Jason unstrapped his crossbow and gazed up at his house. Great... I'm home. With a sigh, the windian paused at the front of the walkway that led up to his front steps. Wonder if they've decided I've died yet? He walked over to the side of the house and dropped off his crossbow. The last thing he wanted to do was walk into his house and have Troy catch him with that thing strapped to his back. If I'm lucky, maybe Troy won't even be home. Tentatively, he walked up to the front door of his house and stepped inside.

Startled by the noise of the front door opening, Jen Burnhart poked her head out of the kitchen to see who had walked in and was shocked to see her son standing in the doorway. "Jason..." the mixing spoon she had been holding fell to the floor with a clatter as she raced over to her son. "Jason? Where have you been? Why are you here?" She began to sob as she reached out to take a hold of her son, looking him over and then crying harder as she began to shake him weakly. "Why did you come back?"

"Mom..." Jason stared in amazement at his mother, putting up his hands to brush off her grasp. "Mom? I've been gone for weeks... what is it?"

"Jason..." Jen continued to sob loudly. "No, you can't be here, you have to go. You have to go before he hears that you've come home..."

"What? Who, Troy?" Jason felt a shiver run up his spine as he mentioned Troy's name. "Is he here now?" His question was answered by the sound of footsteps from upstairs and a shout.

"WHAT'S GOING ON DOWN THERE? JEN? DAMMIT WOMAN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING???"

Jen shot a fearful look at the staircase as the sound of Troy moving about continued. The turned her gaze back to Jason, her eyes pleading as she spoke to him, quieter now. Tears were still running down her cheeks as she began to shake Jason again lightly. "You have to go, you can't let him catch you here.. Jason! You have to go now..."

"JASON?!?" Troy appeared at the top of the steps, his eyes fixed on the form of his son. "Hell boy, are you back here?" He made his way down the steps and walked over to where Jason was, shoving Jen aside as he did so. He caught Jason in a glare, and then the shouting started.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, HUH?? You go running off for WEEKS, you get your mother all fucking WORRIED! SHIT! Boy, now what are you doing coming back here? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" He grabbed a hold of Jason's arm and gave a rough yank, sending the windian tumbling foward towards Troy. "What the FUCK are you doing back here NOW?" Troy punctuated the question with a hard blow to the side of Jason's face, the force of the hit ripped Jason from Troy's grasp and sent him falling to the ground, blood trickling from his nose and the corner of his mouth. Jen gave a scream and ran over to Troy, grabbing a hold of his left arm and sobbing loudly.

"No! Leave him alone! Jason, you have to go! Troy, leave him alone!" Troy simply shook her off with a quick jerk of his arm and stormed over to Jason, grabbing the collar of his jacket and tugging him up into a standing position.

"Boy you're going to fucking ANSWER ME when I ask you these questions!" Troy held his face so close to Jason's that the windian winced at the volume of Troy's voice as he continued his demanding shouting. "Now WHY THE HELL ARE YOU BACK HERE??" He then delivered another hard punch to Jason's jaw, sending the windian sprawling again.

Jen's sobbing was getting louder as she watched the scene unfold before her. "No! Jason... Troy! Stop it!" With a scream she ran over to the front door and threw it open, calling outside at the top of her voice. "Help! HELP! Please, somebody!" Her calling was broken by loud sobs and Troy turned to her, a hateful fire in his eyes.

"WOMAN!! What the HELL do you think you're doing?" Troy hurried over, grabbing a hold of Jen's hair and pulling her roughly back into the house. Jen's sobbing only got louder as Troy brought his fist up to her face. "SHUT THE FUCK UP! What the hell are you doing? Trying to get the Windian Guard here?" Jen's sobbing continued to rise and Troy hit her with enough force to break her nose as Jen's frail form crumpled to the ground. Her sobbing continued as she held her hands up to her face, blood now streaming from the cracks between her fingers.

Jason stared in horrified disbelief as Troy started yelling at Jen again. He wanted to get up and fight. He wanted to jump up, run over to Troy, and fight to keep him off of his mother, but for some reason he couldn't. Troy had always scared him too much, the way he fought, the way he was always yelling. Jason was never able to get up the nerve to stand up to Troy, and now when his mom needed him to come to her defense, Jason was too scared to even stand up and help her. The loud crying of his mother mixed in with Troy's angry yelling, and soon neither of the sounds were distinguishable. They were simply loud, wailing noises that flooded Jason's mind, blocked his thoughts, and sent shivers of terror through his body. Jason was barely able to managed himself up into a standing position as he snuck off to hide in the kitchen. He slid down to the floor, sitting with his back against the wall near the doorway of the kitchen as he listened to the fight in the other room. He had never seen Troy so mad. I should never have come back home... Jason shivered again and wrapped his arms around his legs, pulling his knees up under his chin and closing his eyes. The noises from the other room continued.

Troy was still shouting, his mom was still crying. Jason could hear the sound of pounding as Troy continued to hit Jen, and with each hit her crying and shouting became louder and louder. Finally, with an enraged yell from Troy, Jason heard the sound of glass breaking, then a loud thud as something heavy fell to the ground, and the sound of Jen's crying stopped. Jason's eyes opened wide and a shiver coursed through his body as he heard the heavy breathing of Troy in the other room. A few seconds passed, although they felt like hours, and suddenly there was a loud pounding at the door.

"Windian Royal Guard," a female voice bellowed out. "Open up!"

"SHIT!" Troy's shout was followed by the sound of something scrapping around, and then the distinct click of a gun being loaded as the pounding on the door continued.

"OPEN UP!" The female voice called out again, and suddenly there was the sound of something wooden smashing and Jason listened as footsteps entered the house. Immediatly they were followed by the sound of gun shots.

"Watch out!" A man's voice shouted. There was the sound of struggling, another shot, and something else heavy hitting the floor with a thud. Jason stiffened as he listened for a moment to the silence from the other room. Then again he heard a man's voice, one that he knew wasn't Troy's.

"He's dead." The voice said simply.

"And the woman?" The man's female compainion asked.

"Dead too. Blow to the head, you can see a huge cut right here..."

"We should search the house. That was Troy Burnhart... his son was reported missing a while ago, I wonder if we can find anything in the house."

Jason's eyes went wide. Oh fuck... He turned his gaze to the window that was just above the kitchen sink, all the while listening to the voices in the other room.

"We'll check upstairs first..." the woman's voice trailed off as the sound of footsteps was heard moving up the stairs. Jason waited a moment before jumping up and running across the kitchen, hopping up onto the counter near the sink, throwing open the window, and making his way out of the house as quickly as he could. Without much thought, he went around the side of the house, grabbed his crossbow, and took off running as fast as he could away from his home.