Chapter 6
'Parssseltongue'
Tom Riddle was a very quiet boy, and at first this endeared him to others. He rarely cried and even when he did it was soft and reserved. He was born December 31, 1926, when a woman named Merope Gaunt had collapsed at the door of Wool's orphanage, going into labor. She lived just long enough to name her baby boy Tom Riddle, apparently after the boy's father. Since the father had been contacted and wanted nothing to do with either the woman nor the baby, Mrs. Cole had no choice but to take the small baby into the orphanages ranks.
At first she was pleased to have such a well behaved child, to her it meant less work for her, and she'd be able to properly look over the rest of the children as well. That sentiment continued throughout the first two years of the boy's life. That is, until Mrs. Cole witnessed something that had her questioning why the child was abandoned by his parental figure. The child was levitating a book to him from the Library shelf in the children's activity room to himself at the top of the stairs.
None of the other children had been around at the time, but when Mrs. Cole went from treating Tom like an example to strive for, to a heathen that should be avoided at all costs, they caught on quickly. They imitated the matron and treated Tom like the devil incarnate. His things would mysteriously go missing, his peers flat out refused to come within a foot of him, let alone play with him. The elder kids took it to a more extreme level.
The first beating happened when Tom was five. He'd been looking out the dreary window onto the city street when somebody had grabbed him from behind and covered his head with a musty bag, he soon found himself in the basement with a group of the older kids. The group consisted of Billy Stubbs, Dennis Bishop, Eric Whalley, and Amy Benson.
Billy was four years older than Tom and had been there since he was two years old when both of his parents died in a house fire. He'd immediately disliked Tom for taking his spot as Mrs. Cole's favorite and was happy to take his frustration out on the newly deemed outcast. Dennis Bishop and Eric Whalley were his cronies that acted as his 'muscle' around the orphanage, always following his lead. Amy Benson was his current girlfriend and was surprisingly enough, just as sadistic without much care for anything but power.
Dennis and Eric started the torment by whaling on him with their fists. Then Billy joined in getting off well aimed kicks to his chest, back, and came dangerously close to his genitalia more than once. Amy had supported with vile comments about the reason for Tom's father abandoning him and his 'Whore mother'. Another incident in the supernatural occurred then when the four kids were thrown from the boy's figure and were slammed forcefully into the walls.
The children scrambled out of the room, scared out of their minds at the turn of events, clicking the door's lock as they exited. Tom was left a shivering mess in the middle of the room on the floor his body raw from the multiple injuries inflicted upon it. When he regained the strength to stand, and attempted to leave in favor of making the surely painful trek up to his room, which had been moved to the last in the hall, as far away from others as possible.
He was dismayed and on the verge of tears at finding himself locked in the room with no way out. He was found four days later by accident when the cook, Martha, needed something from the storage room. He was severely dehydrated and starved, she had given him enough to make him full and sent him on his way, not caring of the injuries he had sustained or the mental trauma he must have suffered.
The second time was in full view of Mrs. Cole and Martha. Billy and his gang had decided that what they had experienced was some weird fluke that wouldn't be repeated. They started calling him foul names and hit him hard enough to draw blood. Something inside him snapped when he had looked at the two women pleadingly and their only action was to dismiss his pain and return to their previous activities.
The next day Billy fell down the stairs, causing his arm to break. He swore up and down that he'd felt someone push him but nobody had been within five feet of the boy at the time. Some of the younger children brushed it off as the ramblings of a pained child, but Billy's gang and the adults knew that it was, somehow, Tom's fault it happened. He was punished heavily and allowed only half the usual rations the other children his age received for a week.
The real terror started when the not too bright Dennis found out that Tom had taken a particular liking to a snake in the garden in the plot of land out behind the orphanage. People had been gossiping that he was spending an unhealthy amount of time seemingly just talking to it. So in Dennis' small mind it occurred to him that the best way to get back at Tom was not through coming after Tom himself, it was going after the things he cared about.
Dennis spent the morning in the garden and finally spotted the snake. As it reared it's head to deliver a fatal blow to a mouse he killed it, quite gruesomely at that. He started by smashing its head with a rock, and once he was no longer in danger of being bitten, started to mutilate its body. He placed the empty corpse of the snake in a cardboard box, and laid it's entrails around it. Then he wrapped it in Christmas themed wrapping paper. And topped it off with a bow.
His nasty mind had also planned how Tom would find out that his snake was dead. So Dennis took the box and went up to the dorm hall. Most of the orphanage had made themselves aware of Tom's schedule, just to better avoid him. He would currently be in the public library, pretending to read an advanced book to make himself feel more important. But even with that knowledge in mind, he was still cautious when he crept into Tom's room to leave his gift on the younger boy's bed.
He took a perverse pleasure in the horrified sobs that had come from Tom's room that day. Everyone heard what happened by dinner that Dennis had made the usually unshakable boy cry. They feared what was coming next because Tom had proven time and time again that whatever was dished at him he would dish back ten times worse. So everyone waited with bated breath, to see what would happen to the older boy.
Everyone had been shocked when he later taunted Tom about how his freakish snake had squirmed when he'd killed it. They saw how idiotic Dennis was, he was baiting a boy that everyone knew had freakish powers, it was as if he were begging for death. An awful, prolonged, and torturous death that many had no problem believing Tom would be all too pleased to deliver.
The morning after Dennis had been found hanging by a noose in his room. His skin marred by cuts to his inner wrist and subtle burns on his legs. Everyone knew that this was no suicide, and that Tom had killed him. But the police officers had disregarded their accusations as there wasn't any proof to it. So he was rather surprised when he heard footsteps close to his room.
The other children had taken to avoiding him at all costs, not even speaking when he was in the room which was only further reinforced when new arrivals tried to mess with him and were delivered swift justice. He listened closely to the heavy footsteps and the sound of something dragging on the ground behind them. He wondered if they had decided to blame him for something totally unrelated to him again.
He moved to the back window and took up his usual position of staring out at the city streets. It wouldn't do to have Mrs. Cole find his advanced scientific and arithmetic books. He pulled his face into his unshakably impassive visage. One leg on the window sill the other swinging off the side, a single arm propping his chin up. He was the perfect image of an overly bored child.
The door slammed open revealing a rather irate Mrs. Cole dragging in what he assumed to be a little girl, as she appeared to be no older than six, by her hair. The girl was struggling, but no noise of protest escaped her lips, even as tears streamed down hers. Tom's usually stoic persona had been completely dropped in favor of the gobsmacked expression that was currently gracing his aristocratic features.
He jumped into action when Mrs. Cole bodily threw the girl by her hair into the wall with an impressive 'THUMP' and the door crashed shut as she stalked back down the hall. She didn't spend a moment more than she deemed necessary around anything related to Tom. He moved towards the girl cautiously, conscious of the still falling tears and barely audible whimpers of pain.
Tom felt a surge of protectiveness when he saw the state the girl was in. Her clothes were discolored rags hanging off of a skeleton body with blood staining the most of it. Her face was starting to bruise where her cheek had hit the wall and she seemed to have multiple contusions on her back, with a tattoo across her shoulder blades.
Tom frowned at this uncharacteristic emotion coming up so aggressively. He shrugged off the discomfort and turned his attention back to the small dark haired girl shivering on the floor next to his bed. He reached out to touch her, and as soon as his hand met her skin she retreated violently into herself.
Tom realized she thought that he was going to hurt her, and he got angry. He obviously wasn't angry at her, but whomever had conditioned this reaction into her. He stepped closer to her once more and hesitantly asked her what he deemed the most pertinent question at the moment, "What hurtsss mossst little one?" Her head shot up at the hissed words and their eyes met for the first time.
The girl's were a deep emerald that met his own onyx ones with emotions written all over them. He could see shock, fear, pain, and surprisingly hope. He then surveyed the rest of her attributes. Her hair was grungy and matted, but the black color was almost a reddish purple hue. Her features would probably be described as angelic even when marred by a split lip and an already forming bruise.
It then dawned on Tom what he'd just done. He'd spoken the snake language to her and it was his turn to panic. He backed up to the wardrobe and pressed his back against it. He stared at her trying to judge how much pain this slip up would cost him. The matron already thought him to be devil's spawn and this would only serve to confirm her suspicions. He didn't even understand why it had slipped out, the only time he'd ever even spoken the snake language he had been in front of an actual snake. It had never come out in passing before.
A small movement drew Tom back to the present and he looked back to the way to skinny child in front of him. "My...back... hurtsss... worssst." Her words came out slow, and her voice was hoarse and gruff from disuse. Her eyes never left his and her lips barely moved. Tom stared blatantly, his mouth slightly agape, the girl spoke again, "Whatsss...your...name?" Now thoroughly convinced his ears weren't deceiving him, Tom moved back to the girl and made his way slowly to her back, careful so as not to frighten her.
"My name isss Tom Marvolo Riddle, and what might yoursss be little one?" He slowly drew the ragged clothing off the skin of her back, stopping for a few moments any time she whimpered in pain. The sight of the revealed skin made him turn green as he pushed down the urge to gag. The skin was covered in tons of wounds, fresh and old. He could see scars from where previous wounds had already healed and a single word carved into her back, F-R-E-A-K.
"Freak Girl Whore," her rough voice answered him softly, but he heard it all the same. This made him pause in his perusal of her injuries, all this and he was only seeing half of her back. This was clearly abuse, and it disgusted him that Mrs. Cole, nor anybody else had had the foresight to check her for injuries, or if they had, take her to a hospital for treatment. He then jolted back to reality, she'd said her name was Freak.
That was unacceptable for Tom, and as he deemed it necessary to provide her a new one, he decided he was the only person capable of giving her a respectable name. Anyone else would botch it up. "Freak is not a name befitting one such as yourself. You shall have a new name from now on and I shall give it to you." He leaned back and saw her flinching even if she couldn't see the move, she could feel it.
"Your name shall henceforth and forevermore be known as Reyna." He said in a theatrical way, startling a hissed chuckle out of the girl. He smirked triumphantly and caught her questioning gaze. He realized she was waiting for the rest of her name. He shook his head. "If they don't have proof of parentage, the orphanage only allows one name so that any adoptive parents can pick the middle and last one, as you don't already have an attachment to another one." Her head nodded in understanding and she tilted her head forward again.
Tom got up to get his water pitcher and rag from under his bed. He usually had some first aid equipment around in case someone new decided to show dominance. He returned to her wounds and touched the wet rag to her skin, dabbing at the open wounds to try and clear any infection away from them. She hissed in pain and curled in on herself even more than she already was. Tom tried to take her mind off the pain and asked her a question instead. "Why wasss Mrsss. Cole ssso mad at you, I've never ssseen her dislike sssomeone ssso readily before."
The newly named Reyna looked back at him and turned around again so he couldn't see her face. "Ssshe… is mad… becaussse… I… wasssn't… talking… to her… or the … Police… officer." Tom looked up from his work, puzzled,
"But why weren't you ssspeaking to them?" She shuddered and turned her face towards him again. Then she slowly opened her split and bruised mouth so he could see inside and the absence of her tongue. He took a choked breath and couldn't seem to take his eyes from the grisly sight of the jagged flesh left behind. His eyes met hers again, "How?" his tone was soft but it was obviously a demand.
After she told him her life story, minus the freakish stuff and the thing that got her thrown out unbeknownst to him, he was trying to hide his barely concealed rage. He looked at her just in time to witness the tale end of a small yawn emanating from her mouth. He then realized how much strain she had been under today, and how tired she must be. With one look at the bloody and torn clothes she sported he decided she could wear one of his night shirts for the evening.
He made his way over to the wardrobe and picked out one of the larger shirts in an effort to make her as warm as possible. He turned back with a question on his lips, only to be halted by the sight that met him. Reyna was sound asleep propped up against the bed. Her head was lolling slightly to the right and she was letting out a soft whimpering sound with every few breaths as if it hurt her to breathe.
Tom set down the clothes he'd picked out for her and gently put one arm under her knees and one under her head. He focused inside himself and reached for the dark swirling power that was always curled around him and then directed it towards her body. He kept his arms under her as he willed her to float onto his bed, firstly in case his power stopped cooperating, unlikely as it was, or if she happened to wake up. He really didn't want to scare her away from him for some reason.
As soon as she was a good distance from the top of his mattress he turned her upside down so her front was facing the mattress. Tom looked down at her prone form as he gently lowered her down. He came to a bit of a dilemma. He needed to get her clothes off so he could cleanse her wounds. His powers reacted to his desire subconsciously and her clothes vanished.
After all her wounds are clean and dresses he scanned his eyes over her exposed skin. He could see layers upon layers of raised flesh and scar tissue, and it sickened him that anyone would do that kind of thing to their own flesh and blood. The tattoo of wings on her back intrigued him, but he would leave that for a later date. It hit him then that there was only a single bed in the room, either Mrs, Cole forgot or she didn't care.
He glanced back down to Rey and sighs, his powers took care of redressing her before he scooched into bed with her. Reyna turned and cuddled into his chest, her small body fit like a puzzle piece into his larger one. Rey slid her arms around Tom and pulled him closer to her so that her head was resting in the crook of his arm. When she settled again Tom could smell a faint scent of almond about her.
He sighed and repositioned his legs, and put his hand on her back tracing lightly over the exposed flesh, hate filling him again when his fingertips encountered her scars. 'I promise nothing will be able to hurt you as long as you're with me, ever again,' his mind made up, he closed his eyes and drifted into morpheus's arms.
