《■■■■■》

con·fuse
kənˈfyo͞oz/
verb
1.
cause (someone) to become bewildered or perplexed.
"past and present blurred together, confusing her still further"
synonyms: bewilder, baffle, mystify, bemuse, perplex, puzzle, confound;
2.
make (something) more complex or less easy to understand.
"the points made by the authors confuse rather than clarify the issue"
synonyms: complicate, muddle, jumble, overcomplicate, garble, blur, obscure, cloud
"the authors have confused the issue"
3.
identify wrongly; mistake.
"a lot of people confuse a stroke with a heart attack"
synonyms: mistake for, take for, misinterpret as;

《■■■■■》

"I am trying to make sense of this war inside my head."

《■■■■■》

Sam sighed as he looked at the unconscious form of Manuel and Nathan. He then looked down at Venus, and groaned.

"Why did this happen?" Lela groaned, mirroring Sam's thoughts.

Ayden walked towards Manuel and touched his neck. "I'm just checking." He mumbled to himself.

Sam looked down at Venus before gently putting his arms under her arms and lifting her up. Ashlee immediately walked over to him and helped lift her legs up. "My room." Sam said, his voice strained slightly.

Ashlee nodded and the two of them moved slowly towards his room. Once they made it, Sam and Ashlee gently set Venus on the bed. Sam then grabbed a blanket and pulled it over her. Ashlee raised an eyebrow at him. "What? It will help them trust us more...hopefully. We don't want to be enemies with them."

"I see your point." Sam said, nodding. He got what Ashlee was saying. Being enemies with people who also seemed to have Elemental power would not be wise.

The two then walked out. Wesley and Ayden had grabbed Manuel and carried him somewhere, so that was good. Ashlee went to go see if they were going to make him comfortable as well.

Sam looked towards Nathan. He looked peaceful as he slept, almost as if what he was experiencing wouldn't cause him extreme pain.

Lela walked over and looked down at him. She sighed. "How long does it usually take for him to wake up?"

Sam shrugged. "It all depends on how bad the memory is. Sometimes he's asleep for hours, other times minutes. For you guys, he was gone for three hours. Of course there was more of you, but still. Your memories must've been bad."

Lela looked down, her eyes glazed over as if she was remembering the experience. Sam sighed. "Sorry. Nathan often says I don't possess a filter for my mouth, and he's not wrong. I often end up hurting people because of that, so sorry."

She looked up at him, her blue eyes boring into the side of his face. "Sam, do you have any siblings?"

He shrugged. "Maybe, who knows. My mother wasn't exactly a saint, and who even knows about my father."

Lela purses her lips but didn't question him, which he was okay with. "Well, I have a sister." She said, turning to face him fully."

Sam looked down at her. Lela blushed slightly. "Let's go somewhere private, I don't want everyone else to hear."

"Sure, we can do that."

Lela started off towards her room, and once Sam was inside, she shut the door and he heard the lock click. Sam looked towards her as she sat on the bed. He sat next to her, waiting for her to continue.

"I have an older sister." She said, her eyes not meeting his. "Me and her were especially close. See, we lost our parents when we were young, so our Uncle took us in. He never seemed that mean. Though, that could just be because my older sister, Gillian, hid me from his cruelty while she was still here."

"'Still here'?"

"My Uncle was- er, is obsessed with money. Anything that will benefit him into getting more money or giving him a better chance at receiving money, he takes it up. When he found out I was the Water Element, he tried selling me off to the highest bidder. However, since the government essentially has free range over me, they forbid him from selling me off. Not to mention I wasn't even in double digits when he attempted it. Instead, he sold my sister off to some rich noble family."

"It isn't the worst life, but it certainly isn't the best, either. While her husband treats her nicely, he isn't exactly in love with her. They only ever spend nights together when they need to have a child, but other than that they're distant. My sister is now twenty two, and she already has two children. Her husband often sleeps around, but if she were to ever be seen with another person that isn't her husband, she'd be shamed."

"He's never beaten her or anything, but she's stuck in a relationship she doesn't want to be in, and she can't escape. She was only fourteen when she married him, and he was eighteen. Now, he's twenty-six, and according to her letters, has had around ten other women hanging around him in the eight years they've been together. They have two young girls, but they have to get a son so they can have an heir. Gillian is pregnant right now, but they won't know until they baby comes."

Sam looked at Lela's sad face. He gently rubbed her back, and she looked up at him, her eyes misted with unshed tears. He sighed. "I'm sorry to hear about your sister. Though, why would you tell me? I mean, I'm a fücking douchebag."

Lela let out a short chuckle. "You're not wrong. And I don't know why I told you. I guess I just needed to let it off my chest somehow."

He nodded. "Well, since you shared some details about your past, I might as well share some of mine."

"So, I'm an orphan. At least, I think I am. My mom was a normal girl until she met a dude. This dude has no relation to me, by the way. Anyways, he introduced her to the euphoric feeling of sex, and she became hooked, to say the least. She essentially became her village's whore. She eventually hitched a ride with one of her guys, and she ended up moving from town to town with a different guy each time."

"She eventually landed in Hickory, and bought up a small home with some of the money the last dude had given her. She then met my father. From what little I remember of what she told me, he was a strong and powerful man, able to 'break down the strongest of walls, the toughest of weaponry, and the hardest of stone'. 'Course that was all an exaggeration."

"The two of them got into it, and once he found out she was pregnant, he skipped town. At least, so she said. While she was pregnant she had to take a break from her usual antics and essentially sobered up. When she had me, she named me Samson. That's my full name, anyhow. I barely remember her. However, I remember she had blue eyes, and a head of mousey brown hair. She had a few freckles all along her face, and she was really beautiful."

Lela smiled at him. "She sounds amazing."

"Well, she was, I guess. She was never the best mother. She always let me do whatever I wanted while she was around. I'm surprised I never got hurt more as a child. She often had other women in the village scolding her."

Lela looked down. Sam could tell what question was coming next. "If you don't mind me asking, how'd she die?"

Sam looked away. "She died of Small Pox."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear about that."

He nodded, not meeting her gaze. "Yeah, it sucked."

Lela sighed. Sam didn't say anything as she carefully got up to leave. "I'll see you around, Sam."

Sam nodded as she walked out and shut the door. As the door closed behind her, Sam felt hot tears slip out of his eyes. He took a steady breath in, and let a shaky one out.

After all, he was just lying through his teeth, and now he couldn't stop thinking about how his mother had really died.

As he did so, a shot of pain spread through his body, and he whimpered.

His time was running out.

♤•♤•♤

Ayden was busy eating the food Ashlee had cooked for them all when Lela walked out. He looked up at her as she grabbed some food and set her plate down on the table. Ayden frowned as he looked at her. "What's up?"

She sighed. "I just told Sam what Nathan saw when he did his thing to us."

"What do you mean?" Wesley asked, looking at her. "You don't know everything, right?"

Lela rolled her eyes. "I was talking more about what he saw with me, Wesley."

Ashlee furrowed her brow. "Why would you tell him, though?"

"I don't know, I just felt like I should. And besides, he told me a bit about himself."

"Can you tell us?" Wesley asked, suddenly looking excited.

Lela scowled at him. "No. I am not going to betray him like that. He should tell you himself."

Wesley groaned and muttered something under his breath. Lela rolled her eyes. "What? You want to know everything or something?"

"I would like to know everything about everyone. This is all too confusing for me to handle right now. Why would Manuel and Venus attack Nathan, calling him Spirit? And why was Nathan acting so odd? I mean, it makes no sense, right?"

Ashlee swirled the soup she had in front of her. "Perhaps Nathan and Spirit are the same person?"

"You mean like a split personality?"

Ashlee nodded at Ayden. "Wouldn't it make sense? I mean, Nathan completely changed."

"But even Sam seemed confused. Wouldn't his best friend know about it? I doubt he just developed it." Lela countered.

"Exactly. Also, he didn't seem to know Sam. Wouldn't he know Sam?" Wesley added, pointing his spoon into the middle of the table.

Ashlee sighed. "I guess you're right."

The sound of footsteps was heard, and they all looked over as Sam walked out. He signed and sat down in one of the empty chairs. "You okay?" Lela asked, her voice quiet.

"Y-yeah, I am." Sam muttered as he grabbed a bowl of soup and began to consume it.

Wesley rolled his eyes before taking a bite of his roll. Ayden sighed and closed his eyes, trying to relax.

Ayden could hear the tapping of nails against the tabletop. He presumed it was Ashlee. She had long nails. Ayden sighed. This was an awkward situation. The awkwardness filled the air, suffocating him. He hated it.

He fidgeted slightly, attempting to relieve himself of the discomfort, but it didn't help. Ayden sighed. He wanted something to happen. Anything, just so he could be more comfortable in this moment.

Suddenly, a loud cry was heard. Sam jerked up, his eyes wide and his face pale. "Nathan." He hurriedly muttered. Sam quickly got up and hurried out into the living room.

The Elements looked at each other before standing up and running after Sam. When they got to the living room, they couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"N-Nathan?"

♧•♧•♧

Hello there.

Sorry about the long absence of updates, writer's block is evil and I've been busy with school. Thankfully it's almost fall break and I'm going to be basically bed ridden because I'm getting my tonsils removed and I'm not allowed to do any physical activity.

So yeah.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! There might be a few mistakes because consistency is hard to keep. I'll go through and edit it eventually.

Anyhow, I'll see you all later!

-Paige