A/N: I'm baaaaack and Merry Christmas! So sorry for the long wait. Like I said on my profile, I wasn't able to update because my parents thought I was spending too much time on this and not enough on college. Thanks to them, I got accepted with scholarship to a university. At any rate, Mom and Dad should be off my case now, so I'll be free to update. For this story I posted Chapters 5, 6 & 7, don't forget to read them all!
Where Loyalty Truly Lies- Chapter 5: Compromise
After meeting Evangeline, Sam went back to Nellie's house.
The princess. Sam could get a lot of money from her. "But what would be the point of that? The only person I was doing that for is gone." Still thinking about his mother, he fell asleep.
…
Sam was shrouded by darkness. The inky black was so thick that he couldn't see anything.
"Samuel."
He turned, not exactly sure what he was looking for.
"Samuel, Samuel, Samuel."
By now multiple voices were calling out to him, all in different tones of voice. He turned in a slow circle, trying to decipher who it was.
"Samuel."
Now this voice, he recognized.
Sam sharply turned to where he heard the voice. He saw an outline of a woman.
"Mama," He said relieved. He went over to her and fell into her embrace.
"My darling son, I need you to help me." Mae's grip on Sam got tighter.
"Huh? Help you with what?" Sam fidgeted, trying to loosen his mother's grip, but ultimately failed.
A bestial roar sounded right in his ear.
Sam jerked his head to look at his mother's face, only to be greeted by an African looking mask.
He violently shoved his "mother." She laughed wickedly and disappeared.
…
Sam woke. He looked over at the hanging wall clock. 2:00 A.M. He sighed. There was no way he was getting any more sleep tonight.
He decided to go for a walk and snuck out of Nellie's house. While walking, he couldn't help but wonder about the dream he just had.
Once he decided to go back to Nellie's, he got the weirdest sensation that someone was watching him. When he turned he saw no one, but out the corner of his eye he saw the shadow of a girl who was running away. He felt an incredible urge to follow it, but didn't know why.
Sam took one step toward it, and remembered Nellie's advice to stay away from the shadows. Pushing all thoughts and doubts out of his mind, he followed the shadow.
After a lengthy chase, he ended up in a dark room.
"Hello?" Sam called out. "Is anyone there?"
A flame appeared out of nowhere and cast an eerie light of the painted portrait of a man that Sam had never seen before. He closely studied the man. In the portrait, the man was very slender, frowning, and he had a black top hat with a skull and the crossbones up front and the purple thin feather on top.
His most striking feature was the man's lavender eyes, which oddly enough, mirrored Sam's own. "Weird."
The flame went out and just as quickly a large brightly colored mask appeared in its place. The same mask from the dream he just had. Sam slightly jumped, and backed away slowly.
"Don't be afraid. We're here to help you."
"We?" Sam asked apprehensively and scared beyond belief.
The mask paused one long moment before more brightly colored, but smaller, masks showed up. "Yes, we."
Once Sam got over his initial shock, which happened more quickly than he would have imagined possible, he began to converse with the masks. "Why would you think that I need help?"
"You may not need help, but we can give you what you want most."
"What I want most?"
"Yes." The biggest mask opened his mouth and a picture of Mae came to fruition.
"M-mama?" Sam's voice broke.
"Yes. We can bring her back."
As great as it sounded, Sam was skeptical, and the masks must have seen that because they tried to reassure him.
"We can do it, but only for something in return."
"I knew it, what?" The picture of Mae morphed into a picture of Nellie.
"The necklace that you have."
Sam gestured to his necklace. "This one?"
"Yes. She has one as well. We need you to remove it. The other thing is to bring this girl to us." The picture of Nellie morphed into a picture of a girl he met not too long ago.
"Evangeline. Why?"
"She has something that we want."
Sam raised an eyebrow.
The biggest mask growled irritably. "Just remember what's at stake."
The picture changed back to Mae. The door opened and the masks disappeared.
"I guess I have no choice. I'll get Nellie's necklace, first." Sam left and ran all the way back to Nellie's house.
When he got in, he checked the time.
"4:00 A.M. That should be enough time to-" Sam's train of thought crashed when he saw Nellie sitting at the kitchen table, sipping some coffee.
"Where have you been?"
After Sam didn't answer, she sighed. "Never mind. It doesn't really matter. You do remember my warning? I can't make you, but I hope you heed it. I would hate to see you so deep in something that I have no power to get you out of."
After several seconds of awkward silence, Sam spoke. "I need your necklace. I just need to see my mama again."
Nellie mumbled something under her breath.
"Samuel, they can't-won't- help you. They'll use you to get what they want, and probably kill you afterwards."
She took a deep breath. "But maybe you need to find that out yourself. I mean, you truly want to see your mother again, right?"
Sam nodded.
Nellie reached up, yanked her necklace off, and quickly gave it to Sam.
"Run! You need to leave now!"
He did.
However, when Sam was not twelve feet from Nellie's house, the surrounding land was lit up by bright colors.
The same bright colors as before.
By the time Sam turned around, the house was collapsed in on itself.
It was official. He was not only orphaned once, but twice.
Sam grasped the necklace tightly. "But not anymore."
He found an alley where he could stay until morning and fell into a fitful sleep.
Waking up at what couldn't be more than 9:00 A.M.; Sam quickly made his way to Tiana's Palace and watched it silently from his well-concealed hiding spot.
Almost an hour later, Sam saw someone come out.
Evangeline.
Just as he was going to approach her, he saw someone else come out. A short blonde girl.
Sam let out a frustrated sigh. "She has to be alone. It's easier that way. Compared to people, I'd rather approach her if she's with that cat. She has to be alone at least once today."
With that set mentality, he continued to watch and follow her from a safe distance away.
Throughout the whole day, he kept tabs on the girl. Escorting the King, Queen, and prince of Maldonia back to the restaurant. Taking her little brother into the swamp. "Strange."
At night, he finally saw his opening.
"Hey, Princess."
She turned as he walked out from where he was hiding. Sam hesitated a bit when he saw the same blonde girl from this morning. "Dammit."
"Um, who are you?" The blonde girl asked in an obnoxiously uppity tone of voice.
Sam ignored her and waited for Evangeline to acknowledge him. The blonde girl turned to Evangeline. "This is the guy you were talking about?"
Sam couldn't lie; he did feel a little happy when he heard that. Not that he knew why.
"Sarah, not now." Evangeline said, and then turned to look at Sam. "Yes?"
"I need your help."
A/N: So how was it? Not bad, I hope. As a Christmas present for me, do you guys mind reviewing? I don't really care if it's only for one of the chapters; it's the best gift I can get today.