✤ The grave below the flowers ✤ (CRAIG OF THE CREEK)

Sleep on the couch

No one noticed him come through the door, if he was lucky he could eat a Hot Pocket and call it a night.

He peaked at the living room, no one in there. The kitchen could be empty.

"C'mon take a stab at it"His father's voice rang through the kitchen, Jason took a peak at the inside. He didn't smell food cooking, he saw Eleanor holding a knife and her phone resting on the counter behind her. He looked more and saw a recipe she found on her phone, "I'm sure it won't turn out that bad"Jason's father turned and Eleanor looked back at the recipe then the knife in her hand.

Eleanor barely cooked, if it was cause she didn't know how he wouldn't be surprised. Her cooking looked horrible based off the rare times Jason saw her do so.

Some days Jason's dad would remember he had a child and get him a stupid fast food 'meal' and think that was enough. The guy knew how to cook damnit was it so hard to just do it for Jason?

He sighed and made his way towards his room to wait out his father and Eleanor's bullshit so he could have the kitchen to himself, he knew how shit like this went. She'd burn the food and he'd groan at the waste of ingredients him or his father could have easily used.

But what could Jason do, his father was more supportive of Eleanor than he could of Jason. Eleanor burns the food? 'Oh...At least you tried' but if Jason burned a whole meal so help him.

That support towards him was fake, it always will be.

Sometimes he even wondered if that was his father.

Maybe the father he had before his mother died was an imaginary friend he made up and convinced himself was real, and his mother played along for the sake of her son.

It shocked Jason that guy talking with Eleanor so gladly was his father, holy hell, all his life he thought it was that dark red haired guy who liked to spoil his mother if she didn't piss him off and tuck him in for bed most nights.

But shit changed, he could never get that man to be his father could he? He could never get his mother back and even if he did his father won't come back. They'll just argue the same way and Jason would have to listen in on them the same way. His father would still barely be home, he'd still do the bare minimum and think just cause he reads him bedtime stories and cooked his favorite meal once that should be enough.

Time skip

Surprisingly, Eleanor didn't absolutely burn down the kitchen. Jason ate in his room like always, staring at his phone between chews.

He couldn't understand why Craig would want this.

He looked away from his phone to his now finished food, he got up from his bed to put his dish in the sink. He opened his door while firmly gripping his plate.

As he walked down the stairs holding his plate, he listened to the tv. He felt curious of what Eleanor and his father could be watching, of course sometimes he'd overhear a little but never enough.

He tipped toed softly as his socks gave kisses to the hard tiled kitchen floor, he ducked down below to hide behind the counter as he carefully put his plate in the sink to be washed.

Turned out Jason 'tuned in' right in the middle of a documentary.

A murder documentary, Eleanor would put those on in the background while training her chihuahuas whenever it was just her and Jason in the house. Sometimes she was alone but to Jason it was a surprise his father was with her. If he remembered corrected she once fell asleep to one so peacefully.

This was one Jason hasn't heard of before, Jeffery Dahmar it seemed to be. Jason knew he wasn't gonna be sticking around for the whole thing for long, but maybe he could get a few chunks. The documentary went in on his techniques, the lies he told and the one who could have gotten away aka who the woman talking labeled as, 'The saddest out of all of them".

Holy hell, was this guy human? Maybe it was a bad idea to listen to this after eating.

Jason took a peak at Eleanor and his father. His father looked rather disgusted, Eleanor was in shock while blinking her almond eyes and her fake eyelashes giving butterfly kisses to her under eyes. All while listening to how the guy would apparently layer the corpses with three plastic trash bags to cover up the smell.

They didn't even hear Jason tip toeing from earlier. Thankfully a commercial came on to give them a break, "God, if Jason turned out like that I don't know if I'd shoot him or myself". "Jason, who?"Eleanor muttered to lighten the mood.

Jason shuttered as he slowly got up to tip toe back to his room.

Time skip

The documentary ended after sometime, Eleanor and Jason's father went off to their bedroom while Jason was just getting out of his.

This time Jason wasn't tip toeing and freely walked down the stairs all the way towards the couch.

Jason set the pillows on the couch how he liked them to get comfy, he rested his right elbow against a pillow to reach his left hand for the remote.

When he turned on the tv there was another documentary on, unlike the last one Jason didn't tune into this one and turned to what he came down here to watch.

If he had to be honest he kinda wished Craig and the other scouts were here.

But then again, like he said, Craig probably needed space. He's been real jumpy lately, yet he didn't know why.

Jason changed his position on the couch to aline with his growing sleepiness.

Despite trying so hard to stay awake for the sake of his show, he fell asleep on the couch.

And he stayed on the couch.

I felt like this fic needed a look into Jason's home life instead of it being told through me (The narrator) as well as Jason. It just didn't feel right to me. Also quick update, school is starting tomorrow for me *Sadness* Please pray for me not getting a lot of work. Anyways, updates may be a tad bit slower so if I don't update in a bit, you will indeed know why. Just 2 more years of this junk, then I'll be...Free.