Teaser Chapter: In the End

The world was dark and empty, but there was buzzing, so much buzzing.  He tried to reach out in the darkness towards the sound but found nothing.  Then his fingers clasped something warm, solid, and he tried to pull back but it was holding him and it wouldn’t let go…

He whined, scared and helpless and alone.  The buzzing seemed to intensify.  He tried to pull his arms up to cover his ears but they were heavy now, and something was still holding onto his hand.

Then the buzzing began to sharpen, and it almost sounded like words.  If he could only clear his head enough to focus for a moment…

“Get his dad and tell him he’s waking up…” a voice was saying.  Then he heard his name.  “Kurt, Kurt,” over and over and over again.

The voice was kind but unfamiliar.  Kurt struggled to open his eyes, but when he finally managed it he shut them again almost immediately.  The sudden influx of light was painful, dizzying.

After long moments of blinking fiercely, the world began to slide into place.  He could see now that a pretty Asian woman was sitting beside him on a bed in a room he didn’t recognize.  She had his hand clasped in one of her own, and with her other she was smoothing back the hair from his forehead.

“What?  Where… who are you?”  The words felt heavy and forced.  He swallowed and mentally grimaced at the foul taste in his mouth as his mind scrambled for any detail that might clue him in to what was going on.

“I’m Tina,” the woman answered, smiling down at him sadly.

“Tina…” he tried, undecided as to what to ask next.

A man appeared in the doorway before he could speak again, tall and slender and clearly of Asian descent as well.  “Burt’s on his way,” he said to Tina, then stepped closer to the bed.

He peered down at Kurt, his expression serious and impossible to decipher.  “Hey there,” he said eventually.  “My name is Mike.  It’s good to see that you’re awake.”

“My dad’s here?” Kurt asked, still confused.

“He woke up two days ago,” Tina answered.  “He’s been worried that you’ve been out so long, but we told him it was normal since you’ve been separated from…”

“Tina!” Mike broke in harshly, cutting her off with a glare.

“Whoops!  Sorry,” Tina cringed as she caught on to her mistake.

The haze was beginning to lift now, Kurt’s mind rapidly filling in the blanks of his memory.  The prison, the journey, the barrier… crossing the barrier with…

“Blaine!”  His eyes scanned the small room frantically, taking in the open window, the oversized furniture, a vase of flowers on the dresser and Mike and Tina’s worried expressions.  His surroundings were comfortable, but Kurt took no comfort in them as he failed to find the merest hint of the person he sought.  “Where’s Blaine?” he demanded, feeling lost.

Mike and Tina exchanged a glance before turning back to him in unison.  He felt Tina squeeze his hand, but it was Mike who finally spoke.  “He didn’t come across the barrier with you.  We have our suspicions, but we aren’t certain why.  We went looking for him, but…”  The Asian man’s eyes dropped down and his shoulders slumped. 

“There was no one there, Kurt,” Tina spoke softly, her sad brown eyes meeting his.  “Blaine is missing.”