age: 16 years old
He was numb. He was so numb and it was strange. He wasn't cold and he didn't have a fever. He couldn't comprehend how this feeling managed to slowly take him over day after day. The problem was that it was getting worse. He could barely stand to make eye contact with anyone in the halls in fear of crashing into a locker or getting a face full of colored, tart flavored ice. Even if he was pushing through the masses with his chin as high as he could lift it, not even that was tricking them, let alone himself, anymore.
He was Kurt Elizabeth Hummel. Who was anyone to take that away from him? At least... that'd been his thought until this morning.
Now Kurt lay flat on his back, his eyes closed because, quite frankly, he was too scared to open them. When he'd looked in the mirror they'd been the most bizarre color and he still couldn't grasp what had happened. He was far, far away from his numbed state and in a haze of confusion and fear. The ice blue color of his eyes was vastly different from his natural green and he could have sworn he'd died.
In fact, he'd seen his mother. He was absolutely certain she had been there. Even the white light he had always thought only happened in movies and during those commercials for crazy Jesus cults who's mission was to scare you into giving them you're money.
With a shaky breath he peeked from under his eyelids, his heart pounding in his skull as he looked around his room. It was dark now and when he moved to feel his way to the bathroom he switched on the light. Like magnets his eyes went straight to the mirror in front of him. As if promised, there was his reflection and there was his eyes.
"What the hell..." he breathed out, approaching his sink and leaning closer, one hand gripping the ceramic bowl and the other lifting to touch just under his eye lashes. "This isn't right... this isn't right..." his eyes began to well with tears and he swallowed hard but he wasn't stronger than himself this time. His nose and cheeks turned the rosy shade of red they always turned and his hand shook. The tears that fell from his eyes were ice cold against his pale cheeks but couldn't make them stop. What had happened to him? Why couldn't he remember?
The red on the collar of his shirt caught his attention as his eyes took in the bigger picture. They traveled down to his sleeve and over the rips down his side and his back. If nearly a third of his shirt hadn't been laced in blood he would have questioned who he'd gotten into a scissor fight with. But under the fabric there were no life threatening wounds, scars, or a single mark indicating something had happened to him. Was this even his blood? How had his shirt been ruined?
Finding the answers suddenly didn't seem as important as his mind went right back to where it'd started- His mother. She'd been dead since he was five but she'd been standing there, a mere few feet from him. He could almost smell her scent he was so close but not close enough to reach out for her before he was ripped from... from where? Was it heaven? If one existed that had to be it, right? What he did know was that he woke with what felt like a million volts of electricity running through his body; gasping for air with the blue Ohio sky clear above him, in the middle of the street, in Rachel Berry's arms.
Kurt snapped back to the reality of the moment he was in and rushed back to his room. He grabbed his satchel and dumped everything out and on to his bed where he began pushing through the contents until he found his phone. Turning on his heel, moving back to the bathroom, he managed to avoid his reflection and immediately turned the light off. It was difficult to find the tub as he sat and pulled his knees to his chest. With blurred vision and ice cold fingers he dialed Rachel's number.
"R-Rachel?... It's Kurt... I don't understand," he squeezed his eyes shut as he swallowed the threatening sob. Kurt covered his mouth and waited for her voice on the other end.
"Kurt, it's going to be okay," was all Rachel offered. "I'm going to explain everything. Tell me what you can remember."
"I can't remember anything! I can't remember... I saw my mom. Why couldn't I stay with my mom?" The paper thin wall that was there was now gone as his chest wracked with sobs. "I want to go back," Kurt begged, his skin prickling with sweat and his heart throbbed harder, faster.
"You can't go back, Kurt," Rachel's voice came when a moment of silence was finally found. Her voice wasn't as strong before and he could tell she knew much more than he'd originally thought. "You can never go back."