@onebadwinter
The Bosnian War was simply becoming too dangerous. Marija looked from her husband to the children sleeping in their bed, snuggled together for warm and safety. Wanda and Pietro were growing every day. Their mutations beginning to manifest. Between being Roma, a Serb, and a mutant, it wasn’t safe for them to be here anymore. Magda worried that no matter where they went they wouldn’t be safe. She loved them dearly. They were her babies. In the end, she knew she had to do what was necessary to keep them safe-- even if it meant giving them to the one man Magda had wanted to keep them safe from. Erik would be far better equipped to protect them.
The lights were all off except for a single candle on the table between the two adults. Dejan reached across the table to take his wife’s hand. “I secured us a plane to the United States. We could stay...” He didn’t want to part from his children either. It was the hardest decision either of them had ever made. The next morning Wanda and Pietro were packed and sent off with Slobodan, a husband of Marija’s friend. It would take them only a few days to be smuggled out of the country and on a flight to America. New York. They were going some place called Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Wanda had cried several times. She didn’t want to leave her family. She didn’t know the man they were going to be living with. She was scared-- more scared than the six-year-old had ever been in her life. Pietro, on the other hand, was quiet. He hadn’t spoken a word-- highly unusual for him. He didn’t even get to run around. That scared Wanda even more. Pietro held her hand, though. Through the whole flight. When they arrived in the morning, they were escorted in by a big blue hairy man. He’d brought them into the headmaster’s office. Two men were there-- arguing. One was standing tall and the other was sitting in a wheelchair. Wanda looked between them and held up the letter. “We’re supposed to give this to Erik.”
Enclosed with it was their wishes for him to know his children and protect them as the situation in Bosnia had grown to be far too dangerous.