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"Your answer has been heard beyond the door." The voice from the other side of the mirror said as the chains tightened around the girl's wrists and ankles and pulled her towards the looking glass.
"I al...
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Black and white.
Monochrome.
In an empty, dark space was where the Heartslabyul dorm leader stood. Like how his life was devoid of a single, no, all colors, this place reflected it all.
"It's so dark."
Unlike the dark times in his home, figuratively as well as literally in his dimly lit study, however, his freedom was less limited. Perhaps, he had time to himself, no one will see him.
Not his fellow peers.
Not his dorm residents.
Not his mother, especially.
"I deserve at least this, don't I?"
With that, he sighed.
It was his eighth birthday. On that day, he was inside the dining hall with his mother, a cake presented for the little boy on the table.
"Happy eighth birthday, Riddle!" The woman happily greeted her son, dictating the dessert's contents as she carried on.
"Your birthday cake for this year is a low-sugar, high lecithin cake made with soy flour and nuts."
"Thank you, mama," Riddle hesitantly thanked along with a forced smile curving his lips.
"But, umm, I. . just once, I really want to try a tart that is covered in bright red strawberries."
"How could you say such a thing?!" The boy's mother gasped in disbelief. "That pastry is a mound of sugar that's more like poison. A slice will exceed your ideal intake of calories."
"Docosahexaenoic and eicosapentaenoic, two of the acids I mentioned, will be in our tuna sautee today."
"Ah, but at the age of eight, your ideal caloric intake's less than six hundred calories per meal, so don't eat more than one hundred grams."
She turned to him, "Alright?"
"Yes, mama," the boy reluctantly agreed.
Why, why could he not just have a simple tart on his special day? Why could he not have what he wanted at least once in his life? Why did his mother silence him like this?
Just once, he wanted to do what he wanted. For one moment, he wished to create choices of his own.
"For so long, a strawberry tart was what I wanted to eat. In the cake shops around town, they're all in display in the window, tarts that were like jewels."
Many days have passed since the celebration of his birth. Many suffocating days have passed.
"Let's end your classical magic studies here for now. You have until tomorrow to review all of the magical ethics you learned today and get to page fifty of your language philosophy text." The woman dictated her son's schedule.
