Lincoln's village was named Tondc, and it was a day away from the cliff where we'd rescued Mel. Finn was once again going at a relentless pace, and both Murphy and I were struggling. At this rate, we would arrive to the Grounders' village only to collapse at their feet. But I didn't dare say anything, not after Murphy had made a sarcastic comment and almost got Finn's fist in his face as a result.

The stormy weather didn't help either. It had rained for hours on end, and the ground was slippery. We tried not to leave tracks, but there was mud everywhere. A five-year-old would have been able to follow us without difficulty.

'Gee, aren't we having fun?' Murphy drawled, too low for Finn to hear.

I rolled my eyes, but after a day spent in his company, I didn't have the energy to fight with him. And I had to admit he was right. This was a lousy day.

'Still not speaking to me, Kane? Your boyfriend forgave me, why can't you?'

'Bellamy's my friend,' I said, ignoring the way my heart clenched in my chest. 'And he hasn't forgiven you. He never will, and neither will I.'

'So why allow me to come if you hate me so much?'

I sighed, praying to the heavens for patience.

'Because we need all the help we can get,' I said, trying to keep my tone calm.

That wasn't the only reason, and he knew it as well as I did: Finn was a loose cannon, and I needed Murphy's help to make sure he didn't run off into danger or did something even more stupid. His worry for Clarke made him blind, and I was scared we would get hurt because of it.

'Hey,' Finn suddenly said. 'I think this is it.'

We crouched, weapons at the ready, and crawled on the wet earth towards the village. It was small, the buildings made of either wood or sheet metal. There were around thirty Grounders milling around, and from what I could see, our friends weren't here.

'I count twenty-six,' Finn informed us, looking through the scope of his rifle.

'I got twenty-eight,' Murphy said. 'These people don't look like warriors. Just kids, old people. There's nothing here big enough to hold our friends.'

'They could be underground.'

'In here?' I protested. 'Look at the village. It's barely big enough for thirty Grounders, you really think that's where they would choose to hold our friends? With only kids and old people to guard them? They've gotta be somewhere else.'

Finn shook his head. I exchanged a worried look with Murphy. Finn wasn't listening to us, that much was clear.

'We wait till dark,' he said. 'Then we go in.'

'We go in?' Murphy scoffed. 'Finn, we don't even know if our people are here yet.'

'They're here,' Finn insisted. 'Or they were when that Grounder took Clarke's watch.'

'What if we're too late, uh? I mean, they're probably already dead-'

Finn whirled around, grabbing Murphy's jacket roughly. His eyes were dark, his mouth set in a scowl.

'Take it easy,' Murphy said.

Finn let him go, focusing back on the village.

'How much ammo do we have?' he asked.

'You know, I think I liked you better as a peacemaker,' Murphy mocked.

I grabbed Finn's sleeve, forcing him to look at me.

'We're not killing anyone,' I said forcefully. 'Not unless they attack first.'

'They have our friends!' he scoffed.

'You don't know that. That Grounder could have been lying.'

'Look,' he said, his tone placating. 'We go in, we look around. If they aren't here, we leave. Satisfied?'

I nodded reluctantly and he crawled away from the village. Murphy looked at me, and I saw worry in his eyes as well. He kept joking around, but I understood now that Finn's attitude disturbed him just as much as me.

We followed Finn and waited in a secluded place for night to fall, in complete silence. I settled against a tree as best I could and closed my eyes, falling asleep mere seconds later. I hadn't slept more than five hours in three days, and it showed. My brain was sluggish, my mood sombre and my movements shaky.

Unfortunately, when Murphy shook me awake, I hadn't gotten more than two hours of sleep. It was dark outside, but I knew the sun would rise before long. We had to hurry. I got up without a complaint and we snuck inside the now quiet village. There wasn't a soul in sight, the only sound being the one of an occasional snore. Finn seized a torch and my eyes widened.

'What are you doing?' Murphy hissed. 'This isn't part of the plan.'

'I'm changing the plan,' Finn answered.

'What the hell?' I whispered furiously. 'Finn!'

But he was already gone, walking towards a wooden cabin. He peered inside the window.

'This is their food,' he told us.

Before I could react, he had thrown the torch inside. The flames spread quickly, and soon, the entire cabin was burning down. I was furious: I was a hunter, and I knew how hard it was to bring back enough food to feed a large group of people. Finn was burning down, days, weeks of trekking through the woods to bring back sometimes nothing more than a skinny rabbit. But now wasn't the time to yell. The Grounders soon got out of their cabins, and they set to work with remarkable speed, trying to put off the fire.

'Distraction?' Murphy said. 'Not bad.'

'You didn't have to do that,' I protested. 'For Christ's sake, Finn, this was all their food and winter is right around the corner.'

'I don't care,' he answered. 'Let's go.'

We snuck behind the buildings, following Finn. I had no idea where we were going, and I didn't think Finn did either. He was so obsessed with finding Clarke, he didn't care about anything else. And the more time passed, the more I knew this would end badly.

We hid behind a crate, but suddenly, a Grounder came out of a cabin. He saw us, and before we could react, he had already screamed something in their strange tongue. Murphy knocked him down, but it was too late.

'We need to run!' he said.

'We can't,' Finn protested. 'They'll kill our people.'

'Our people aren't here!' I said.

'The only people they're going to kill are us,' Murphy added.

Finn didn't reply. Instead, he dragged the dazed Grounder to his feet and held his rifle to the man's head. He walked to the rest of the villagers, who stared at him in fright. Finn shot a round of bullets in the air, making the Grounders scream.

'Who's in charge here?' he yelled. When no answer came, he forced the captive man to his knees. 'I'll ask again. Who's in charge?'

A man walked out of the crowd, his face tense. He was tall and strong, with blue symbols tattooed on his face.

'Our leader isn't here,' he answered. 'You can deal with me.'

'Nobody has to get hurt,' Finn said. 'We just want our people back.'

'We don't have your people,' the man replied. I studied his face intently, but if it was a lie, I couldn't see it.

'Then you won't mind if we look around,' Finn said darkly.

My eyes bulged out of my head. What was he playing at? I tried to meet Finn's eyes, to tell him wordlessly how terrible an idea that was, but he avoided my gaze. Instead, he rounded the villagers in the pen they used to corral sheep. The animals fled into the woods, and a woman started crying silently as the last one escaped.

Finn searched house after house, and soon, the morning sun rose above the horizon. He was running around, kicking crates open and destroying doors. The villagers watched him wreck their homes with hatred in their eyes.

'I told you,' the man with the blue tattoos told us as Finn ducked into yet another house. 'We don't have your people.'

'Stop talking,' Murphy said.

I watched as Finn approached a building. The urgency had left his face, replaced by a look of pure anger. But we were too far apart to see what it was that had caused this change.

'You find something?' Murphy yelled. 'Finn! Answer me, are you alright?'

A young boy took Murphy's distraction as an opportunity to escape. He got to his feet, but not before I saw him. I shot forward, my bow drew tight and my sudden movement attracted Murphy's attention.

'Hey, on your knees!' he yelled. 'On your knees, now!'

The boy dropped back down, held by the man with the tattoos.

'Just stay where you are,' I told him in what I hoped was a gentle tone. 'Nothing will happen to you if you stay put.'

The boy looked at me with nothing but loathing, but the man nodded at me. Suddenly, I heard footsteps and when I turned around, I saw Finn running back to us. He leaped across the fence, holding up a jacket to the tattooed man's face. I recognized it immediately: it was one that belonged to the Ark, and more specifically, to our missing friends.

'What have you done with them?' Finn shouted.

When no answer came, he raised his gun to the man's head.

'Hey, Finn, come on!' Murphy protested.

I tried to grab his sleeve and pull him back but he shook me off. He turned to us, his eyes wild.

'Their clothes are here!' he yelled. 'They were here.'

He focused back on the Grounder, shaking with fury.

'You killed them,' he said in a dark tone.

'Finn, calm down!' I said, my entire body buzzing with tension.

Sensing the danger, the villagers started rising to their feet. But one word from the tattooed man and they dropped back to their knees.

'Your friends were not here,' he then told us. 'I saw one, Octavia, but she was alone.'

'These people are scavengers, Finn,' Murphy added. 'They could've just found that stuff.'

'Finn, please,' I said. 'Think, for one goddamn second. They're not here.'

But he didn't listen. Instead, he seized a woman and forced her to the ground, face down in the mud. He pressed his foot on her back, his rifle pointed at her head.

'Finn, no!' I yelled.

Murphy and I begged him to stop, but he shook us off, his eyes fixated on the woman who was crying softly, her eyes squeezed shut.

'They're innocent!' I said. 'Finn, please, don't do this. Let her go!'

'Man, let's just walk out of here while we still can, okay?' Murphy begged.

Finally, Finn let the woman go. The tattooed man helped her up as Finn climbed over the fence and walked back to us.

'Look, just because their clothes are here, doesn't mean anything,' Murphy whispered.

'He told us our friends were here,' Finn protested, referring the Grounder we had interrogated. 'Why would he do that?'

'The guy with the one eye?' Murphy scoffed. 'Maybe because you had a gun to his head, Finn.'

I was about to talk when the tattooed Grounder stood up slowly.

'A man with one eye?' he asked, holding up his hands when Finn pointed his rifle at him. 'You saw Delano. A snake, a thief. He and his men were cast out. You are his revenge.'

'It makes sense, Finn,' Murphy said.

'Look at them,' I agreed. 'They're children, old people. You searched the entire place without finding anyone else. Our friends aren't here.'

'Okay?' Murphy said. 'We need to go. Now. Come on, Finn!'

I pulled on his sleeve, and finally, he lowered his rifle. I breathed a sigh of relief when he started walking towards the woods. But suddenly, just as we'd turned around, a Grounder screamed and I turned around to see an old man hop over the fence. He was trying to flee.

Finn didn't hesitate. He opened fire, every single one of his bullets finding their mark in the man's body. He dropped to the ground, and I ran to him, my eyes wide, barely able to breathe from shock. I placed two trembling fingers against the skin of his neck, trying to find a pulse, but there was nothing. The man was dead.

'What did you do?!' I yelled at Finn as the villagers started crying.

'He was just trying to get away!' the tattooed man roared, fury in his eyes.

Murphy grabbed Finn's sleeve, and motioned at me to come back to them. I stood up and Murphy pushed me gently towards the forest.

'Come on,' he said lowly.

But before we could leave, the young boy that had tried to rise before jumped over the fence as well, heading straight for us. I screamed, but either Finn didn't hear me or he simply didn't care. He opened fire once more, killing the boy without hesitating. He dropped to the ground, eyes wide open, blood seeping into the mud.

It was madness. A woman ran for the boy, and Finn shot her in the head. Another tried to flee, and dropped dead mere seconds later. Anyone that did so much as blink ended up dead, their bodies ripped by countless bullets.

'Stop!' I was screaming, again, and again, and again. 'Finn, stop it!'

Murphy tried to pull him back, only to receive an elbow in the chest. I kept crying out, begging, shouting, but it was as if Finn was in a trance. Nothing worked, and I watched helplessly as the Grounders died, one after the other. I closed my eyes and fell to my knees, pressing my hands to my ears in a feeble attempt to block the sound of the villagers' screams.

Until he stopped, suddenly. I opened my eyes, and saw him look with wide eyes at the woods. Following his gaze, I inhaled sharply as I saw Bellamy, Octavia and Clarke, bruised and pale, but very much alive. Had I just not witnessed a massacre, I would've been overjoyed at seeing her. But all I could think about were the children, the innocent that had just died.

Bellamy, Octavia and Clarke came nearer. I rose to my feet and took a shaky step towards Bellamy, who was looking at me with haunted eyes.

'I asked him to stop,' I whispered, my eyes wide as I stared at the bodies. 'I asked him, but he didn't listen. Bell, I swear, I tried but-'

'I know,' he interrupted me. 'I know, Y/N, it's okay.'

It wasn't much, but it was enough. He had to know I hadn't done this. And it was selfish, so selfish of me to care about his opinion as people died around me, but I couldn't help it. I needed Bellamy to know.

I watched as a woman cradled a young girl to her chest, weeping. And a part of me remembered all these times I had thought it would end badly. I had known Finn was unhinged, had known it would only end in a disaster. And I had done nothing.

I was just as responsible for this massacre as he was.