A/n: Not EDITED. Thank you for voting and commenting which led to this story being at #45 on the hotlist :) All I have to say is... *CLUES*

Chapter 19 – All In Stride (Samson POV) Pt. 1

"No – no – no I – I can't go owutside!"

"They saided we can't go owutside – it's dwangerous – no – no!"

"I won't be able to bwreathe – no – no – no!"

The shouting roused me, stretching out, startled, and rubbing at my face, the shouting continued, "I can't go outside – they said we can't go – no please – no please – help me – no!" The cries belonging to Fatima sent my heart lurching, the words were painful to hear, the screaming, the agony in her voice. Piercing me completely, I stumble from the guest room bed, hopping to the door and throwing it open only to find my mom on the other side of the door, hunched and rocking.

"She sounds – go in there mom," I stated incredulously, wondering why she was on the other side of the door when Fatima needed someone to wake her up, mom shook her head, "I think she remembers more of her past when she sleeps-"

"No – no – I – I want – I'll go – but – mask – suit – go," the screaming quieted down to just random words, mumbled. The disconcerting blood curdling shrieks – as though she were being injured purposely stopped and was now dull whispered whimpers.

"Indepwenbents – one – fwind – wuna – chwosen." The words making less and less sense and it sounds like she's a child almost, her voice sounding more like little Amy's.

"Go get ready for your day trip," mom shushed me back to my room, heading down the stairs herself. Once I closed the door, I rested against it, unsure what was happening to me right now. Last night I don't think I had ever in my life laughed that hard until the point of tears. Although, I think the truth was, I hadn't laughed like that since Silas died – was murdered.

I swallowed all my emotion right now, pushing that aside, thinking over Fatima's words. I don't know why it brought out such a reaction in me besides the point that no one in such a long time, had mistaken Silas and I. At first it started out being funny, that I had given her two strikingly different contrasts to whom I was, that she assumed and named me 'twin Samson.' However, it burrowed beneath my outer shell and into my heart, my thoughts that someone had mistaken me for Silas.

People didn't do that anymore.

People didn't mention him anymore around me.

It wasn't like he vanished and had never been there because we had few pictures up inside the house, but afraid of how it would impact me, they didn't mention Silas. The alarm I had set so that we could leave rings and I push all thoughts of last night and crying in front of Fatima aside, heading to the shower. Washing, dressing and heading downstairs I first stop to listen to Fatima's room before pulling away not wanting to be caught or creepy. But listening, I hear the water in her bathroom running and breath a sigh of relief that she's decided to come with me today.

Dressed, warmly and prepared I enter the kitchen to find my mom at the table, coffee brewing, but she's at the table pensive and focused, I could probably sneak up on her from the front and she'd be none the wiser. Instead of interrupting whatever has her in such deep thought, I reach for my mug form last night making a cup of coffee, adding milk and standing resting against the sink waiting for Fatima to come down.

Or mom to notice I'm even in the room. I finish a whole cup and am just about to walk back to the main house to go get my car before mom comes out of her stupor. "Your car is already here, dad dropped it off when I called him late after you told me your plans for the day."

"You okay?" I ask concerned.

She gives me her mom smile, it's not fake but it's not honest either. When I was younger I would probably accept it as her true happy face but, now older, I do not. Still not wanting to start a big discussion just before Fatima and I leave, I say nothing, just nod.

"Are you okay?" I nod again.

"You were crying last night." The concern I had just earlier is returned full force with her 'mom knowing all eyes.'

She purses her lips, "Was it – is it – was it the things that Faith told you?" she asked softly, not guessing what I thought she would. Confused I shake my head, what Fatima said was bad and I felt anger and sadness for how she was treated. "You don't have to keep everything inside Samson," mom says when I tell her nothing.

"Fatima thought I was Silas," I say with a small sad smile, my eyes watering just saying his name, and when mom's eyes widen I chuckle. "It was funny why... but then I remembered that it's been nearly two years since anyone has mistaken me for Silas," I say with a nonchalant shrug although inside, my emotions are butting into one another. Mom looks at me with sad knowing eyes, and though I try to smile, I can't keep it up for a long time. She doesn't ask me questions, though I'm sure they are on the tip of her tongue, just waiting, wanting to burst out and ask.

How did it feel?

What happened after?

How did I explain Silas to Fatima?

Was it painful? Or was it easy or numb to hear her mistake us for each other? But right now, she isn't a therapist, she's just a mom. No crowding, just standing in front of me with her own pain inside but concentrating on mine.

Exhaling, I just pull her in for a hug, my body towering over hers until I hear the telltale creaking sound from the bottom step giving away Fatima's arrival. Dressed in black boots, black skinny jeans and a sweater, hat on her head and curls barely controlled underneath, she stands shyly my the entrance. Waiting, her eyes unsure, but I see a bit of excitement there. Or maybe I'm seeing what I want too.

"You ready?" I ask detangling myself from mom's arms. With a bobby nod, she comes further into the room, "Don't forget you need to buy a winter jacket Faith, that sweater isn't going to cut it come winter," mom says.

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It's not even ten in the morning yet, and in my car, Fatima has her head against the window, the music is down low and it's a rather peaceful drive. "I want to buy a camera," she says after nearly forty minutes of comfortable silence.

"Oh, are you into photography?" I can't exactly look at her as I'm driving, and I'm thankful she realizes that and speaks. "No – well I like taking pictures but it helps me, and I liked to take pictures back when I was on the mountain," she whispers.

"Silas used to like taking pictures, and being in each and everyone single one, if there was a camera within ten feet or him, he was in the picture," I blurt out surprisingly.

"Why aren't there more pictures of him?"

I focus more on the road though there are maybe only thirty or fewer cars on the road with us right now, we've really avoided traffic.

"I – I think it was harder for me – and even my parents, I mean I – I don't know it might have been hard for them, having Silas gone, but still having me around," I shrug, but my hands on the wheel, they tighten and become rigid.

"Or maybe it was easier, because even though they lost him, they had you, they didn't lose you both, they have something," Fatima said softly, "it'd be worse if they had loss two of their children," she says stronger with conviction.

When we stop for gas with only forty miles to go until we arrive I take a look at Fatima, under her eyes are dark, drawn, her green eyes look much too big for her face. "Do you want something to drink?" she shakes her head, placing it against the window again, very much pensive. Knowing she didn't have anything to drink back home before we left, I snag some snacks for us, and though I don't like when people eat in my car, I open the chips I bought instantly. Five minutes later I offer Fatima some, knowing and hearing just how hungry she really is, and smile smugly when she takes some from the bag, eating more than myself by the time we arrive in Eugene.

Parking on the side of the road, now just hitting 10:13am, I turn to Fatima. "So what do you want to do first, we can go to the Air and Space Museum-"

"I want to buy a camera first," telling me what she wants immediately; I place the car in drive and head over to a local RadioShack. Twenty minutes later, her camera around her neck like she was a tourist, Fatima and I headed to the Air and Space Museum first.

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Faith Ashlynn POV

Distracted and unsure I follow Samson around the museum, my attention so far gone I don't understand anything anymore.

I want to weep; I had been excited, went on my laptop that Kalenah brought for me, and went online buying and ordering what I would only have to pick up in the stores not wanting to spend much time actually walking around many people.

"You're not having much fun here are you?" Samson asks as I follow him dutifully. I can tell that he's been here a lot because he's telling me what the signs and the plaques on the wall say, without even looking at them.

"Dmitri said that only Loyalist can fly, when-" I stop abruptly when a woman walks past me and I feel so utterly silly. Without asking, Samson takes my hand and we head outside, the cool air on my cheeks is welcomed and I inhale deeply, smiling until my cheeks hurt. We're walking to the car and before opening my door; I turn to Samson when he holds onto my hand, not letting me enter the car.

"What were you going to say about Loyalists?" I glance at him, unsure. "If anyone tries to attack you, or harm you in any way, they'll have to get you, through me," he promises easily.

"Only Loyalist could fly... and when I'd hear something like what he said they sounded like, I'd run and hide, I'd be afraid that they found my hiding place, it was worse when it happened and he wasn't around," I swallowed, looking away.

"You weren't in Switzerland?" he asks blue eyes intent on mine, shaking my head, I look around us, making sure it's safe, not sure what I'm looking for, or what I'm supposed to be afraid of, the dangers unknown to me.

"You aren't having fun now," I want to say yes, but with my dream still on my mind, the people around me, the truth is I'm not. So many people. So many factors. "Don't bother lying, I guess I thought since you did well at school that this place would be fun, but if it's not then we can try something else, something I think you'll like much better," his eyes filled with excitement.

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An hour and a half later, all the orders of clothes I had made online, plus a stop for lunch and many – many – treats from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory at the mall, Samson and I were back on the road driving away from Eugene. A large smile on his face, just past noon, we drive for nearly through traffic, the forest around us on either side.

We drive on McKenzie Highway until I notice that Samson drives off an exit towards the Belknap Hot Springs, taking our lunch, a thick blanket from his trunk and my camera we find a nice spot underneath a tree, that's right near a spring, the lush greenery around us, a different shade that what I'm used too from the mountains. Before we can sit and eat, I ask Samson to take various shots of me. The water behind me, the sun in the background, the green of some of the tree's match my eyes, and the sound of the river flowing calms me.

There aren't many people here thankfully, and I even convince him to let me take a few pictures of him, a smile on my face as he makes stupid faces for me. After lunch, we decide to go on a hike on the trails, returning the blanket to the car, we stumble across a few ponds and a beautiful garden, and the more I see the more excited and animated I become. The confusion from my dreams fade away, and we hike near the McKenzie River, on the Sahalie Falls Trail.

I had seen a small waterfall back in Bend, but nothing was as incredible as the site we saw after nearly a two-mile hike, the rushing waters of the river, blue, fast and rolling down, nothing stopping its flow. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, and while I'm happy, bursting inside, a wave of sadness washes over me as well.

"This – I didn't see things like this," I murmur wiping away at my tears, "well you're free now Fatima, no one is holding prisoner, there are all these places you can go see-" his voice thick and heavy, a shiver runs through me, just as a group of people in a blue raft with paddles struggle down the river, screaming, laughing and all smiles on their faces.

We walk silently, until we reach a spot, where I'm so close to the rushing waters, and the tops are white, foaming, the layer beneath a dark blue, and the mist from the water makes the air thick. The air much cooler, the aromas smell clean, free and when I close my eyes, Samson standing right behind me, and inhale, I can almost pretending I'm back outside on the mountain. It's the same scents, less pine than when I first inhaled outside for the first time, but clean, untouched.

Near each clearing in the woods, where the river flows freely, determined and unstoppable, the crunching twigs beneath my feet I leave all my problems the higher up the moss-veiled trail we go until the trail ends, and we're at a slightly elevated plateau. When the skies above start to darken, tired but still lighter than I was when I woke up, "You want a piggy back ride down?" Samson asks me. My feet in the wrong shoes for hiking, aching, he turns around, looking over his shoulder, "come on, and get on."

Smiling brightly, I hang my new camera over his shoulder and hop on his back, wrapping my legs around his torso and my arms around his neck as we hiked back to where we parked his car at the lodging place. 

Meeting others that were still climbing up, I finally worked up the nerve after three or four groups passed and asked one of the hikers to take our picture, the rolling rivers behind us, the night sounds around us. Walking steadier than I would have expected, stopping twice to get other hikers to take our picture, the night sky, and the sun had begun to set.

The tip of my nose cold. Craving some heat and feeling it from Samson, I stick my nose against his neck, sighing and inhaling. Before I feel him stiffen and remember this happening with Dmitri, him leaving me for a long time when things changed, nearly a month. The coldness from the tip of my nose travels all the way through my body and I'm thankful that I can see the car so I unwind my legs and hop off, with a tight smile.

"Thank you, I think I can walk from here," I whispered not meeting his eyes, not wanting to ruin him wanting to spend time with me. "Sorry," I eventually murmured taking a look at the forest behind me. I may not have been used to the buildings, but I was accustomed to the trees as towers in the forest.

"Hey don't look so glum, we can come back again, Fatima," Samson joked coming and walking me to the car, opening my door and letting me in just like before. When I enter and the door closes I breathe a sigh of relief that I didn't ruin or do something wrong and that maybe my nose was just cold against his warm skin, startling him.

Driving with the music low, my good mood still in place, the plan to watch the Lord of the Rings movie – Samson's favorite – when we arrive home we pull up to the main house. "Cynthia isn't here, its mostly people from school, but I texted mom and let her know that were coming, no one is going to harm you in your own home Fatima," Samson said when we pulled into the garage and the car turned off. Before we had even opened the car doors, the entry to the house from the garage opens up and Kalenah is standing in the jam waiting for us.

I glance at the clock and see it's nearly ten at night, and I shake my head, I wondered when she slept, and how she managed to get everything done with so many children, yet still seemed to be a bundle of energy right now.

"So how was it, did you buy everything you wanted?" She asked not coming closer, and I guess I sighed heavier – louder – than I wanted because Samson whispered, "She's just excited, happy for you, you didn't come back in a curled up ball, bawling your eyes out."

"Would you have been in trouble if I had returned that way?" I ask teasing him not sure if that was okay, but he just laughed, "I'd be disappointed in myself if I brought you back that way Fatima, especially since I promised you a fun day," he said when he stopped, blue eyes focused on me.

I nodded, surely red in the cheeks, "well I had a very fun day," I confessed honestly wondering just what I would have to pay for this amazing day. Yet all that went away when Samson smiled brightly at me, "Who said it's over? You promised to watch my favorite movie..." he boasted, leaving the car, popping his trunk and taking all my bags while I reached for all the treats I bought from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.

"Whoa!" Kalenah cooed, "You smell like outdoors," Samson brushes past her with all my bags not answering, so I do.

"We went hiking all day!" I gushed happily, my hands full of treats, I smile at Kalenah, "it was so beautiful," my voice drops to a whisper when I enter the house and see that Ansel, Brennan, Talia, Javier, Harleigh, Devin, and Thaddeus are all at the table. Stiffening I don't look at Ansel, or Devin or Taylor, but Harleigh and Talia seem like safe faces so I smile tentatively back at them.

"How did you – you went to the mall first?" Kalenah asks as Samson comes down and goes to his car for the last of my items.

"Yeah, I ordered everything online... just in case," I don't say the rest – that incase I panicked and needed to get out quickly – but I know she understands. "Then we went to – to the hot springs-" Devin, Talia, and Taylor all drinking something spat their drinks on the table.

Startled I wonder if something is wrong with their drinks, I glance at Kalenah, wondering if she did something to them, but immediately glance away and come to the conclusion that she wouldn't do that to Talia. When I look back up, she's wearing a sad smile, though, I'm not sure why exactly, but I'm still quite happy, so I lift my camera up proudly, "We have pictures too!" I gushed, "Samson said I can see them on my computer and send them out to get printed," Kalenah's frown flipped and widened.

"You got pictures of Samson?" I nodded. "You want to see?" I offered, recalling  his words from the car and wanting to show that he did a good job of keeping me happy all day.  Kalenah nods, and heads to the b of keeping me happy all day.  Kalenah nods, and heads to the garage bringing in my bag and laptop just as Samson comes down, handing him my camera and pointing to the laptop he takes it and starts to load my pictures up while I bring in all the treats. Opening the bag, I take out all the caramel apples I bought.

"Samson said that you all love these so I got three for everyone," I opened the boxes showing them.

Within seconds Thaddeus reached over, taking one like it was the last one there, "score!"  After that he had it in his mouth chewing and moaning as Harleigh looked on, shaking her head.

A bit startled I take a moment before handing Talia the three special Pecans bear caramel apples I got for her and the double chocolate fudge. Then just placing the rest of the snacks on the table keeping mine separate and ready to be carried up to my room and placed in my mini – fridge.

Taking a seat next to Samson, I watch how he pulls a small chip from my camera, taking it and placing it in a slot on my computer. "I'll throw them up on the t.v. when I log into the network," Samson tells everyone without looking up. Chomping on his second apple, Thaddeus stands and turns the flat screen on the kitchen wall on before sitting and the screen turns blue before I see us not only on the computer but on the television as well.

The first few were inside the Air and Space Museum but after that, every single one, all nearly two hundred pictures were of us at the springs. I had never had a camera like the one I bought today. Normally we didn't waste pictures like I had at the springs but Samson said we didn't need to print them all.

First, everyone saw the same rivers and small ponds we came across, the flowers behind me when I sat on the bench, and then a large wall, before pictures of Samson came on the screen as well. His eyes bugged, or tongue sticking out, his brothers and sisters laughed, as I was more serious and he went out of his way to take horrible pictures.

The pictures of scenery came on, and then finally my favorites where we were hiking, the different shots of the river rolling fiercely down, breaking all things in its way. Until finally the last pictures were the ones that we took together and I was on his back, and he didn't make funny weird faces.

Taylor stood abruptly, leaving the room, looking in her direction confused I glanced over at Kalenah, unsure, but she was too busy looking at the television screen so the only eyes I got were Ansel. Before I could dart my eyes away from his, he gave me a warm smile like Kalenah would.

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