Disclaimer: I don't own it. Any of it. The title is from a band. I don't own them either.

Warnings: Tom Riddle's spin into insanity. Enough said, but it's not too dark. I don't think. Just a little twisted.

The Darkness

Darkness had always surrounded Tom Riddle.

The darkness would make him do terrible deeds, deeds that he would never have committed otherwise. He wasn't a bad child. The darkness did it. It swirled around his being to create an impenetrable force field that he couldn't escape from. It trapped his conscious thoughts and abandoned all sensible sentiments. The darkness would brush breezily against his very soul and whisper haunting promises to him.

It would seep in and taint his young impressionable spirit. Slowly it would wrap and coil itself around his soul smothering it and suffocating his light. Then it would squeeze all of the shining radiance out of him and leave him all alone in the foreboding dark, broken beyond all repair.

The darkness would glide ghoulishly around him. Making grabs and trying to lure him into its black abysmal depths. It would twist his psyche and take over. Eerie whispers of sinister thoughts clouded his mind when the darkness was near. He tried to fend them off, but that only succeeded for a while. Then they would come back with more strength and more gruesome images than ever before.

Even in daylight the darkness was always there. Lurking in the shadows of the building and in the shadows of the other children; it would haunt Tom no matter where he went. Cloudy days were always the worst. The days that the sunlight was suffocated by the gloomy gray clouds that possessed the sky were always full of paranoia. Everywhere Tom looked he saw the darkness gradually creeping towards him.

Those were the days that he'd huddle into his rag torn blanket making sure to keep it wrapped firmly around him. His fingers would ache from the vice grip he had on his tangled blanket, but he never once let go. All day he'd sit near the window, the lightest place in his room. His knees were pressed almost painfully into his chest and he'd try to keep his thoughts clean from the impending frightful dark.

The gloomy lights of the orphanage had never helped to keep the monsters in his mind at bay. The monsters gnawed at his sanity to the point that he slowly began to unravel. Piece by piece his sanity was being devoured by the demons in his mind; the demons that were put there by the darkness. The monsters scratched and clawed at his core until it was red and raw with blood.

Gradually, a new menace had made its way towards Tom Riddle's being. Coldness had started to seep into him. It would trickle through his veins and gush into his heart in painful bursts. The coldness was freezing him from the inside out. It felt as if someone had gripped his heart and was slowly compressing it, hoping that it would pop and blood would ooze out. The biting cooling sensation was not a pleasant experience.

Tom soon found it hard to feel things. He couldn't feel emotions as freely as he once had. His compassion for others was drying up. The bitter and hatred feelings were becoming more prominent in his mind than ever before. He was becoming even more reclusive and more distant as his thoughts were being bombarded by dark emotions. Jealousy and envy were winding their way down his veins and poisoning his blood. These feelings often made him physically ill, but after his heart began to frost over they became much easier to deal with. If he was cold enough the acidic feelings didn't burn as severely.

He had tried to tell people, but they always thought that he was making it up and all they would say was, "You have a very active imagination, Tom."

Oh, he did have an active imagination, but he wasn't making this up. The adults were deaf to his cries for help. He eventually stopped trying to get rescued and hoped he could tread in the dangerous depths of his mind alone; and all the while knowing that he never stood a chance.

After his failed escape attempt, his demons and monsters came back without mercy. They ravaged his mind and shredded all of his innocence and childish thoughts. The demons in his soul mangled it into an unrecognizable distortion. The darkness tangled itself so entirely into his soul that he would never be able to fully shake it.

The only time that Tom ever remembered being free of his mental demons, was when he had been invited to Hogwarts. He had been so excited that his brain had been shivering in anticipation. He couldn't wait to get out of the orphanage and leave the demons and monsters behind.

Tom's first impression of Hogwarts was that it was light. The candles flickered with an orange and yellow glow. They kept the castle from being swallowed by the darkness even at night. Oh, and the warmth. It was everywhere. The castle gave Tom that warm feeling in his heart again. The frost was swished away after only a fortnight. He felt safe and warm in the lighted enchanted castle. There were no demons and monsters here. He would never be alone in the darkness again.

Yet, once again Tom was shunned. He didn't know how to act around others. He couldn't relate well to children who had never encountered the things that he had. The teachers did nothing to help him either. After that Tom found himself alone, once again. In a darker and colder place than the orphanage could have ever been.

Over time he began drowning in the darkness. It flowed around him and clung to him with a renewed vigor and this time Tom welcomed it. As he accepted it, he began to feel the power it gave to him. It embedded new darker magic within his core. He could use this to his advantage. The darkness was the only thing that had ever taken a liking to him. He wasn't about to push it away now.

The cold was spreading rapidly throughout his body. It created a rippling effect that caused him to shudder with each spurt of bitter cold. He could feel the hair on his arms beginning to stand on end. The coolness was slowly pulsating throughout his body and it began to become intimately entwined with his darkness. This gave him unbelievable feeling of power.

The demons and monsters had been awoken. They stirred slightly and began to reestablish themselves in Tom's mind once again. Only this time Tom was happy to feel their presence. They crept into his psyche and were met with no disdain. This pleased them beyond anything and for that they were far less painful to bear. They whispered mischievous ideas to Tom and gave him some interestingly wicked schemes. With his evil deviant's help he began to feel wanted and powerful for the first time in his life. Tom was glad to have some company in the dark cold once again.

He had been alone for far too long.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please Review!

--It was a little weird, huh? Well, I blame my cold medication. My little brother got me sick and this is the result, the little heathen.