Breathless [ Malfoy & Riddle ]

16. happy birthday

12:01 am.

"Close your eyes," Tom ordered her.

"What?"

"Just do as I say, for once."

Hesitantly, she shut her eyes closed. She felt Tom coming closer, her body started shaking.

Tom Riddle dived into her mind, using the dark mark, and walked her through one of the memories she forgot.

*flashback*

"Open your eyes."

Tom Riddle and Elizabeth were in the abandoned classroom, 5th year. Tom had prepared a surprise just for her. He made sure her eyes were closed until they were in the classroom.

When she opened her eyes, nothing was different from the way it was when she closed them. It was dark. No light.

She turned around to touch Tom, to make sure he was still there.

He wasn't.

She extended her arm only to reach more darkness. "Tom!" she yelled his name, "This isn't funny! Please stop! I don't like the dark..."

Then, Elizabeth noticed a small candle right in front of her, it was flying around. Not being held by anyone.

She loved magic

When the candle reached her, she noticed that it was on a cake.

She then felt Tom's hands wrapping around her waist, a couple of inches above her hips. His chest was glued to her back. Riddle leaned over to her ear, "Blow it."

She smiled and blew out the candle.

The lights opened at once and the cake was more visible to her.

"Happy birthday, Elizabeth."

*now*

Tension grew in her face and limbs, her mind replaying the memory. Her breathing became more rapid, more shallow. Elizabeth's mind felt like a hurricane.

The thoughts are accelerating inside her chaotic brain. She wished for them to slow so that she could breathe, but they wouldn't. Her breaths come in gasps and she felt like she was about to blackout. Heart hammering inside her chest, like it, belongs to a rabbit running for its skin.

The room spins and she kneeled down on the floor, trying to make everything slow to something Elizabeth's brain and body can cope with.

"I remember that day," she tried to speak, "That-that classroom..." she put the pieces together, "you found that classroom, for me..." she continued remembering everything.

She felt as if she were experiencing them all over again right at the moment. But then, the memories also felt so far away.

"So?" Tom tried to smile, "What do you feel now?"

"I-I don't really- I don't really know."

Tom sighed, "Elizabeth, please believe me. We loved each other at those times. I felt it. We were just too afraid to live it."

"Tom-"

"Please let us live those moments now. Let us experience everything we couldn't before."

Tom kneeled down next to Elizabeth and grabbed her hand.

"Do you feel different now?" he scooched closer, "Does my touch still feel cold to you? Or does it make you feel like you're home? Because that's what I feel whenever I touch you."