumped backwards. Alex reluctantly turned to look at his son. He might've been crazy and a dead beat father, but he had enough sanity to know his son was surprised or scared by something.

  If anything, Alex wanted to see what it was and use it on his son later. Bread fell out of his mouth as he watched the shadows tangling around his son's fingers and arms.

  "By the gods…" The crazy father whispered. "You are a Dark Spawn!" He immediately turned his attention to the large chunk of soggy bread on the floor and picked it up and ate it.

  Knock, knock, knock!

  Alex ignored the knocks while Xylus flung his arms around trying to stop the darkness from growing.

  "Open up! I know you're in here, Alex! I need to talk to your son about the stunt he pulled!" A man's voice shouted. It was a soldier. Tim Drake was at their door, once again, and he sounded spooked and pissed.

  "Open the door." Alex managed to speak. He pointed at the door. "Tim wants to chat, again." Xylus was baffled by his father's shred of sanity. He could easily recognize his best friend and was sane enough to not be a psycho while Tim was around. The moment Xylus tried to do anything for his father, he got beat, pushed off, and/or locked out of the house.

  Xylus watched the darkness disappear and let out a sigh of relief before another set of knocks came to the door.

  "Come on, I heard you! Open the door, Xylus!" Tim shouted. Xylus sighed and moved to open the door. As much as he was scared of what just happened, he was more scared of his father. If he didn't follow his father's orders when it came to Uncle Tim, he would get a beating much worse than what those men did to him.

  Xylus unlocked the door and opened it. Tim was standing there in his soldier's outfit. Silver armor with red. It was the color of their town, Nessia. Tim gave Xylus a serious look. He could tell the kid had been attacked and noticed the smaller sized bread being wolfed down by Alex.

  "Xylus, we need to talk about what happened earlier." Tim shifted and revealed there were loads more guards.

  "Sir, we are to retrieve the Dark spawn and lock him up." A woman told him. Tim ignored it completely and looked Xylus dead in the eyes.

  "Let me chat with the kid first and then we'll deal with what comes afterwards, alright?"

  "But, sir–"

  "That's my verdict." Tim stepped inside, forcing Xylus backwards as he shut the door. "Stand guard until then! He might just escape!"

  "Y-yes, sir." The woman's voice responded. The sounds of people moving outside were heard and Tim let out a sigh.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  "Xylus Silverfang, we need to really talk about what happened earlier, alright?" Tim finally loosened on his demeanor. He was one of the few people in Nessia that cared for the boy since his father was crazy and not able to.

  Xylus sighed and turned around. He grabbed a chair off the floor and moved it over to the table. Tim did the same thing and sat in his seat. He glanced at his scattered friend, Alex, and sighed as the man gave him a warm smile and ran off into the bedroom.

  "Is he getting worse?" Tim asked. Xylus sat on his seat and pointed at his eye.

  "He gave me this today." Xylus answered. Tim noticed the bruising earlier and assumed it came with the men who attacked him. "But yes, he's even more crazy. I don't know why you force me to be here. He doesn't even care. He just tells me I killed Mom and I should've died instead." Xylus folded his arms together and looked off into a direction where he couldn't see Tim.

  "Kid," Tim's armor rustled as he set his arm down on the table. It was his soft way of reaching out for Xylus when he was angry. "I'm sorry that I have to do this but you could end up in an orphanage where they definitely won't take care of you because of your antics and your father will just end up sitting in a jail cell for the rest of his life.

  "I know you're mad but what's about to happen after we chat, is going to worry you more." Tim sighed. Xylus looked at his Uncle. Tim was serious about that.

  "What do you mean, Uncle?" Xylus asked. "After today what's going to happen?" Tim let out another sigh and folded his arms into each other.

  "You're eight years old, right?" Tim asked. Xylus nodded. "You know that magic manifests as early as six right?"

  "Yeah and?"

  "And around eight years old is where most people get their elemental power. And what are those again?" Tim was quizzing the kid. He had spent a lot of time teaching the kid enough to pass by. If only he could teach the kid to be responsible and work hard for his money… but his father's reputation scared a lot of people away so Xylus resorted to stealing.

  "Fire, water, earth air, and light." Xylus answered.

  "But there's a six element nobody likes to talk about. It's shunned and frowned upon. Dark." Tim told him. "The magic you used that those three men saw earlier was dark magic."

  "Isn't it kinda… Taboo to talk about?" Xylus asked. He already knew about the six elements. He always knew Dark magic was forbidden and never really knew why he knew that.

  "Yes, but for the sake of your situation, I have to talk about it with you." Tim sighed. "Look, Xylus, for the sake of your life, you must just do what you're told."

  "But–"

  "You have to–"

  "But–"

  "No buts!" Tim's voice skyrocketed to an all time high. He slammed a fist into the table, instantly splintering it. "There isn't time to talk about this. There isn't time to explain! Do as your told and you might just live!"

  Xylus stood up, only to be met with resistance.

  "You try to run, I can't help you." His uncle told him. Xylus tried to run but Tim easily matched him, blocking him and grabbing him.

  "No, Uncle! Let me go!" Xylus cried. He tried to pummel his way out of it. Soldiers poured in and the next thing Xylus knew, he was cuffed with Magicite cuffs. They didn't want to risk the kid pulling any funny business with Dark magic, so they snuffed it.

  He walked through the streets with everyone looking at him. They all whispered things about him, all wondering if his string of "luck" had ended.

  "It serves him right. That's what happens when a father is incompetent. Should've locked both of them up earlier."

  Xylus' eyes were blurry with tears as he tried to not cry. He reached the middle of town square where everyone stopped what they were doing and watched as the soldiers forced Xylus into the raised platform.

  "Xylus Silverfang, so you know why you're up there today?" Tim's voice asked loudly. Xylus sniffled and wiped his eyes. He didn't say anything. "You've been caught with the most illegal practice of magic known to man, Dark magic."

  The crowd gasped. They began to whisper as the woman besides Tim cleared her throat and yelled, "Silence!" The crowd whirred down as Tim cleared his throat.

  "With the added crimes of stealing food, clothes, money, and personal items, I bring the town Xylus Silverfang." Tim's heart hurt saying those words. The kid didn't know better but with the added information of Dark magic being his nephew's magical attribute, he would be called biased if he tried to defend and cover it up.