The world was moving in a blur that she couldn’t entirely understand. Hot and heavy, like someone had locked her in a humid room. her chest squeezed, steaming the air from her lung until she had to grasp for every breath she took.
What the fuck just happened?
There had been so much blood and Harry- Oh god, Harry! They left him there—she abandoned him in that place with that monster!
Hermione was shaking like a twig on the verge of snapping under pressure of the world. She needed to move in the same way she needed to breathe. Fast. The energy that built beneath her skin was about ready to burst with a thunderous roar she couldn’t confine. It just kept building — an anxious bubble in her lungs that sizzled like acid and longer she sat still the harder it got to breathe.
Oh... she was having a panic attack.
The firm clasp of two hands over her cheek ripped her out of her internal turmoil. It took longer then it should have to realize the stern grey eyes that leaped across her face belong to none other than Tom Riddle. He looked so poised... ineffective by the hell that was currently dragging her down. She envied him. She envied that cold stoic face and his unfeeling heart but for some strange reason, that seemed wrong —
Wait… it was wrong. The man was sociopathic serial killer, the last thing she should have been was envious of his inability to grasp basic emotions with complete understanding.
“Hermione,” She blinked, stunned by how concerned he sounded. His often sharp tone had grown soft and warm in all the wrong places. It didn’t sound right on his tongue like he needed to spit the tone back out because it threatened to poison his mind. Yes, that most certainly seemed incorrect. It was probably all in her head, she wasn’t exactly thinking straight after all. “Stop thinking, it is defining.”
Her brows narrowed and honey orbs turned into slits. Ah, there was the Riddle she had come to know; that soft tone lost to his sharp words and predatory voice. As much as this Tom felt more... comforting... she almost couldn’t get over the fact this bastard was criticizing her in the midst of a panic attack.
“Stop?” She snapped, taking the able opportunity to finally slap his hands away from her face. She didn’t want him touching her, especially not after what just happened. “I wouldn’t have to stop thinking if we hadn’t of gone to that fucking place, Riddle!”
“You wanted to catch your killer, Hermione,” Tom drawled irritably. “I merely gave you the means to do so; you were there tonight by no one’s actions but your own and you know that.”
“And I would have stayed, hadn’t of been for you!” She shoved herself into a stand, determined to face him nose to nose but the sheer height difference deflated the idea. Honestly, it had only worked in her favor since it had angered her further than she already had been. Why did he have to be so fucking tall? Why couldn’t be normal in any aspect of the word? “I would have stayed because the killer was attacking them, Riddle. They shot-”
“Name five things you can smell.”
Silence fell between them simply for the fact that she was blanking on the meaning of his words. Riddle seemed so serious about what he was saying; there was no smart ass smirk or rude comment to follow... just those simple words and no indication of what they meant.
“What?”
~*~
@kyoki777 a teaser of what is to come, are your ready?
She hesitated, drawn to the breath that pressed against her bare shoulder.
Take it.
It urged between the blistering kisses it placed against her skin.
Her reflection drew closer as the wandering lake splashed against her calves. She watched as the black liquid clung to her white gown and weighed her down. Her breath was getting heavier and the fog of her own creation settled against the river.
She leaned back into the firm body that whispered sweetly into her ear, neck extended to the side in silent submission. It was laughing, welcoming her compliance with cruelty. He was hurting her. She didn’t mind, the tell-tale sound of blood dripping into the water’s surface was just as hypnotic as the song that had first drawn her down this dark path.
A creak broke the spell by swallowing its sound with its own. Hermione looked up, peering into the faint light slipping through its open frame. She squinted and dug into the arms draped processively around her waist so that she might see what was beyond that blinding rays.
Dark flecks floated through the white gaze in a mocking snow. Sweeping down the light and floating on the surface of her water below. She followed one's path, searching for the origins of this strange thing which existed in the world beyond her own.
F lowers?
Petals of purple stars swelled and melted into the water around her thighs. She knew these flowers… and she knew they poisoned water.
Hermione reared back desperate to escape when she finally understood her reflections malicious smile. Her back knocked hastily into the hard body behind her while nails bit into his clothed skin. She kicked out, lifting herself with the sheer force she applied to his arm, pulling— crying for escape.
I am made bone but born of the earth.
A grating cry fell from her lips as her head fell back against her shadow’s shoulder, back arching in a desperate plea for release.
A creator of those to be.
Its nose ran up her neck, drinking in the fearful scent that seeped from her pores.
A speaker of snakes who tastes the knowledge he has forbidden of me…
An angry scream rattled her vocals while her legs kick back against her captor. It did not bow to her blows, it simply shackled her to its side with no chance of escape.
What.
The water was rising, jaunting against her waist impatiently.
Am.
Her reflection smiled wildly, hands reaching up to breach the water’s edge. Hermione could only watch in horror as her reflexion melted past the surface and bound her wrists with its bonelike fingers.
Her shadow released her then; set her free so that her reflection could finish what he would not. It was disturbing to realize that it was by her own hand, that she would be dragged deep into the water’s current-- pulled into a place where even light couldn’t find her.
