Disclaimer: I don't own Glee :(
Kurt Hummel's mother died when he was just eight years old. Nobody was prepared for her death, it was so sudden and unexpected, so unanticipated, that her funeral wasn't actually even planned until about a week after her passing.
Burt Hummel had been so distraught that he hadn't even bothered to start making funeral plans, even when his wife was lying on her death bed at Lima Memorial Hospital. He was desperately trying to convince himself that everything would be okay- that Elizabeth would be okay. Because if she wasn't, then how could he ever be again?
Burt didn't go near any of Elizabeth's things after he and his son had packed them all away in cardboard boxes labelled "Lizzie" and shoved them into the attic. He never once went up there and went through her things, or the photo album that held all of their best memories together. He just couldn't, not without breaking down.
Kurt went up there though, a week after his mother's official funeral, after Burt had left to go and try to distract himself from the depression he was going to slip into by working at the shop, he tip-toed up into the attic and sat on the dusty wooden floors, rifling through each and every box and trying to take a picture of every detail and every little thing with his mind.
He had stopped going up there after he turned thirteen. He just didn't had the time for it anymore, he had just started helping his dad out at the shop whenever he could, trying to bond with his father since he was the only thing he had left.
The boxes remained untouched. Forgotten. Left to gather dust like everything else in that stuffy old attic.
Until Finn and Carole.
It had been Burt's idea for them all to move to a bigger house, and while Kurt was slightly reluctant he did a surprisingly good job and hiding it because he was just glad that his father had found someone again. Someone to love and trust and spend the rest of his life did. Even if that person was Carole Hudson- no, Carole Hummel-Hudson -and not Elizabeth Hummel.
So the boxes were found. And remembered once again.
Burt and Kurt sat together on the sofa alone and slowly opened every box and took out every object, much like Kurt had done when he was little. They cried a little, put all the things back neatly and piled them all in the back of Burt's car, so they could be moved to the new attic.
Kurt had grown up more, matured faster than most boys his age, and he had accepted his mother's death. She was dead, she wasn't coming back, and that was okay.
It wasn't, but he could pretend it was.
The only problem with that was, of his mother was dead, then why had he begun to see her in his room every night? After His dad, Carole and Finn had all gone to bed and fallen asleep, why did he continue to wake up at 3am on the dot every single night and catch a glimpse of a tall pale lady standing staring at him from the darkest corner of his bedroom?
She was beautiful though. Porcelain skin, long, wavy chestnut brown hair, exactly the same colour as Kurt's, and pale blue eyes. She wore a long black dress the reached her ankles, and sort of resembled something that you would wear to a funeral. Kurt guessed that it was what she was buried in. He also guessed that the reason he didn't scream the house down the first time she appeared was because of how pretty and healthy she looked, he was sure that if she had showed up looking how she looked in her few final days lying in her hospital bed he would e freaked out and ran crying into Burt and Carole's room.
But he didn't do that, no, the first time he just stared.
His eyes darted briefly to the alarm clock on his bedside table (which read 3am because it always read 3am when he woke up and she was there) and then back to her, still in her position in the corner, smiling. Smiling!
He had reached over to turn on his bedside lamp then and she had disappeared- he hadn't seen her go, but when he looked back she wasn't there, and he had managed to convince himself that it was all part of his strangely vivid imagination until she reappeared in exactly the same space the following night. And the one after that and the one after that.
Kurt guessed that he was going crazy- maybe glee and homework and bullies and stepbrothers were just driving him round the bend. But he just couldn't bring himself to tell anyone about the…sightings. Maybe it was because he was scared that if he did, they'd stop, and he knew, deep down, that there was a small part of him that didn't want them to.
She never spoke, never made a sound. Never moved either, except for when she evaporated (Kurt had caught her disappearing on him once) and he never moved or spoke either.
Until after his seventeenth birthday.
Four weeks after, to be exact. On the same day that his mother had passed away.
He woke up, per usual, at 3am. The room was freezing, he was used to it being cold- he lived in Lima, for God's sake -but never this cold. It was like lying inside a freezer.
He shivered and his eyes flickered over to the corner of the room, where he mother stood, dressed in her usual black attire, long chestnut hair flowing in waves down her shoulders.
But something was…off.
She was still smiling, but it wasn't the same, didn't have the same effect. Usually her smiles gave him warmth inside his chest, they comforted him and made him feel safe. This smile did the opposite. It created an eerie feeling that spread throughout his body, for the first time it felt like he was being watched- and in a creepy way too.
And then she started to come towards him.
He froze, unable to move, he didn't know if it was out of fear or if she was using magical ghost powers to paralyse him, but he just couldn't move. And it was terrifying.
She advanced towards him slowly, her bare feet making no sound on the soft carpeting on the floor- not that he thought it would anyway -and he kept his eyes carefully trained on her, awaiting her next move, wondering what she would do next.
When she finally reached his bedside after what felt like an eternity, she didn't touch him, or grab him and fly with him out the window or something. She pulled back his large blanket and held out her hand expectantly.
Kurt had just looked at it and blinked at her a few times. He almost shook his head- almost, but he stopped himself, and opened his mouth instead.
"Is this a dream?" Were the first words that escaped, and his mother smiled again- it still wasn't the same though -and shook her own head, moving her hand a little to show that he should take it.
He reached out and grabbed it, it was surprisingly warm, he allowed her to pull him out of his mostly-warm bed and followed her to the door, where he stopped, and so did she.
"Where are we going?" He asked uncertainly, still holding onto her hand but not as tightly as before, he was getting a little bit more afraid now, the unknown looming ahead of him.
"Just follow me sweetheart." His mother's voice was soft, melodic, just as he remembered it, and that was enough to make him open his bedroom door and follow her out into the hallways silently. It was enough for him to find the keys and open the front door and follow her along the main round in the earliest hours of the morning.
He didn't know how long they'd walked- although she looked like she was floating, she was basically gliding across the pavement -the roads were all deserted, every single light in every house that they had been turned off at some point during the night, and the streetlights were dim and practically useless.
Elizabeth seemed to be emitting a strange white glow that allowed Kurt to see in the dark, because he didn't know how he would've otherwise.
"Where are we going?" He asked again, still following but still unsure, he had let go of his mother's hand a while ago and just started trailing behind her a little, not too close but not too far.
"We're almost there." She answered in that melodic voice he remembered again. Kurt shivered as his body finally started to register the cold night air and wrapped his arms around himself. His pyjama top doing nothing to protect him from the cold, his bottoms not doing much either, not to mention the fact that he was barefoot.
He suddenly realised that he didn't recognise the area that he was in, and just that realisation alone was enough to put him into worry mode. He caught up with his mother, staying close to her as if he was afraid of someone seeing him alone in a neighbourhood that he had probably never been in before.
He looked up from where his eyes were trained on the ground and his feet moving in front of him, and his eyes widened, they had left the safeness of the houses surrounding every street they walked down and now stood in an open area. They were now walking onto a large bridge, and Kurt froze again when Elizabeth turned and started walking to the edge.
"W-where are you going?" He asked, running after her hesitantly, she climbed up onto the ledge and looked down at the water below.
She turned and smiled, holding her hand out for him again.
"Come on, Kurtsie, time to come home to mommy." She whispered.
Kurt's eyes widened further, "y-you want me to j-jump?!" He took a large step back, his head whipping from side to side, searching for another human being, but it was in vain. They were alone on the deserted bridge.
He took another step back, then another, shaking his head, "n-no I can't." He was shaking furiously, and he couldn't tell if it was from fear or the cold.
Her smile disappeared, and Kurt felt…ashamed as a look of disappointment spread across his mother's face. "Kurt please." She whispered, her voice so soft yet so loud in the silence.
"I can't!" He started crying, hot, wet salty tears streaming down his cheeks, she came closer, and he didn't move away. She reached out and wiped his tears away with her finger, grabbing his hand and slowly moving backwards.
"Please Kurtsie, you love me don't you?" The were moving towards the edge, closer and closer.
"Y-yes but I can't!" He sobbed, moving closer and burying his head in her chest.
"Why?" They stepped up, they were on the ledge. Too close. You're going to fall.
She let him go then, taking a small step away from him but keeping a firm grip on Kurt's hand.
"Come on Kurt." She whispered encouragingly. "We'll count down together."
Kurt didn't know who he was anymore. He didn't know what to do, who to call, where to go. He just nodded, not really there, or maybe he was. He couldn't tell.
Three.
Kurt closed his eyes.
Two.
Kurt squeezed his mother's hand, just to make sure she was still there.
One.
Kurt jumped.