Chapter 8
"I swear, Kurt, it's been two weeks and Brittany keeps on calling herself The Great Brittany Pierce," Mercedes grumbles, as Kurt braids her hair. Kurt rolls his eyes; Santana chuckles. "That's my title; I am the Great Mercedes Jones."
"Well, my girl can breath under water for longer than you," Santana points out, opening her Milky Way and taking a bite of it. "With no funny tricks."
Kurt tries not to laugh in order not to upset Mercedes.
"Damn you, David Karofsky," Mercedes curses and Kurt finally laughs.
"Don't be mean, 'Cedes," he says, being done with both of his friend's braids. "There you go."
"The sun is coming down; the chilly breeze of the late afternoon makes Mercedes shiver, but just slightly. They are in the open field, and two windmills in the far distance are moving in with the wind, but she pays no attention to them. Instead, she's laughing at Finn.
"You're not going to be able to paint all that with that little paint, you know?" She points out, knowingly.
The boy has just a small can of red paint in his hands, but he's determinate to renew his trailer by painting it all red.
"But it's looking good so far, uh?" Finn asks her, looking proud of his work.
And there are only some brushstrokes here and there, going in all different directions. It doesn't look good at all.
"It really does," Mercedes lies, not having the heart to dishearten Finn. The boy looks instantly happy.
Kurt smiles at his vision, and looks up, finding his two girl-friends staring at him patiently. "I'm sorry, what?"
"How do I look?" Mercedes asks, waving her head to her sides, showing her two braids.
"I told you you were going to look like a country girl," Kurt states, taking a Milky Way bar for himself.
This afternoon is supposed to be about hair and candies, with Mercedes, Santana and Quinn, but Quinn hasn't arrived yet. Kurt is not going to let the girls do his hair, but he will do theirs and of course, eat candies.
Still, the girls have been in his trailer for only fifteen minutes and Kurt plans to change Mercedes' hairstyle later. It's not like the braids look bad on her; she even looks cute, but Kurt had in mind something more like a Bette Davis style for Mercedes. And besides, he's not going to let Mercedes walk out looking like she's about to milk a cow.
"Quinn is taking forever," Santana points out, looking at some pictures of Hollywood's stars, since she hasn't decided her look.
"Rachel wanted to talk with her about something for the show," Mercedes replies, dully. "You know that once she catches you, she never lets you go."
Kurt laughs, calmly still eating his chocolate. He's not particularly nervous at the prospect of sharing an afternoon with the three girls. Being in company of three people is something that Kurt can deal with, even if meetings like this one leave him completely exhausted.
Mercedes arrived first and with her, so did her future. Kurt stood tuned to her future.
When Santana showed up a few minutes later, the visions of her upcoming events tried to get inside his brain, but Kurt remained focused just in Mercedes' future, ignoring all the information he was getting from the Latina girl.
It was hard, but with time Kurt learned to handle it.
It has been Rachel's idea of course; she always comes up with a perfect system for everything. His training has been hard, since his visions were always all over the place, never stopping for a second.
At first, Kurt had to learn to stay focused in the present while being in company of one single person. That's something that Kurt tried to do before joining the circus when he lived alone with his father. But he trained constantly with Rachel and in the end, he learned how to control his ability a bit more.
Of course, when he checked the first step in Rachel's "To do List" regarding his ability, she wanted to add a new person around him. Kurt didn't even have the time to get used to the happiness he felt at being able to being in company of someone.
And adding a second person, was terrible. No matter how much he tried, Kurt couldn't handle the visions he got from two different people; it was just impossible to ignore everything. He had to do a huge effort to concentrate in ignoring two futures at the same time, and the effort was so huge that then there was nothing left to stay focused in the present. Kurt got to be able to ignore the visions from two different people, but that resulted in him being completely motionless, silent and unable to even listen to someone in order not to break his concentration.
It was simply too much.
His brain is never good at telling the difference between what's happening now and what's going to happen sometime later. His visions of the future are as real as the very present.
It's worse when there's more than one person with him. Everything gets mixed and it's like he has different realities in front of his eyes at the same time. Rachel noticed this. Rachel and William are the ones who know more about special abilities, but they could never really explain how these 'gifts' as William calls them, work in special people. They believed that in his case, his head seemed to process the visions from the future as if they were part of the present and also, that chasing after people's future was a function of his brain, just like it was hearing, seeing or anything.
If you have your eyes open, you can't just not see anything.
So Rachel decided if they couldn't teach Kurt's brain not to collect people's futures, maybe they didn't have to do that. Kurt might not have to ignore all the visions that were constantly poking his brain; she suggested to let some visions in and embrace them. It sounded weird to Kurt at first, but somehow it worked.
Kurt still remembers that morning that he could actually sit down with Rachel and Noah, the three of them together. It was strange but good because he didn't collapse; it was hard though. Unlike his first level of training, Kurt had then to stay focused in the present, while having constantly Rachel's future in his head at the same time he was ignoring Noah's.
But Kurt achieved it.
With time, Rachel added another person to the equation. Her major goal has been always to be able to insert Kurt into at least, their little society. According to her, as Kurt got to handle a new person around him, they could start adding more people. He should be dealing with one present, one future, and ignoring all the visions he could pick up from other people.
Rachel made it sound very simple, but Kurt was aware that that was never going to happen. He tried though, mostly to please her since she helped him so much… Kurt didn't want to let her down. Of course he dreamed about being able to be around his friends, all of them.
Yet, even if he was aware of how much he controlled his visions he knew that Rachel was being ridiculous.
He understood and still understands Rachel though; both of them have abilities that required mind control. But while she's able not to instantly read everybody's mind, but Kurt will never be able not to see everyone's futures.
Their abilities are slightly alike, but they have different backgrounds as well. Rachel trained herself, her gift blossomed in her life slowly and gradually. She actually had time to handle with it little by little while Kurt's gift –he actually calls it 'a curse'- didn't step in his life in such a kind way.
Kurt's ability frightened him.
Rachel is a person with big ambitions, and she's really good at training people but what she could never get to understand is that his training implied more than his concentration, or his ability to focus; there's also the fear.
Kurt was and is aware that his constant fears it's the biggest obstacle to reach all his goals. Of course, it's always been evident that he can get upset quite easily but still; it was easy for Rachel to assure Kurt that nothing wrong was going to happen if there was more people near him even if he could get lost in so many visions.
It had been scary enough to see two of his friends together near to him at first, and it was even scarier to see a three of them, right in front of him at the same time. They were his friends, the people who watched after him and still the mere sight of so many people it was terrifying.
Kurt has been through that; he knows what happens when several people came near him and he doesn't want to go through that again. He knows how scary it is not to be able to step out of his visions and to get lost into them. He was only a kid when his curse struck his life suddenly, in a hard and overwhelming way. He can still remember how confusing and scary it was for him when it started happening.
And then it got much worse.
The Asylum has been the worst and the darkest time of his life; the future of lots and lots mental patients became his present, and Kurt could never step out of that constant trance. He wouldn't eat or sleep for days, being stuck in the huge mess that the visions of dozens and dozens of patients provided him with. Thankfully, the doctors started drugging him to unconsciousness, of course. And those patients' futures were not only confusing due their poor mental state, but it they also were scary and painful. Kurt stopped being himself; he was all of them.
But the small victories that Kurt achieved over his so called 'gift' were something huge to Kurt and it made him feel powerful and better with himself. Kurt always considered he was a lost cause, and that he was going to remain completely alone, away from any kind of human contact for the rest of his life in order to have some peace in his mind, so his small yet huge progress proved different.
So feeling confident, Kurt let Rachel bring yet another person near him. In the end it's like watching two different realities: the one in front of his eyes, and the one that someone else was going to have within some hours, days or weeks. Plus, a slight buzzing from the two futures he's ignoring.
It was difficult at first to be able to stay focused in the present, having so many things in his head but Kurt achieved it. But that's his limit, even if Rachel wants to go for more. It's too exhausting for him to be with three different people. And he doesn't even want to think about the view; he almost faints more than once at the dominating panic when he saw all his friends together that day they shared lunch.
Kurt thought he was going to be alone forever, so to him, being now with Mercedes and Santana, it's amazing. Kurt couldn't be happier, and even if Rachel accuses him of settling, he doesn't mind. She doesn't understand how big this is for him. He's happy with what he's got; he could have nothing at all.
So Kurt smiles to himself as he watches Santana going through their movie stars photos, trying to pick a hair style. Mercedes joins her, sitting by her side and they quietly starts discussing what look would look the best on her.
In the quiet surrounding, Kurt's mind begins to drift until his present is blending with Mercedes' future once more.
"Guys, I'm hungry," Mercedes says, letting herself drop at one of the chairs placed at the table were Sam, Quinn, Sebastian, Tina and Mike are sitting.
It's just a typical day in the camp. Her friends coming and going, doing their own stuff. Everyone is there at her sight, but Kurt of course. They are supposed to have dinner right now. The sun is almost down; Al Bowly is singing in a faint distance so Mercedes guesses that someone is playing one of his records. She can see the annoyance in her friend's faces.
"We're all hungry," Quinn states, gloomily. "We shouldn't let Rachel cook anymore."
"Hey, I heard that!" Rachel says, as she's walking by. She's annoyed of course. "And it's not my fault!"
Mike snorts. "You put sugar instead of salt in our last food ration! It's like the ABC of cooking. And it was out last meat until Marion!"
Rachel crosses her arms over her chest, fuming. "Well, we'll get more food soon, so don't act like you're going to starve to death."
"Kurt, I think I want this look on me," Santana told Kurt, forcing him to step out from his small trance.
Kurt takes the picture, smiling at his sight; Ava Gardner is an amazing choice. And a challenge, since Santana's hair is incredibly flat so making Miss Gardner's curls is going to be interesting.
"This is going to look gorgeous on you," Kurt says, standing up and marching towards his door. It's still open, since they're waiting for Quinn but the weather is turning chilly.
He closes the door and goes to his bed, sitting down. He motions Santana to sit in the floor between his legs, and when she does so, Kurt takes a brush and starts brushing her hair.
"Have you ever had a crush on someone, Kurt?" Santana asks out of nowhere.
"What?"
Mercedes laughs, Kurt blushes furiously and Santana remains collected. It's not something new that Santana has no particular qualms when she wants to talk about her romantic and sexual life or other people's romantic and sexual life. It makes Kurt somewhat uncomfortable; most of the things he learned about romance and sex are thanks to the visions he has of his friends; there's always been couples in the circus, so of course that when Kurt sees his friend's futures, it's not unusual that he picks visions of their private moments with their girlfriends or boyfriends. He has also seen his friends having sex more than once, and he particularly hates those visions, since they make him beyond uncomfortable. He really doesn't need to see all that.
It's also not weird to talk with his friends about their relationships; after all they are his friends and they talk; it would be weird if Sam didn't mention Mercedes in his conversations, or if Brittany didn't talk about Santana. They don't even talk about Kurt, for obvious reasons.
What he could tell his friends about his romantic life? Nothing. Kurt doesn't even think about romance for himself. So he's not sure why Santana is asking him that.
"Have you ever-"
"I heard you the first time," Kurt cuts her off, keeping himself busy with Santana's hair. "Why do you ask that?"
Santana shrugs. "I was talking to Dave some time ago, about crushes and stuff-"
"Dave has a crush?" Mercedes intercedes, looking excited at the prospect of gossip. "Oh my, tell me more!"
"Why would you talk with David about me?" Kurt inquires, embarrassed. Did she talk with another person about his non-existing romantic life? He's uncomfortable about talking about this with Santana, and he's known the girl for years… it's definitely embarrassing that she was talking to someone else about this.
It also makes him feel like the biggest fool. All his friends have shared kisses, been in relationships, had sex, and Kurt hardly ever thinks about this for himself, not to say never since his mind is usually busy with people's future and when the future is not there, he's resting from the future that's been in his head. Or sewing.
But every now and then he realizes that he's the only one in this circus that has never been romantically involved with anyone, and there's a reason for that. Kurt is also the youngest member of the circus, and his friends do treat him like their younger little brother due his age –even if his friends are not much older- and his fragile mind. Yet, he still feels like a fool since one way or the other, he's the only 19 year old boy who has never held hands with anybody and who still has never been even kissed.
Santana sighs heavily. "Dave doesn't like anybody, Mercedes. Seriously woman, you and the gossip… It was when I was explaining to him about which one of us were in relationships, who had a crush on who… Finn and Rachel were on a break back then, he didn't realize there was something between them two, and then we were talking about this, and I started thinking about you. So no, I didn't talk to him about you, Kurt so please don't faint in embarrassment."
Kurt rolls his eyes, and continues brushing her hair. He catches Mercedes looking at him with curious eyes and he rolls his eyes again. "What, 'Cedes?"
She shrugs. "You didn't answer her."
Kurt starts growing tense. "What's to answer?"
"Well, it's a good question. I know that with your ability, it's not like you're able to go out to meet someone," she says and Kurt only stares at him. "But, what about before you've got your ability. Some classmate or someone?"
"I was just a kid," Kurt replies. "Last time I've been at school I was, I don't know, thirteen? Spent most of my fourteens in the asylum."
"We all had crushes on school," Santana states.
"You'd better get the hell out of here," Noah grits between his teeth.
The Dalton boys are standing right there in front of them; Sam keeps Mercedes behind him and she's doesn't like it. She wants to punch these guy's faces. All her friends have gathered up, facing the whole Dalton gang.
Jesse snorts, sticking his hands in the pockets of his expensive suit. "C'mon, Puckerman. Where are your manners?"
"You have nothing to do in here," Rachel tells them with a stern tone of voice.
Jesse lets out an icy laugh. "I think you know perfectly what we're doing here, Rachel," he says, tapping his temple with the tip of his fingers.
"None of us is coming with you," Rachel speaks again, obviously reading these boys' intentions. Mercedes fidgets in her place; their plan doesn't surprise her, but it doesn't mean it doesn't make her nervous.
"We always asked you politely to join us. You know you're always welcomed," one of the Dalton guys says, someone that Mercedes has seen before but she doesn't know his name and does not want to know it either. It's not the first time they run into these cretins.
Finn snorts, folding his arms over his chest. "I think we told you already we don't want you around. So please, get your asses out of our camp."
Jesse does nothing but stare at all of them, silently. Then, Mercedes quickly notices the change in the Dalton boys' faces; while seconds ago they were carrying a cocky grimace, now they look threatening.
Mercedes holds Sam by his arm, tightly. "Don't you worry, sugar," he whispers without turning around, since his eyes are fixed in what they could call their enemy.
She worries though, because if the Dalton gang wants to hurt them, the circus is outnumbered. Mercedes doesn't want to believe that they are going to hurt them. The idea it's ridiculous; their occasional interaction never goes beyond some bickering, in the worst of the cases.
But then she sees the blue glow in Jesse's hands; it's been a very long time since she has seen that and Jesse is staring right at them. "We'll do it in the hard way then," Jesse concludes and Mercedes holds himself tighter onto Sam.
Kurt gasps and the brush falls out from his hand. The girls are instantly staring at him concerned, but his hand starts trembling at the dark future. He doesn't want the Dalton people again close to him. They need to prevent this…
"Kurt?"
He's jumps in his place as Mercedes breaks the silence, feeling scared, nervous and anxious. He looks up to see his friends, and they are both staring intensely. Santana has turned around, watching him closely. She gently holds his trembling hand, squeezing it.
"Easy, honey. What's going on? What did you see?"
Santana disappears and appear constantly all over the camp; everyone is yelling and screaming and she doesn't know if it's her friends or the Dalton boys. There's fire; some of the trailers are burning down, the whole camp is upside down and everything is a mess. She's desperately trying to find Brittany but she keeps on running into someone in trouble.
"Santana!" she hears Mike calling her. He's struggling with two Dalton guys and she appears to his side, trying to push the away from him. "They're taking Rachel! Go help her!"
She throws a punch to one of the guys, and quickly tries to spot Rachel. She's unconscious on some guy's arms; the guy is running with her towards one of their fancy cars and she's about to appear right there when she sees Sam flying down in her direction. Sam is going to get her, so she turns around, trying to help someone else or to spot Brittany; she grows desperate, everyone seems involved into their own fights, she doesn't know who to ail first and he still can't find Brittany. Santana wipes the blood that's coming down from his head, covering her eyes and she sees a bright light coming from behind her that makes her turns around.
"Oh, Lord! SAM!" She screams, in horror as she sees Sam falling down to the ground from the highest height.
Kurt's trembling so badly that he feels like he's almost having a seizure. He can't breathe; he tries to push those scary images out of his head, but he's so nervous that he can see before his eyes, the horrible future of Mercedes and Santana.
Sam is going to get really hurt if not dead; the Dalton boys are going to attack them. Really attack them. They'll take Rachel… they'll surely take him as well, and Kurt panics.
"Get out," Kurt breaths out, as he starts hyperventilating. He doesn't want to see any more of this. Mercedes and Santana give him a quizzical look. "Get-"
"Brittany we have to go," Santana tells her desperately, holding her by her arms. She's crying; both of them are crying, and knelt down next to Lily's severely wounded body. The tiger is barely moving, and Santana doesn't want to leave Lily here, but they need to go.
"They hurt her," Kurt sobs, and Santana's tears become his. He wipes his tears away, the girls are getting closer to him but tells them again: "Get out!"
There are move visions coming right to his head and Kurt can't handle it anymore.
"Kurt, honey, please-"
Mercedes runs erratically in the forest; Brittany and Mike are with her, but no one else is there. She's hurt, and she's crying anxiously and Brittany is also sobbing in the back. They hear footsteps behind them, so they run faster not knowing if they are his friend's or Dalton people's.
Kurt storms out his trailer, running from the threat that the Dalton gang don't really represent to him in the present.
"Kurt!" Santana and Mercedes call out, running after him.
He turns around, seeing them chasing after him. The sunlight frightens him, realizing he's running in the open but he needs to get away. The future is mixed with the present; he's running away like Mercedes does, and he's running away from his friends in order not to see any future anymore.
"Kurt? What are you doing?" Quinn's voice startles him; she close to his trailer and before he can prevent it, he falls to the ground.
"Get off me, you pricks!" Quinn yells, throwing kicks and punches as three of the Dalton boys have her pinned down to the ground.
"Oh, I don't think so, lady," one of this bastards say. "You know you're coming with us."
"Leave me alone!" Kurt growls viciously, struggling with the boys that are not actually holding him to the ground. "I'm not coming with you!"
Noah appears out of nowhere, and he knocks the three Dalton guys by giving one single punch to each of them. Quinn thanks to God for his super strength. He helps her to stand up.
"Run to the forest! I can't go, I need to see if the others- Quinn, listen to me, you need to leave. Run, now!" Kurt says loudly and desperately, already on his feet and starts running.
He can't see the open field in front of his eyes; instead, he's in running to the black forest, deep in the night. He turns around, and the camp it's practically destroyed; fire coming out of everywhere, people running from one place to the other, the trailers are trashed and he starts crying as he keeps on running.
But suddenly, the visions fade. The impact of the dark night turning into a bright day, startles him and he trips on the ground, falling hardly. Kurt sees his real surroundings clearly, having no visions before his eyes; he's in the middle of a prairie, the sun is shinning above his head and Kurt still runs. He turns around, and his friends are coming towards him.
He left his friends behind. They stepped out from the distance that his ability covers.
"Please! Stay away from me!" Kurt yells at them loudly, feeling the tears of Quinn's eyes rolling down his cheeks.
Mercedes, Santana and Quinn are far from him, so far that he can't see their future and Kurt wants to keep it that way. The girls stay still in their places, but some other of his friends start joining them, apparently alarmed. They must have heard him screaming.
"Kurt, let us help you!" Santana shouts at him, sounding worried. "Tell us!"
"I don't want you near me! Stay back!" he replies. He hates having to communicate with them by yelling, but they are very far from each other. "I want to be alone! Please, I beg you, just leave me alone!"
A bird flies over his head, chirping and Kurt jumps in his place. Oh, Lord he's in the open. He's so far from his trailer that he burst out in tears; plus the horrible thing he's seen, the horrible things that are going to happen… William needs to know this.
The air is chilly and Kurt doesn't know if he's trembling because he's feeling cold of because he's panicking. He pants, and his knees grow weak so he lets himself fall to the ground, closing his eyes and covering his ears with his hands.
He's in the open and someone might come near to him. Anything could happen to him while being there, without any walls around him at least to protect him from the horrible visual that the outside represents.
Dave is all by himself in his trailer, reading some books that Artie lent him a couple of days ago. His friends are rehearsing, so Dave can't go to the camp until someone tells him he's allowed to be back and it doesn't really bother him; he got used to this routine by now.
But he startles when he hears the girls screaming after him, and suddenly knocking the door of his trailer as if they were desperate.
"David! David, open the door!" he recognizes Rachel's voice.
"Karofsky, get your ass out of here now!"
And that's Santana. He quickly puts his book away, and hurries to the door, finding precisely, Rachel and Santana standing next to him with worried faces. Dave's already having the worst feeling.
"What happened?"
"Kurt, you have to go and get him," Rachel states, grabbing his arm and dragging him towards the camp.
"Rach, the guys are rehear-"
"No one's rehearsing, Dave. No one's doing anything but freaking out over Kurt," Santana tells him, and he has never heard Santana sounding so distressed.
"Kurt? Is he alright?" he enquires, worried. It surely doesn't seem like he's alright.
Santana shrugs, anxiously. "He saw something; he was with us, we were in his trailer and he saw something bad."
Dave frowns; this can't be any good. "What did he see?"
"I don't know," she replies. "But something really bad. He ran away from us, from his trailer and he doesn't want anyone near him. He'll see our future if we get close to him, but he's in the open so you need to at least take him back to his trailer or he'll have a fit."
Dave is sure that whatever it was that Kurt saw, must have been really bad if it made him run towards an open field. He doesn't know Kurt much, not to say he doesn't Kurt at all, but he's aware of how much it frightens the boy to be in the open.
As they reach the camp, he notices that it's deserted but when they start hurrying towards Kurt's trailer, he finds that the whole circus crew but William is standing near by the boy's trailer looking at… Kurt, or so Dave assumes, since he can only see his friend's backs.
"He won't be able to see your future, David," Rachel tells him. "So you must go with him, alright?"
"Alright," he says, determined.
He's really concerned about Kurt even if they haven't seen each other in weeks. Dave also notices that it's the first time that his ability comes useful somehow. For the first time, he can do something for the circus he belongs to, other than helping to carry stuff around, cooking or doing the dishes.
So he speeds up along with the girls, until they reach their friends. They look all equally worried, and relieved to see him there. Dave looks at the place where his friends are staring at, and he can't really see Kurt anywhere.
"Where is he?" Dave asks, trying to find the boy somewhere.
"There," Sebastian tells him, pointing at some dark spot among the tall grass. "He was standing, but now I think he's sitting or something."
Finally Dave sees him. "Oh," it's the only thing he says, since he just sees a small dark spot in the middle of the green grass.
"Go get him, Dave," Finn says, with a gloomy voice.
Dave nods, and starts walking towards the boy, until he remembers something that makes him stop and turn around. All his friends stare at him quizzically. "You have to go back to the camp."
"What?" Noah inquires, probably speaking for all of them. "We can't just-"
"If Kurt sees you all here, he's going to get even worse. It won't matter if I cancel him, remember what happened the day he went to the circus tent, when he saw just a few of them in his trailer. Or during lunch?"
The worried faces of his friends fall, since they obviously realize that he's right.
"He's scared already, we don't want to make it worse," he continues, and they all nod.
"We'll send William as soon as he's back," Rachel tells him. "Take care of him, alright?"
Dave sighs, and resumes his march. He's a bit nervous; Kurt's always a big responsibility just because what he means to all his friends. Sometimes he wishes he knew Kurt a little better; after all, his friends speak of him very fondly, and they are constantly super concerned about him, so Dave assumes that there must be something about Kurt that makes everyone be devoted to him.
But Dave doesn't know Kurt that way; this is the third time they are going to breath the same air, all the times they've been together in the same place, Kurt was at his worst. Their friends don't get to see Kurt always at his worst though, and Dave doesn't have that privilege.
Dave also notices that he's been with the circus for almost two months, and the only time he and Kurt actually spoke to each other was the day they met, and Lord that was incredibly awkward. He has no idea how he's going to approach to Kurt; he has no clue how his friends interact with him.
He has no choice but to go and help Kurt, so Dave walks, and walks and boy, this kid really ran away. He looks around, seeing nothing but miles of open field and tall grass, some trees here and there, but there's nothing else around. It makes his somewhat anxious, that Kurt is so far away from everything, in the middle of nowhere, knowing how Kurt hates to be in the open.
He slows his pace when his eyes lie upon Kurt's figure; he doesn't want to startle him. He steps closer, and notices the dark bundle among the tall grass, and it's Kurt that happens to be knelt down, resting his elbows on the ground as well, almost making a ball of himself. His body is shaking slowly, and he's covering his ears with his hands, and he doesn't seem to listen to Dave stepping closer.
"Shit," Dave mutters under his breath.
He carefully approaches the boy, kneeling down as well. He's going to startle Kurt no matter what he does, but he still extends his arm slowly, poking Kurt's shoulder. As he predicted, Kurt jumps in his place.
"Stay away from- you," Kurt cuts his own yelling off, when he sees Dave.
Dave doesn't know Kurt very well, but he knows how gorgeous this boy is and every time Dave sees him again, he doesn't stop being breathtaking. It still pains him to see Kurt so upset: his hair is a mess, he has a runny nose and his eyes are red because of the tears that keep on rolling down his cheeks.
Kurt is as beautiful as the first time Dave saw him; tragically beautiful right now, but beautiful nonetheless. Yet, Kurt being gorgeous or not is the least of Dave's worries right now.
"Hey, everything's alright," Dave tries to assure him.
Kurt shakes his head, crying. "No," he sobs. "Nothing's alright. I'm so scared," he cries out, wiping the tears away from his eyes.
Dave swallows hard. "Come with me," he says, holding his hand out to Kurt. "I'll take you back to your trailer. I've sent the guys back to the camp, so you won't have to see them."
Kurt stares at Dave's hand with a glimpse of apprehension. "You stop it. I won't see it as long as I'm with you, right?"
"What thing?"
"The future." Dave shakes his head no, and suddenly Kurt almost throws himself at him, holding Dave's arms tightly. "I don't want to see it anymore," he breathes out.
Their faces are just a few inches away from each other, and the way that Kurt is almost begging for him to prevent him from the future is heart breaking. What the hell did Kurt saw? The closeness makes him nervous thought; there's almost no personal space between them.
Dave swallows hard, doing his best to think straight. It's been long since Dave has been with someone, and Kurt is gorgeous and they are in such a close distance… but Dave doesn't want to have anything with Kurt that way. Plus, Kurt is distressed and he has to comfort him.
"Come here," Dave says, getting on his feet and dragging Kurt on his feet as well.
Kurt keeps on shaking; he looks around desperately like he's expecting the very Death show up out of nowhere. Kurt throws his arms around Dave's waist, holding him so hard that Dave can't almost breathe.
Damn.
Kurt is not making it any easier being so touchy. You don't really put your hands all over another person unless you're in bed with them. Kurt is obviously not thinking straight, plus he's scared so Dave busies himself in calming the boy down.
"Hey, easy," Dave tells him with a soothing voice. "Nothing's going to happen."
"I'm in the open and I might see the future," Kurt retorts, scared and anxious. "I'm going to die!"
"You're not going to die," Dave tells him softly.
"You don't know that."
"Let's do this: you cover your eyes, so you don't have to see the open," Dave offers him, trying to make this trip back to the trailer the least traumatizing he can for Kurt. "I'll lead you to the trailer."
"What if you go?" Kurt asks with pleading eyes, holding Dave even tighter. "It might come back. I don't want the future to come back."
Dave lets out a constricted breath. "I'm not going anywhere."
Kurt shakes his head. "We don't know that."
"I'm not leaving you. I'm here to take you back to your trailer," Dave tells him firmly, since… does this kid really believe Dave is going to take off leaving him like this?
"Maybe you won't. But what if… you vanish, or disappear or something? Or of suddenly I step out from your cancelling zone? Or if someone gets close to us and we don't notice or-"
"Alright, alright," Dave cuts him off, because clearly Kurt is way too upset to even make sense, since Dave can't just vanish like Santana, and he has to walk a pretty big distance in order to stop cancelling Kurt. "We'll do this," he says, throwing his arm around Kurt's shoulders and with the same hand, he covers Kurt's eyes. "We'll walk slowly. You're holding me, I'm holding you, so you know I'm here and you won't see any future, or the open."
"Just don't go," Kurt pleads, whispering.
"I won't," Dave concludes and slowly, they start walking towards Kurt's trailer.
He makes sure that Kurt doesn't trip with anything, and he comforts him as much as he can, every time a bird flies by doing some noise that makes Kurt jump and brace himself against Dave even tighter if that's possible.
Dave's glad when he notices that his friends did get back to the camp, because Kurt is so disturbed that the last thing they need is stressing Kurt the more, because of the sight of a crowd welcoming to his trailer.
"We're here," Dave announces when they finally reach their destination. Dave uncovers Kurt's eyes, and he blinks repeatedly, letting a shaky breath as he sees his trailer.
"Will you stay with me?" Kurt asks him, looking incredibly small.
Dave swallows hard, but he nods. He can't really leave Kurt alone, but… the last time they were left alone it resulted into a very awkward situation and this is awkward so far; Kurt's hands are constantly over him and they are almost strangers to each other. You just don't do that stuff with stranger since it's quite inappropriate. Still, probably the last thing that's going through Kurt's mind is social manners, so Dave does his best to be understanding. Kurt releases himself from Dave, but he continues holding him by his arm. Apparently, Kurt still believes that he's going to disappear into thin air.
When they get inside the trailer, Kurt starts panting again, but there's a nervous smile on his face. Dave leads him towards his bed where Kurt lies down, curling himself onto a fetal position, still holding Dave's arm so Dave's forced to sit in the bed with him.
Kurt's body seems to release his tension, while his hand doesn't stop clutching Dave.
"You're safe now."
He's sure that he pushed the wrong button because suddenly, Kurt lets out a strangled sob. "No, I'm not. The future… oh, God. The future…"
This has to be something really bad, and Dave is of course worried because a terrible future for some of his friends, it's actually going to affect all of them. Dave realizes that gradually, he started seeing his friends as his family, and if Kurt saw something bad happening to some of the girls, Dave can't feel anything but concern.
"What happened? I mean, what's going to happen?"
Kurt sighs. "I don't really want to think about it, or talk about. I have to tell William, to warn him," he says, desperate now, sitting up straight in his bed. "William needs to know so-"
"He's coming later," Dave cuts him off, since William is not in the camp. "He went to the racecourse; he's going to win today, remember?"
Kurt stares at him, and then nods. "Oh."
"Maybe you'll feel better if you talk about it with someone. I'm here now."
"I don't want to scare anyone. We can prevent this from happening; we can always prevent bad things from happening and this cannot happen," Kurt states, firmly but with a shaky voice.
"Tell me. Please, Kurt."
"Can you promise you won't tell the others?" Kurt enquires as a tear rolls down his cheek. "I don't want to scare them, or worry them."
Dave gives him an apologetic smile. "They are worried already."
"About me, David. But God, if they-"
"I won't say anything. Promise."
Kurt exhales loudly and nods. "It was nothing at first. They were in the camp, next to some farm or something… there were two windmills not very far from where we camped, also a forest close to us. The windmills looked pretty," he says, quietly almost smiling. "I've never seen windmills before."
"Me neither," Dave humors him, not really understanding why Kurt is even telling him this.
It's actually the first time ever that they are really talking and as weird as it is and feels, Dave wants to know what's going to happen to his friends.
"Finn was painting his trailer in red, but Mercedes was laughing because he didn't have enough paint. It really looked awful," Kurt laughs, and hiccups. "Sorry. His trailer was looking awful, but Mercedes didn't tell him so."
Dave is not sure why this is relevant, but he doesn't really want to interrupt Kurt after finally getting him to talk.
"Then the guys were hungry," Kurt continues, with his eyes fixed on Dave so intently that a shiver runs down to his spine. "Rachel ruined the food; she mixed sugar with salt and she ruined the last meat they had to cook. They were listening to Al Bowly; someone of you had gone to the town to buy more food, I think it was William. But then..."
Kurt's face suddenly darkens and he chokes a sob. Dave holds his hand tightly. "It's alright."
Kurt shakes his head no. "They were here," he whispers, with terrified eyes.
"Who?" Dave asks, frowning.
"The Dalton boys," Kurt says quietly, and Dave is about to ask who the hell are the Dalton boys since he never heard of them before, but Kurt continues. "The guys were facing them, telling them to go away, but they wouldn't listen. Jesse was with them, and said that if we didn't want to join them in the good way, we'd do it in the hard way."
Dave is completely puzzled. Is Kurt talking about some other circus? These Dalton guys obviously know about people with special abilities, so it might be either the same circus that the Blaine guy joined or another one. And who's Jesse?
Dave's train of thoughts breaks when he notices that Kurt is shaking badly. "Kurt? Kurt, please, talk to me," he says, worried and rubbing his other hand over Kurt's shoulder.
Kurt breaks into tears. "They attacked us," he cries out.
Dave stares at him, dumbfound. "What?"
Kurt is crying hard now. "Th-they attacked us. Th-they were t-ta-taking R-Rachel," he stutters, nervously and Dave shushes him.
"Hey, slow down. Take a deep breath," Dave tells him softly, because the kid is going to hyperventilate soon.
Dave does it himself, making Kurt copy him and after a few deep breathes, Kurt sighs. Tears are still coming down from his eyes, but at least he can speak.
"They were taking Rachel. She was unconscious and the Dalton boys were getting her in one of their cars, and Sam was flying to rescue her," Kurt sobs loudly now. "But someone hit him while he was in the air, and he fell. David, they hurt him!" Kurt tells him, desperate, holding himself to Dave with both hands and Dave's blood turns cold. "He was so high in the air and they made him fall. What if he dies? He at least will get severely hurt and I can't-"
"Easy, Kurt," Dave tells him reassuringly even if he's feeling scared as well.
Someone's going to make Sam fall from a high place in the air, and Kurt is right: if that happens, Sam could break his neck or all the bones of his body. This is definitely something really bad; the last thing Dave wants is seeing his friends getting hurt.
But Dave doesn't want to look scared, since he's supposed to help Kurt to calm down.
"Then Santana found Brittany. They were… Lily was dying," Kurt sobs out, shaking and Dave's stomach flips.
Kurt has seen these stuff that are making Dave feel so bad, so he understands why the kid is so upset.
"But everything was a mess. The camp was on fire, trailers were destroyed and everyone was fighting someone, trying to escape from them, David. It looked like a war zone," Kurt tells him, as desperate as he was seconds before. "But they were so many, and it seemed that we couldn't… They had to run. Mercedes, Mike and Brittany were running into the forest, trying to escape. They were crying and they were so scared, David."
Dave wraps his arm around Kurt, bringing him closer. Kurt rests his head on Dave's shoulder, and Dave notices that Kurt is still clutching his arm. Seems that Kurt still believes that Dave is going to disappear.
"They tried to take Quinn," Kurt breaks the silence, sounding resigned. "Noah helped her to escape, he's super strong so he easily got rid of those guys that were dragging her to their cars and told her to run to the forest. She didn't want to leave the rest of the guys, but Noah made her and she ran away, alone in the dark forest."
Dave really wants to know who these Dalton boys are, but he doesn't think it's wise to ask Kurt as he's in such a wretched state. But it scares him and it makes him angry that there are people out there that want to hurt his friends.
"But we can prevent it, right?" Dave asks him, trying to cheer up Kurt a little. "Now that you know what's going to happen, we can be prepared."
"We cannot fight against them," Kurt tells him, sounding dead serious. "At least not in that future, they were stronger than us. They were too many."
Dave frowns as he realizes that if Sam could fly, and Noah had super strength it's because Dave wasn't there that night. Where the hell is he going to be? He quickly resolves that he's never going to leave the camp. It sounded like it was a fight between people with abilities, but if he's there, they were just regular human beings all of them. So if these Dalton guys have stronger abilities than him or his friends, they won't be able to use them against them.
There's a knock in the door and Kurt jumps violently in his bed, panting and once again, staring at the door as if it was the very Death. Kurt's hands are clutching Dave's arm almost painfully, but Dave ignores it, hurrying to calm Kurt down.
"It's just the door," Dave tells him with a sooth voice. "It must be William."
Kurt is still panting heavily. "His future. His future, David, I don't want to see it," he tells him terrified, still with his eyes fixed to the door.
Dave turns to face Kurt, and holds tightly Kurt's chin with his hand, trying to make his eyes meet but the kid is still staring at the door, completely scared. "Kurt, Kurt!" he calls louder, forcing the boy to look at him. "It's just William. You need to tell him this, right?" Dave asks him, and Kurt nods. "And I'm here, I'm not going anywhere so you won't have to see his future."
"Alright," Kurt mutters.
Dave gets on his feet in order to let William in, and Kurt quickly gets on his feet as well, not letting Dave's arm go. Dave stares at Kurt's hands, holding his arm and then he looks up at Kurt, who doesn't notice his weird behavior. Kurt just stares at him, as if he's waiting for him to move.
Dave sighs and walks towards the door, with Kurt very attached to him.
They find William outside, and Kurt lets out a relieved sigh when he sees the older man, probably noticing that he's future free. William looks instantly worried as he sees them both.
"Kurt? What happened? Jesus, are you alright?" William asks, as Dave and Kurt motion him to get inside.
The three of them move to Kurt's table where they sit down; Kurt never releases Dave. William doesn't say anything at first.
"You want us to talk alone, Kurt?" William asks politely, probably remembering how Kurt wanted to talk with William in private, the afternoon they met.
Kurt looks up to William with nothing but fear, digging his nails into Dave's arm and Dave winces in pain.
"No," Kurt states, firmly. "He stays right here. You're not going to leave, right?" Now Kurt asks him, with distressed eyes. "Please, don't go. I beg you I-"
"Hey, I'm not going anywhere," Dave reassures him for the tenth time in the last hour. "Kurt has seen a pretty dark future," he tells William, so they can start with this already.
William's gaze is fixed on Kurt, who looks down to his lap. "Kurt?"
"The Dalton boys," Kurt says, making William frown.
"What about them?" William enquires, and Dave doesn't understand this interaction. Aren't the Dalton boys some seriously dangerous circus?
"They'll attack us, William," Kurt tells him. He sounds tired and defeated. "It's going to be horrible."
William stares at him, completely dumbfound. "What? They wouldn't-"
"They wouldn't?" Kurt asks, with his voice fill of venom. "They are not getting any friendlier, aren't they?"
Dave definitely has no clue about what the hell is going on in here, but he doesn't step into this conversation.
William sighs, scratching the back of his head. "I know, Kurt. I know but this-"
"They will attack us. They'll hurt Sam pretty badly, if not kill him," Kurt cuts him off, with his voice filled with rage. "Lily is going to get killed and they'll take Rachel, and probably they'll take me as well, since they won't give any of you the chance to look after me and God knows I can't defend myself. I've seen it! And I've got that just from Mercedes and Santana, so I don't even want to know what will happen to the rest of us."
The older man now swallows hard, suddenly going very pale. William blinks repeatedly, his mouth opens and closes but he says nothing at first. Obviously, the man is having a lot of things in his head.
"We can prevent this, right?" Dave steps into the conversation, catching William's attention.
"Nothing bad is going to happen, alright? I won't let any of you get hurt," William assures him, and for the first time since he joined the circus, Dave doesn't fully believe in William's word.
Not because he doesn't trust the older man but because what Kurt saw was pretty scary and from what Dave gathers, Kurt is always right about the future.
"What are we going to do? I don't know where it will happen, or when," Kurt tells him, sounding defeated. "But we could just stay here. It's not going to be here."
William sighs. "Kurt, we can't stay here for the next two months. We don't know when this is going to happen, and maybe we could afford to stay in one the same place for two weeks, but your visions… you've gotten stronger. You've seen stuff that took a month to become real."
Kurt groans, frustrated. "It was only once!"
"But we don't know that!"
"It was after being with David for long. This time, it wasn't that way," Kurt argues and once again, David doesn't know what's going on. "We don't even know if that's going to happen every time I stay with David for long."
William sighs again, looking worried and that makes Dave nervous. "I have to think about this. Was… was I there? What did I do? What was I doing when this happened?"
Kurt frowns, like he's thinking hard. "No. I never saw you there."
William nods, quietly. "Alright. I need to figure this out. I can't let you getting hurt; you're my kids. But I have to find out how, because if we change our itinerary, maybe it's part of the future and we'll head right to where this is going to happen. We can't stay here for long; I won money in the races but we won't be able to support ourselves for longer than a week, and this could even happen tomorrow."
Dave starts growing nervous since it seems that they don't have many options. Kurt looks like he's about to cry again.
"So… what do we do?" Dave enquires.
"I'll try to contact them. I have some contacts, at least to see if I can… reason with them," he says, and Kurt snorts.
"Reason with them? They might kill Sam! And take Rachel! And kill Lily!"
Dave doesn't understand a thing. So William can contact them? Both circuses know the other?
"I need to know what they are up to."
"They are up to attacking us!" Kurt snaps at William.
William quirks an eyebrow, but says nothing. "I know you're upset, Kurt. This worries me as well, but I promise to you, that I won't let anything bad happen to any you. But the fact I wasn't there, it explains a lot I believe. You're all a bunch of kids, so are the Dalton boys, so I wouldn't be surprised that this wasn't supposed to get out of control."
Kurt gapes at him and Dave just stares at them both. "You can't seriously believe that."
The older man snorts. "No? With Finn and Noah? And Lord, Santana? And you don't know the Dalton boys, but you know Jesse, at least and you know how he is."
Kurt doesn't look like he's buying any of this; his mouth is hanging open, almost in disbelief. "William…"
"Nothing ever went out of control, Kurt."
"It almost did the last time," Kurt retorts, his voice small.
"But I was there to put some order," William states, but he doesn't sound very convinced.
Neither of them say anything else. Dave doesn't want to take sides, and he shouldn't side with Kurt, since it's the boy is the most unbalanced kid ever… but for some reason, Dave doesn't think that they'll be able to talk with these people. Dave believes that the future that Kurt saw won't be preventing by talking to these guys.
"What do we tell the others? They are dead worried about him," Dave asks and Kurt instantly looks up.
"They cannot know," Kurt hurries to say. "If Mercedes finds out about Sam, or Brittany about Lily… Lord, not just them, but everyone! I don't want to upset everyone."
Dave frowns to himself. There's something he's learned during his life in the circus and that's that secrets are never good. He understands where Kurt's coming from; Dave himself is worried and scared about their future, and Kurt's pretty accurate with his visions so he's not sure how he'd react if Kurt told him that he saw him dying.
He can't imagine how Sam would react at these news, or Mercedes or the rest of his friends. Or how scared would Brittany feel at the prospect of Lily dying. Or how all of them would feel if they know what's apparently going to happen to all of them.
Yet, if Dave knew he's meant to die, he could do something to prevent it. He could prepare himself, so the future won't hit him off his guard.
"I don't want to widespread fear either," William says, sounding unsure. "But they know something's wrong, Kurt. They are not stupid. They told me you literally ran out onto the open field."
"Then don't tell them anything," Kurt resolves. "Tell them I didn't say a word. That I'm upset, I didn't want to talk. It's not like they wouldn't believe I'm such a mess; it wouldn't be the first time."
"Hey," William says. "Don't say that."
"It's the truth. Tell them that," Kurt insists. "They should know eventually, and it's going to be soon because they need to be prepared and we don't have too much time. But try to figure out something first, so it won't be just… uncontrolled panic."
William nods.
"But William," Kurt tells him, fixing his eyes onto the other man's. "Think about something else than talking them out of this. What I saw, it really didn't look like it was just a bunch of guys being mean because there wasn't someone around to preach them."
William says nothing; the guy looks pretty shaken up but he says nothing. Then he stands up. "I should go to the camp. The kids are worried," he says, gloomily. "What do you want to do?"
"I want to sleep," Kurt speaks softly, with his head bowed.
"David, why don't we-"
"Can you go first?" Kurt cuts him off, once again holding himself tighter to Dave's arm. "I don't want to see anything. I don't want to take the risk; maybe you fall a little behind David, and I really don't want to see your future. Even less now; you've been here with me for long and the future will hit me harder," he tells Dave now.
William nods. "I'll do that. You have some rest, alright? You need it," he says, and kisses Kurt on the top of his head. "And thank you, David."
William walks out, leaving Dave and Kurt of them alone. "Are you alright?"
Kurt is blankly staring at the place where William was standing. "I'm scared. This is not going to get better if William wants to talk with these people."
For some reason, Dave feels the same way but he won't say it in order not to upset Kurt the more. "Why don't you lie down?"
Kurt nods, and then he looks up at Dave, biting his lower lip. "Can I ask you something? I don't want to bother you anymore but-"
"You don't bother me," Dave tells him. Being with Kurt does make Dave incredibly uncomfortable since the kid is beyond weird, but Dave can't blame him for that.
Kurt was right about himself: he's a mess. Dave is not used to this, but if he can do anything for Kurt so he won't be such a mess…
"Can you move your trailer close to mine?" Kurt enquires quietly, and looking away like he's ashamed of this. "I don't want to see anyone again, let alone their futures. Not now, not knowing this."
Dave doesn't know what to say. He has thought about this in the past, but Kurt himself didn't want this. Yet, he's not so sure about this now.
"I can do that," Dave replies hesitantly. "But… how come you don't want to see anyone again? Kurt, they are your friends. Isolating yourself won't help you."
Kurt presses his lips together, and Dave knows he's trying not to cry. "It's just until this passes. It won't be for longer than two weeks, no matter what William says."
Dave worries even more now. "Kurt-"
"It's fine if you don't want to do it," the boy cuts him off.
"It's not that, it's just… they worry about you. Don't you think they'll grow even more concerned if you don't want to see them anymore? After what happened today?"
Kurt nods, his face shows nothing but despair. "I know. But they won't know what I saw, David. They will want to know what's going on, or what's bothering me and I can't deal with that. How can I face Sam or Brittany? Or Rachel? Or Mercedes, knowing that her boyfriend might die at some point within the next two weeks? And I can't really tell them that I don't want to see them exclusively or they'll grow even more suspicious and worried."
Dave understands; the kid has a point and he wonders how he's going to face Sam for example, without imagining him constantly falling to the ground and breaking his neck. And Dave's a sane person; Kurt can't even walk two steps from his trailer without fearing the world outside.
"I'll tell the others. I'll bring your food and everything," Dave concludes, standing up, leading Kurt towards his bed.
Kurt lays down, and Dave covers him with a blanket he finds at the end of his bed. Kurt is still holding him, not letting him go. "It will be just for two weeks, or even less," Kurt assures him tiredly. "I'm really sorry about all this."
The boy closes his eyes, and Dave sits on the floor next to the bed, since he won't be able to leave until Kurt falls asleep and stops gripping his arm. "Don't be sorry," Dave mutters, not wanting to disturb Kurt who's slowly closing his eyes.
"And David?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you."
Dave nods, watching Kurt fall asleep. He sighs, and tries to think about what he's going to do next. The guys are going to flip out when he tells them that Kurt won't be seeing anyone, and that from now, he's going to be in charge of his food. He knows what Kurt saw, and he's not sure how he'll manage to function. Kurt can isolate himself, but Dave will be with his friends, knowing what the future might have in store for them.
Everyone's lives are in jeopardy. Dave feels his stomach flip, just by thinking at the prospect of the circus getting destroyed, or his friends being taken away. They are his family and this is his home.
There are people who are threatening his life and his friend's lives and Dave doesn't even know how to fix that.
These are going to be the worst two weeks of his life. Or maybe even less. The uncertainty hits Dave, and his heartbeat grows faster. Kurt doesn't usually see the future that is beyond two weeks, but two weeks are not a deadline. These Dalton boys could show up tomorrow, or the following day, not giving them time enough to prepare themselves.
Dave looks at Kurt, who seems now fast asleep. He quickly removes his arm from Kurt's faint grip, and the boy doesn't even flinch.
He sighs, and the only thing Dave can think about is that they are all in deep troubles.
