We're Running on Fumes But We'll Make it Through the Night

Devil's High Grass

The sixth day he could see the hope lost from his mother's eyes, Ted's showed hope but very little. So that night he cried himself to sleep.

And now, Aiden and Ted sat on Chris' bed holding back tears.

They had a job to do.

And that said job was going to start in less than 5 hours.

**************

Ted, Aiden, and Kate all sat at kitchen table, they would be heading out the door in less than an hour.

A plate of pancakes sitting in front of them. Kate made them this morning since there was nothing left to eat and she knew if she didn't feed those boys, they'd starve themselves. They all would.

Aiden played with his pancake as the middle of it began to run because of the uncooked batter. He didn't blame his mom for the less than appetizing food, she had better things to stress over than making the perfect pancake.

On the opposite side of the table was Ted. He didn't even touch his food, he just sat back in his seat and glared at it. Just the smell of pancakes alone made him light headed, but It wasn't until he heard the crunching sound of Foofy eating his cat food did he really want to vomit.

The sound of cat food crunching and smell of pancakes made Ted's mind flood with images of Chris throwing cat treats into his pancake batter then laughing at his angry reaction. ‘God that laugh, I just want to hear it again’ Ted smiled sadly, hugging himself. 'And that smile. That smile.’ Ted's stomach filled with butterflies at the thought. The way his eyes lit up when he smiled or laughed, or when he-

Ted's intense thoughts were cut off by the gagging sound of Foofy choking on a piece of food, it was the first time in a week Ted saw Chris’ cat eat.

Ted sighed and looked up at the two other sad faces who were concentrated on the food they weren't eating.

'and just for a moment, it was like he was still here.’

“Can we just go already? I don't want to be late.” Aiden growled as he forcefully pushed the food from out under his face.

“We're not going to be late.” Kate whispered standing from her seat and grabbing all three of the untouched plates, taking them to the sink.

“I don't want to be trapped in here anymore mom! I want to find my brother!”

“And I fucking don't!” She snapped swinging her body around and glared at her son.

But those dagger filled eyes faded back into sympathy. “Aiden. I'm so sorry.” she cried “this is all just to much…” she forced out as she hurried out of the room with a hand over her eyes and her head hung.

“Mom I didn't-” Aiden cut himself off after she fully left the room and ran upstairs to the bathroom.

“She's not mad at you. We're just all a little on edge.” Ted reassured the teary eyed child.

Silence consumed the room once again. It wasn't an uncomfortable or awkward silence, more like a dead one. The silence just gave Ted and Aiden an ache in their hearts and a pain in their heads.

“I was going to tell him today Aiden….” Ted broke the silence, his voice cracking slightly.

“Tell him what? The.... Crush thing?”

“Yeah.” Ted nodded with a upset smile. “I uh- hid two boxes of cat treats in my closet, had a movie picked out, and rehearsed a thousand times what I was going to say.” Ted smiled sadly as tears went down his sore face and a salty taste consumed his mouth. “Now I'll never know if-”