Scratching The Surface

Chapter 20

"Piper, I can't do this, I can't do this..." Jason paced back and forth, in a side room on the first floor. They had the door closed, not wanting their voices to reach the kids.

"We get to put someone at rest," Piper argued. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"I found a body!" Jason's hands moved with his words. "I found a body! A decaying body! In my barn! What if one of the kids found it? They'd be scarred for life!"

"They wouldn't have been back there!" Piper yelled back. "You know this! Is this really worth getting into a fight over?!"

"This is the same fight we've been having for weeks! It's never gone away." Jason paced back and forth, a hand on the mantle of the old fireplace. The room looked to have been some kind of den, the wallpaper red and the floor carpeted. Two chairs sat in front of the fireplace and a desk faced the large windows, papers and books still scattered across it.

"Well, that I can agree on." Piper huffed. She sat in the desk chair, her hand on her stomach, pressed against the constant churning. "This house has made you an ass."

Jason rolled his eyes. "Now we're name calling?"

"You know you want to."

"I know what I want! You don't!" Jason grabbed the poker from the fireplace and used it to stab at the burning wood. "I want out of this damn house! I don't want to find bodies! I don't want to see things moving! I don't want to hear voices and see shadows and I don't want to hear about who's buried on our land!"

"Too fucking bad." Piper got up, her face pink. "I'm done, Jason. I'm done. If you don't want to live here then I'm not stopping you. Go. But me and my girls are staying here."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nico looked up when he felt Hazel's presence, having been reading an old book he found in one of Piper's boxes. The teenage girl was standing by the door, her face wet with tears and her hands shaking at her sides. When she saw Nico's peaceful look, she took another couple steps into the room. "N-Nico?"

Setting the book on his bedside table, he gestured her into the room. "What's up? Did you talk to them?"

Hazel nodded. She took a minute of hesitation before sitting next to him on the bed, her head resting on his shoulder. "I talked to Piper. She's nice. But then...then..."

"Then?" Nico prompted.

"That man. Jason. He found my body." Hazel burst into tears. "Someone finally found it."

Nico rubbed her arm with his thumb, keeping her close to him. "That's good, that's good... Maybe they'll give you a burial, hm?"

"But what if they don't?" Hazel retorted. "What if they throw it in the lake o-or burn it? I don't want to be burned."

"I'm not going to let them burn it," Nico promised. "Just let me talk to them. It'll be okay."

"And...and...I may have told her a secret..." Hazel mumbled. "I'm sorry..."

Nico glanced down at her. "A secret?"

She nodded.

"About my death?"

She nodded again. "I'm sorry."

Nico sighed. "It's not your fault. They'd find out soon enough. I just...I just didn't want to talk about it with her. You know? It's hard to actually talk about it."

Hazel hummed in agreement, her eyes closing as peace settled over her. "It's so hard to remain visible to them..."

Nico listened to her humming for a long while, his eyes closed and his soul at peace. He felt light, lighter than usual, and the constant smell of blood went away for the time being. Something about Hazel always made him lighter, but he wasn't sure what.

"You know what?" Nico started, catching her attention again. "I think...once they get your body buried...you may be able to...move on."

Hazel took a sharp breath before letting it out again, not letting herself get worked up. She didn't have the energy. "You think so?"

Nico nodded. "You and Frank could go together, now that you could both be at rest. You two could go."

Hazel smiled. "I think you're right. But...what about you? You'd be here all alone..."

"I'll be fine," Nico promised. "I've got Piper and Jason, right?"

Hazel nodded. "That you do."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason stared at the stirring wheel of his car, stared at what he held in his hands. What was he doing? He knew he couldn't leave Piper, knew he couldn't leave his kids, knew he couldn't leave his family behind. But he needed to cool down, get away, take a break.

But how, when the one he wanted to take a break with was the one he needed to take a break from?

Late in the night, he drove back to his house with his head down. He knocked on that old door, knocked on the door he used to open with his key. Piper answered it with a robe wrapped tight around herself, Nico standing behind her as if he was there to protect her.

"Pipes," Jason started, his hands in his pockets. "I...I'm sorry..."

Piper helped him inside before closing the door, her eyes watering. "Be quiet, the kids are sleeping. I'm just glad you came to your senses. We need...we need to talk, with Nico and Hazel. We need to figure all of this out."

Jason laid his head on his shoulder, took in the smell of her hair. "Yeah, that we do."