shift your position; try to get comfortable again

“We’ll figure it out,” he said, trying to regain his confidence. This whole situation was total mess and then some, and he absolutely hated it, he couldn’t stand having such a lack of control over his situation. “You don’t think she would have ratted us out, do you?”

“I guess so,” he said softly. “I know you wouldn’t.. but she seemed so sure, mom.” He sat next to Austen on the couch and fidgeted nervously with his zipper. “Do you think maybe she talk to one of the others? And they lied to her?”

Luckily his apartment was only a quick walk away from where they were, and so in no time they were there. "Please take your shoes off when you come inside,” he said as he let them in.

Aj nodded his head in response to her reassurance, though he didn’t take his eyes off his unconscious sister. “She seemed pretty certain about it though,” he muttered weakly. “I don’t understand it.. she said that it was murder, and that one of us would just be dead. I told her she was wrong but.. she stood her ground. She is wrong, right?”

‘Okay.’ He jerked his head to the side before turning in that direction, indicating for them to follow him.

“That’s what I said. And I just hope I didn’t hurt her too much when I knocked her out.” Once he was inside her carefully set Austen down on the couch, before turning back to his mother. “I don’t know what happened to her.”

‘We can do whatever you’re most comfortable with. As long as you have food at your house we should be good for either.’

‘Not at all. I would love to.’

He shifted uncomfortably when she used his name, although he hoped she would write it off as the stress of carrying an entire other person on his body. It was only a matter of time until the simple process of elimination got him on that one anyway, he just hoped her memory was foggy enough for it to remain a non-issue. “She said she didn’t want to merge,” Aj explained as they entered her home. “I sort of panicked.”

‘I don’t like let other people make mine if I can avoid it. So I like to think I’ve made myself become a decent cook.’

It hadn’t been easy dragging his unconscious sister to their mother’s home, but he had done it. Without any free hands he had to kick at her door instead of knocking. “Ma! It’s me, open up.”

“I’m sorry that you feel that way.” With his final words on the matter said he struck his sister directly in the temple with his fist, knocking her unconscious.

“So by your own admission you have no idea what you’re talking about. You made up your mind about something with literally zero evidence. Yet I’m supposed to be the crazy one here. So that really is it, huh? You’re just mad that I left, and you think it’s mom’s fault.”

‘That just makes me hungry.’

“Then why are you doubting it? Who told you that mom was wrong?”

“Because you’ve obviously forgotten how the merge actually works.”

“You obviously hate mom.” Although he couldn’t understand why. “She’s not asking us to do anything that wasn’t done for hundreds of years, if they could all do it then why should we be any different? And what’s so bad about wanting to have a coven? It’s no different than a wolf wanting to have a pack,” he still thought she could be reasoned with. “You’re not a traitor, you’re just confused, obviously you’re just confused.”