Darkness and Devotion - A Tom Riddle Story

The Pain

TW: Violence, sexual assault, etc. Please read at your own risk. This chapter is REALLY dark.

Pain. That was what Evelyn felt when she began to tear through the fog in her mind. Pure, unadulterated pain.

Where am I? she asked herself but with her eyes seemingly unable to open, she couldn't do much except for rely on her other senses. It smelled damp so perhaps she was in a basement. That would make sense; if she kidnapped someone, it seemed like a logical place to put them. And there was an iron scent in the air. Dried blood.

There were no noises except for some muffled voices, possibly in another room. The way the sound bounced around the room made her wonder if she was somewhere made of stone. 

Evelyn could feel metal on her arms binding her to whatever wooden cot she was lying on. It was uncomfortable but, then again, with how her body ached, anything would probably be uncomfortable.

It was cold. That was the only thing she could feel beyond the pain. Very cold. 

How did I get here? Her mind was foggy, yes, but some things seemed a little clear. Walk yourself through what happened, Evelyn. Maybe that will tell you where you are.

Alright. She was with Tom in Hogsmeade. It was her birthday—her eighteenth, making her officially older than her father. And he had given her... a locket. Yes, that was what it was. Salazar Slytherin's locket. Beautiful and made of glass, gold, and emeralds that glittered in the light. He was about to tell her something when they appeared.

Death Eaters, the ones Tom had warned her about. She was standing behind him, allowing him to protect her while a storm came in. But neither of them could have predicted the Death Eater that snuck up behind her, placing a cloth over her nose and injecting her with some sort of potion before she could even make a sound. 

And now she was here in some stony basement, her body in incredible pain and her mind surrounded by clouds.

I've been abducted. Normally, the thought would terrify her beyond all reason—she wasn't particularly powerful nor was she large enough to really defend herself if it came down to it—but she had a bond with the most powerful dark wizard in the world. She could just reach out to him and he could come.

Except that wasn't what happened. Because when Evelyn tried to feel for the bond inside of her, that little cord that connected the two of them, it was dark. As if the string had snapped and she was left with this sort of emptiness that was unfamiliar.

"Tom?" she sent into the void, hoping he would hear her. But her message seemed to have bounced around the walls of her mind, never finding him.

Okay, now she was terrified. Terrified and feeling completely empty. He wasn't there. He wasn't able to reach her.

What if he never found her? What if this was what her life looked like from then on?

Well, that was no matter. If this was truly the Death Eater faction that Tom spoke of, they probably wouldn't be keeping her alive for very long.

Evelyn began to shiver on the cot. She could feel that she wasn't wearing the same clothes she went to Hogsmeade in, something she didn't dare let herself think about too deeply. There were other things to worry about than modesty. Things like staying alive.

The voices in the other room appeared to be getting closer. She could hear them now.

"The storm is moving closer," a younger man said. She could tell without looking that he was nervous. "Do you think it's him?"

"No. He's powerful but even he cannot control the weather," a gruff man said. It sounded like the one that taunted Tom from across the village. I wouldn't be so sure of that, Evelyn thought. That storm appeared out of nowhere with its dark clouds, high winds, and booming thunder. She wondered if he somehow did it, if he somehow brought the barrage of dark weather. Nothing about Tom's powers could surprise her anymore.