𝕬 𝕯𝖆𝖗𝖐 𝕷𝖔𝖗𝖉 𝖎𝖘 𝕭𝖔𝖗𝖓 | 𝑇𝑜𝑚 𝑅𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑙𝑒 |

Chapter 35- The Second of the Founders

"Come to me, master. We must get rid of those who are so unworthy..."

Tom suddenly gasped back to life from a deathlike slumber. It was only a couple weeks into the new school term and odd things were starting to happen to him. The voice he'd heard the night he arrived back hadn't just gone away like he thought it would. Tom had naturally assumed it was just another one of Peeve's infamous pranks. The poltergeist had a history of bizarre macabre humor. It wouldn't be the first time he played a long-game joke and he surely had it out for Tom after the whole trophy room incident last year. Sometimes Tom would simply be walking in the corridors, minding his own business, and the chilling voice would randomly seep into his mind saying frightening things that didn't make sense. Tom was almost certain of Peeves guilt and was about to set the Baron after him, but then the voice started to ooze into his dreams.

In these peculiar dreams, the disembodied speaker had a vaguely familiar backdrop. Almost every night since the start of term, he found himself helplessly lost within the depths of the Chamber of Secrets. Tom was walking amongst the snake pillars to look upon the gargantuan statue of a man he didn't know. His face was lost in darkness. It felt like he'd been there several times before, rather than catching a mere glimpse of the room in an old photograph and it became more lifelike every night. The smell of sewer water, the damp muggy air, the click of his shoes on the wet stone floor. He could always hear the mystery voice as clear as if it were right standing beside him, however, it always hid in the shadows just beyond his gaze. He'd go to the hospital wing, if he didn't think that it'd get him a one-way ticket to St. Mungo's. Even in the wizarding world, hearing voices wasn't a good sign.

This latest nightmare had added yet another detail to this gruesome hellscape. Sometimes Tom could faintly hear a different voice calling his name from the dark and he'd finally heard it enough times to recognize it. Her voice. He'd tried to warn her of the ominous figure who kept bringing him to the chamber and tell her to get away, but all that came out of his mouth was threatening hisses of Parseltongue.

"Did you say something?" Tom asked Peter, who was the only one in the room that was not currently face down in a pillow taking advantage of the Saturday. He was desperately searching for a reasonable explanation to not only this particular morning, but what had been weeks of mental torment. However, he already knew Peter was not the source of the voice. Tom was their leader, but none of the lot of them would ever call him "master" like that.

"No." Peter replied, looking at him with a matching confusion. It was still a reasonably early hour, and he was far too busy cramming on a late homework assignment to ask his sleeping roommates any questions. Tom had been in a dead slumber, just like the rest of them. Although, for someone supposedly in a deep sleep, he sure was awfully chatty. "You were mumbling in your sleep again, though. Parseltongue..."

"Forget it." Tom fumed, pulling off the sheets to start getting ready for his day. He didn't have a mirror to check, but he was fairly certain he didn't get enough sleep and had dark circles under his eyes. He undoubtedly looked like a sickly corpse, and he could still hear the voice faintly in his ears. However, Tom successfully managed to push it back by the time he was dressed. There was no time to be worrying about any of this now. He had somewhere he needed to be. "I'm heading out now. Speak of this to no one..."

Peter nodded dutifully and, although he still seemed more focused in his work, Tom was assured his secrets were in safe hands.

He left the dorms with too much to wrap his head around. The Chamber of Secrets, his past, and the voice. He felt like they were all connected somehow. He just needed to figure out how. Hopefully, where he was going there would be some answers. Tom was walking through the corridors at a fast pace, hoping he would not be ambushed by one of the annoying first years, like Eileen Prince, who saw the Prefect badge and immediately had a billion stupid questions that he'd have no choice but to answer.