Not About Angels (A Tom Riddle Story)

Chapter 70

"Listen, Abigail...this arrangement, between us, it isn't working." He said, trying to keep his voice flat.

She stopped in her tracks. "Arrangement?" She asks. Is that all they are, after all these years, an "arrangement"?

He wouldn't look at her, not even at her back. He stood in the shadows so she wouldn't see his face.

"I-I don't think we should see each other anymore. Abigail. All good things must come to an end, mustn't they?" He said, adding in a signature detached chuckle at the end to hide the uncertainty in his voice.

Tom Riddle stuttered. Tom Riddle never stutters.

"No." She replied. She wasn't going to back down again, this time. Year after after year, time after time, he did this to her. For some unknown reason, he would break away from her and leave her heartbroken, confused. Then, when he saw it fit, he would charm her back into his life and convince her to abandon all her convictions.

She wasn't going to let him break her heart this time again, not without an explanation.

She turned around to face him, seeing his beautiful face half-hidden by the shadows, half unreadable, half melancholy. Suddenly, all the pent up emotions that have collected over the years bubbled to the surface and erupted in her.

She thought of Gabriel, and what Tom Riddle made her do to hurt him. Destroyed his family. Breaking his heart, his life.

"I gave up everything for you, Tom Riddle. I'm a murderer. A liar. A cheat. All for you. I've hurt and pushed away everyone in my life, all for you. I've turned my back on every single one of my own values, everything I've ever believed in. I went to hell and back, just for you. Now, when I look into the mirror, I don't even recognize myself anymore. I hate the person you turned me into. But I could never hate you. You can't just walk away from me, not anymore. Not now.  I hold on to things, and I believe them, even if nobody else does..." 

His jaw clenches...

"......and I believe that you love me. I choose to believe in angels, even though they've disregarded me all my life. Never for a second did they pity me. But I know that they're up there, watching over me. And I choose to believe that you can love me. I know you have a heart! I know you do...Please, I'm begging you...." She inhales, trying to suppress the tears finding their way to her eyes. "Give me a reason."  

He backs away from her and further into the shadow so she wouldn't see his face. 

He didn't want her to see that there were tears in his eyes too. There was so much that he wanted to say so her.  

Remember when I said that Tom Riddle would never cry again? Well, I lied. 

Between them, all the words lingered in the air, then disappeared into oblivion. He wanted to touch her, to pull her closer, to feel her skin against his, and to tell her everything. 

He may be a monster, but he was still Tom Riddle. 

She was his soul, and he couldn't torture her like this anymore. 

He saw the tears in her hazel eyes, the scars on her arms from the needles of Thomas Lind, the dark circles underneath her eyes and finally realized.

Her tears always had an extraordinary effect on him. Thinking back to the night, when he almost killed her...

He realized that he had destroyed her. He was the source of her misery, since the beginning. He forced her against herself, against the very things she lived and breathed for: kindness and love.