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𝑳𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖
𝑩𝒖𝒛𝒛𝒄𝒖𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏 - 𝑳𝑶𝑹𝑫𝑬
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I mean, he was toxic...but in a good way, I guess
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Kitioma Hadlee
Closet? No. Staircase? No. Dungeons? No.
The various places of the castle race through my head. Where can I hide from the chiding eyes, where can I escape my past, where can I avoid the people who have lately been making my life hell?
Astronomy tower? That might work, no one really goes up there.
I race through the castle, knocking into various people, each of them yelling protests as I race on. My Gryffindor tie suddenly feels too tight, constricting my throat. I reach up and loosen it when I run, trying desperately not to trip on my robes. It reminds me of Tom's hands at the night at the library, which seems so many years ago now, only it has only been a few weeks.
Tom.
Who is he?
A psychopath? A murderer? A manipulator? A liar? A twisted, sick something of human?
A misunderstanding...?
I can smell him, like he is in front of me. Some would call it weird, but his smell can be comforting, at times, like when he kissed me...
Why did he kiss me?
I run up the stairs leading to the tower, my breaths labored.
Does he like me?
Of course not, I've only known him for only a few weeks...besides, he choked me!
Can someone like him even feel that sort of emotion? He doesn't seem like the one to feel love, or happiness, for that matter. It all seems fake with him, his smiles, his words. He is confusing. He murdered my ex-boyfriend, he's a murderer, he can read people's thoughts, like he did in the medical wing. He's dangerous.
My lips tingle with the memory of his lips pressed up against mine.
My hair sticks to my face and I slip off my robes, leaving me in black trousers and a white collared, tucked in shirt. I tie my hair back as best I can in a poofy, curly ponytail, panting, leaning my dark-colored acne-scarred forehead against the stone walls of the tower.
He did storm off right after. He called me shrewd names. He's a beautiful chaos, a rain-wrapped tornado, seeming innocent at first, but in reality, he is a castle of destruction.
He's taking over my thoughts like a virus.
Tears want to escape my eyes, but after days of crying, days of pain, days of waiting and wishing for nothing but safety, I refuse to let them pour down my already-stained cheeks. It seems like all I've been doing is crying these few days.
Whatever. Crying is overrated, anyways.
I finish climbing the stairs to the astronomy tower. It seems like it has been days, months, years I have been running. My legs ache, but I push the pain out of my mind and enter the Astronomy Tower's large, open room. The moving statue of saturn and various other planets sit in the middle of the room, spinning slowly with passing time.
Someone is on the other side of the room.
Dark brown hair, this time, not perfectly groomed.
Hazel eyes, this time, deep and empty.
Whiskey bottle, sitting next to a slouched posture.
"Tom," I whisper hoarsely.
"I knew you would find me here, some day or another," He mutters as I step closer. The bottle of whiskey looks half-empty, Tom looking the same. "Not my best moments."
I take a seat beside him, my legs dangling over the railing, just as his are. "You like heights, I presume?" I finally murmur.
He nods. "They help me think."
I glance at the whiskey bottle. "Drinking doesn't seem very productive."
"I've been thinking a lot, lately," He simply states, avoiding my comment, his expression simply...tired. "My hobbies, well, some of them have gotten, well, out of hand. Friends to enemies. Betrayals. That sort of life shit, you know?"
I stare at Tom straight in the face. He doesn't seem to be talking like himself in this moment. "You don't seem...right. I can't see you opening up about your problems to anyone, even if you were drunk."
He chuckles without any humor. "That's the thing, princess. I never do open up to anyone. But..." He trails off, eyeing the nearly-empty bottle, then shaking his head. "Do you wanna know how many times I've wanted to kill you? Just one simple curse and...boom, problem solved."
My heart almost stops.
It's not everyday someone comes up to you and says they want to murder you, or have wanted to in the past.
"Tom...are you ok? Like, mentally?"
He snorts. "Please, Hadlee, I've been asking myself the same question since I was seven." He sighs, picks up the bottle, stands up, and chucks it over the railing.
"Tom!" I hiss. "You could hit some poor first year in the head!"
He shrugs. "To bad for them."
I hit him lightly in the chest. "That's mea-" His hand reaches out and grabs my own, shoving me backwards into the brick columns of the tower. My head spins at the impact and I cry out in pain, but a hand goes over my mouth.
I thought we were joking around, please don't hurt me, don't look at me with those dangerously cold eyes. I'm afraid I'll freeze over and shatter.
I should have known not to provoke him while drunk. Idiot.
"Don't ever hit me again," He says lowly. His breath, surprisingly, does not smell of alcohol, but rather chocolate and forest pine. He slowly removes his hand from my mouth, as I am breathing heavily, the pain in my head making my breaths come in short gasps.
"It was just a little tap!" I squeak, and he frowns.
"You should know better than to try to touch me. In any way, whether it be hitting me, or passing me a note in class," His hands tighten around my wrists, and I whimper in pain, knowing that it will leave bruises tomorrow morning. "Besides, I can't control what I do. I get angry, and whoops! the school is suddenly on fire. You're playing a dangerous game, Hadlee, and you should know, with your past, how much your parents cared about keeping you alive. Would you just want to throw that all away?"
I clench my jaw, biting back another noise of pure pain. "You know?"
He shakes his head, laughing under his breath. "Do you think I'm stupid, Hadlee?" His face nears mine, the hands around my own tightening so tight I think I'm going to pass out from pain. "I know everything about you. You know nothing of me. So that is the game we are playing. I win, I always do. But I can't kill you, no, not just yet. You have to play my game as my chess piece until I find it..." He smiles a smile with no light, no happiness. "...suitable, for you to die. You will die, Hadlee. I will make sure of it."
I'm stupid.
I'm stupid, I'm stupid, I'm a dumb, idiotic bitch who doesn't know her own mind from the ones around her.
My mind almost black with pain, I use my last resort - I lean forward, pressing my lips against his, his pine needle breath mixing with my own.
The reaction takes seconds, but it feels like years for me. I feel like I'm melting, my whole body is hot. My mind can only think about how his lips mold so well with my own, how he seems to lean his larger frame into my own, how butterflies are running through my stomach, even though I know they should not be there-
"What the fuck, Hadlee!" He snarls, releasing me, then slamming me back into the wall, this time, his hand on my throat instead of my wrists. "What the fuck?!"
Despite my lungs burning, his hand feeling toxically familiar on the curve of my neck, I manage to choke out, "It's called my last resort, because I'm not passing out in pain like last time. No, I'm done playing your game, Riddle. You're in my kingdom now."
He smirks, a dangerous, evil smirk.
Ok, never mind, I take it back. Nope. Time to skedaddle!
I'm stupid.
I'm a stupid, dumb idiot.
"Is that so?" He throws me to the side like a ragdoll, tossing my body into the saturn statue. I groan in pain, and my body feels like a crumpled paper being thrown across a classroom.
"Yes," I whisper hoarsely under my breath, to soft for him to hear, my vocal cords aching. I shakily bring myself up, pulling out my wand, him doing the same.
Oh, so he got his wand back? How...fun.
"Do you really believe you can stop me?" He says, chuckling, shaking his head. "I see now why you were not put into Ravenclaw."
Hey-
"What's the fun in studying all day?" I whisper back, my voice raspy.
He smiles a cruel smile, then shoots a curse in my direction. I hear the syllables, the hushed crucios and avada kedavras.
I'm exhausted. I'm tired, I'm falling into the ground, a burst of pain in my head, my arms, my leg.
I can't feel.
My mother appears in front of me, smiling, my father beside her, but I shake my head, trying to push them away. I'm not ready. Not yet.
BITCH I AINT DYING TODAY-
Slowly, I stand back up, struggling, my breaths coming out ragged and heavy. Tom looks at me in pure shock, and I raise my wand to him.
"That should have killed you," He says slowly, examining me up and down. "You're- you little-"
"My name is Kitioma Hadlee, and my Great-Great-Great Grandfather is Godric Gryffindor himself. I am the Gryffindor Princess. I know why I was sent here, they told me I would come here someday."
I think I'm the Gryffindor heir, at least. My parent said I was; they sent me here because they thought I would be safer from people trying to steal my power.
I smile, my arm tingling, numbness taking over. "Try harder to kill his great-grandfather, would you, darling? Oh, and just so you know, I've heard worse insults from Gabriela. She doesn't like me that much anymore,"
I laugh softly, and the tingling fades to limpness. My head starts falling downwards, my wand clattering to the side. A choked breath escapes my lips as I slip over the railing, accidentally.
You lose.
I see Tom's expression as I fall.
He looks...desperate. Like he is reaching out for something he cannot get.
My eyes close.
I am numb once again.
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HAHAHAHAH MISS GURL JUST JUMPED OFF OF THE TOWER BYE—