Chapter Two – Bring me back

Just as quick as everything went black, everything was back to normal. Sight and sound were back and for a split second Kurt felt relief. But his relief vanished when he took a second look.

Sat on the floor in his room, in front of the TV, everything seemed the same… but it wasn't. In fact, nothing was the same. Yes, Rachel was there, but she looked different and was dressed different. In pure shock, Rachel stared back at Kurt. Kurt swallowed thickly and as he tried to understand what was happening, they heard a voice.

"Kurt, Rachel, breakfast is ready!"

Both stared at where the voice came from, and then looked back at each other. Neither of them knew what to say, yet both of them had an idea of what was going on. But it couldn't be... it'd be far to absurd for their crazy thoughts to be actually true.

"Kurt…" Rachel started, panic filled her voice. "What is…. How did we, how did we get here?" she looked around the room she was in. It looked like Kurt's room, but at the same time it didn't look like Kurt's room at all.

"I don't know…" is all Kurt managed to say. Kurt took a glance at the TV which seemed to be a much older model. Vintage. Suddenly he felt a finger on his cheek. It was Rachel, who had one hand covering her mouth as she was about to start crying from sheer panic. She started wiping Kurt's cheek harder and harder as the tears started falling from her eyes. "Rachel," Kurt stopped her, taking hold of her wrist as Rachel let out a sob. "Kurt you're gray! You're in black and white!" Rachel panicked. "I know," Kurt was surprisingly calm.

"Children? You better hurry or you'll be late for school." Again that voice that seemed to come from downstairs. It startled Rachel's crying. Kurt slowly got up from the floor and walked to the door. He walked past a mirror and stunned, he stopped to look at himself. He was indeed black and white. As if someone had turned grayscale on and vanished all the colours away. And not just him, everything around him was black and white. It made everything match and for a second he hated it, but then he realized that everything sort of looked at peace. Everything matched… it was actually kind of, dared he think it, pleasant.

A noise close to him snapped Kurt away from his reflection. Rachel was fiddling with the TV, not knowing how to turn it on, she gave up and started banging her fists on the box. "Rachel!" Kurt hissed, kneeling back down next to her, grabbing both her wrists to stop her from abusing the old fashioned television. "How can we undo this? Where are we? What has happened? Finn can be here any minute, I don't-" Kurt shushed his friend. "Rachel calm down." Both sat in silence for a short period of time. Kurt knew what was going on, it was just that he knew that it was too crazy to even think it, let alone say it aloud.

"Are we in Pleasantville?" Rachel softly asked after she sniffed. Kurt nodded slowly, not sure how he got here and how he could get them back to New York. "This isn't possible, is it? How are we here? What happened to your TV?" Rachel was calm, but wanted to know a lot of things. She asked questions Kurt didn't have an answer for. A sudden presence made both of them stand up immediately.

"Children, did you not hear me call out for you?" a woman, dressed in a poodle skirt and a buttoned up blouse, an apron covering most of her outfit, stood in the doorway. "Breakfast is ready and waiting for you in the kitchen," she smiled the most friendly smile Kurt had ever seen. It was both terrifying and… maybe actually kind of nice.

The woman left and Kurt wanted to follow her but Rachel stopped him. "What are you doing?" she hissed. "I… I think I'm gonna go and have some breakfast…" Kurt said, pointing in the direction the nice lady left. "You can't be serious, you don't know who that is! Or where we are! This isn't real, how do we get back?" Rachel panicked again and started fiddling with all the buttons on the TV. None of it worked as the TV didn't turn on, nothing happened. Kurt had to stop her once again.

"Rachel listen to me. We will fix that TV and figure out how to get back to New York… right now, there's someone downstairs who is going to give us food and she might be able to help us more, I don't know, maybe she can't, but we can at least try and… fit in." Kurt finished, halfly shrugging. Rachel listened to him, but then rolled her eyes at her friend. "But we don't belong here, and how does that woman know our names? What if she's going to poison us? We need to get back!" Rachel turned her attention to the TV once again. Kurt sighed. "Okay good luck trying to get us back, but I'm gonna go downstairs now and eat some breakfast." Kurt didn't want to admit that he'd rather stay here than go back to New York. Of course going back eventually wouldn't be a bad idea, but something had crossed his mind. Or rather someone. Now that he was here, in actual Pleasantville, he had the chance to meet the person he admired so, and he wasn't going to let Rachel take it away from him.

As Kurt walked down the stairs, he studied what kind of house he was in. Everything looked very warm and welcoming, even in black and white. Perfect, very homely. Very traditional, Kurt thought to himself. Soon Rachel's hurried footsteps were behind him and they both entered the kitchen.

"Good morning Kurt," a man spoke as he put his newspaper down. "Ah, my angel, you look beautiful as ever." He spoke when he saw Rachel. He got out of his seat and stepped closer to the two friends, who had now learned they were in fact siblings. "Breakfast is ready, now children, hurry up or you'll be late for school." He smiled at the two teenagers, patted Kurt on his shoulder and gave Rachel a kiss on the side of her head. Rachel winced and ducked away slightly, but the man didn't seem to notice and after saying goodbye to his wife, grabbed his suitcase and was out the door.

"What are we going to do Kurt." Rachel asked, relying on Kurt's knowledge of Pleasantville. "I don't know… for now, we best just roll with what's coming at us and go to school. Maybe there's more of us here, unsure of where they are and we can help each other." Kurt said, silently wishing this wouldn't be the case. The now-siblings were on their way to school and were in awe of what the world looked like in black and white. The gray sky, with gray birds and gray trees - it was the oddest thing ever to walk around in a black and white world. Everything sort of seemed to melt together... it definitely took some getting used to. Walking down the street, neighbours waved at the two teenagers and for the sake of being polite, Kurt waved back at each and every one of them. "This is by far the strangest thing that has ever happened to us," Rachel said, looking back in confusion as people waved and smiled at her. "I know, but there's nothing we can do about it now, we just-" Kurt didn't manage to finish his sentence. "Good morning Kurt!" a loud voice had interrupted him. Kurt stopped walking, and so did Rachel. "Good morning…" Kurt looked at the man who'd spoken to him and suddenly realized who he was talking to. "Good morning Mr. Johnson, how are you doing today?" Kurt smiled. "You know him?" Rachel whispered, confused by what was happening. "Oh I'm doing swell today Kurt. Have a nice day at school. You too Rachel." He smiled, waved and got back to watering the plants in his garden.

Kurt smiled and looked at Rachel, "Yea… I do…" he said, kind of surprised himself. He looked around the neighbourhood once more. "In fact, I know each and every one of these people. Everyone's the same as in the TV show… we're not just in the town Rachel…" Kurt's eyes were back with Rachel, who didn't seem to understand what he was talking about at all. "We're not just in Pleasantville… we're in the TV show, Pleasantville."