The autumn night was extremely chilly, and the boys huddled together for warmth as they made their way across the now deserted parking lot to Kurt’s Navigator. It was quite a walk. The parking lot had been almost full when they had arrived that afternoon, which meant that they had had to practically park across the street. They had no sooner arrived at the car, thrown their book bags in the backseat, and settled into their seats when Kurt gasped in horror.

“Oh, no! Oh, CRAP!”

“What!? What’s wrong?” asked Blaine, concern in his voice.

“I left my scarf inside the restaurant!”

Relieved that it wasn’t a serious matter, Blaine snickered. “Oh, is that all?”

“I’m glad you find it so funny, Blaine, but it’s my favorite scarf. I was so distracted by freaking Sebastian that I forgot to put it back on before we left. Now I’m going to have to go back in and get it.”

“I’ll get it for you, baby,” said Blaine, unbuckling his seatbelt.

Kurt’s voice softened and he patted Blaine’s hand. “Oh, no, honey, don’t. I’ll get it.”

“Are you sure? Do you want me to go with you?”

“Positive. You stay in here with the heater on and warm yourself up. I’ll only be a few minutes.”

“Well, OK. Hurry back.”

“Will do,” said Kurt as he exited the car. Starting back toward the Lima Bean, he smiled to himself as he heard Blaine turn on the CD player and start singing along to Pink’s “Get The Party Started.” 

Blaine Warbler Anderson, I love you so much.

Kurt trekked back across the vast, empty expanse that was the Lima Bean parking lot in the middle of the night and pushed the restaurant’s doors open, scanning the table that he and Blaine had vacated for his scarf. There it was, neatly folded on the table where Kurt had left it. He quickly grabbed it and exited the coffee shop for the second time that evening, silently vowing to just leave his scarf on the next time. He started back across the parking lot and was unfolding his scarf to tie it around his neck when he felt a strong hand grab his arm. He barely had time to react before the owner of the hand was dragging him by the arm far away from the coffee shop, into the deserted, dimly-lit alleyway that separated the Lima Bean from the neighboring bank.

Fear quickly replaced shock. It seemed as though time stood still as a million thoughts flashed across Kurt’s mind.

Who is this? What do they want?

Nobody can see us over here.

I’m going to die.

My dad will be devastated. This will kill him.

I should have just forgotten about the scarf.

I should have let Blaine come with me.

I dropped my scarf. Blaine will see that and know something is wrong, won’t he?

Oh God, Blaine! What if they go after him, too?

Kurt tried to scream, but no sound came out. His heart pounded in his chest so hard that he thought it would fall out. In the near-pitch dark, he could just barely make out the tall form of his attacker, but not enough to see their face. When he felt himself being pushed up against the brick wall of the bank, he finally found his voice. “What do you want? HEL-“ His attacker’s other hand that wasn’t pinning Kurt to the wall came up and clapped itself over his mouth, not allowing him to finish his shaky scream for help.

“Relax, will you? I just want to have a little chat.”

Kurt blinked and tried as hard as he could to think clearly through his sheer panic. That voice was so…familiar.

“Sebastian?” he mumbled through the hand pressed tightly against his mouth.

“That’s my name. Now, I’m going to take my hand off of your mouth in a second, but you have to promise not to scream again. I’d hate to have to use this.” Sebastian kept Kurt pinned with his upper body and rooted around in his jeans pocket, retrieving a small object that he held up to Kurt’s face. Kurt felt sick to his stomach as he realized that the object was a Swiss army knife. It was closed up at the moment, but it was very clear what it was. Sebastian brought the hand holding the knife back up to resume his grip on Kurt and leaned in close.

“Are you going to scream again?”

Kurt glanced at the knife and shook his head no.

“Ok, then.” Sebastian removed his other hand from Kurt’s mouth. Kurt let out a long, shuddering breath as he struggled not to cry. He refused to give Sebastian the satisfaction of seeing him cry. He hugged himself against the cold and glared at the smug boy before him.

“What the hell is your problem, Sebastian? Why are you doing this?”

“Why? Well, Lady Face, I have to tell you, I wasn’t really planning on it. However, you presented too good an opportunity, walking across that big old parking lot all by yourself without Blaine. I simply couldn’t resist the urge to have a little heart-to-heart with you. And speaking of Blaine, he’s kind of what this is all about.”

Kurt glared harder and opened his mouth to say something, but Sebastian shushed him by pressing the side of the still-closed army knife against Kurt’s lips.

“I’m not through talking. Save your questions for the end of the program.” 

*****************************************************
Blaine sat in the passenger seat of the car, hearing the CD playing through the stereo speakers, but not really listening anymore. He was getting worried. Kurt had been gone for a really long time, and he hadn’t taken his cell phone with him. Blaine couldn’t remember exactly what time it was when they had arrived at the car. He tried to recall how many songs had passed on the CD since Kurt left. 4? 5? It had been at least 15 minutes, he was sure of that. Kurt definitely should have been back by now. What was taking him so long? Maybe he couldn’t find his scarf. Or maybe he had stopped to talk to somebody. Yes, it must be something like that.

Two more minutes passed. Blaine grew even more worried. He stopped thinking of reasonable explanations for Kurt’s absence and started thinking of all the horrible things that could have happened to his boyfriend while he sat here in the car, listening to a freaking Pink CD like everything was fine. Blaine felt a sick feeling deep in his stomach.  He had to go find Kurt. Everything was probably fine, but still. He needed to find him and make sure. Blaine switched off the engine, pocketed Kurt’s keys, and got out of the car. He locked it and then started to make his way across the parking lot, keeping his eyes peeled for his boyfriend’s cerulean blue pea coat. He had seen nothing by the time he arrived at the front doors of the Lima Bean, and a glance around the place quickly told him that Kurt wasn’t inside, either. 

Trying not to turn his worry into full-blown panic, Blaine went back outside and scanned the parking lot in every direction. Nothing. As he turned around and glanced behind him one more time, he caught a glimpse of something white lying on the ground by the entrance to the bank. Was that….? It couldn’t be. Blaine walked closer to the white thing, hoping that it wasn’t what he thought it was. The sick feeling in Blaine’s stomach intensified as he bent down to pick up the white thing and realized with horror that he was, unfortunately, right. The white thing was Kurt’s scarf.  There was absolutely no way that one of Kurt’s scarves, his favorite scarf, no less, would ever end up on the dirty ground if Kurt had anything to say about it, unless…oh, no. 

Blaine willed himself not to throw up as he clutched the silky scarf to his chest and looked around wildly. Kurt had to be somewhere close if his scarf was here, right? Oh, God, what had happened to him? Blaine was just about to shout Kurt’s name, hoping against hope that he was nearby, when he heard a strangled cry coming from the alley to his right. It was faint, but there was no mistaking it or who it had come from. Blaine would know Kurt’s voice anywhere.

With a feeling of panic mixed with terrible dread, he took off running in the direction of the sound.