Prologue

 ‘Blaine sweetie, come on’

A young Blaine looked up at his mother, smiled, and grabbed her hand.

‘You were so wonderful in your show son’ she smiled.

‘Yes son,’ his father said sharply, ‘I’m proud of you. But don’t get too attached to those shows...You won’t have time to rehearse when you’re studying for Harvard.’

Blaine frowned slightly.

‘Dear, don’t you think he’s a little young-‘

‘Never too young to start’ his father said sternly, staring at his mother. She nodded bowing her head.

Blaine continued walking with his parents towards their car when he heard a loud noise, and turned his head to see another young boy and his parents walking towards him. They were laughing and smiling, the complete opposite of Blaine and his family.

Blaine had seen the boy sing on stage that night.

He had never seen anything shine so bright. Even his nightlight, that would always keep away the monsters when he fell asleep.

The boy’s father looked up at Blaine’s father.

‘The kids were just great tonight, weren’t they?’ the man smiled. The freckled boy laughed, looking up at his mother, who smiled back at him.

‘Yes, well....as good as young children can be’ Blaine’s father replied, raising his hand, ‘The name’s John Anderson.’

The boys father’s smile faltered slightly, but he shook John’s hand.

‘Burt Hummel.’ Burt replied, ‘This is my wife Katherine, and my son Kurt.’

Kurt.

That was the most prettiest name Blaine had ever heard.

He raised his head slowly to look at Kurt.

‘Hi’ Kurt grinned, ‘You were really good at singing. Almost as good as Rachel Berry’

‘You...You think so?’ Blaine asked shyly. ‘I like to...to sing. Sometimes.’

‘Sorry, but we need to get going.’ John said stiffly.

‘Well...it was lovely meeting you’  Katherine said, as Blaine felt himself being pulled towards the car.

He got one last look at Kurt, who smiled and waved goodbye.

Blaine waved back

*

When he and his family got back home, Blaine took off his coat and hung it on his special peg.

‘Kurt is a really pretty name’ Blaine said absentmindedly, untying his shoelaces and placing the brown suede shoes next to the door.

He could feel his father stiffen behind him.

His father grabbed his shoulder, and turned him around.

‘Blaine,’ he said angrily, ‘you will never say anything like that about a boy again, do you hear me? It is wrong. It is evil, Blaine. And you don’t want to be evil do you?’

‘But I-‘

Blaine felt the sharp sting of his father’s hand hitting his cheek. He let out a cry of pain, and tears started rolling down his cheeks.

‘DO YOU?’ his father spat.

Blaine shook his head quickly.

‘John!’ Blaine’s mother cried from the lounge doorway.

John turned, snarled, and walked towards her.

She whimpered slightly, and closed the door behind him.

Blaine ran up to his room, closed the door, and turned on his nightlight and his music box.

He lay on his bed, curled up in a ball, and placed his hands over his ears, singing along to the tune of ‘Tomorrow’ from Annie, the tune coming from the music box his mother had bought him a year ago. His eyes were drawn to the nightlight.

His nightlight made all of the monsters go away

*