Searching For Forbidden
by me Prologue"He never loved."
A man sat silently in a chair facing a small boy. The man wore a long black cloak that shielded his face from anyone except the boy. The boy could not yet see his face, or at least what was left of it. They stood in what seemed to be a clouded ally, fog stretched around the two of them surrounding the them in a foggy bowl. the fog swept around the boy lightly. He did not feel it yet, but he would. it swept around The boy grabbing him, trying to pull him down as he listened to the man speak. The fog became thicker every time he took a breath. He, the man, had created this fog; this fear. he lived in the fear he had given to everyone who ever walked in his path, and even some who never did, but he felt none of it. The fog did not touch him. It swept around him like he was not there, like it could not touch him. And it couldn't, yet. for the fog touched everyone at some point, and until he learned that, that feeling: Of not knowing where to go, To live, to breath, or even where to die. And even if death had already come to him as it had, it would still meet him. The fog.
So until he knew the feeling he would tell his story to any children brave enough to meet him here. Here. Where?
"Where is here?" the boy had asked the man.
"Here," the man said, "Is anywhere. it can be the lightest or darkest of places. it can be good or evil. filled with life or death. Any person who wishes to find him or herself ends up here."
"But where is here?" the boy had protested. he was the youngest boy who had ever come here to meet the man.
The man held his tongue, he could not get angry, he would not lose his last chance, his last chance to live.
Or so he thought.
"What is your name boy?" the man asked.
"I should ask you the same question," the boy said cooly.
The man couldn't help but smile, the boy couldn't have been over 7. And the man never smiled. Ever.
The boy scooted back as he saw the strange smile cross the man's face. The fog becoming thicker than ever.
"Ah, well, that isn't that important is it."
"I think so," the boy said crossing his arms. And to the man's surprise the fog was clearing slightly.
"Well then for now I'll be Tom, and you can be... I'm sorry, you haven't given me a name," Tom said as respectfully as possible. Watching, he thought, someone was always watching him.
"I'm Albus," the boy said happily, and strangely the smoke began to clear again. "Albus Severus."
Tom looked quite a-taken back, "what's your last name boy?"
"you tell me yours first, I even told you my middle name when you didn't." said Albus stubbornly.
"Fine then. What else do you want to know?"
Albus stared at him quizzically, "what do you mean?"
"why are you here? What do you want to know, what do you want to find out?"
"Huh?"
"You can only find me when you wish to, some things are like that Albus, some things aren't fair," the man stood, his menacing face was suddenly visible to Albus and the smoke returned twice as thick as before, as the poor boy let out a gasp. Tom looked away, hiding his face. "See what I have become! See what he has done!" Tom yelled up at the sky. "No," he looked down again as if seeing it for the first time, and he had. The fog. "I have done it. I did have that shot, and I blew it! I blew it!" Tom grabbed Albus by the maroon and golden striped tie around his neck, "never blow it! You hear me! Never!" Tom let out screech more terrible than any sound Albus had ever heard, it was not meant for human ears, and it hurt the boy, it always would. His eyes, redder than blood itself sent the fog whirling around Albus crazily. He had no nose, only two slits on his face for nostrils, and his skin was a moon glistening in a dark lake.
That's when the fog grabbed Albus Severus Potter. It engulfed him and he disappeared from Tom's grip as fast as he had come. Gone like the wind, dissolving into nothingness. He'd woken up.
At least you can escape, Tom thought furiously.
He'd never leave this world. It was his world.
Well, isn't that what you wanted? A world of your own where you ruled? Ha! Well you got what you wanted now didn't you Tom? Even his own thoughts mocked him evilly. You got what you wanted Tom. Tom what was so wrong with that name? So what if he was common, at least when you were common you lived, in a real world. Not your own. Yea I don't want this! I don't want my own world! Hear me!
"I don't want my own world! I don't want this! I don't need this!" and a single tear fell down his cheek, as he collapsed to the ground
It was the first time. The first time. The first time since...since...since... her.
There it was, the fog, everywhere, all around him, not a circle anymore, a being, a whole person.
Whole.
"Excuse me sir? Tom?"
Tom turned around slowly, the chair he'd sat in had disappeared as soon as he'd fallen to the ground. He looked up, Albus Severus stood there again, staring down at a different man. But he was as much the same as he was different. The man stood to face the boy, his cloak dissolving with his body, leaving.
But a man still stood there.
A new man, a hidden man. Tom Marvolo Riddle.
"Hello Albus," he said calmly. His voice had changed too, it was sweeter, like velvet should be, smooth on the young boy's ears. Very much unlike the high cool voice that had spoken earlier.
"Hi," he said as if nothing had happened at all. As if the handsome, kind man in front of him was the same man from last night.
" No one ever visits me twice," Tom said half to himself and to his young onlooker. Time was different in Tom's world, it could stretch or slow at any moment.
"Well I did," said the brave boy. The fog darted around Tom as well, but some remained with both of them, it would be there now, always.
"Yes, you did..."
"I know what I want to ask you now," Albus said happily sitting down and crossing his legs.
"Ah, so you like this dream then?" Tom asked him sitting down in front of him.
"Oh I don't think it's a dream sir."
"You don't?"
"No, not at all. It must be real if I had the same dream twice right? And I remembered it, I NEVER, remember anything."
Tom had to laugh at that. His laugh skipped across the clouds in the sky like a frog being chased by a goat, if that made any sense.
Soon Albus was laughing too. And the two of them were rolling over, throwing the fog farther and farther away as they laughed happily at each other. Tom's dark brown hair fell perfectly over his eyes as he sat up to catch his breath.
"Come on Albus, I don't even remember what was funny."
Albus rolled over onto his back and slammed his fist against the ground,
" and that's what's so funny about it!"
Tom smiled, "get up,we haven't got all night."
"But we've got the next night too," Albus said with glee as he sat up happily, his eyes glowing with excitement.
"I admire your time young one, but you never know, anything can happen." Tom said stroking the young boy's hair.
"why were you no fun last night?" Albus asked.
"I was not engulfed by the fog. Without it that was what I was, that's what I became when I lived. But here, here, I've seen things, the things I missed. And so I am what I should have been, I am Tom Riddle."
"What were you before?" Albus asked him remembering the horrifying face he had seen. The boy shuttered and a bit of fog began to creep in on him.
Tom didn't answer.
"Well?"
"I can't tell you."
"Why not?" Albus asked him. He met Tom's eyes, now a lovely chocolate brown.
"I can't."
"Well why not?"
"it is forbidden," Tom told Albus briskly.
"Well then why did you become that? How?" he said that like it was nothing, and Tom could feel pain burning in his own chest at the word.
"It's a long story," Tom had never told anyone the whole thing, right from the beginning he'd never even thought about it for himself.
"Well we've got time," Albus said crossing his les.
"No," Tom said, "there are parts missing. People parts. Points of views you need to understand, things I don't even understand..." Toms voice droned off in his own memories.
"Well maybe I can clear some things up," Tom and Albus looked up."Hey Tom, haven't seen you in a while."