Blaine drove back to the apartment in a daze of relief and happiness.  He smiled at the silver bracelet that jingled against the steering wheel as he drove.  Kurt might not have forgiven him yet, but at least he didn’t end things between them.  That had been Blaine’s biggest fear.  At least now, he would be able to make things right.  Then everything would go back to normal in his life.

He noticed his phone buzzing on the passenger seat and leaned over to grab it.

To: Blaine

From: Cooper

9:16pm

Hey how did things

go with Kurt?

Blaine typed back his reply slowly as he made sure to keep one eye on the road at all times.  He wasn’t too worried though.  He was the only one on the road that he could see and there were no curves for at least a few more miles.

To: Cooper

From: Blaine

9:17pm

Better than expected. On

Route 81 headed home

now.

He hit send and focused his attention back on the road.  Blaine’s heart stopped when he saw a blinding pair of headlights headed straight for him.  He jerked the steering wheel to the left and swerved into the other lane, narrowly missing the other car.  He had half a moment to catch his breath before he noticed the same pair of headlights in the rearview mirror.  The other car was an inch away from the Impala’s back bumper.  Blaine floored the gas pedal, hoping to outrun them.  He was a fair distance away when all of a sudden the car was no longer chasing him from behind, but headed perpendicularly into the driver’s side of the car.

His veins pumping with adrenaline, Blaine acted purely on instinct.  He reached into the glove compartment and took out the shotgun pre-loaded with rock salt that Cooper kept for emergencies.  He aimed the gun out the open window directly at the car.  It was no more than a foot away from colliding with the Impala.  He pulled the trigger and unleashed a blast of rock salt into the night air.  When the salt came in contact with the car, it vanished instantly into thin air.

Blaine slammed his foot on the break pedal and skidded to a halt in the middle of the street.  He was breathing heavily, his hands clutching the shotgun to his chest.

“Holy shit!”

*

“Hey, buddy” Cooper greeted as Blaine stumbled through the door of the apartment, “No more trouble in paradise?”

The shock of Blaine’s recent encounter was still etched on his face.  When Cooper took a look at him, his smile quickly contorted into a frown.

“What happened?” Cooper asked seriously.

“The car on Route 81,” Blaine breathed, “I saw it.  It…. it tried to hit me.  It tried to kill me!”

“Oh my god,” Cooper exclaimed, “Did it hit the Impala?  Is she okay?!”

“Your car is fine, Cooper,” Blaine drawled, “And I’m doing great by the way.  Thanks for asking.”

 “Right, sorry,” Cooper apologized, “So what happened?”

“I don’t know,” Blaine admitted, “I was driving back here and then all of a sudden it was headed right at me.  I swerved to avoid it, but it kept coming after me.  Eventually I shot the rock salt gun at it and it vanished.”

“Hah!” Cooper exclaimed, “And you always thought I was being paranoid keeping that thing in the glove compartment!”

“Yeah, whatever,” Blaine said, “But this is serious, Cooper.  We definitely know that this thing is a vengeful spirit now and it’s pretty determined.  If I hadn’t shot it there’s no way it would have let me get away.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Cooper agreed, “Which is why I think we should pay Miss Fabray a visit tomorrow.  Don’t you think?”

Blaine sighed.  He hadn’t seen Quinn yet, but Santana and Brittany had updated them earlier in the week when they had been allowed to visit her.  She was awake now, but was still recovering from a serious concussion.  Luckily, the brain damage appeared minimal.  However, in addition to some severe bruising and broken ribs, she was paralyzed from the waist down.  It wasn’t clear yet if she would be able to regain her ability to walk.

He knew that if their places were switched, Blaine would rather be left alone to recover instead of being badgered by a bunch of questions from his friends.  However, this spirit was violent and didn’t seem to be giving up any time soon.  He and Cooper needed to put an end to it before anyone else got hurt.  Or worse.

“Yeah, I guess we should,” Blaine said, “I think Kurt wanted to visit her as well.  I’ll call him tomorrow morning to see if he’s up for it.”

“Sounds good,” Cooper replied, “You know that means I’ll have to meet him again though, right?”

Blaine grimaced.  As much as he wanted to keep the ‘family business’ and his relationship with Kurt separate, he knew that refusing to let Kurt meet Cooper again was not the best way to prove that he wanted Kurt to be a part of his life.

“I know,” Blaine mumbled, “Just…. don’t be yourself, alright?”

“Blaine,” Cooper chuckled, “You wound me.”

Blaine rolled his eyes.

“It’s been a long night.  I’m going to bed early,” he decided, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Alright, I’ll probably stay up for a while.  I want to make sure we haven’t missed anything on the case.”

Blaine headed in to his bedroom.  As he was about to close the door Cooper called out to him.

“Hey, B!”

“Yeah?”

“Nice bracelet,” Cooper said with a smirk.

“Goodnight, Cooper.”