When the council voted to send 100 juvenile delinquents to the ground to see if it was safe for them to follow, they never could have predicted the real danger that they discovered. Their main concern was whether or not the radiation from the nuclear war 100 years prior would turn us all into melted flesh. Although this wasn't the case, the alternative was far worse than anyone could ever imagine.

It all started one morning when I was in solitary confinement. You may be asking yourselves, why was a pretty, blonde, rich, girl whose mother was on the council and father in engineering, locked up? The answer is pretty simple, my father discovered that the oxygen supply on the ark wouldn't last more than two more years. He thought that the people had a right to know, but my mother and the Jaha's disagreed. Before he could reveal our fate to the entire community, he was arrested and floated for treason. I had the brilliant idea to try and fulfill what he died for, but I was arrested shortly after his death and thrown into solitary so I couldn't tell a soul that we were doomed to die in space.

It was a typical Friday morning when a few members of the guard entered my room and attempted to snap a wristband onto my wrist and take me away. I instantly assumed that I was being taken to my execution. On the ark, anyone under the age of 18 is locked up until their crimes are reevaluated at 18 and they are either released or floated. Nowadays, almost everyone is floated so I knew I wouldn't be an exception. However, to my surprise, I learned that 100 of us were being sent to the ground to see if the Earth was survivable since the two years of oxygen were quickly running out. We were mankind's final hope for survival, or so we thought.

Our drop ship crashed on the quiet planet and our connection with the ark was lost; we were completely on our own. After we opened the doors and celebrated our arrival on Earth, everything changed. Yeah radiation didn't kill us, but something else did.

The first few days we blamed wild animals and reckless behavior for the disappearances of several members of the 100. I was so busy trying to run things with Wells and find a way to get to Mount Weather for supplies that I hadn't really paid any attention to the disappearances. It wasn't until one day when Wells didn't come back from a hunting trip, that I knew something was seriously wrong. Wells would never just run off voluntarily. All of the other kids seemed to realize it too because many refused to leave camp after that.

I did the best I could to calm them down, but the truth was, I didn't know what to say. I was like a single mother taking care of 92 teenagers. They expected me to have a solution for all of their problems, but I could barely even take care of myself. I decided that since I was in charge, and I couldn't put them all in danger, that I would go out and look for Wells myself. He was my best friend since I was born and as much as he irritated me now, I couldn't leave him out there to die.

The next morning I packed up my bag and headed out into the forest. I left Miller in charge of the camp while I was gone and told him that I would be back by sundown. Since most of the disappearances occurred at night, I wanted to increase my odds of survival by leaving during the day. I waved goodbye to everyone at camp and told them I'd see them soon, but the looks on their faces told me that they didn't believe me.

I walked for about two hours without seeing anything, when a rustle in the bushes caught my eye. I took out my knife and slowly made my way towards the bush. I was scared to death, but I tried to make myself look strong to intimidate whatever it was. When I pushed the bush back, there was nothing there, so I tried to take a step forward. My foot kicked up against something soft, which startled me. When I looked down, I saw a two headed deer with all of the blood drained out of it. Before I could scream, I covered my mouth and bit my tongue. Whatever was out there was vicious, and I didn't want to attract it.

The day dragged on and I seemed to lose track of time and distance. When the sun finally began to set, it was too late to try and head back; I would never make it to camp before dark. I did the best I could to try and find a good hiding spot for the night. The safest place was a small ditch near the river bank. I crawled into it and covered my body with leaves and tree limbs. I started to notice a deathly odor coming from beside me. Terrified, I rolled over and lifted up some branches to find my worst nightmare. Wells was lying dead, right beside me with the blood drained from his system and several of his limbs torn off. I gasped loudly and then cursed myself for revealing my location. It was no use trying to find another hiding spot, so I sunk in next to Wells' body and cried. I figured that this was the end of my legacy, this was where I would die.

"Clarke!" Atom's voice yelled through the forest. I flinched at the sound of my name echoing through the trees. What was he thinking? Was he trying to get himself killed?

"Clarke!" He screamed even louder. I stuck my head up from the underbrush to get a look at him. He was walking through the forest, completely alone, and holding a torch. Just as I was about to stand up and call him over. Something that looked like a gust of wind ran at him and scooped him up into the trees. Before I could react, something else appeared behind me and wrapped its arms around me. One of its arms held my waist while the other covered my mouth. I couldn't comprehend anything as it shot us up into the canopy of the trees and held me there with it.

I closed my eyes, terrified to see what kind of insane creature was holding me captive on top of the trees. Would it kill me like it did to Wells? Did it kill Wells? Where was Atom?

I slowly opened my left eye to look down at the ground where Atom once was. For a few minutes, all was quiet, until I saw his body fall from the top of a tree and crash lifelessly on the ground. When I looked across the tree line to see what could have done this, it was too late. The animal was already gone.

I could feel it's warm breath tickling the back of my neck as we sat up in the top of the tree. I was still too scared to see what had me, but it felt like a person, a very cold person. I gulped and slowly reached for its hand that was covering my mouth. When I felt it, it was like holding ice, but it looked exactly the same as my hand. It quickly ripped it's hand from mine and then used it to hold onto my waist.

Before I could blink, it hoisted me over its shoulder and jumped down from the top of the large oak tree. I wanted to scream but there wasn't any time for me to even fathom what I was going through. What did it want from me? Why was it killing my friends? Would it kill me?

The animal ran faster than the speed of light through the forest until we reached a small hatch buried under leaves and mud. This was the first time I was able to catch a glimpse of the figure, and he looked just like one of us. He was wearing similar clothing, but his seemed a lot more dated than mine. He had long, black-hair, that fell in his face and a muscular build.

He twisted open the hatch and then pulled me down into it before I could protest. The room was dark, so I stood still while he ran at warped speed around the room, lighting all of the candles. Now that I could see the room, it appeared to be an underground bunker of some kind. It had nonperishable food items, supplies, couches, a bed, a table, and everything a family could possible need to survive. The figure made his way over to me and for the first time, I caught a glimpse of his face. His eyes were an ice cold blue color that seemed unreal and his skin was the palest of anyone I'd ever seen in my entire life.

"Who are you?" I gasped. He helped me sit down on the couch and then he joined me.

"I'm Finn." He answered calmly. He had a mysterious look on his face, so I knew that whatever I asked him, I probably wouldn't get much of an answer.

"What are you, Finn?" I asked assertively. I didn't want to sound fearful of him, even though I was pretty sure he wasn't just any ordinary person.

"That's not important right now. What is important is keeping you safe for the night. You can sleep on the bed, I'll take the couch." He avoided the question. I crossed my arms and glared at him. I wouldn't give up without a fight and there was no way in hell I would be going to bed with him around.

"No. Answer my question. What are you and what have you been doing to my friends?" I persisted. Finn brushed his hair out of his face and then groaned, obviously realizing that I was a fighter.

"I didn't do anything to your friends. I mean, unless that deer was your friend." He replied jokily. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and tried to shift as far away from him as possible. He drained all of the blood out of a two headed deer today, but he didn't kill any of my friends in the woods.

"Why did you just drain its blood?" I asked, afraid of his answer. Finn walked over to the other side of the room and rubbed his head.

"Because that's what I need to do to survive." He said calmly. I scooted back to the other end of the couch and pointed my knife at him. As he approached me again, I gave him warnings to stay away but he wouldn't listen. Just as he was about to stand over me, I took my knife and jabbed it into his stomach. I winced and turned away, but when I noticed that he was still standing over me, I instantly turned to him in fear. Finn pulled the knife out from his abdomen and then handed it back to me. As quickly as the incident occurred, it ended. Finn's body automatically healed from where I had stabbed him.

"Last I checked, it was rude to stab someone who saved your life." Finn joked.

"What. Are. You." I seethed. Yeah he looked like a person, but he definitely wasn't. Was this what nuclear radiation did to the survivors on Earth? Finn took a deep breath and then sat down next to me. He tried to rest his icy hand on my thigh but I pushed him away.

"Do you remember reading fairy tales?" He asked me. I nodded and still held the knife towards him. He jumped up from the couch and grabbed an apple off of the table. He nonchalantly took a bite before continuing with his story.

"I'm not even supposed to be telling you this, but obviously you give me no choice." He teased, referring to the fact that I was holding him at knife point, but it couldn't kill him. I rolled my eyes.

"Well the easiest way to describe me would be to say that I'm a vampire, but we don't like to call ourselves that. It's too 'Disney' for our tastes." He explained. I wasn't sure if I was more terrified that he revealed himself as a vampire or that he said "we" like there were more of them out there.

"How is that even possible?" I gasped. He sat down at the table and finished his apple before answering my question.

"I was seventeen when the bombs went off. My family lived near a big military bunker inside of Mount Weather. Just before the end of the world as we knew it, we were all rallied into the mountain. Although we survived the blasts, something strange happened. Apparently the government was working on some sort of project to extend the lifespan of humans and keep them looking younger. When the bombs exploded, they ruptured the chemicals that the scientists were testing and sent them into the air supply inside of Mount Weather. When those chemicals mixed with the radiation, it turned us into these blood-sucking, never aging, vampire-like creatures that roam the night and pick off people one by one. It only turned about ⅓ of us, the rest died from inhaling the chemicals. Actually, it killed us all but only ⅓ of us came back." He explained. I sat back in my seat and tried to process everything, slowly putting my knife away.

"Most of us still live inside of Mount Weather because it's the only place we are protected from the sun. The chemicals in our blood make it so the sun burns and melts us instantly. My brother and I live here. He's not my biological brother but we are practically family. I will warn you, he's not like me at all. He'll kill anyone and anything without blinking, it's like his humanity is gone." He continued.

"How did you get human blood before we arrived and when will he be back?" I asked, slightly frightened.

"The grounders, also known as the wolves, are our main blood supply. We hunt them at night, but our hunting triggered something in their gene pool that makes most of them turn to wolves at night. I stopped hunting humans decades ago." He answered. I instantly thought about how Wells's body was chewed up and left in pieces. The grounders must have finished the job. I shivered at the thought and prayed that he was dead before it got to that point. Finn made his way over to the closet, threw on a beanie, and then winked at me. I rolled my eyes, for someone who was dead, he was very easy going.

"My brother will be back before the sun comes up. You'll be safe until then, I promise." Finn said sincerely. I almost wanted to believe him, but I had to keep my guard up just in case. He was a blood-sucking demon after all.

"So why don't you drink human blood?" I asked him with a hint of scepticism in my voice.

"Because I don't believe in killing people just to satisfy my thirst for blood. I value the human life much more than that. My brother doesn't feel the same way. He loves killing people. That's what he's out there doing right now." Finn seethed. It was clear that although they were practically family, there was a strong divide between them.

"Why me?" I asked quietly. He could have saved Atom or Roma or Wells or any others but he chose me.

"Because-" Suddenly we heard the latch on the roof begin to twist open. Finn ran at me faster than I blinked and before I knew it, I was hidden under the bed.

I listened as the hatch opened and someone stomped down the ladder. Before he reached the bottom, he jumped off of the ladder and landed on the concrete floor with a thud. I watched as his combat boots traveled across the room towards Finn. They were covered in blood.

"Bellamy? What are you doing home so early?" Finn asked him. I shivered at the smell of blood that reeked from the moment he stepped into the bunker.

"Nothing to kill. All of the sky people have finally caught on that it's dumb to wander in the woods alone at night. They are all hiding out in that locked drop ship." Bellamy complained. All was silent for a few minutes until she heard Bellamy take a deep breath.

"Did my little brother finally give up his bambi diet for real human flesh?" Bellamy inquired. I held my breath, terrified that he would find me.

"No, that putrid smell is probably from you. You're covered in blood." Finn retorted. Bellamy huffed and then fell back onto the bed. I closed my eyes, knowing that the only thing protecting me from this monster was a hundred year old mattress.

"Want a taste, brother?" Bellamy hounded him. Finn moved to stand at the end of the bed with his feet right in front of my face.

"There is no way this smell is from me, it's too fresh. Too alive! Are you hiding a human here brother? Oh this is hilarious!" Bellamy tormented him. I winced as he began to search the small bunker for me. It was clear that he knew exactly where I was but he was dragging this out to scare me and annoy Finn.

"I wonder what's under the bed…" Bellamy teased.

"NO!" Finn shouted. Suddenly, Bellamy lifted the entire bed up with one hand and threw it across the room. Then, he picked me up off of the floor and held me by my neck. His breath was hot against the skin. He would threaten to bite me by gently nibbling on my neck. I shook in fear and locked eyes with Finn, who was standing with his hands up.

"Bellamy let her go." Finn pleaded. Bellamy chuckled in my ear and then held me tighter.

"And why should I do that? She probably tastes so good, and I'm so hungry." He challenged, tenderly nibbling underneath my ear. Finn took a deep breath and licked his lips.

"Bellamy, please. Turn her around and look at her." Finn begged.

"What's that going to change, brother?" Bellamy spat. I cowered in his strong arms.

"Turn her around and look at her. If you still want to kill her after that then I can't stop you." Finn negotiated. I had no idea what was going on and for a moment I felt a little betrayed. I was starting to trust that Finn would keep me safe but now he was bargaining my life away.

"This should be interesting." Bellamy chuckled before grabbing me by the shoulders and flipping me around to face him. At first, his gaze was cold and a smirk took over his face. However, after really looking at me, his eyes softened and I noticed his sweet freckles for the first time. His lips changed from a rough smirk to a small smile.

"Eliza?" He gasped and let me go. I backed away towards Finn and cocked my eyebrow at Bellamy.

"No, I'm Clarke…" I whispered. Bellamy slowly approached me and then moved my hair out of my face. Then, he cupped my face in his cold hands and looked me over again.

"She's not Eliza, but when I saw her I thought that somehow she was. That was why I saved her." Finn explained. I felt slightly hurt that they didn't save me for me, they saved me because they thought I was someone else. Did that mean that I would die now?

"Eliza's been dead for 84 years...this is unreal. She's like a clone or something." Bellamy gasped. I tried to wrap my head around what was happening.

"Who's Eliza?" I questioned them. Bellamy finally let my face go and sat down on the bed.

"Only the love of my life." Finn answered while glaring at Bellamy. Bellamy huffed and crossed his arms.

"You idiot. After all of these years you still think that she loved you? She was in love with me." Bellamy argued. Finn got up to get in Bellamy's face which made Bellamy laugh.

"Anyways, she was someone we grew up with and we both fell in love with, but she died during a war with the grounders. A wolf got her." Finn explained. It looked like it pained them both to talk about this but their faces instantly changed when they looked at me.

"When I saw you, I just couldn't help myself. I had to save you. I didn't want to watch Eliza die again, especially at the hands of my brother." He growled.

"Wait, you were the one out in the woods that killed Atom?" I yelled at Bellamy. He shrugged his shoulders and smirked.

"You son of a bitch!" I screamed, running across the room at him as fast as I could. Bellamy chuckled and held his arm out. Before I could touch him, he wrapped his cold fingers tightly around my neck, and smashed my back against the wall. All of the wall decorations shattered and I screeched in pain. Bellamy squeezed his hand tighter against my neck and lifted me off of the ground. The metal wall bent from his superhuman strength pressing my body into it. I was like a rag doll in Bellamy's grasp. I tried to look for Finn as my vision started to blur from lack of oxygen. Bellamy's eyes changed to a dark red color like fire. Just as I was about to pass out, Finn ran into Bellamy and knocked me out of his grasp. I slid down onto the hard floor and massaged my neck. I knew there had to be bruises outlining where Bellamy's hand was.

I looked over at the boys who were beating each other on the floor. Bellamy was clearly the stronger one, but Finn was putting up a good fight.

"Stop it! You'll kill him!" I begged. Bellamy laughed, looked down at his brother, and then snapped his neck. I wailed in agony at the sight of Finn's lifeless body. Bellamy got up off of the ground and I watched as his bruises and scratches began to heal themselves.

"Oh calm down, princess. He'll come back to life in about twenty minutes, I just needed him to shut up and leave me alone for a minute." Bellamy said nonchalantly. I had forgotten about what Finn told me about their lives; not much can kill them.

Bellamy made his way across the destroyed room towards me. I did the best I could to crawl into the corner. Instead of trying to kill me, he just stood above me and offered me his hand.

"You're stubborn, feisty, and you act impulsively; all of which will get you killed." He began. I rolled my eyes at his insults and waited for him to finish, hoping he would end this better than he started it.

"But you're also smart, strong-willed, and honest. For the record, you're nothing like Eliza, and I'm not going to kill you." He finished. I could see how genuine he was in his chocolate brown eyes. I liked these eyes better than the amber ones he had when he attacked. With all the strength I had left, I reached my hand up to take his. He closed his eyes and placed his other hand over the hand he was holding. I looked at him oddly as he held me there. His lips slightly parted and it looked like his mouth was whispering rapidly, but no words came out. After about a minute, his eyes opened and he stared at me with a hint of sweetness in his eyes.

"Uh sorry…" He muttered, shaking his head and breaking his gaze. He dropped my hand and then walked over to the other side of the room.

"What did you just do?" I asked him. I could tell that he was hoping that I wouldn't ask him that.

"When I really focus and touch someone, I can see their entire life up until the point that I touched them." He explained. I gasped, now Bellamy, a dangerous and psychopathic vampire, knew all of my secrets. He knew about how I got locked up on the ark, how my dad was killed, the entire relationship with Wells.

"I try not to do it that often, it makes killing people more difficult." He added. I suddenly realized why he'd read my life. He wanted to reduce the urge to kill me, but why?

"So you don't want to kill me now?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I have to live with my brother for the next eternity and the last thing I want is to constantly get shit from him about killing you. I can spare one human life for the sake of not making my immortal life a living hell." Bellamy answered. I made my way over to him and sat next to him on the bed. We stared at Finn's lifeless body on the floor and quietly waited for him to return from the dead.

"I don't even know why he bothers fighting me, I'll always win. I'm ten times stronger than him because I feed on human blood. Animal blood is enough to get us by, but it makes us weak. I can't afford to be weak. Weakness is death." He told me. It made sense, if they were meant to drink human blood, animal blood would never be enough.

Suddenly, Finn's neck returned back to its normal position and his eyes flickered open. Once he remembered what happened, he jumped up and ran at Bellamy, but I stood in the middle.

"Finn, it's fine. We are good now." I pleaded with him. His eyes were an icy blue color now instead of their normal-soft blue. So when Bellamy's eyes turn red like fire with anger, Finn's turn ice blue.

"Finn, he's not going to hurt us." I said, resting my hands on his shoulders. Finn let his head fall and then turned away from his brother.

"Well obviously I'm not wanted here so I'm going to try and make it back to Mount Weather before sunrise." Bellamy said awkwardly. He nodded at me and then ran out the door in a flash. A cold breeze from his speed rushed over us. I looked up at the open hatch where the stars were still in the sky and smiled. I still couldn't get over just how beautiful they were.

"Do you want a closer look?" Finn asked me. I turned to him and raised my eyebrow in confusion. He offered me his hand and I hesitated to take it.

"Trust me, you'll love this." He coaxed me. I curled my lip and grasped his hand. Finn positioned us so that we were directly under the open hatch. He wrapped his arms around my waist and my breath hitched at the touch.

"Take a deep breath and close your eyes." He whispered into my ear. I did as he said and focused on the feeling of us defying gravity. Finn pushed off of the ground and springed us into the air. Once we got to the top, Finn gently helped me sit on a branch and told me to open my eyes. I nervously let them flicker open and was amazed at the beauty surrounding me.

We were sitting on top of the trees, just like earlier, but this time I wasn't fearful for my life. Finn kept his hands wrapped around me so I wouldn't fall. All was silent and it felt like we were the only two people on Earth.

"I've never seen anything like this before." I breathed. I could see a smile creep up on Finn's face as he held me there.

"It must be crazy to look up at the stars rather than out at them." He said, referring to my life in the sky. It was true, the stars just didn't seem as fascinating on the Ark. But being up here with Finn just felt, right.

"You haven't seen anything yet, princess." Finn said with a wink. I laughed and soaked in the view. I literally felt on top of the world sitting in the canopy with Finn. It should have been wrong for me to feel so safe with someone like Finn, but I couldn't help myself. He was starting to make my life feel whole again, like everything wasn't all that bad. Ever since my dad was killed for treason, my life seemed to spiral downward and fall apart. I had no control over anything, but now I felt like I was free.

"What kind of powers do you have? Can you read people's lives like Bellamy?" I asked eagerly. Finn's expression suddenly changed from a calm smile to a shocked stare.

"Bellamy read you?!" Finn screamed. I couldn't help but feel caught off guard, I didn't realize this was such a big deal to him.

"Yes, I let him. Granted, I didn't know what he was doing...but I've accepted it. He did it to keep me safe. If he read my life, it would reduce his urge to kill me." I explained. I could tell that Finn understood why his brother did it, but it still didn't change the fact that he was frustrated about it.

"Bellamy just doesn't understand boundaries sometimes." Finn muttered. I didn't quite understand what he meant by that but I tried not to read too much into it. Tonight was turning out to be one of the best nights of my life and I wasn't going to let something Bellamy did get in the way of that.

"So how long do we have?" I asked him.

"The sun will be up in about an hour so we should probably head back inside." Finn said. I nodded and let him wrap his arms around my waist again. Before I could utter another word, we were back on the ground. Finn bent down to twist open the hatch and signalled for me to go in, but I shook my head.

"Finn, tonight has been so incredible and crazy. I'd love to stay here with you, learn all about you, and see all of those places you were talking about, but I have to go back. I have about 90 kids locked away in the dropship waiting for me to get home and tell them what to do. I'm sorry, but I have to go." I told him. Finn bit his lip and nodded, understanding my situation.

"Would you like me to escort you back, just in case?" Finn offered. I shook my head and turned towards the direction that the dropship was located.

"It's getting light, you won't make it back in time." I replied. Finn laughed and bent down, signalling for me to jump on his back.

"If I run us there it will take me two minutes tops round trip. If you try to find your way back alone it could take you half a day. Let's go for a ride." Finn insisted. I giggled and jumped on his back, wrapping my hands around his neck and holding on tight.

"Here we go!" Finn announced as we took off through the trees. We were moving so fast that everything blurred together and all I could see were the colors of nature dancing around me. Finn weaved in and out of trees like a pro until we reached the landing sight. He gently set me back down on the ground and smiled.

"Thank you for everything." I said. He shrugged his shoulders.

"It was my pleasure! Now get inside that gate, I heard there were blood sucking demons in these woods." He said playfully. I gave him a quick hug before running to the gate and opening it. I turned around one last time to try and see Finn but in a flash he was already long gone.