Chapter Seven

Kurt had arrived at his dad’s house but he didn’t get out of the car. He just sat there. He couldn’t cry anymore. There were just no more tears left. The rain was still pouring on the windshield and after a couple minutes Kurt took his keys and slowly walked to the front door.

When he opened it, he could hear his father calling from the kitchen, “Finn, is that you?”. Kurt swallowed and then said “No.” But it wasn’t more than a whisper. His throat was sore and he was freezing in his wet clothes.

Burt came to the door and when he saw Kurt, he dropped the towel that he was holding in his hands.

“Oh no, kiddo. What did they do to you?”

“Nothing.”

“But Kurt, I can see that you were crying. What happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Kurt, I—“ But Kurt interrupted him.

“Dad, can I stay here for the weekend?”

“Of course.”

“And is Finn here?” Burt shook his head.

“He’s with Rachel somewhere but I can call him and tell him to come back.”

“No, don’t call him. It’s okay. It was nothing really important. If that’s okay with you, I’m going to sleep now.” He walked past his father too his room, closed the door and locked it. He got rid of his wet clothes and simply put on sweatpants. Then he lay down on his bed and fell asleep soon. The last thing he thought was

Please, let this be over when I wake up. Let this nightmare be over.

Blaine didn’t return to Dalton. He took off to somewhere in the woods and for the first time in his life he shifted because he wanted to. He usually never shifted when it wasn’t necessary. He turned into the big, black wolf and kept running through the woods.

He was angry with himself and sad that Kurt ran away. Trapped in his own thoughts he almost didn’t notice the man that was standing in his way. Only a few meters away from that man he stopped and stared at him. The guy was looking back, his face showing nothing but fear.

When Blaine smelled the man’s blood, he bared his teeth. He moved towards him while his prey moved a few steps backwards and Blaine let out a snarl. The guy screamed and started running but Blaine jumped at him and pushed him to the ground.

With one paw on the man’s chest he shifted back which only took him two seconds. The man beneath him gasped.

“Oh, god, please let me go.” He said. He was having trouble breathing. Blaine could hear his heart racing and felt his fangs growing. The man screamed again at the sight of Blaine’s sharp teeth and tried to get him off of him but Blaine was too strong. He simply took one hand to hold the man’s head still and then he sank his teeth deep into the his neck.

The screams of the dying man were probably audible throughout the whole forest but Blaine didn’t care. He gulped the blood down until there was nothing left and the screaming finally stopped.

He pushed the body away from him, sat under a tree looking at it and he was disgusted by himself.

What am I supposed to do now? Without him. Without Kurt. I can’t go back to Dalton, though I have to get all my stuff but he’s there and he doesn’t want to see me, which is not surprising when you see what I’ve done to an innocent man.

The tears started to flow again and he sat there for hours staring at the dead body that was lying a few meters away from him. And the only thought that crossed his mind was

He hates me because I’m a monster.

Finally he got up and ran away, out of the woods and back to Dalton. He didn’t care that Kurt might be there. He would just grab some things and leave, no matter what Kurt said. It was almost dawn outside and the darkness was slowly fading. Blaine hadn’t noticed that he spent the whole night out there in the woods.

He walked through the front door and was glad that there was no one who could’ve asked him where he had been. He walked upstairs to Kurt and his’ room. In front of the door, he just stood there and listened.

He frowned. There was nobody inside the room. There was no heartbeat. Nothing. Kurt wasn’t there. Blaine began to worry. What had happened? But then he thought, that maybe Kurt had just returned to his father’s house for the weekend.

He opened the door, took a bag out of his closet and began filling it with clothes and some of his other stuff. He wouldn’t take everything because he planned on coming back.

Kurt hadn’t been here, Blaine could tell because Kurt’s scent that usually was all over the room was only noticeable on Kurt’s clothes. Blaine shook his head to get it out of his nose.

Then he grabbed his phone, the bag and turned towards the door, when he suddenly stopped. He took a pen from the desk and scribbled on a piece of paper.

He closed the door behind him when he left, leaving Kurt’s scent and his own belongings behind.

And a note, saying:

I’m sorry.

Kurt woke up the next morning when someone knocked on his door. He had slept quite long and during the whole night he had the same dream: It was just blaine standing there and doing nothing. So Kurt had to spend the whole night looking into that face that he knew so well until yesterday.

“Kurt, are you awake?” It was Burt.

“Yes, dad, I am. What is it?”

“I just wanted to check, if you’re alright. Do you want to eat something?”

“Maybe later, dad.” He muffled into his pillow.

“Okay. Oh, and Finn is back. Was there anything you needed from him?” Kurt cocked his head to the door. He was about to say: Yes, I need to talk to him! But then he changed his mind.

“Ah, not so important, dad. I’ll talk to him later.” He heard his father walking away and closed his eyes again.

What the hell happened yesterday? What was Blaine telling me? Blaine – a vampire? That’s not even possible. Vampires don’t exist. It must have been some kind of sick joke. But how could it be a joke when he had seen Blaine moving faster than a human ever could. So, is he some kind of monster? Is he killing people? Did he want to kill me?

A thousand questions were in Kurt’s head and there was only one way to get some answers right now: Google.

When he typed in ‘vampires’, the first thing that came up was a Wikipedia page. He scrolled down and found a page called ‘Do Vampires really exist?’. He opened it and began reading. There were stories from people who claimed that they saw real vampires and described them as pale men with black cloaks and Kurt quickly shut the page and opened another one.

This one was more interesting. It said that vampires could easily blend in, so no one would notice them. Then there was a list of things that were supposed to help to fight vampires. There was holy water and wooden stakes but also silver knives and ashes from an oak tree.

Kurt picked up a piece of paper and wrote down the last two things. If he’d return to Dalton, he would definitely bring these. Kurt still couldn’t believe that Blaine wanted to hurt him, because he could’ve done that every night they had spent together in the same room.

Again, someone knocked on Kurt’s door. Kurt closed his laptop and went to open it.

Finn was standing in front of him. He was trying to smile at Kurt but he kind of failed.

“Hey, Kurt. So, I… wanted to apologize for my behavior last week. I really shouldn’t have done that.”

“No, no, Finn, it was my fault. You were really just trying to look out after me and I was acting stupid. I’m sorry, Finn. I should’ve paid attention.” Finn seemed to be out of words but then he said,

“Well, yeah, I know it’s a weird idea to say that Blaine’s a vampire. Sorry about that.” Kurt tried to keep a straight face.

“Yes, but it’s fine.” He said. “I don’t care. Let’s just say, we’re even. We both acted like jerks.”

Finn smiled relieved. “Okay, good. So, do you want to have some late breakfast?”

“Yes, I’d love that. Is there coffee?”

“I could make some.” He smiled. Obviously, he needs coffee.

Blaine arrived at his house in the evening. The house that he had grown up in. Now, Cooper Anderson was living there, his last relative. Blaine had visited him a few times but he had never stayed.

Cooper knew about Blaine being a vampire. Blaine’s story was told from parents to their children in the Anderson family. Cooper ought to think it was nothing more than a story to scare the kids but when he had met Blaine, he had changed his mind.

Blaine stepped to the front door and rang the doorbell. After a few seconds, Blaine could hear footsteps and then the door was opened.

When Cooper saw Blaine, he immediately slammed the door shut.

Blaine sighed. “I’m gonna come in anyway, Cooper. You could as well just let me use the front door!”, he shouted. It took a second or two but then the door was slowly opened again.

“What do you want?” Cooper asked, almost whispering.

“I want to stay here for the weekend.” He pointed at his bag and then thought about it. “And I will maybe stay here after this school year because I don’t know where else to go.”

“No! No, you can’t stay here.” Cooper screamed.

“Cooper, what did I ever do to you? Why do you hate me so much?”

Cooper glared at him. “Hm, let me think. You are a monster who kills people! Oh, and remember that time when you almost killed me?!”

“That was an accident and I only bit you once. I didn’t even drink. Not to mention that I already said that I’m sorry.”

“That doesn’t change anything. This is my house—“

“No, it’s not.”

“—and I decide, if you are staying here or not!”

“Right, or I could just kill you. Then I would have my house for myself.”

Cooper swallowed. “No, please don’t.”

“Then just let me stay here for the weekend. Maybe I won’t even come back.”

Slowly Cooper moved away from the door to let Blaine in. Usually he had to be invited in but this was Blaine’s house, so that wasn’t necessary.

“Which room can I use?”

“Your old room, I guess.” Blaine started walking upstairs. Cooper swallowed again.

“Do you want to have supper?”

Blaine looked at him, slightly amused. “You want to have supper with me?”

“Well, I might as well get used to it, I think. But you’ll be sitting at the other end of the table.” Then he disappeared into the kitchen. Blaine shook his head and went to his room.

It was a small room with nothing in it apart from a bed, a table, a closet and an old chair. But it was enough for Blaine because this was the way it had always been since he had moved here with his parents. Cooper probably never was in this room. Nothing had changed its place and everything was a bit dusty.

Blaine threw his bag on the bed and stepped to the window. He could see his reflection in the glass and shivered.

Look at me. Look at what I’ve done. I’m a monster. He would never see Kurt again. But he had to the rest of his stuff out of Dalton somehow. Maybe Kurt would be there.

Another tear fell from his eye when he thought about the scared running boy that once was his boyfriend. Screw that! If he doesn’t want to see me, he doesn’t have to.

He took his phone and called Kurt. After a few seconds the voicemail answered.

“Hey, Kurt. It’s Blaine. I just wanted to say that I’m coming back to Dalton on Monday to get all my stuff. So, if you don’t want to see me, just stay out of the room from…”, he paused for a second. “… 5 to 5.30 pm.” Again a long pause. “I’m sorry, Kurt.”

He ended the call and put his phone on his desk. Then he returned downstairs to have supper with Cooper. When he walked into the kitchen, Cooper flinched and backed away quickly.

“Sorry, Cooper.” Blaine said and held up both hands to show that he wasn’t going to do anything. Then he slowly went out of the kitchen. “I’m just gonna wait in the dining room.”

The dining room was big. Almost as big as the living room. Blaine sat down at one end of the long table and Cooper arrived after five minutes carrying two plates with steak and vegetables.

“Thanks.” Blaine murmured.

“You’re welcome.” Cooper said and sat down at the other end of the table, about four meters away from Blaine. They began to eat and no one said a word during the whole time.

When Blaine was done eating, Cooper finally said something.

“So where have you been? The last time you showed up was almost five years ago.”

Blaine looked up. “Well, the first two years I spent travelling through Europe but then there were these really nasty people in Hungary that tried to hunt me down with shotguns. I left and came back to America. I stayed in several Hotels at the border to Canada or I was just living on the streets. I spent the next two years like that and then I decided to go to school again. I went to Dalton Academy for Boys in Westerville. It’s not too far from here. I’ve lived there now for almost a month but I don’t think I can stay there, so I need to find a new place.” He paused. “I would really appreciate it, if you would let me stay here.”

Cooper didn’t answer. He stood up taking his plate with him and Blaine followed him to the kitchen. When Blaine handed him his own plate and turned around to leave, Cooper finally answered.

“I’ll think about it.” Blaine nodded. “Will you join me in the living room? I will have to ask you a few questions, if you want to stay.”

Blaine just nodded again and went to the living room where Cooper joined him after a minute.

“So, Blaine, if you want to live here, I’ve got a few questions and also a few rules.”

“Go ahead.”

“Okay.” He swallowed. “First, where and how often will you have to… feed?”

“In town probably and at least twice a week, if you want to be sure that I don’t become dangerous.”

Cooper showed a nervous smile. “More dangerous than you already are?”

“Yes, Cooper, even more dangerous.”

“…Are you hungry right now?”

“Not really.” Cooper’s eyes widened and he backed away.

“What… what does that mean?”

Blaine smiled sadly. “That means that I’m always hungry but right now I can handle it. So, don’t worry. I won’t rip your throat open.”

“There was no need to say that out loud, you know, I’m already scared as hell.”

“Sorry, but I like teasing you sometimes.”

Cooper cleared his throat. “And about the rules… Rule number one: Don’t ever go into my room. Rule number two: No blood in this house and please don’t bring your victims here to feed on them later.”

Blaine chuckled. “I would never do that and you know it.” Cooper ignored him.

“Rule number three: No arguing. I don’t want to fight with you because you will get angry and you will hurt me.” Blaine nodded.

“Rule number four: Please don’t feed on me. Please, that’s basically all I’m asking for. I know, you could do it and I couldn’t do anything about it but I beg you not to do it.”

“I won’t. I promise.” He stood up which made Cooper flinch again.

“If you don’t mind, I’m going to sleep now. Please don’t try to kill me in my sleep. It could end badly for you and if I’m not here tomorrow morning, I’m probably hunting.”

“What, if someone sees you, when you come back to this house?”

“No one ever comes here. You live alone in the middle of the woods. And besides, no one could see me.”

“True.”

“Have a good night.”

“Good night.”