𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤

eighty-two

His hand trembled as he reached out towards the window. He stood to the side, taking shelter from the morning light but allowing his arm to seek that which every vampire without a ring feared. The morning sunlight cascaded down through the crystal and greeted his pale hand with a sizzling sound as his flesh burned under the radiant sun. Finn gritted his teeth and kept his hand steady, until it caught flames. The burning pain was welcoming. It allowed him to feel something other than despair.

"Finn."

Elijah's commanding voice was enough for him to drop his arm to his side. The flames died down but the pain and the redness remained as did the scent of burned, decayed flesh. He closed his eyes briefly, suppressing the intense hunger pains and trying to keep himself together. He was balancing precariously over the edge of a cliff and with each passing minute he was closer and closer to tumbling down into the abyss.

While Finn lost himself in his thoughts, Elijah materialized in front of the window, and pulled the curtains shut. He stared into his brother's pensive face before moving his gaze towards the table next to him, where three blood bags laid untouched. "You need to feed," he said calmly.

"I do not need to be treated like a child, Elijah."

"Don't act like one," Elijah retorted. "Drink."

Finn's eyes snapped open, a defiant look on his face. "I did not have a choice in coming back to life. I am in the bedroom Niklaus locked me in, and I am wearing your clothes as I have nothing of my own, not even my daylight ring. I have no say in anything else but I can decide not to drink blood. I won't drink and you can't make me."

"Then I suggest you get comfortable with these four walls," Elijah muttered dryly.

"You would keep me locked in here, to rot?"

"I suggested putting you back in your coffin where you belong," Klaus muttered as he stepped inside the room, followed closely by Rebekah and Kol.

Finn's entire body shook, being back inside that box was the one thing he was truly afraid of.

Klaus's eyes gleamed and his lips curled knowingly upon seeing the look on his face and smelling the fear coming from him.

"I'm surprised you don't have a dagger with you," Finn spat while struggling to mask the fear he felt.

"I don't need to dagger you," Klaus retorted. "I'll chain you," he took a step closer and grinned maliciously. "I'll lock you inside your coffin, and dump you in the ocean."

Finn growled. The anger combined with the hunger he felt, allowed his vampire face to surface.

Klaus looked more amused than anything.

"That's enough Nik," Rebekah tried to intervene. "No one is going to dagger you Finn, but we need to make sure-"

"That you are not going to betray us like you always do," Kol cut her off. If looks could kill, Finn would've already been six feet under. "You know, like last time, and the time before that..."

"You weren't so concerned when we met in the prison world," Finn noted.

"That was different," Kol snapped. "You were a spirit then."

"Until we can determine whose side you are on, you shall remain-" Elijah began.

"I helped Ayana!" Finn snapped. There was a furious look on his face as he contemplated his siblings, his family, he had never meant anything to them. "I turned my back on mother and helped her, helped you."

Klaus chuckled. "And you think that erases your sins?" he questioned, his eyes becoming darker.

"You are one to speak," Finn retorted.