Entering the Anderson home 40 minutes later, Blaine was dragged upstairs by a still wet and furious uncle. Blaine stumbled but Vernon didn't stop as the boy nearly fell, just held tighter to his collar as he opened the door to Blaine's room and threw him in.

Blaine crashed to the floor, shaking and hurting. Never had his uncle treated him like that and as the tall man stood in his doorway, his face red and distorted, his arms crossed and his chest heaving with frantic breathes, Blaine felt fear. He couldn't move. He wanted to back away, to gain space between them, but he was frozen. This was new. Blaine had no idea what to expect, feeling helpless and vulnerable.

His uncle opened his mouth to speak and Blaine prepared himself for the screaming but as Vernon's voice came out it was cold and controlled.

"Don't dare to leave your room. You don't come down to dinner. You don't speak to any of us and you don't give me a reason to come up and remind you why exactly you do as I say. Is that understood?"

Blaine didn't answer. The threat reached him and his fear grew.

The man closed his eyes for a brief moment before speaking again.

"Is that understood, Blaine?"

Blaine cringed before he nodded. His uncle never called him by his name. He normally opted for not directly addressing him. If Blaine was worth talking to, he could be sure to have done something very terrible.

Vernon just looked his nephew over once more, before stepping out of the room completely and slamming the door shut behind him. On his way down, Blaine could hear him yelling to the rest of the household that Blaine was grounded and nobody should go see him.

Blaine closed his eyes and fell back to the floor, lying down as he tried to even out his breathing.

He had no idea what just happened. He had no idea how the glass had disappeared and how he had understood the snake. Either he was going nuts or the world was. He hoped for the latter. Nevertheless, something weird had happened and his uncle thought it was his fault.

Blaine didn't understand any of it.

All he could feel in this moment was pain, fear and hurt. Pain in his body because of the harsh treatment by his uncle. Fear because his uncle had made it clear that this was the final warning and if other strange things happened, he would consider Blaine responsible for them. He had never been physically harmed by someone in this house and Blaine was afraid that this might be the next step, making all places in his life places of mental and physical abuse; to lose any kind of safety he still had. And hurt. Hurt because of what his uncle had said and done. He didn't believe what Vernon had said about his parents but one thing was true: he was alone and he had known it, even though he had never been told so as bluntly as today...

Slowly he crawled over to his nightstand, switching on the small radio on it, before leaping onto his bed, face down. He felt defeated like he felt so often, but music helped. He liked to lose himself in melodies and lyrics.

He didn't have CDs but radio was fine. An ad had just ended as a song he loved started. Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson. He always felt like he could relate. He came from a small town where he didn't feel like he belonged. He spent every waking moment wishing he were somewhere else, somewhere happy. There was nobody to reach out to, nobody that would listen to him, nobody who cared for him and all he wanted was exactly that. All he wanted to do was leave and be happy.

He started to sing along, reveling in the music.

As the chorus began, tears were streaming down his face and his voice shook while he sang.

I'll spread my wings
And I'll learn how to fly
I'll do what it takes
Till I touch the sky
make a wish, take a chance, make a change
And breakaway

The song was about a bad situation and about having the hope and guts to break free and become happy but Blaine had no hope. He would live with the Andersons until they found it appropriate to kick him out. Times were only likely to get worse and that was why he choked on the words and cried himself to sleep.