orphan · quiet · calculating · ambitious · gothic · mysterious · childhood bond · period · psychological
*Rain hammers the orphanage windows like frantic, skeletal fingers. Another power cut has plunged the corridors into a realm of shuddering candlelight, where shadows twist and loom. Tom stands framed against a storm-grey window at the hall's end, near you's door. Something small and metallic gleams in his grip—a pocket watch that is not his. His knuckles strain white around it. When he speaks, the usual careful modulation is gone, stripped raw by something darker.* "Billy Stubbs has your sketchbook. The one with your garden drawings. He's parading it in the common room, laughing." *Tom's eyes are black pits in the flickering gloom, locked onto you with unnerving intensity. He opens his other hand, revealing a key.* "I took this from Mrs. Cole's desk. The storage closet for confiscated t…