The lobby of Dorm 2 was completely vacant—not a single living soul in sight. Kurt began to feel completely hopeless and lost as he willingly stepped on to the elevator with Braeden. He wished he could just abandon his body somehow and leave the empty shell behind, because—in all honesty—it really wasn’t him anymore.
“You ‘ave no idea how long I’ve been waitin fer someone like you ter come along.” Braeden turned and ran his free hand over Kurt’s cheek and through his hair. He moved his hand down to Kurt’s hip and pushed him against the wall, pinning him there as he kissed him. Kurt’s screams ripped through his brain as he desperately wished for someone to hear his pain.
The light at the top of the elevator lit up over the ‘6’ and Braeden stepped away from Kurt, yanking his hand and towing him out of the elevator and down the hall. They stopped midway down the hall and Braeden turned and faced a door, fishing a key out of his pocket as he did. He unlocked the door and pushed it open to reveal a dimly lit room. Clothes were strewn all over the floor and the bed was unmade and was currently occupied by Brenna. When she saw her brother, she hopped up to greet him, “And what do we have here?”
She walked over to where Kurt and Braeden were standing and looked Kurt up and down. She reached out and put a hand on his shoulder and leaned in to whisper in his ear.
“Mine.” Braeden’s voice rang out in the silence of the room.
“Sheesh, I ne’er get ter have any fun anymore.” Brenna pouted her bottom lip out at her brother as she flopped back down on the bed.
“I let ya have some fun with Anderson.”
“Not that much though. Ya wanted him all to yarself. Greedy.” She clucked her tongue.
“They’ve got Blaine too!” Kurt felt his insides churn as his concern shifted completely to his boyfriend’s safety rather than his own.
“I’ve told you before, we needed him because of who he was; nothing more. Don’t bring it up again.” Braeden’s voice dripped with venom as he glared down at his sister.
“So that’s what happened…” Kurt thought it was wrong to hate Blaine for not telling him sooner, but he couldn’t help but think he could have completely avoided this situation if he had known that this was the twins’ game.
“Oi! Don’t be pissy! It’s not me fault ya wanted to shag a prefect and didn’t.” Kurt thought that if he could move right now, his eyes would literally be bulging out of his skull. Brenna leaned back on the bed and began to pick at her deep red nail polish as she continued, “So, what are we doin with this one? I don’t think I can hurt such a pretty face…” She cocked her head sideways as she admired Kurt again.
“He’ll serve his purpose.” Braeden said roughly.
Brenna pulled her legs up to kick off her lacey pumps before crossing them, “Is this about you getting revenge? Because if it is I’m so not saving yar arse when ya get in too deep again.”
“Out.” Braeden relinquished Kurt’s hand to point at the door.
“Fine!” Brenna threw up her hands and sighed before leaning down to pick up her shoes. “When ya figure out what we’re doin’ with him, ring me.” She paused on her way out the door to run her hand over Kurt’s cheek, “See ya later, babes.”
“Out.” Braeden’s booming voice somehow didn’t manage to make his sister flinch.
“I’m goin!” She glared daggers at her brother and then winked at Kurt as she stepped out of the room and walked straight across the hall to her dorm.
Braeden shut the door with a bit of a slam before turning back to Kurt, “Now, where were we?”
It was almost 11:30 and Blaine was beginning to worry about Kurt. He was normally in his room by now and he wasn’t returning any of Blaine’s calls or replying to his texts. ”He probably just fell asleep in the library and no one’s found him yet.” A sensible person would look there first. But not Blaine. Something deep inside told him that there was something seriously wrong with Kurt right now and he needed to find out what.
Making his decision, Blaine hopped off his bed and threw on his boots and coat, grabbing his cell phone to call Jeff, Nick, Wes, and David and ask them if they’d seen Kurt recently.
“Sorry, man. I was at that social mixer all night” was the general response. Blaine sighed as he realized that there was only one person who was going to be able to help him.
His boots stuck in the deep, slimy mud outside of Dorm 3 and he scraped them on the front mat before entering. He made his way to the sixth floor and rapped lightly on the red door.
Blonde pony-tail answered his knock “State your business.”
“I need to see Melanie. It’s urgent.”
“Password.”
“Lemon tart.”
“The password has changed. Sorry.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, try again later.”
Just as she went to slam the door, Blaine shoved his foot in it and then put all of his weight on the door, causing it to fly open.
Melanie swiveled around in her chair instantly, her bowl of ice cream crashing to the ground.
Before she could speak, Blaine sputtered, “Kurt’s gone missing!” Melanie’s eyebrows furrowed and she gestured with her hand for Blaine to continue. “He was in the library studying all night, but the library closes at 10:30. He’s usually back in his room right after he leaves, but he still hasn’t come back yet. And he’s not responding to my texts or returning any of my calls. I know it sounds crazy, but I just feel like there’s something very wrong. I just don’t know what.”
Melanie nodded as she swiveled back around in her chair, “I’ll see if I can pull up the security camera footage of the library from tonight.” She gestured to blonde pony-tail, “Whitney, go get a broom and clean up this broken glass before our guest injures himself.”
Whitney nodded and left the room, not without giving Blaine a death glare that promised retaliation.
“Got it!”
Blaine stepped closer to the screen as he and Melanie watched the footage from earlier that night. There were eight different panels and Blaine searched each one for a glimpse of Kurt. “There he is!” Blaine pointed to the shot in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. “Can you zoom in?”
Melanie double clicked on the image and it enlarged the footage. She fast forwarded the video until Kurt got up and moved. She re-wound and hit play. The time on the footage read 22:25; just 5 minutes before the library closed. Blaine stared admiringly at the image of Kurt on the screen. His eyebrows were scrunched in that cute little way they always are when he’s frustrated or concentrating really hard on something. Blaine chuckled to himself silently; right now he was probably both. Blaine’s daze was broken when Kurt dropped his book suddenly and became very still. His head jerked in the direction of one of the aisles just off screen and he stared there for a long moment, frozen before he suddenly bolted out of his seat. Blaine’s heart stopped. The only thing that followed Kurt was the shadow of someone off camera.
“Follow him!”
Melanie immediately began clicking away at her computer, the eight different security camera images reappearing on her screen. They both frantically scanned them, tracing Kurt’s movements until he made it out the front doors of the library, slipping as he went. That’s when they finally saw the image of his pursuer. All they could manage to catch a glimpse of was a mop of dark hair and a black trench coat.
“Can you pull up any other cameras?”
“Working on it!” Melanie snapped.
Whitney returned with a broom and dust pan and began sweeping up the shards of ceramic bowl scattered around the floor on the other side of Melanie.
Within a minute, the images on the screen were of the campus grounds. Melanie then double clicked on the one outside of the library and cued up the time. Moments later, Kurt appeared on screen, dashing out of the building and towards the edge of the grounds. His hunter appeared immediately after him but stopped briefly on the sidewalk to glance around campus and then stare straight at the camera, his crooked smile glowing in the moonlight. Blaine’s stomach twisted in knots as he watched his worst fears unfolding before his eyes.
“Mel, I need to know what room Braeden Duffy is staying in.”
Braeden finally got tired and climbed off top of Kurt. Kurt thought that if he was in complete control of his body right now he would be vomiting. Profusely. He wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take. He wanted Blaine.
“Well, c’mon now puppet. I guess it’s time we get ya ter bed.” Kurt mentally sighed in relief as he thought for the briefest of moments that Braeden was actually going to leave him alone. “Don’ worry though. I won’t be leavin’ ya anytime soon.” He flashed a smile at Kurt as he drug him out of bed and to the door.
Melanie searched through the school’s database until she found Braeden’s room. She then pulled up security camera footage of the sixth floor of Dorm 2. Blaine’s stomach clenched like he was going to be sick when he realized that the Duffy’s had been living just four floors above he and Kurt all this time.
They watched as Braeden led a dazed Kurt down the hall and to his room. Minutes passed and Brenna exited the room, leaving the two of them alone. If Blaine had thought his heart had hurt at the sight of Kurt under Braeden’s spell, it was positively breaking at the thought of the two of them alone together in his room. He knew what was happening in there. He’d been through it already once himself.
Blaine jumped up and grabbed for his coat. He wasn’t going to wait any longer. He couldn’t.
“Wait.”
Blaine huffed angrily at Melanie, “What?”
“We need to make sure that they haven’t gone anywhere else. Or that no one else has shown up. You need to know what you’re up against going into this thing.”
Blaine sighed in indignation and then returned to his spot next to her, shrugging into his coat.
Melanie fast forwarded through the next hour until the door to Braeden’s room opened again and he emerged with Kurt in tow. The camera followed the two of them as they got on the elevator and the doors closed. “When was that?” Blaine spat.
Melanie looked up at him, her eyes glazed over in excitement, “Five minutes ago.”

Yet another door slammed outside of his room and Thad kicked his legs over the edge of his bed, marching to his door and swinging it open. When he did so, though, he was met with Kurt and some lanky guy with creepy grey eyes and shaggy black hair. Kurt’s head turned slowly in Thad’s direction. While his face seemed almost serene, there was a wild look of panic in his eyes that set Thad on edge with fear.
Braeden jumped in between the two of them suddenly, “Get back ter bed with ya!”
Without even realizing it, Thad calmly obeyed and shut the door, walking back to his bed and lying down. He was there for merely seconds before he bolted back upright. There was something very wrong with this picture. He climbed back out of bed and threw on his slippers. He needed to go report this to someone and fast before something horrible and unthinkable happened to Kurt.
Blaine was out the door before Melanie could say another word. His fingers jabbed at the elevator call button but after a few brief seconds he grew impatient with it and dashed to the stairwell. He looked over the edge at the six flights of stairs and climbed over the railing and jumped. He fell and fell and the rails of passing floors whooshed by him. He managed to stop just before he hit the first floor, hovering slightly above ground. He dropped abruptly the last few inches and then he was off again, running like he’d never ran before out the back doors of the dorm.
The wind whipped violently at his cheeks, burning his eyes, and the early December chill nipped at his fingers but Blaine ignored it all and just kept running. His mind was locked on one thing and one thing only.
As he burst into the lobby he was accosted by Jeff, Nick, Wes, and David. He shoved past all of them, ignoring their questions. He was so focused on finding Kurt that he didn’t even care what they had to say—so focused that he ran smack into Thad.
“Oh!” Thad huffed as their bodies collided unexpectedly. Blaine caught him in his arms and kept him from falling down. Thad’s eyes widened as they met with Blaine’s. “Oh no…Blaine! I’m so sorry! There’s something wrong with Kurt! Like, really wrong! I heard something outside my room and…”
“Where is he?” Blaine barked as his grip on Thad’s armed tightened.
“I think he went into his room with some strange guy…”
Blaine released his grip on Thad and ran straight for the stairwell again. Jeff and Nick immediately trailed after him and David and Wes exchanged dubious looks before grabbing Thad and following.
Blaine pumped the muscles in his legs to go faster. He willed them to carry him up the stairs and to save Kurt from whatever Braeden had in store for him. Finally he reached the second floor and he tore open the door and flew down the hall to the room directly beside his, 248. He grabbed for the handle but it was no use, the door was locked. He instantly jumped over to his door and fumbled briefly with his key before the lock clicked and he shoved the door open. He barged straight into the bathroom and kicked in the locked door to Kurt’s room.
His eyes immediately found Braeden, who was dangling Kurt out of the open window in the corner of the room. The winter chill was now penetrating the warm interior of Kurt’s dorm and Blaine let out a shudder.
“I see ya’ve found us. Well, too bad I guess. Looks like our Kurt here won’ get the end that I’ve promised ‘im.”
“What are you doing with him?”
“What am I doin with ‘im? I believe the question is ‘what haven’t I done with ‘im?’” Braeden tenderly trailed a hand across Kurt’s cheek that was covered in thin scratches.
Blaine growled under his breath, “Why? Why can’t you just leave me alone?”
“Cause ya owe me. Ya owe me somethin’ fer all the shit ya put me through last year. It wasn’t me fault that things didn’t go according to plan. Ya didn’t ‘ave to go an take it out on me, ya snitch. Think of all the times we shared together, Blaine. Ya just had ter go an ruin it with a bitter end like that, didn’t ya?”
“I didn’t ask to be brain washed by you. It was all your plan, I had no choice when it came to participation.”
“Yea, but ya can’t tell me ya didn’t enjoy yerself.” Braeden threw Blaine a wicked smile and another shudder ran through Blaine, this time not from the cold.
“He’s got nothing to do with what happened between you and me, Braeden.”
“Oh, ya see, but he does. While me sister and I were shipped off ter some other school where we warn’t exactly treated too nicely—not as nice as the fine accommodations here at Dalton, that is—you were still here and ya were shacking up with this nice little piece of arse. Now, explain ter me how that is fair.”
Blaine ignored him, “Just let him go! Now!” His fists clenched and he prepared himself to lunge at Braeden the second Kurt was released.
“Alright then. If ya say so.” And with that Braeden released his hold on Kurt and he began to tumble out of the window. Something inside of Kurt changed in that moment and he suddenly felt his shield begin to move outward, forcing away the hold that Braeden had over him. He reached out and grabbed fistfuls of Braeden’s shirt and hair and pulled himself back into the room.
Blaine lurched from where he was frozen and entered the struggle, punching Braeden in the gut. Braeden doubled over and Kurt let go of him, steadying himself on the window ledge. Braeden swiftly turned and head butted Blaine before turning back to Kurt. Kurt jumped and began to back away from Braeden only to hit the edge of the window with the back of his thigh. Braeden reached into his pocket and pulled out a sliver of something black and plastic. He clicked a button somewhere on the contraption and a sharp looking blade appeared. Kurt looked over at Blaine and then back at Braeden and the knife. He peered over the edge outside, “Only two floors up.” He knew what he had to do.
Blaine regained his composure and looked around the room. “NO!” he reached for Kurt but it was too late. He threw himself to the window ledge and looked out to see Kurt’s limp body on the hedges just underneath the window.
Blaine let out a cry of anguish and anger. He turned to Braeden who was cackling at his pain. His cackling stopped however when his cheek was met with Blaine’s right fist. Blaine knocked Braeden over and the switchblade went clattering to the floor. He climbed atop him and proceeded to pummel Braeden, barely even allowing room for him to retaliate.
Moments later the room was invaded by Jeff and Nick, who were pulling Blaine off of Braeden’s now limp body. They were followed by Wes, David and Thad. Thad ran to the open window and looked out over the edge to see Kurt. He let out a whimper.
Jeff and Nick threw Blaine onto the bed as Wes and David scooped Braeden off of the floor.
“You’re lucky we don’t kill you right here.” Jeff grabbed the knife off of the floor and held it to Braeden’s throat.
“Yeah!” Nick was standing at his shoulder.
“Enough!” Wes’s voice boomed through the room as David snatched the knife from Jeff. “I think this sick fuck has learned his lesson already by the look on his face.”
“That and the amount of blood covering it.” Jeff added.
Blaine pushed his friends out of the way and got directly in Braeden’s face, “You are going to leave Dalton. You are going to leave and never come back. Do you understand? If I ever see your face again, even these guys won’t be able to stop me from killing you on the spot.” Braeden nodded slowly, his left eye swollen shut and blood pouring from his nose. “GO!”
Braeden scrambled to his feet and out the door before Blaine had to say another word.
The six of them just stood there looking at each other for a few moments, unsure of what to say. Finally Wes broke the silence, “David, trail him out and make sure he leaves the grounds. I’m sure he’ll go back to his room to gather his things, but don’t allow him too long to pack. Thad, go up to my room and get my medical kit from the top drawer of my desk. Jeff, Nick, go track down Brenna and make sure she’s not up to anything either. I’ll stay here and clean up this place. Blaine, you go get Kurt and take him to our lounge. I’m sure he’ll be fine. He only fell two stories and the bushes softened his landing a little.” He paused, “I know this is hard but I promise that I’ll make sure he makes it out of this a-okay. And about the lounge, it’s time he was taken there anyways. You knew it would happen eventually.”
Blaine nodded and set off out the door without any argument. When he reached Kurt outside, he leaned down to listen for the boys breathing and let out a heavy sigh of relief when he heard the slight whisper of air escaping his boyfriend’s lips. He felt a hot tear roll down his cheek as he leaned down to gently kiss Kurt’s forehead before hoisting his body into his arms and setting off in the direction of the school building.