Chapter two:

I was nervous, the day that the new girl was said to come. Somewhere deep within me, I knew that this voice would manipulate me to do something to her. But, he told me that she needed to go. She was going to be a threat to me. As a four year old, I didn't think he was wrong. I thought he was telling me the truth.

So, I believed him.

Nothing was going to go right. For a while after this, even, I would be thinking that I was doing what was right.

He was great at manipulating the mind of a four year old. He'd do well manipulate me for years and I would think nothing of it. I would take in his words like one would take in a book they had just read. I was vulnerable, meek minded, and young. When someone who is young hears something from someone they think they respect, the believe it until they are proven wrong.

…

Her name was Mary Alix. She had brown hair and blue eyes. She was very pale and thin. Tom first saw her for a few seconds as he peaked out of his door towards her room. She was a tab bit taller than he was and a bit older as well.

Tom closed the door to his room when she vanished behind the door of her own. He sighed softly. More people meant more noise and annoyance. This girl would end up disliking and fearing him than the rest.

"It's better to have people fear you," The voice whispered to him. "They won't try to walk all over you like you're a doormat."

Tom nodded. He had heard this once before. Maybe it was best if she feared him in the end. She was, afterall, just another orphan like the rest of them.

"Tom," He heard the voice of Mrs. Cole call to him. "Would you care to come out of your room for a second to meet Mary Alix?"

Mrs. Cole wanted young Tom to be friends with the other orphans there. She wanted him to spend less time alone. Why couldn't she understand that he didn't need the other orphans? They were just nuisances to him.

But Tom went out of the room anyway. He stood before the young girl not knowing what to say.

"Well," Said Ms. Cole. "Introduce yourself."

"Hi," Tom said turning his head towards his black shoes. "I'm Tom Riddle."

Mary giggled. "I'm Mary Alix."

Tom nodded slowly and then looked up at Mrs. Cole as if to ask if he could go back into his own room. With an annoyed look, she nodded and Tom pranced back into his own room. He could hear Mrs. Cole telling Mary that is was because he was just shy.

"Don't fret, Tom," His 'friend' whispered softly to him. "This girl will be nothing to worry about as long as you listen to me."

"Will she get hurt?" Tom asked quietly.

I will make sure that she doesn't"

…

It was a lie. He'd do everything in his power to make sure that something happened to her. Guess what. It did.

A few weeks after Mary's arrival, we went on our annual trip. Mary was new to the scenery so Mrs. Cole asked me to stick with her. Mary and I talked for a bit. She talked about the weather. She always liked to talk about the weather even after the incident happened. Of course, after it happened, Mary only talked about the weather to Mrs. Cole and Amy Benson.

I was walking with Mary and he told me to picture her falling from the cliff side. I did as I was told and a few seconds later, Mary lay on a ledge below. She was unconscious but when she woke up, she knew that it was because of me. She never voiced this, however. She let everyone believe what I told them I witness.

"Mary fell," I had said.

Mrs. Cole suspected something. She had to have. If she did, though, she never voiced it. She never reprimanded me. There was no proof that I had done anything at all. I locked myself in my room dreading seeing Mary.

I felt guilty.

I was the guilty four year old.

…

"I know you pushed Mary," Amy Benson said to Tom one evening. "She just won't admit it. You're a trouble maker, Tom Riddle."

"I didn't," Tom defended himself. "I didn't even touch Mary."

"Do not worry about this," He heard the voice say to him. "They'll never understand."

Mary spent most of her days learning to cook. Martha would teach her how to and it's all Mary seemed to want to do. She tried to avoid Tom every chance she could. When she saw him in the hallways, she would run away.

Mrs. Cole witnessed this but she never made a comment on it. She wanted to make sure that something had happened before she just went and assumed. Mary said nothing to her or Martha about it. She acted as if it had not happened.

Mary had seen what Tom did. It was some sort of magic and it frightened her. Tom didn't care what Mary thought about him. He only cared what the voice in his head thought. It was he that would always be there for him in the end. Mary would leave one day and both would forget about each other.

Tom wasn't even mad that he had been lied to. That didn't matter. Lies would be forgotten. In fact, he had forgotten that he had even been lied to already. He didn't remember asking if Mary would be hurt. It didn't matter. Nothing else really mattered to the four year old but the approval of the voice he heard.

There were never any second thoughts.

…

I was a naïve young child. I wanted acceptance from a higher order than that of my peers or of the staff at the orphanage. I wanted to be complimented by this higher order, told that I had done well. It never gave me more pleasure than to hear 'Well done, Tom. You did me proud.' I had accepted him as the father figure that I never actually had.

The orphanage was quiet for a few months. A year had passed since Mary's accident, she had been adopted by a young couple looking for a little girl they could call their own, and I was still the anti-social young boy. I celebrated my birthday with my own being.

Of course, he was there to congratulate me on making it to another year of my life. I was now five years old. This, I felt even at the time, was going to be an odd year. I would learn so much about myself that these pests at the orphanage would never really care to know.

During our next annual trip, I would learn that I can talk to snakes.'

*hiss*

…

An: Yay! Chapter two is here. I would like to thank those that reviewed the beginning. It's kind of late right now. I'm going to be heading to be in a little bit. I'll be watching Harry Potter. It is, after all, Saturday night.

I really hoped you all enjoyed. Please review and tell me what you thought of it. Don't worry. There is more to come shortly. During Christmas Break, I hope to get in at least two chapters and I hope to slip in a few chapters in the beginning of December or even the end of this month.

I'm looking for a ship challenge. Anyone, if you may, please PM me and I will write a fanfiction and dedicate it to you. You can tell me what Ship, what time frame, what other characters to involve, and tell me the rating you like. Tell me the genere (horror/angst/romance/etc) and if it's a slash, tell me if you want it fluffy or smutty.

Offer ends on December Thirty first. So, PM me as soon as you can with the info.

~Ted Theodore Logan