"In a sec!" he called back. He went to the bathroom to pretend to wash his face, when in actuality, he had been up for hours, mulling over the events of the previous night.

He knew that he had done the right thing by telling Santana to move on. She was dead; she didn't belong in the world of the living. Trying to believe anything else would be selfish. And yet, after she left, there was a sort of…emptiness. Like there was a little piece taken out of his heart that he would never get back. He'd grown so used to having her around that to suddenly not was almost painful.

And then there was that strange boy. The one who referred to himself only as "murder." One thing that Blaine knew for sure was the he wasn't human, and he wasn't any normal spirit either. But beyond that, he was a total mystery.

Blaine tried to push him out of his mind as he traipsed down the stairs, kissed his mother on the cheek, and headed out the door.

He still hadn't forgotten Santana's last request. The only problem was that he'd barely ever even made eye contact with Brittany. In fact, he could hardly remember the last time he'd talked to any of his classmates beyond a hurried "no, thank you" when they asked him if he wanted to be their lab partner.

Nevertheless, he couldn't very well not do anything, which is how he found himself walking up to Brittany Pierce's desk before first period.

"H-hi," he said nervously. She was surrounded by a group of Cheerios, all of who were glaring at him coldly. Brittany, however, looked merely surprised.

"Who are you?" she said.

"I'm, uh, I'm Blaine Anderson. I've been in your class for three years but it's totally okay if you don't recognize me because I sit in the back and-"

"Oh yeah, I know you!" Brittany said, not even realizing that she had cut him off. "I used to think you were a cyborg or something 'cause you never talk to anyone and you always answer all the questions right." She nodded solemnly.

"Oh."

"So, do you wanna sleep with me or something? 'Cause if you do, I'm free tomorrow night-"

"No!" Blaine shouted, recoiling slightly when a couple other people in the room turned to look at him. He lowered his voice to say, "No, I mean, I just wanted to talk to you. About Santana." The last part he said in almost a whisper.

She definitely heard him though. Her eyes widened and her eyebrows shot up and she actually looked at his face.

"What?" she asked softly. Blaine licked his lips nervously and looked down at her. He hadn't actually expected to get this far into the conversation.

"Um…" he started. The Cheerios were all still glaring at him and Brittany had an upset look on her face as she stared up at him. "Could we maybe, uh, talk in the hallway just for, um, a little bit please?" Brittany nodded and stood up, brushing off some of the Cheerios who had been hanging on her and ignoring their protests that class was about to start.

Blaine tried to get his thoughts together during the very pitifully short walk to the hallway. Much to his relief, Brittany started the conversation.

"Where's Santana?"

"What?"

"You wanted to talk about Santana, right? Where is she?"

Blaine felt his blood run cold. He had heard that Brittany wasn't the brightest, but he hadn't realized the exact extent of it. She was practically a child.

"Brittany, do you…do you even know what happened?"

"Well, they said that Santana is 'no longer with us' or something, so I guess that means she went somewhere. I just can't believe she went on vacation and didn't tell me."

Blaine was absolutely dumbstruck. He had no idea what to say to her that could possibly make her understand without breaking her childlike bubble of innocence.

"So where is she?" The vague, hopeful expression on her face was almost painful to look at.

"She's-" to Blaine's horror, there was a lump in his throat and his eyes began to prickle. He swallowed and continued. "Brittany, she's, um…I don't know where she is. And I don't-" he swallowed again. "I don't know when she's…when she's coming back."

"Oh. Okay." The light seemed to go out of her eyes and she looked down at the ground. Just as she turned to walk back into the classroom, Blaine caught hold of her wrist.

"Santana just wanted to make sure that you know that she loves you," she said in a rush. He probably wouldn't have been able to say it any other way, but even as she turned around, the words were already beginning to sound stupid to him.

But Brittany just smiled, and for the first time, she looked like she understood what was going on.

"I know," she said. "And I know that she knows, that wherever she is, I love her too."

"Okay," Blaine mumbled, looking down at the floor. "I just. You know. She wanted me to make sure."

He glanced up just long enough to see her nod and walk back into the classroom. Blaine followed, his brow furrowed, as he tried to figure out exactly what was going on with Brittany Pierce.