𝙷𝙿𝚂:2 𝔸 𝕃𝕠𝕧𝕖 ℝ𝕚𝕕𝕕𝕝𝕖 𑁍𝐓𝐨𝐦 𝐑𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞𑁍

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧: 𝐆𝐨𝐧𝐞

Chapter Fifteen
~Gone~

"Two days, that is the most I can do before we will eventually have to let her wake up and make the choice." The mediwitch kept her eyes casted on the visitors as she talked about the situation of her patient. Her voice softer than the touch of cotton on skin, laced with heavy melancholy, her words shaken with every breath she released, it was no secret how scared she was of the fate the once so bright girl now carried.

Since the second Tom rushed in, covered in blood with a bleeding Arabella wrapped in his arms, the whole castle has fallen into a slumber of silence. Some were worried for the witch, some were scared of the creature who did this to her, but everyone was positively terrified of the Tom Riddle no one ever wished to see, the Tom Riddle that never surfaced because of the pure hold Arabella Heart had over him, the Tom Riddle who didn't have anything to lose which made him a force to be reckoned with, a threat no one took lightly, a ticking time bomb that no one wanted to tamper with, and the Tom Riddle who seems to have lost his everything today.

"She won't do it." If anything made the situation any worse it was the lingering presence of the Hufflepuff around Arabela's sedated body that only seemed to agitate the silent beast who looked no where but at his sleeping beauty, perhaps for the first time praying to the god above for a life he knew he couldn't live without.

"She will not agree to bleed someone to death for her own life. She would rather....would rather die than live as a murderer." Everyone in the room flinched as the thunder outside roared with a volume that spoke just as loud as Tom's silence did, but that didn't stop the naive Hufflepuff from spewing words he shouldn't.

"If she doesn't complete the transition, she won't make it, and for the transition to be complete she needs to drink a human dry of their blood." The mediwitch risked a look at the pale motionless body of the cheerful girl who resembled sunshine in this dark wizarding world.

"She won't do it damnit! She just won't!" Aiden's fist collided with the marble walls as tears streamed down his clenched eyes, the epiphany of what was happening to his best friend wrecked his entire being. Only today did he promise to protect his little angel with everything he had and yet here he was standing helplessly as he watched her slowly fade away in the arms of death.

"She will. She will complete the transition, and she will live an immortal life carrying that beautiful light she possessed." For the first time that day, Tom's voice pierced through the silence. The pain behind it was so powerful that it dulled the angry pattering of the rain against the window.

Turning around, throwing a rage filled punch at the snake, the badger angrily grabbed his green cloak and glared in those emerald eyes, "You think my Ara will ever be a murderer like you in exchange for an eternal life? She would never agree to take someone's life"

Funny how the hands that didn't shake to take the life of a girl with this very tainted blood running through her veins seemed to tremble when he picked up his Bella in his arms back in the forest, almost lifeless with the faintest of heartbeats, so scared to lose her, truly a sight if you ask, the most dedicated blood patriot scared at the thought of losing a muggleborn to death. This was the turning point that made Tom realize where his heart was.

"And she won't have to. She won't have to take anyone's life to live hers, I'll ensure that." Tom's lanky hand grabbed the badger's muscular one and slowly twisted it. His face turned into a sarcastic smirk as his foe's features contoured into one of pain.

"And one more thing, even in a world of dead bodies, MY Bella will never have to bear the accusation of murder on her shoulders, I exist to carry those for her." Soulless, that's what his eyes were. No trace of emotions were left in it.

Until today Aiden knew in his heart that he was never gonna be scared of the Slytherin prince, but for the first time since he came back, Aiden truly felt a fear that shook him to his core, and that too just by one look in those soulless eyes of Tom Riddle.

Gone. In human knowledge, it is a word associated with something that's no longer present, something that's simply not there anymore.

To the aching heart of Aiden Digger, gone was the word that now fused with the existence of his sweet angel.

And to elevate the terrors of the upcoming events that were to befall on the wizarding world, fortunate was the fate of the unfortunate circumstances that finalized that Arabella Heart, the once bright witch with a heart of gold, born in the lands of muggle, meant to rule the world with the kindness of her nature was indeed truly gone, and to everyone's horror so was gone the last drop of humanity left in Tom Marvolo Riddle.