"How come Finn didn't come out with you this time? He's such a nice boy." Momma says as we were standing in the kitchen. I got here yesterday, and I put up a fight nearly the whole way here too. It was early, around 7 am and I was up to go out fishing with my daddy for the day.
"He had some things to take care of with work, he'll stay for a few days before we go back home." I assure her. I pour myself a glass of orange juice and glance up when my daddy walks into the kitchen, grumbling and mumbling like he usually did. "Morning daddy." I smile at him.
"Morning baby girl." He murmured back. "You ready to go fishing with me all day?" He questions. He looks up at me from lacing his boots in question.
"Yeah." I nod. "Ready whenever you are." I tell him.
"You want some breakfast babe?" My momma asks him. My mind wanders off around that time, I couldn't help but worry about Finn knowing that if something happened to him I would never know about it until it was too late.
*****...******...******
*At the castle* *3rd POV*
"Sir, the horses are restless, something isn't right." Charlise says in a soft tone, leaning over the table. He, Finn and a few other men were gathered around it, discussing action towards Finn's father and brother.
"They're up to something." He mumbles, glancing up at his second in command. "I don't believe we need to worry about an attack on the land. It will be personal, and directly towards me." He sighs, rubbing his temples.
"How will we know?" Charlise asks.
"I don't think we will." He answers.
"Sir, forgive me if I'm being to forward..." Charilse speaks, glancing at his boss who was focused on him. "But what if lady Annabelle isn't as safe as you hope she is, 5000 miles away, in another land, unprotected?" He questions. "Do you not think they would go after her before all else, knowing she holds great value to you?"
"I did think about that." He nods in agreement. "She may think she's over there alone, but she is not. I have a group of men in the area, keeping an eye on her. She is safe Charilse." He assures him. The solider nods, accepting that for an answer. "There is nothing we can do right now, so lets just keep an eye out and have a ready hand." He almost shrugged. The men glance around at each other nervously, but ultimately nod and scatter off into their respective areas. Finn waited a few moments before gathering himself and retreating off into the stables. "Hello Dillon..." He murmurs to her horse, giving him a pat on the nose. He lets out a soft knicker, pushing his head into his hand and stomping a foot. "I know, my friend. All is well." He assures the worried horse. In the stall next to Dillon, his own horse Aron continued to snort. "Aron, quiet." He hushes the horse. He took the few steps to the next stall and before he could reach his own hand into the soothe his horse, all went black.
When he finally came back around he was restrained, hard to a table and clearly by some sort of magic. When he tried to break the chains, nothing happened. He glanced around, still tugging at the chains. The room was black and empty, or so he thought.
"I thought I'd raised you better than to leave yourself so unguarded." His father's voice echoed through the room. Finn strained his neck, trying to find his figure but still couldn't see him.
"So cowardly. Not only to kidnap your own son but while he back is turned." He spits out.
"You're not the only thing we kidnapped." He brother Alec, chuckled. Again, he looked for the source of the voice but found nothing.
"I don't believe you. Annabelle is safe." He shakes his head. "You're not smart enough to find her." He comments, squinting his eyes to the bright light that was spot lighted on him.
"Am I not?" His father asks. Right then there was a high pitched, terrified scream. Finn immediately knew it was Annabelle's. It was heard again, the sound tearing holes through his chest.
"Leave her be! Your quarrel is with me, she is innocent." He tried to reason with the two.
"The only way to get to her is through you. You put her in this situation. All those ploys to keep her safe, and in the end nothing worked." Alec sneered.
"Please stop! I don't know where Finn is!" He heard Annabelle's stressed scream come from the other room. There was another scream before everything went an eery silent.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?!" His voice bellowed throughout the room.
"It matters not." Alec simply shrugged, coming into the light. "We'll talk more later." He adds, before retreating from the room.
"ANNABELLE!" Finn calls to her, praying that she would hear his cries. He called several more times, each time hearing nothing in return. After a while, his voice began to go hoarse and dwindled down to a whisper. It seemed like an eternity later that he heard the door to the room open and shut, and a large burly man walked in with a cart. He knew the cart all too well. He had one similar in his own dungeons. It was littered with knives and other torturous devices. He closed his eyes, and waited for the pain to come. The first cut made him flinch. It was deep and long, along his collar bone. He immediately felt the warmth of the blood trickling down his neck and onto the table. Next were his thighs. Pinches and pricks scattered over his thighs, little needles entering his legs and drawing small specks of blood. The door opened again and he tried to glance at it, but the chains on his neck wouldn't give.
"Bring her in behind me." He heard his father tell someone.
"Annabelle?" He called out in a raspy voice. They wheeled her out in, putting the table right next to him. Tears formed in his eyes as he examined her lifeless body. She was limp against the table, covered in blood and eyes closed. "You ki-"
"Not yet." Alec cackled.
There was one gash that stood out from all the others, it ran straight across her stomach and was still bleeding profusely.
"Annabelle, my love..." He said softly, "Please look at me." He pleaded. She gave no response. His calm and collected demeanor was gone and panic was beginning to set in. "You may have whatever you wish father, but please, let her go free." He pleads.
"Finn, I believe that I"m going to get what I want regardless of any negotiation you attempt to make." His father sneered.
"SHE'S DONE NOTHING TO YOU!" His growl was loud and deep.
"Finn...?" His head snapped to look at her. Her voice was small and weak and it made his own heart bleed for her.
"My love." She opened her eyes, just barely, to look at him. "Everything is going to be ok." He tries to assure her.
"You're lying." She argued lightly with him. Even in her state she managed to argue.
"Tilt her up. I want him to see it when we slice her open." Alec instructs the two men that were on either side of her table.
"Father, please stop this!" Finn shouts, looking at his father with pleading eyes.
"Why should I stop?!" He snarled back. "Did you stop your men when they chased us from our own lands? Did you stop when you tore our family apart? Keeping you mother from me! Did you stop?!" He asks him. "I'm only repaying the favor."
"I would never do this to mother to hurt you." He scoffed softly. "She lives comfortably in the castle."
"And your brother and I? We live here, in exile. Fighting for anything we can possibly get." He retorts.
"It was you that betrayed I, not the only way around." Finn tries to reason with him.
"Cut her. Start at her neck." He instructs one of the men.
"NO!" Finn yells, his voice filled with anguish. He could only watch as the man picked up a knife and held it tight to his beloved throat.
"Finn, please don't let them..." She cried to him. Her tears running down her face in bloody smears. She let out a small cry when the blade forced its way into her skin, and hung her head as if she'd been defeated. It killed him to see his strong, fierce woman depleted to this state. "It hurts." He heard her whisper to him.
"It will be over soon, my love." Was the only thing he could do to comfort her. He felt failed as her fiancé and father to their child. He couldn't keep her safe despite his efforts and now he was forced to watch as his father and brother tore her open.
"Stop Bashirm, you'll kill her if you keep draining her like that. I need her a while longer." His father finally tells the man after what seemed like forever. She'd lost consciousness, thankfully. At least she wasn't able to feel the pain. "Put her back in the other room." He waves them off.
"No! Don't take her from me!" He begs his father. Another man walks into the room at that time, whispering something into his father and Alec's ears. He recognized something was off, just by the way his father's eyes got a little bit wider. They said nothing as they both retreated out the door, slamming it hard behind them. Sleep came quickly to him, he was exhausted. He made every attempt to find Annabelle in her slumber, but she must have awoken because no matter how hard he tried he was unable to find her. Funny, it had always been so easy when he'd first began coming to her in sleep. He was jolted from his thoughts with commotion and more slamming doors.
"Master Balor!" His man, Charilse shook him awake. His eyes flew open to meet his men, who were ripping the chains from his body to free him. "Master Balor, are you alright sir?" He asks quickly, looking over Finn's face and chest. He was covered in blood, there were hardly any areas that you could see clean skin.
"Charilse, they have Annabelle! You must find her!" He shouts at him in a hurry, pushing himself up off the table and immediately falling to the floor.
"Sir, you shouldn't walk. We need to get you to the medic back home." Charilse insists.
"Find her Charilse!" Finn snarled at his second. Charilse's eyes got wide, and confused.
"Sir, she isn't here." He tells him.
"She is here! She was in front of me not a day ago. They have her here, and she's hurt! Find her!" He instructs, pointing towards the door. He allowed a couple of the men to help him to his feet.
"Master Balor, we've scoured the entire dungeon. I assure you, she is not here." Charilse tells him.
"DO IT AGAIN." He bellowed.
"Yes sir." He finally nods, defeated. "Go, search the ground again. Take as many men as you can with you." He tells Uriel, who nods and disappears through a set of doors. "Get him back to the castle, see he's taken care of." He tells the other two who had Finn up to his feet.
"I will not leave without her." Finn insists, glaring daggers with his blue eyes.
"Sir, with respect... You need medical attention now. I will stay behind, if she's here I will find her. That I promise you." He assures his king. "I will find her." He repeats it. Finn stares at him hard for a long moment, before he finally nods.
***...***...***
It felt like forever had passed. He'd been bandaged up by his doctors some time ago and was waiting all too impatiently in the bed for Charilse to come back. Finally, another few hours later he came through the doors.
"Where is she?" He asks, his face falling.
"She wasn't there." Charilse replied hesitantly. "I had the men search the area for hours sir. She was not there." He says again. "Sir, we heard no word from your men in Louisiana that anything had happened to her." He adds confused. He thought about it, he probably had just enough energy in him to make the transport to Louisiana.
"What did you do with my father and Alec?" Finn asks him, letting the subject go for now. He couldn't jolt the image of his love, bloody and defeated from his mind. Charilse's face fell, and Finn immediately knew the answer.
"We killed them, sir." He said in a soft and cautious tone. Finn only responded to that with a curt nod, it was what needed to be done.
"I'm going to go to Louisiana. I will return." He assure him, standing up from his chair.
"Is it wise to transport in your condition?" Charilse asks, a concerned look on his face.
"I need to know she's ok." Was his short response.
***...***...***
"Daddy! That's not fair, you were cheating!" I laugh, coming up out of the boat. He'd caught a considerable number of fish more than I had, and cheating was the only answer in my mine.
"I'm older, and wiser. Only rational I catch more fish." He chuckles.
"Well, your half right." I grin at him, earning a scoff and a shake of his head.
"Annabelle." I look up, confused.
"Hey!" I grin at Finn, "I didn't think you'd be here so soon." I say to him. He was basically frozen to his spot staring at me, and I immediately knew that something was right.
"Finn, good to see you." Daddy grumble at him.
"The same sir." He nodded. I waited for my daddy to walk inside and shut the sliding glass door before I turned my attention to Finn.
"Are you ok?" I ask him.
"How is it possible?" He questions, looking me over.
"What are you going on about?" I furrow my eyebrows. Then I noticed it, the large bandage that crossed over his collar bone but was slightly hidden under his shirt. "What happened to you?!" I hissed.
"I thought you were gone." He whispered to me, only making me even more concerned.
"Gone from where?" I ask.
"My father... You were there. Bleeding, begging for my help." He rambles off. "I don't understand, what magic is that?" He asks himself.
"No Finn, I've been here. Fishing for the past 3 days with my daddy." I assure him. "I haven't went anywhere." I take his hand in mine, and leave a soft kiss on the back of it. He pulls me against his chest, and I noticed him flinch but I let it go for now and wrap my own arms around his waist.
"I love you." He tells me.
"I love you too." I reply.
"I thought I'd failed to keep you safe..." He murmurs confused.
"What happened?" I question, still confused as ever.
"My father, captured me... And he said he had you. I saw you... You were right there. You were bleeding. I watched them cut you." He rattles, still just as confused as me obviously. I could tell the whole thing was stressing him out. "Charilse killed them." He adds almost sadly.
"I'm sorry..." I say to him, trying to be comforting.
"It had to be done." Was his short response.
"Finn..." I look at him. "I"m right here, this is real." I assure him, "I"m ok." I add.
"It was the worse thing ever to have to watch." He tells me, "You kept asking me to help you and I couldn't. I couldn't keep you safe." He shakes his head. I use both hands to cup his face and hold his head still.
"You did keep me safe, I'm right here. Safe and sound." I say. "It must have been some kind of hallucination." I tell him. He thinks about that for a moment. "You should ask you mother if you father has any kind of powers that make people see things that aren't real." I suggest.
"I'd never thought of that..." He murmurs. "He knew I'd become panicked if it was you." I watch the wheels in his head turn before he looked down at me and stared for a moment, scanning every inch of my face. "We should go inside before your parents suspect anything." He finally smiles.
"Ok..." I agree.
"We can discuss things further when we return home. I want you to enjoy your time at home. Let's not think about anything else right now." He tells me, spinning me around towards the door. "I'm quite looking forward to your mother's cooking." He winks as we walk back inside. His wheels were still turning though, and I could tell that this might not be the end of whatever the hell had happened to him. For now, I'd stay confused I guess.
A/n: I didn't really edit this, I apologize for any errors!