"The Girl Who Died" || Tom Riddle

Chapter 1

Alice Potter had been at Wool's Orphanage since she could remember. It was the only place she had ever called home. No one ever wanted to foster her or adopt her. Even her own parents either didn't want her or were dead, and she wasn't sure which she preferred. All her life the staff and even the other kids had thought she was a freak. She didn't completely blame them though. Weird things had always happened to her and only her it seemed. Whether it was something simple like something falling off a shelf or something completely bizarre like snakes crawling into the crib she received when she first arrived. Rumors spread around the orphanage that she was a witch or the spawn of satan.
Since she didn't have any human friends she had to get creative. Often befriending the spider's that spun webs in the dusty corners of the orphanage that was falling apart and the snakes that always seemed to make the overgrown garden beds their home. It never seemed weird to her as this was the only life she had ever known. She didn't even know about her twin brother at her aunt's place feeling the same isolation as her. Because whilst the staff never physically abused her she had been seriously neglected her whole life. Not only were they too scared to even physically touch her, they figured if they were mean and off putting she wouldn't use her freaky devil magic to curse them somehow. To be honest she never really understood the logic behind their reasoning. She only understood that they were extremely religious and she was somehow a violation to their religion. The other kids weren't any better, since they were raised by the staff they were raised with those same ideals. But this neglect and hate was the only thing she had ever known and eventually she figured out it wasn't right, but she knew there wasn't much she could do about it except avoid them as much as she could.
She spent her childhood in the small little "library" of the orphanage if you could even call it that. The bookshelves were falling apart and had collected enough dust to kill a man with one breath. There was a rackety chair that couldn't handle a feather so she opted to sit on an old torn up cushion by the window. Although there weren't many books on the shelves she read whatever was there many times as she had nothing else to do. Her days were filled with stories of princesses in castles and monsters in the deepest parts of the sea, and sometimes she wondered which she was more like. She felt like a princess on the days when she was left completely alone. She liked to pretend she was locked away in a tower and would be saved by someone someday. But on the days the others decided to interact with her she felt like the monsters in her stories. She couldn't seem to do anything right even when she did what she was told as she was told to do it. She felt like the monster lurking in the corner as everyone jumped when they finally realized she was in the room. Sometimes she didn't mind comparing herself to the monster though. Because the monsters had their victories just as much as the saviors had theirs.
At some point when she was either 10 or maybe even 11, she didn't know because she never even knew when her birthday was or what the date was, something switched inside her. She didn't want the others to like her and she no longer tried to make them. She knew nothing could ever change the way they see her so she became what they thought of her. She was cold, distant and unsympathetic. She knew it was the only way she would be able to survive. She stopped daydreaming of becoming a princess. She stopped dreaming of someone coming to save her. She knew she would be there till she was 18 and then she would be kicked out onto the streets. She knew she would die in the real world if she didn't change. So Alice Potter became more realistic, she became someone who could, would survive.
By the age of 11 she was finally able to leave during the day. They never allowed her to go to school, for obvious reasons, so she spent most of her time in the public library. She learned everything she could, she knew that would be the only possible way to escape her doomed future. Eventually she was also able to convince the local convenience store to let her have an off the books job. She knew she couldn't rely solely on her smarts and needed some sort of income, at least to get her started. She spent all of her time working and reading, working and reading, working and reading. Whilst she saved up a good amount of money she was still far from her goal. Time seemed to fly by and before she knew it she was turning 12 and 13 and even 14,
Although something was different this year, she could sense it in the air. Something was lurking around the corner, as something had been her whole life it seemed. But this, this was different. She had no clue as to what it could be, as far as she could tell it seemed as though her life would be the same forever, on a constant repeat like a broken record. Things were different at the orphanage too, everyone seemed on edge around her. More than normal anyways. The air was colder and the sky darker. Her body felt heavier than normal, like the earth was trying to pull her down deep into its flaming core. And some days she wished the world would just swallow her whole.
Then the dreams started. Before this Alice's dreams were somewhat normal. She often dreamed of leaving the orphanage and occasionally of standing over the world as it burned with another by her side. But the dreams that happened once she turned 14 weren't like these. Not in the slightest. They started out with darkness and nothing but. It was deadly quiet, but she knew someone, something  else was there, she could feel their presence lurking from all around her. She couldn't speak out to them though, she couldn't even move. She felt paralyzed, but she wasn't scared. Of course the first few times she had these dreams she was a bit frightened but that was more of the shock rather than anything else. The presence didn't feel off putting or life threatening. It felt quite normal. Like she had been near it before. Then the dream's evolved. Slowly at first but more rapidly as the year continued.
It started with a few lights here and there and eventually she was able to witness full scenes of people's lives. The presence stayed with Alice though. The dark gloomy feeling never leaving, even when she woke up she could still feel traces of it still with her. Although the scenes were random, eventually she was able to find a common theme to them. At first she thought it might be a new fear, but that idea was quickly dismissed as it made no logical sense. Nothing in her life had changed enough in the past few years to develop a fear like this. She had many theories and ideas but nothing stuck. It didn't make sense, especially since she knew she had never before in her life seen most of these people. So why would she be witnessing  their death's?

a/n: the first chapterrrr!!! tbh idk how to make the paragraphs look like normal idk why they don't i'll try to fix that. also this is like the longes i've ever stuck w a fanfic and if not if that doesn't say something about my commitment issues. anyyywwaayyyssss hoped u enjoyed my bootiful shawty baes 💋💋💋💋

a/n pt.2: also pls don't expect me to update a lot bc again commitment issues