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

Have I crossed the line?

Teeth sinked into Craig's skin as worms traveled around his body. Two were doing the job of tying him down to the dirt floor so the maggots could eat.

She was doing it again. Craig clenched his jaw as the tiny mouths of the bugs were feasting on him. He got a small look at what one of them was doing and regretted it. Somehow, they had gotten to the bone unless she helped him take those bites that caused them to get down to his bone.

Craig groaned, feeling her bite down on him, he had attempted to throw himself loose by twisting his limbs different angles but that caused her to take her long nails and stab them deep into Craig's lower forearms and hold him in place.

Craig bit his tongue at the pain, and he closed his eyes, not wanting to even look at the blood he felt flowing out of him. He couldn't do anything but let her and her bugs chew at his skin, yet the whole time, while he impatiently waited to awaken from this nightmare, he wondered, what could Jason be doing while all of this is happening?

...

...

Jason breathed in the air in his dark room, hugging Vitamin close to him while the blanket covered his body. Jason made a quick grab for his phone and let the date 'Janurary 30th' stare at him. He was ready for this month to end. This year had already started shitty and already, he was ready to give up.

Oh, had he finished his homework?

Jason tossed himself over to the other side and tried focusing on his phone. Despite it being a school night, Jason was wide awake at 1am. He couldn't sleep with his mind  reminding him of the things he learned just a few days ago.

Jason held Vitamin closer to him as a shortcut to comfort. He felt desperate to go back to sleep, but his thoughts wouldn't allow it.

A part of him wondered what Craig was up to, if he too was having trouble sleeping. His phone was right there. Maybe give him a call-

'No,' Jason sternly scolded himself and turned his phone off, and plugged it back up. He turned the opposite direction to where his phone charged and hugged Vitamin close to his chest to shed the desire to even look at the phone.

Vitamin was all he had left of the father he thought was his, or was that his father?

Jason relaxed his muscles, and the hug he had on Vitamin became less tense. Now he was wondering what could have happened if the man Rosemary cheated on his so-called father with was his father, could he have ended up filling the role of a father figure all his life rather than Mr.Durchdenwald?

Well, if he never knew him, there had to be a reason. Maybe he was in the same boat as Eleanor. Maybe he never wanted a child but liked Rosemary enough to ignore that fact and did what he wanted to her even though she was married. Or maybe that guy is his real dad, and he just didn't want to be a father, so Rosemary lied to Hunter for years just so she wouldn't be doing this parent job alone.

Either way, nothing could make the pain he felt go away. Nothing could bring his mother back. Nothing could convince his father to go back to being his father, and Rosemary will never undo the mess she left behind for Jason.

A sudden hint of anger washed over in Jason, and he was taking one arm from around Vitamin and was gripping his bedsheets.

This is her fault.

It wasn't fair, Jason didn't even know about what his mother was doing behind his father's back. He was just a forest scout who wanted to collect all the badges he could with his friends. He just wanted to sit on cushions and let his mother brush his hair. He wanted his father to take him to his job so he'd watch him work, no matter how many coworkers he bragged to him about, he wanted to eat eggplant parmesan while his mother spoke Italian, he wanted to play with his train sets in peace without his parents screaming in an argument he had to listen to.