*WARNING*
Things get dark, and may be triggering.
I recommend being at least 15 (if you can handle scary) or 16 + before continuing to read this story as it will continue to have some dark themes throughout.
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I gasped for air, never feeling it in my lungs. I was being suffocated, no- it was as if I was being hanged, and my feet was the only thing keeping me alive as it slipped and skidded across the icy steps.
Tom's demeanor was calm, a scary calm before a storm. It was as if he was casually rowing a boat in the middle of a pond filled with water lilies and skaters, dancing about the surface of the rippling waters, a serene peace over his every move, while I slowly flailed and drowned in the waters beneath him.
"T-Tom, p... please, I... I can't-"
"Breathe?" he smiled as his grasp around my neck tightened ever so slightly, just enough to keep me fighting.
He took one of his hands and calmly tucked a hair behind my ear as tears rushed down my face, "You're not very pretty when you cry..." he paused before smoothing the rest of my hair down, "I need to know, tell me, Vivienne"
"I... I.... " I felt torn between my promise and my life, "I.... I can't... I can't tell you"
"P... please, please I.... let me breathe"
He looked like he was contemplating my words before he smiled and threw me back, letting me go.
I ended up rolling down the steps and then down on my back, face planted onto the frost-covered pavement. I began grasping for as much air as possible, trying to regulate my breathing. My throat was dry, and tears wouldn't stop rushing down my face. I kept my eyes on the ground as I heard Tom click his tongue. "I really hate force, Vivienne" he seethed.
I slowly wobbled back onto my feat, using the fence beside me for support. "Then... Then why?" I choked out, "I can't tell you what I don't know"
He raised his brow in slight amusement, with his hands folded behind his back, and a smirk playing at his lips "Oh, but Vivienne, I think you do know. I think you know a lot more than you're telling me... I can feel your secrets seeping through those kind words of yours. The way your eyes gleam whenever you're around Billy-" he paused, "You know, I think you like him.... And that makes me...-"
"I... I don't... I don't like him. I don't know what you're talking about, please. It's cold, Tom... let's just go back inside"
He slowly walked down the stairs, my heart beat rapidly, as he got closer and closer. The ice melted with his every step, and when he stopped right in font of me I felt a fire erupt in my lungs. He looked disinterested in my slumped body as it struggled to support itself, my legs wobbling as I tried to keep my footing. "T-Tom..."
"It makes me very... mad when you don't look at me, Vivienne."
I slowly lifted my head up, and when my eyes met his, my heart skidded to a halt. I can't handle this pain. He's hurting me from inside. "You need to keep your place in my world, do you understand? You're my slave. You do as I tell you to, Understand? That's how it'll always be. You'll always be the dirt beneath my feet, the footpath I trample over, and every other low-life like you can imagine is never going to be as low as you."
He smiled as he brought his hands to my face, cupping it gently, "I don't like you, but you'll have to do. You're the only one with enough secrets to keep me interested...." He stopped to take in the stream of tears flowing down my eyes, and gently used his thumb to wipe a fleck of dirt that had smattered itself on my cheek when I rolled down the steps, "I have better visions of my life than this wretch of a place, and you're going to help me succeed. Do you understand?"
He stepped back and stretched out a hand. I looked down at it cautiously, was this a trick? "I'm going to help you to your room, and you're going to tell Mrs. Pam or whoever asks, that you accidently tripped and felt in the snow. Understand?"
After a moment of contemplating whether of not this was trickery and staring confused at his hand, I looked into his eyes and knew that he was getting impatient so I obliged and warily accepted the offer. He ended up slinging my arm over his neck, and allowed me to use him for support.
Pain shot up my leg as I tried to put some weight on my ankle, attempting to hold myself up, but Tom simply clicked his tongue when he took in the wince on my face as I limped awkwardly up the steps. "If I was stronger, I'd carry you" I heard him grumble under his breath, unaware that I could hear him.
I smiled to myself, feeling deep down... that in his own way, he'd one day let me hold a place in his heart....
All I'd have to do was wait.
***
When we entered the orphanage the guard simply reached over and pulled the latch on the gate, keeping his eyes on his paper, and never once turning to look at us.
When we stepped through, we found that no one had bothered to light any candles in the hallway or around the rooms, and so we once again found ourselves in darkness. We blindly made our way up the flight of stairs, with Tom struggling to hold up my weight as I hobbled slowly up each step. Though he never once complained, I could hear him getting tired and worn out, but he continued helping me up anyway.
I found it odd that none of the staff had bothered to stay up to catch us coming in, but then again they'd rather keep us out than in if it were up to them.... Still, it was as if they'd thought we weren't coming back at all.
Abruptly, Tom let go of me when as soon as we landed on the upper floor, and simply left me to go my own way as he made his way down the hall to the left, never looking back to see if I'd made my way to my own room at all.
I continued, wobbly legs and all, and leaning heavily on the walls as I made my way down the hall towards my room.
I felt a cold chill run down my spine as a draft of air blew by me from further down the hall - It was as if a window had been forgotten and left open.... and when I got closer to my room the temperature seemed to drop rapidly. It was cold before, but now it was freezing. Staring down the hall I couldn't make anything out as the darkness had fully enveloped the hall further down, and fear struck me when I finally remembered that Wool's didn't accommodate for light on any other floor but the lobby area, and that there were no other windows on any other floor except in the sleeping rooms themselves.... I gulped as I felt another draft blow by, and prayed that I'd reach my room soon. Just four more doors down, I thought, attempting to calm myself at the prospect of escaping into my room. There's nothing there, I'm just overthinking things.
I ventured my way further down the hall, the hallway feeling colder and colder, one more door... I suddenly felt a touch gently brush my shoulder as I reached out for the handle of my door.
I hurriedly threw my door open and slammed it shut behind me, hoping that whatever had touched my shoulder was just a figment of my imagine, or would just leave me alone to wallow in my own fear of the unknown.
I felt a coldness seep through the bottom of my door, and prayed that maybe this time it was from my own window. But my window - as were all the others - was barred and permanently shut. Please go away, please go away, please go away, I pleaded over and over again in my head - hoping that maybe whatever was behind the door and trying to get in had mind reading powers and would accept my request.
I gasped as the cold draft from bellow suddenly blew back out from underneath the door, and the temperature had quickly returned to an acceptably normal point.
I let out an unknowingly held breath before I slumped down to the bottom of my floor. I closed my eyes shut, wishing this would all just go away. Why can't I have normal? Everything is always so special or different... I just want normal, for once. Maybe things would be easier...
I sighed, reopening my eyes, I took in my room, it was dark but not as dark as the halls had been as I at least had light coming from my windows, whatever small illumination of it I could get, at least. I hobbled up over to my bed and immediately collapsed onto it.
Just as I began drifting off into a tiresome sleep I felt a tingling heat in my pocket and, cautiously, I reached my hand into the dress pocket and pulled out Nym's ripped piece of paper, which had completely escaped my mind. I opened up the piece of parchment, smiling to myself at the thought of some nice company before bed. Just as begun to speak, a slow dance of letters flew onto the page, it's ink spluttering about like mad. The letters started to realign themselves after a minute of incomprehensible motion... when they stopped moving I could comprehend the words.
What? My thoughts flurried about, What is this? Why is this- I began to sob at the sight of the hauntingly scribed words, it was etched in an eerily messy handwriting, and its black ink slowly dripped down the page like blood, "No... Nym"
The words continued to rewrite itself, over and over again, the same drips of blood-like ink pooled down into a soaking puddle at the bottom of the page.
"Stop!" I yelled, crumpling, then throwing the piece of paper into the far corner of the room.
I couldn't stop myself from crying even more, I couldn't do it, I'd never cried so much in my entire life... if only my parents could see me now: A little girl, all curdled up in her little grey room, crying like her days had ended. Weak. Unworthy.
And through the night, I could hear the ink drip down onto the wooden planks, Nym, still writing... and writing... and writing...
K i l l h i M K I l l h i M K i l l h i M K I l l h i M
K I l l h i M K I l l h i M K i l l h i M K I l l h i M K I l l h i M K I l l h i M K I l l h i M K I l l h i M
K I l l h i M K I l l h i M K I l l h i M K I l l h i M K I l l h i M K i l l h i M K I l l h i M K I l l h i M
K I l l h i M K I l l h i M K I l l h i M K I l l h i M K I l l h i M K I l l h i M K I l l h i M
K I l l h i M k I l l H i M k I LL K i L L K I L L K i L L
k i L L K i l l K i L L i K i L l
K I l l h i M K I l l h i M K I l l h i M K I l l h i M
Ki iILL lll llll HImmm mHIK KIL LL LL KI LLL KILLL HELP HIRL JKLL KILLL
K i L l l l H h I i i M , V I Vie EE nee
N He Ny m heE wI klll L KIl l Yo U U u
an d t h eE Y
?
They will all kill you in the end, child.