unhinged ↠ 𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞

the after

E P I L O G U E

T H E   A F T E R

"You're ready to go back?" He asks.

Marlene nods, setting one last flower on her brother's gravestone. She sighs, a few tears forming in her already-spent eyes. "We knew it was going to happen, Tom."

"I didn't mean for her to die," He murmurs, eyeing the flowers, his voice breaking slightly. He can sense she hears the pain in his voice, as all of them did. Gone is the mask, and now, there lays a skin of bittersweet tears. "Maybe at first, but never again...I tried all I did to save my reputation and her life, but I guess I could only save one."

Marlene laughs sadly. "I don't think your reputation is still there, Tom."

He sighs. "Yeah...I still can't believe she's gone...she's dead, forever. I never saw her laugh, her true smile, never saw her look at me without fear."

Marlene pats him on the shoulder, an act of comfort she knows he will not acknowledge. "We never did. She was a broken girl, Tom, none of us ever saw her true side."

Tom refuses to let the tears fall; he only lets them flow freely when he is alone. He cannot show them in front of others, something that has become a habit out of him. "And it's killing me...it's eating me out on the inside to know that I did that, that I killed that happy part inside her."

Marlene's eyes grow sad at the sight of him, a broken remain of a boy who made all the wrong choices. "You didn't know."

"No," He shakes his head. "I did know. I knew what I was doing and I did it anyways. I thought I was hurting her, but in reality, I was hurting myself, too."

Marlene pauses for a moment, then holds out her hand. Tom presses the metal object in her hand. "Are you sure you can't go back to save her?"

He eyes the time turner in her hand gingerly. "Don't you think I've tried? Hundreds of times. Thousands, even. Nothing works. I've tried talking to myself, I've tried killing everyone, I even tried locking Kiki in the dorm rooms, but it always ends in her death. It's gotten exhausting, watching her die, the only girl I've ever loved's lifeless body crumple to the ground...never to be able to see her breathe again..."

Marlene examines the time-turner. "You sure were surprised the day Xavier and I appeared here."

She is changing the subject, most likely in hopes he will not snap, once again, over the loss of his Gryffindor princess.

"I couldn't believe it. How was I supposed to? To think I was a no-nosed all-powerful ruler who had an obsession with a teenage boy. Would you believe someone who pops in telling you that?" He scoffs. "I'm glad you boosted her grades. Without you, she never would have come here."

Marlene laughs, a sad, bittersweet laugh. "Yes, as we always used to say, Kiki was an idiot. She never would have been top of her class without me, she never would have transferred here. And to think, she got it wrapped around her head that she had a learning disorder..."

"She always thought she was a wrong in the world," He adds on. "She thought she shouldn't have lived because of her parents death, even though that was an accident. She warped her mind around the idea that it was me, that she had to hate me to find peace in herself, that her parents died in vain protecting her from people trying to steal her blood."