Lost | Tom Riddle ✔

Chapter 63

This chapter starts with the continuation of Alexa's memory from chapter 17. You might want to refer it in case of confusion.

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          An eight-year-old sobbed silently. Her left hand rose as she wiped away the tears that freshly left her then red and puffy eyes. Her eyes were downcasted but not focused on anything in particular.

          She put her hands on her ears. They were still ringing with the screams that they had heard not so long back. The screams of the woman who she had and would always look up to all her life. The woman who was also her mother.

           She felt a hand around her shoulder and she leaned into a warm body sitting beside her.

           Who said comfort could be given only through words? You don't have to be a talkative fool to soothe someone. Sometimes a little action speaks a lot louder than an array of words. A squeeze on her right shoulder was just that.

            Her eyes looked up for a thousandth time that night. She turned back. I will meet you there. Her mother's last words to her were still making her look back again and again. Her eyes aimlessly looking at the road with useless hope again and again through the glass windows of the bus they were travelling in. In her mind, she knew it was senseless, but in her heart, she didn't.

         "I-I will m-miss h-her so-" Her words stuttered. Her voice was weak and fragile. Her emotions creating havoc in her mind as her heart finally started accepting what had happened. Very very reluctantly.

           Her aunt squeezed her shoulder again. "I will too, Lex." It was the first time she had voiced out that she had grown out of the jealousy she felt for her sister-in-law. "Come on. We are here."

           "Is papa here?" she asked. Her heart skipped a few beats as she looked up at the building in front of her. Mary Payne's home for single parents, it read. Was she really ready to be motherless? Her young, innocent mind wondered.

             Her aunt grabbed a hold of her hand as her wobbling feet carried her inside the building. She came out of her dazzled state as she heard a sugar-coated voice. That voice belonged to an elderly man. He gave a forced smile to her aunt as one of his palms held his spectacles while the other one held a pen. The bald man looked down at Alexa and flashed her another forced smile.

           "What is your name, my dear?"

            Alexa opened her mouth to speak but was cut short by Sienna. "She is Alexa Winters, my daughter."

          That was the first time she had been associated with that name. She had been carrying it since then. She wasn't sure if it was her aunt's intention or not, but that was also the first time she had been confronted with the truth that she was an orphan. She knew, her aunt wasn't cruel enough to let her know that she had lost both of her parents on the same day. Still, she couldn't help but wonder sometimes, since it was the last time her aunt had mentioned her either parent. Like ever.

          A slow wind of November titillated Alexa's body. Only a few days more and then a third month in the school year would get over. She adjusted her thin, black robe that she had lazily pinned to her shoulders. Unlike other students of the castle, cold never bothered this badger. And it was understandable since her werewolf genes kept her warm enough throughout the season. This was the reason why the girl preferred winter over summer. However, to not look like a black sheep among all the kids, she had taken an effort to cover her body with slightly warmer clothes. She couldn't wait to get away from all those people and enjoy some solitude.