Make a wish.

00|Make a wish.

Finney Blake hasn't had a good sleep in weeks. Memories of the basement tormented him all the time; when he slept and when he didn't.

He could feel Grabber's hands touching his hair or his cheek. He could very clearly hear his voice rumbling in his head; "I just wanted to see you."

He still felt persecuted when he went out alone (which didn't happen very often) and always looked over his shoulder at all times, paranoid.

Finney didn't leave the house for the first two weeks, too scared to do so. He always remembered how Grabber had told him that it wasn't him who killed the other children. His paranoid side told him there was someone else out there, but the rational side told him the guy was crazy or had multiple personality disorder.

He just stayed at home and left when his father told him that in a few hours, it would be the other children's funeral. Terrance never called them dead children or the other victims, just children... which they all were when they were kidnapped, tortured and killed by a madman.

Finney made it out of that basement alive, but he had been dead since before the last call.

Finney Blake felt dead and nothing could fix it.

The funeral feels suffocating for Finney. He feels that the parents and relatives of the other boys were judging him with their eyes, as if to say; "Why is that child alive and my son is not?" It was what Finney had wondered every day since December 1978.

To his consolation, Mariana Arellano approaches him and lovingly shelters him from all critical looks and judging whispers. Finney gets as close to the woman as he can and tries to hide he tears.

It doesn't work, because Mari cared about Finney as much as her son and was also very observant, so of course she took notice of he, but she didn't mention anything and kept Finney with her all day.

Finney viewed Mari as a second mother figure and she was nothing but sweet every time he got to see her. Sometimes when she wasn't working nights and Finney was staying at her house, they would watch movies together and Mari would embarrass Robin all the time. Finney feels a hit in he face as he realizes that those nights will never come back and that maybe Mariana Arellano's beautiful and radiant smile won't either.

Finney cries all morning, Mari does; Rodrigo Arellano too. Everybody does...

Finney meets Sally Stagg, Fiona Hopper and Ben Showalter. They were nice to him and thanked him for killing the Grabber, because his children could rest in peace now. The Yamadas had given him nothing but resentful looks, except for Amy Yamada who hugged him and wished him luck.

Finney doesn't come home that day, he stays with the Arellanos and it felt strange to be there without Robin...

He sleeps in Robin's room, sobbing all night as he wraps himself in Robin's scent, he things, and remembering he smile, he laugh, and he silly jokes.

Finney cries more as he realizes that there will come a day when Robin's things look old; get dusty and his clothes lose his smell.

One day, Finney will forget what Robin's voice is like...

When he wants to realize it, a year has passed since he was kidnapped and he was left almost alone. He became friends with Donna, but it wasn't the same, sometimes she didn't understand him enough, but he appreciated her friendship. Gwen was still here, being his biggest mental and physical support. His father has improved a lot and he was keeping his promise not to drink again, there were no more blows or screams, much less empty bottles of alcohol or cigarette butts on the carpet.

And with each passing day, Finney feels lonelier and more broken.

The nightmares and the bullies were more frequent than before. He woke up excited and almost crying most nights; he saw how they were all killed, one by one, he heard his screams and pleas, he felt the blood spill and saw how the shine in his eyes was lost. Sometimes Finney was the one they were murdering and many times he wish it was, at least he would be with them and Robin. The bullies left him alone for a while, too scared to go near, but when they realized that Finney was mentally bad, they came back worse than before and he wanted to defend himself, because he knew how to do it and wanted to do it, but his body never even moved when he felt something push him to hit back.

Finney was so tired that he didn't even mind taking more beatings than he had before.

Finney's birthday rolls around and as always, Gwen brings him a cupcake with a candle as the clock strikes twelve o'clock.

"Make a wish." Gwen says, holding the cupcake up in front of Finn.

"I want everything to go back to the way it was before..."

Finney blows out the candle after thinking of his wish and the room goes dark.