Rosamund | Finn Mikaelson

Chapter Twelve

 She was wrapped in a blanket when she awoke. Terrified, she pulled at the sheet and screamed.

 "Rosamund!" She could feel someone pulling the blanket off of her. She quickly recognized Finn's voice.

 "Finn?" They were in an open cart, riding furiously down a road. "Where are we?"

 "Oh, Rosmaund!" Rosamund was immediately pulled into Sage's arms, who sounded like she had been crying. "You were dead. You died in that fire."

 "Fire?" Yes, there had been a fire, hadn't there? "A fire! Where are we going? I must go home, I have to know what happened to the cottage!"

 "There is no more cottage, Rosamund," Finn said. "It is gone. It was burned to the ground in the fire."

 "Burned to the ground," she repeated. She let Sage continue to hold her, completely at a loss as to what to say or do. "Why?"

 "It was our father." Lady Rebekah was in the cart as well, and held up her torch. Next to her was Lord Kol, with Niklaus and Elijah up in the front, Niklaus handling the reins. "He found us. He set the entire village aflame."

 "What happened to everyone else?" Rosamund asked.

 "They are dead." Rebekah's face looked grim in the light of the torch. "Everyone's gone."

 "Henry," she breathed. "What about Henry?"

 "Henry is dead, Rosamund," Sage said tearfully. "I looked for him. His house was gone, burned to the ground like ours."

 "No." Rosamund rested her head against her sister's shoulder and moaned. "Why me? Why was I the only one to live?"

 "You were not the only one to live," Finn said.

 She looked at him. "Do you mean someone else lived?"

 He shook his head. "No, Rosamund. You died in the fire. You are dead."

 "Dead?" She looked down at herself. "No, that cannot be. Look at me, I live."

 "No." He shook his head again. "You are dead, Rosamund. You died while my blood was still in your body. It brought you back."

 "Then I am alive."

 "No. You are in a place between life and death now. You have a choice, Rosamund: you can drink the blood of a living human and become a vampire, or die."

 Rosamund stared at him in disbelief. She looked at her sister. "Is that how you become a vampire?"

 Sage nodded. "Yes. I left the cottage after you went to sleep. I wanted to see Finn, and then their father came. We did not know of the fire, and Finn went to rescue you, but..." She trailed off there. 

 Rosamund didn't say anything else. She numbly rested her head on Sage's shoulder again and closed her eyes.

 "Rosamund? You must choose," Finn said softly.

 "Find me a living human to feed upon," she said, keeping her eyes closed.

 "Is that what you want?" She could hear the surprise in his voice.

 "Yes. Please tell them to stop somewhere where there are people."

~~~~~~

 A few days later, they made to a port city, where Niklaus and Elijah were to get them all passage on a ship leaving the country. Now that Mikael had found Niklaus, they knew they should not stay.

 Everyone paired off when they arrived, but they all promised to meet at the same place. Niklaus and Elijah went their own way, Kol went another, and Sage pulled Finn a third. That left Rebekah and Rosamund.

 Rosamund did not yet have a daylight ring, so she wore a cloak that Rebekah had kindly let her borrow. She had never been to a city before, so she gazed sound curiously.

 "Shall we walk through the city?" Rebekah suggested. "You look as though you have never been to one."

 "I have not," Rosamund admitted. "I should like to see it."

 The two women walked together through the busy streets for a time. Rebekah had some money with her, and she ended bargaining with a merchant over some bolts of fabric.

 "You must know something about dressmaking, mustn't you?" she asked Rosamund after she had paid for her goods.

 "I do. You would like me to make something?"

 "All other times, I compelled someone else to do it," Rebekah said. "But I do not know who else will be on the ship. If you can sew yourself, perhaps you and I can accomplish something together. You are going to need some clothes of your own."

 "Tell me," Rebekah said as they walked on, "Why did you choose to be become a vampire?"

 "I do not know," Rosamund replied. "I did not want to die like everyone else. I believe it was fear."

 "Do you regret it?"

 "No. I do not believe so. I may."

 Rebekah nodded. "That is understandable."

 The two went to the meeting place and waited. Soon, Finn and Sage came walking together.

 "Oh, Rosamund," Sage cried, holding out her hand, "Look at this! it is a daylight ring. We have one for you as well."

 Rosamund fiddled with the ring until she found a finger it easily slid onto. She slowly pushed off the hood of her cloak, letting the sun hit her skin. Nothing happened.

 "It works," she said with a smile. "Thank you both."

 Finn nodded courteously, but said nothing. Rebekah looked between all three of them as if she knew something, but Rosamund didn't know what.