Chapter Six: A Cruel Conversation
Finn was about to take the fifth bite of his chocolate mousse at the Comptoir Café and Wine Mayfair, London when suddenly he was reminded of the safety of his family. Ever since Esther has revealed that Mikael is returning to take revenge for the betrayal his family has given him, Finn is unable to process anything properly. This will be the second time Mikael would attack them since their dispersal from their village. His attack of the first time nearly killed him and thus he wished Mikael would never continue with this fight and quarrel. But here he was enjoying his favorite chocolate mousse maybe for the last time.
"Excuse me, sir?" a lady interrupted. Finn followed the directions where the sweet voice came and saw it was a waitress. A brunette.
"Sorry sir, but you have been sitting there for an hour having yourself nothing but that one single mousse. And as much as we love having such a nice appreciation from you, we are afraid people are waiting for a table and maybe you can get it over with it soon?"
Finn chuckled and said,
"Your name?"
"Emma."
Finn raised a brow.
"Emma Hartning Sir."
Finn stood up to shake hands.
"Firstly, it's a pleasure meeting you, and secondly, I assume you're new here."
"I am sir, my first day here."
"I know. It makes absolute sense that it is. Because everyone working in this elegant café knows me and know that I take my own time here and with everyone's consent, mind that."
Emma was speechless. She only wanted to impress her boss. But now she may lose her job.
"I am sorry, mister, I only wanted…."
"Oh, don't be terrified. I enjoyed this."
Emma nervously chuckled,
"I am in service of the customers."
Emma saw how Finn's face grew more awkward and she then said, "I should go." Emma left.
Finn wished he could stop her. Because he liked her company. The nervous face she carried around whenever Finn made an awkward face. He found her cute. But he didn't approach her back. For the same reason, he hadn't been in a relationship since he's turned into a vampire.
He quickly devoured his mousse and left the Comptoir Café after he paid for it.
Emma watched him rush away.
---Past---
Finn heard the last whiplash Mikael gave to the tied-up Klaus. He; like his other siblings was unable to witness that horrific thing Mikael was doing to Klaus. He knew there was nothing that was going to come out of it. And Mikael too knew that. So the fact that he was still doing it made everyone out of their minds.
When Mikael stepped out; like he always does, Finn couldn't help but approached Klaus.
"How are you holding up?"
"Not so bad, you see. (Inhales deeply) everyone has given up on helping me and for some reason, that is more painful than his torture."
"Klaus I know why he is doing this."
"I know why. He thinks that he will vanish the wolf side of mine by doing this. But you and I both that it will never happen."
"And so knows our father," Finn said.
"So why is he doing this? I am his son…."
"Brother no… (Klaus was speechless) You are not his son."
"What do you mean?"
"Brother. Father is a vampire and Mother is a witch. How do you propose your wolf side?"
Klaus hesitated to say,
"You're wrong, he…"
"He is doing this out of rage. Out of anger. Pure anguish. And nothing else."
"No, Finn, that can't be right…"
"It's the truth Brother! Father and Mother had this big fight about it too. You were outside at that moment but we all were there when Mother confessed it."
"Mother confessed it?...."
Finn nodded,
"Yeah…."
Klaus inhaled sharply and looked down. Finn heard footsteps approaching and he got away from him.
------
Finn unlocked the door and entered the apartment.
The smell of freshly cooked food strung his nostrils. He sighed and looked at the dining table. There was a plate of steak and some sides which made him sigh.
"You're here?" A womanish voice was heard. He turns to see her.
"You took three hours. It's getting worse and worse, Finn."
"When you knew I was going to eat my mousse then why did you prepare this meal?"
"Finn you and I we both know that one single mousse won't be enough for an appetite."
"You know I don't like to eat anything after I eat that mousse!"
"Eso no está Bien, mi amor." The woman said.
"What?!"
"I am learning Spanish, I told you to remember? (Finn exhaled) Finn, what's the matter with you?"
"As if it isn't palpable, mother!" Finn shouted and left; leaving Esther alone in her wonderment.
---Past---
It was the time of the outspread of the plague. Finn was nine years old when he along with Mikael and Esther first moved to the new hamlet and they had it rough. They lost Finn's twin sister Freya to the plague and hence, that left a gap in their lives which they needed to fill. Coming out in the new hamlet seemed the solution to it.
Both Mikael and Esther had something with themselves to avoid the fact that Freya is no more. Mikael would work for hours and Esther would consume herself in other works like building a house and other domestic work. But Finn was nine years old and he had nothing to do but just sit alone and remember Freya. Revisiting all the memories they shared. There are 4730400 minutes in nine years and they had made memories for almost in each one of them. Each one is precious and golden. They shared sweaters, combs because they both had long hair. They shared their lives, they were each other's comfort.
But ever since Freya left their lives, Finn had become morbid. Sullen. With Freya he was joyous but after her, he just wasn't himself.
------
Finn had pretty much nothing to do in his life. Unlike Henrik who spends time in orphans, Rebekah who enjoys her time with her boyfriend, Kol who shares his bed with different girls every day, Klaus who does mischief, and Elijah who tries to stop Klaus from doing mischief, Finn is the one who does nothing in particular with his one immortal life. He has earned himself a degree in literature, did a fancy job, and earned every penny he owns, unlike his other siblings. But he has seemed to be grown tired of his life.
There is no one constant in his life. No person in his life is there who he can say is the one who is there for him. The only person coming close to that could be his mother Esther who lived with him and had lived with him ever since they departed from the family after leaving Mikael on Esther's insist. But no one can be fond of their mother's love for a thousand years.
Yes, like others he had grown tired of Esther. She and her cooked meals and sweet tone; pretending as if she doesn't feed off human blood. He knew the ancient spell Esther performed to keep him immortal will be dangerous for but Esther not listening to her son's disinterest and following with her spell anyway made Finn mad. And Esther not showing her troubled state got him even madder.
So when he shouted at Esther when she asked him that day if something was wrong, he knew he left her in the dark by bursting out like that. But he couldn't control it. Her smile but painful eyes, that plate of food which he knew was not perfect as her other foods are. Hardly ever do they go to a restaurant because Esther persists in eating in. But he knew shouting out like that was wrong. Because for Esther, Finn is still her son who was ready to leave his whole family at once when Esther asked him to accompany her on her journey.
Few days were passed and Finn didn't talk to her and so didn't Esther. One day he was sitting in his room doing absolutely nothing when his mother entered inside,
"I think a talk is necessary to mend some misunderstandings," Esther said as she came in.
"We're talking?" Finn asked.
Esther took a deep breath as she sat down beside him and exhaled once she sat.
"Yes, we are. (Finn nodded) It wasn't fair of you to do what you did that day. (Finn nodded in agreement) You shouting at me because of what I had no idea of is not a thing you do. I am still your mother and no son ever needs to shout at her mother like that. Okay?"
Finn nodded,
"Yeah."
"Good. Well, as I said before, you shouting at me for no reason is not something you, do. So obviously there was or there is something wrong with you which means you lied to me that day."
Finn nodded in agreement,
"Yeah."
"Well, as you've just agreed to it, would you tell me what's wrong with you?"
"Nothing Mother it's just that…. Well, it is very um---"
"What's happening here, Finn? We weren't like this. You and I, we talked, we connected. We weren't like this…"
"Yeah." Finn interrupted. "Yeah, we weren't like this. We weren't, like this."
"So what are you saying? We are like that now?"
"You tell me, mother. Are we? Did we use to talk right?
Which means we would listen to what each other says. But don't you think it's been all along with me who have heard you. Heard you deciding to live here, heard you decided to make yourself unnaturally immortal, heard you decided to limit outings to as minimum as possible, heard you decided to just live for your children and not having a life for yourself but have you ever listened to me? Have you ever, listened to the 'no' I have been saying to your every decision?"
"That's nonsense, you've never said no to any decision."
"That's right. I haven't. But a 'no' screamed in my 'yes' always! You told me that you're my mother so as a mother, wasn't it your duty to detect that 'no'?"
"Son, are you trying to say that I have been a bad mother?"
"What is a bad mother? There are so many definitions! If making bad decisions is one definition of it, then I am afraid that you have. You have been a bad mother. Because the second mistake you did was making your children immortal. Making us these beasts whose hunger gets satisfied by blood. From human blood."
"Your father taught you to control your hunger so how come that can be a problem?"
"Because mother it is never enough! Rabbit blood and human blood are very different. We get miserable drinking rabbit or any other animal's blood but feel so powerful feeding off a human but again feel awful because we hurt that human. The worst thing is you knew that this will happen to us and you still made us like what we are."
"Finn, I didn't know your immortality was making you feel like this."
"Oh, you don't know what it makes me feel. It makes me angry at myself. Angry that too at myself, you know how wrong that is! I cannot think of getting into a relationship because I know I will end up hurting her even though I would nail it in my head not to. Because that's just how we are."
"Finn, whatever I did, I did protect you all."
"Oh, I know! I remember what you said when we left them.
'Whatever I am doing, is to protect this family, spread everlasting love and so that we will always be one."
You said this and we left them and not now look at what happened to our family. We are a deserted mother! Henrik is lost, Rebekah is afraid, Kol is just Kol but more mischievous, Elijah is caged to Klaus and Klaus is so tormented and hurt and I am all alone…."
"Finn, why would you say that? It's not right for you to say that."
"Mother it's the truth. We are all broken deep inside. We may be smiling but we all are hiding deep remorse inside of us which haunts us. Christopher haunts Rebekah, Josephine haunts Elijah, Kol's addiction to blood haunts him, Henrik's different personality haunts him, Mikael; our father haunts Niklaus, haunts all of us, to be frank, and what haunts me is the fact that we have been telling lies to our family about what happened to Freya. The lie is that she died because of the plague. We both know the truth and still, we've been saying that she died because you never tell me why."
"We were not to talk about Freya, I told you…."
"She is my twin, mother! She is half of my soul. Soulmate but so much more meaningful."
Esther blinked and said with a deep breath,
"What was my first bad decision?"
"What?"
"You said my second bad decision was making you all vampires. What was the first bad decision?"
"I don't want to say it."
"Why not? You didn't hesitate to say all of this so why stop now? Tell me. What was my first bad decision?"
"Mother…"
"Finn!"
Finn inhaled a deep breath,
"Your first bad decision was to be unfaithful to father."
Esther's face fell dull. Never have Finn showed any hate for her and now he unloaded so much on her. But the last one made her feeling numb. She looked at the floor and got up. She was about to leave when she said,
"Mikael is arriving again to hunt us. Pack your bags. We are leaving for New Orleans first thing in the morning." She said that and left Finn speechless.
The next morning before they leave for the airport, Finn escaped eating his mousse.
While sitting down peacefully at his place and enjoy the mousse, he saw a familiar face smiling at him. She walked to him,
"You still here, Emma?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"I thought they might have kicked you out after our little chat."
Emma chuckled,
"Well I did stole some attention from my boss but I told him that we knew each other and that we were just talking like that. (Finn raised his brows) He bought it."
"Wow! She's clever!"
Emma laughed,
"Didn't see you after that day. My colleagues told me you are regular."
"Things have been crazy at home. Fought with my mom."
"Mom?! You still live with your mom?"
"It's a little complicated and a long story."
"Well, I am down for long stories. How about tonight at eight?"
Finn was about to reply with something very normal but then he realized what she had meant by that.
"Um... I am leaving for New Orleans and I might not come back. I came here because of that. Can't leave this place without eating my favorite mousse for the last time."
Emma whined,
"Too bad! I wanted that eight with you."
She clicked her tongue and left to serve others.
Walking at the airport, he realized he could've said yes to Emma. Because he wanted to. The fear of hurting her fist even comes to his mind. If it wouldn't be for Mikael's revenge, then he would be making reservations for dinner with Emma. He regretted not saying no to Esther when she made that plan of rescuing Klaus from Mikael that night. If he had, then things would have been different. He would've said yes to Emma and all of them would be living their life freely. Not Klaus but the rest, yes. The love of family blinded this thought at that time but after a thousand years of torture, they all realized they made the wrong choice. And that was saying yes to Esther.