April 15, 2013, 6:29 a.m.
My Journey to You: Take a good look at me now
E - Words: 2,218 - Last Updated: Apr 15, 2013 Story: Complete - Chapters: 11/11 - Created: Apr 14, 2013 - Updated: Apr 15, 2013 379 0 0 0 0
"I hate that man," Blaine muttered under his breath once the weird sensation was over and he was once again transported wherever.
He was standing on what appeared to be unsteady wooden floor and it took the work of his muscles to not fall over. The fact that the real wind was much stronger than the magic one didn't help his balance either.
When Blaine finally felt confident on his feet he looked around, curious about the movements as well as the salty air.
He found himself on the deck of some old looking ship, the type you would only see in a museum. The sails were dirty white with big red crosses on them. There were people working here and there and the sound of waves was smothered by the howling wind.
Clumsily the lawyer made his way to the rail and looked down to see the waves crashing at the side of the ship.
"Who are you?" Blaine heard someone ask in Spanish and looked over his shoulder to see a man looking at him.
Thankfully, he had taken Spanish classes at school and still remembered the language quite well. "My name is Blaine Anderson. Pleasure to meet you."
The man looked at him with curiosity. "I haven't seen you on the ship. Where did you come from?"
He was caught off guard so he couldn't really think of anything smart to say. "Your last stop," he offered.
"Ah, that explains a lot. Except I don't remember agreeing to take you on the ship," the man eyed him suspiciously.
"You were drunk," Blaine laughed nervously.
"Possible... You look smart and your accents sounds smart. Are you smart?" he asked.
At that time two sailors walked pass them. "Then she asked me if I could read and I said 'no can do.' Who needs reading when you can travel?" one of them talked while the other nodded furiously.
Blaine followed the men with his eyes and snorted. "Definitely smarter than those two. Though I'm sure it's not very difficult to compete with that."
The man shook his head disapprovingly and gestured to Blaine to follow him. "Not the brightest bunch here. Hard-working men but pea-brained," he spoke as they walked over to a cabin where a map lay on a big table next to a globe. "They only care about bitches and gold. I wouldn't say no to pounding into my sweet mistress but there is more to life than animalistic rituals."
"What do you have in mind?" Blaine asked curiously as the man became more and more interesting with every sentence he spoke.
"I would give up my manhood for Santa Maria to reach its destination."
"Who is Santa Maria?"
The man ran his fingers over the wall of the cabin. "All of this is Santa Maria. If it reaches India, it will be the biggest discovery of them all!"
Blaine's eyes widened as the realisation hit him. "What did you say your name was?"
"Ah, I didn't! How rude of me. I'm Christopher Columbus – a navigator of Santa Maria. One day people will know me as the man who found a sea route from Europe to India," he said proudly and pointed at the map where the route was drawn.
"Well, that would be true but you are going in the wrong direction. It's America that you are headed to, not India," Blaine explained, showing off his history knowledge.
"No, no, no," Columbus shook his head and pointed at the map again, "see, India."
Blaine shrugged calmly. "Do you think alcohol could have influenced your decision making?"
"I–" the man began but suddenly the ship swayed more than it ever did and Blaine fell forward onto the table. "Careful!"
Blaine turned around to see some stuff from the cupboard falling onto him but luckily they didn't hit him in time and he was gone.
As he lay down on a bench, Blaine cursed inwardly. He was sick and tired of being tossed here and there with no clue what he was supposed to achieve. All he knew was what Ming had been kind enough to tell him – this was supposed to be a gift for Kurt in some way. He just failed to understand how him suffering watching different 'kurts' could be beneficial to his husband. Unless, the man wanted to see the lawyer hurting.
Sitting up Blaine thought back to what he had experienced so far and tried to find a link among those that would help him figure out what he was supposed to do.
First, Ming always sent him somewhere unrelated to Kurt except Dalton. Then he would get to live in a world where either Kurt or himself or both were threatened to be killed. Once again, the first 'trip' was an exception. Also, Kurt always seemed to know him in some way, but not in the forest where, Blaine's heart clenched, he died. Two times they were in New York, other times it was a place Blaine had never been to before. Usually Kurt was a human but he was a vampire once.
Growling in frustration Blaine stood up and noticed he was in the Central Park. He walked aimlessly wondering what other similarities he could find in all those different 'kurts' and situations but he couldn't think of anything that they all had in common. It felt like a dead end. If he didn't get answers from Ming any time soon, he would go crazy.
For a few moments he even considered just sitting there and doing nothing. In that way he probably wouldn't meet Kurt and the Asian's plan would go to waste. Unfortunately, he couldn't help curiosity as he really wanted to know how different their life was here. Especially since he still had a small hope that maybe he was back into his own life.
"It's your fault we are late," a woman muttered as she walked past Blaine with a man behind. "They will have sold all the new ones."
Blaine had a feeling that the man was rolling his eyes before he responded. "The auction is still not over. The second hand items are still as good as the new ones. Even trained better!"
Soon the lawyer couldn't hear them anymore but the short conversation caught his interest. The man mentioned 'items' but he couldn't understand how they could be 'trained.'
Curiosity getting the best of him, Blaine decided to follow the couple to the auction they talked about. It wasn't very far and soon he noticed a large tent in the middle of the park. As he got closer he could hear a voice of an auctioneer as well as people bidding. He walked past the guards at the entrance just as the man from a small stage announced that the previous item had been sold and sat down on an empty chair next to a middle age lady.
"Next, seventeen year old male," he spoke as a naked lean boy was dragged onto the stage by a chain that was attached to his neck. "Two previous owners, well trained."
The auctioneer went on and on but Blaine couldn't process his words. They were selling people, teenagers in fact. And by the look at it the lawyer just knew what they were sold for. Not to mention, it was all done in the middle of a day, in a public place. He almost choked as the realisation hit him – it had to be legal.
The boy was sold and Blaine felt like running out of there and throwing up at the nearest bush. He was about to leave when he caught a glimpse of another boy who obediently crawled onto the stage and kneeled facing the sitting crowd, his head lowered respectably.
"Eighteen year old male," the auctioneer announced not even looking at the thin bruised boy. "Three previous owners, well trained and obedient."
"Kurt," Blaine whispered looking at his young husband.
"Takes punishment really well," the man continued to speak and the man holding the chain gave the boy a sidekick to prove the point. Kurt didn't even flinch. "Almost seven inches when hard, can pleasure you in any way possible."
This is not real, this is not real, Blaine repeated to himself in his mind hoping that soon Ming will soon appear and tell him he can leave because he couldn't stand seeing his Kurt like that.
"Starting price – ten thousand kenlets," the auctioneer finally announced and Blaine frowned.
"What's kenlets?" he silently asked nobody in particular and the woman sitting next to him explained that it was the currency in the States. "What about dollars?"
"What's dollars?" the woman asked but it was obvious that she didn't want the answer as she began listening to the auctioneer and placing bids on Kurt.
Not real, not real, Blaine continued his mantra as the bids in the unknown currency were raised until it suddenly stopped.
"Sold to number one six three for forty six thousand kenlets."
"No!" the lawyer couldn't stop himself from yelling. "You can't sell him, he is my husband and he is a free man! Let him go!"
As he spoke Blaine starting walking towards the stage, feeling everyone's eyes on him except for Kurt, who didn't dare to look up. However, the man didn't get too close as the guards from the entrance came up to him and dragged him out of the tent.
"I love you, Kurt!" Blaine shouted before he could no longer see the boy.
Outside the tent the guards threw several punches to his stomach and let him go with a warning to never come back. Blaine knew he wouldn't. All he needed to do was find the man who had bought Kurt and steal the boy from him. He didn't know what he would do with Kurt after that but at that moment it didn't matter.
Stumbling away he decided to hide somewhere where he could see the tent and follow the man with Kurt once they leave. On his way to find a good hiding place, he bumped into a homeless man.
"Sorry," Blaine apologised.
"It's quite alright, quite alright, young man," he heard ant turned his head to see the Asian smiling at him.
"Oh god, Ming! Please, send me away from here, I can't... I can't stay here!" Blaine spoke frantically, still glancing at the tent.
"Why such hurry?" the man asked him with genuine interest.
Blaine pressed his hands to his eyes to sooth the tension. "Kurt is a slave," he whispered brokenly. "He is a sex slave and someone bought him. I had no money and couldn't do anything. But it's not real, right? You will send me away and this will disappear, right? Please, I have to know!"
Ming however said nothing. When Blaine lowered his hands he looked at the same direction as the other man and saw Kurt crawling beside the tall man who had bought him.
He was about to run to them, they weren't even that far, but Ming's strong hand stopped him.
"What are you doing? I need to save him," Blaine said and tried to get out of the old man's grip.
"They can't see us anymore," Ming explained as the two figures came closer.
Soon Blaine was able to hear the buyer shout.
"I just bought you but you already managed to humiliate me," he screamed as he walked at a faster pace than it could be comfortable for a crawling boy to keep up with. "That stunt with your lover? Who was he? Your previous owner's pool boy or something? You know, I don't think you deserve any food this week, whore."
The further they got, the quieter the voice became and soon even though Blaine couldn't make out the words, he could still hear the other man yelling something at Kurt. Only when the voice disappeared did Ming let him go.
"Please, tell me this is not real," Blaine pleaded him.
"You know, people tend to think that they are too small and insignificant to make a difference. How can one man influence the history? Many think that it's impossible. That's stupid, in my opinion. Even the smallest worm is doing its job in shaping the world."
"It's not answering my question," Blaine snapped. He was sick of cryptic words.
Ming shrugged, not caring about being interrupted. "It's real now, isn't it? But when we leave... who knows?"
"Send me away, I can't stay here any longer," the lawyer demanded with desperation in his voice and eyes.
"I... me... If people cared about others more than they do about themselves, we would be living in a better place," Ming shook his head and touched Blaine's shoulder.