enigmatic |t.r.|

8.

meredith watched olive walking away, her steps giving away her surrender and humiliation.

that was cruel.

she pointed out, without taking her eyes away from her book.

she felt tom's gaze on her.

she knew she was on fire even though there were no flames or the smell of burnt flesh,

just her aching skin,

screaming for tom to take away his eyes so it could finally burn in peace.

why didn't you defend her, then?

the fifth question he had ever asked her left his lips and landed on her hair like a lover's soft touches after sex.

it was not my place to tell. besides, there's nothing wrong with being cruel.

this took him by surprise.

he knew meredith was a mysterious creature and he was a cruel man, morality and mortality long gone, but cruelty is very different than mystery, violence is very different than implied violence.

she laughed at his shocked expression.

please, don't act surprised. i personally don't find anything wrong about sincere emotions, no matter how inappropriate or wicked they're considered. the only sick act is the one that is not directed by one's greatest ambitions and desires.

and tom found himself agreeing.

for the first time in many years,

he was fascinated.

tell me more.

meredith laugh and it was like an angel's cry.

you've been inside my head, you know how i think.

and tom knew but her voice was honey with hidden bombs, he wanted her to say the words out loud so they would leave chaos and beauty behind.

it sounds much prettier coming out of your mouth anyway.

compliments won't get you anywhere.

compliments got me where i am now. even though you seem to believe they were the wrong compliments.

meredith closed her book with a loud noise and a few head turned to look at her but she didn't care, she never did.

what do you want, tom? do you want me to crawl in your bed tonight like all those girls? do you want me to open my legs for you so you can break me better? do you want me to compliment your face, because i can, you have the most beautiful face a man was ever blessed with and your eyes are like a basilisk's, i die every time i look inside them. but your smile is cold and fake and your touch is hard and i can't stop imagining your hands around my neck. and behind your charming face there is nothing beautiful yet there is beauty everywhere because your mind can only appreciate beauty or the destruction of it. and you think that i don't know you but i do, because i knew men like you and i hated them all and i loved them all and they all killed me in the end.

she stood up before tom had a chance to say a word and she almost laughed because this time she was asking the questions and she didn't know a thing.

i'm just waiting for you to do the same.

and she left.

she wasn't hurt, she wasn't confused. she was just tired. she wanted answers, she didn't want to play around like the cat and the mouse, or maybe the snake and the mouse.

if tom riddle wanted to break her apart, she wanted him to have the courage to admit it to her face, she wanted him to drop the facade he used for teachers and nearly anyone, she wanted him to be hard and raw and dangerous and dark.

she wanted him to destroy her properly, without politeness and gentleness and sweet lies.

she wanted him to twist every bone of her body, to make her scream out of pain and then kiss her, pretending it could fix everything.

meredith would let tom riddle destroy her because she was bored and tired, no, fucking exhausted trying to fight her fate any longer.

meredith would let tom riddle break her because that was all she knew. she was born in pain and she only knew who she was when she was surrounded by pain.

meredith would let tom riddle kill her because she would die if he didn't.