The Serenade of Persephone [tom riddle]

Chapter twenty-three

Status: unedited

(Imagine she is Althea)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

His senses gradually awakened, and his head felt as though a solid marble wall had crashed upon it. His body was unresponsive, and Tom Riddle could barely flex his fingers.

He was immobilized, with his hands bound behind his back by a rope and his feet securely anchored to the ground. Yet, everything around him remained blurry, and the brown-dark walls of Tapage, along with other objects in the room, appeared as dim lights flickering in his eyes.

It took him several minutes to piece together where he was and the events that had led up to this moment. His mind was a chaotic jumble of acidic thoughts and images that he struggled to untangle.

A fragrance lingered in his memory, accompanied by visions of a sparky meadow blossomed with violets and hyacinths, inundating his thoughts. When the young man finally comprehended what had occurred, his eyes opened and Tom gasped as if he had been deprived of breath for an eternity. His chest felt burdensome, and his breaths escaped his lips in short, ragged bursts.

That witch, no, no, no, the enchantress, to say it better, Althea Lynch, whom Tom had cursed since the very day and moment they first met, had poisoned him and then audaciously held him captive.