Chapter Eleven: Long Gone, But Still Here

January 24th 2012

Our Reality

"Darren, what is going on here?" Lea was helping Darren carry Kurt over to the couch. They laid him down on it, Lea gently placing a pillow under his head. "What's happening to Chris?"

Sitting on the coffee table, Darren bit his lip deciding how to answer. "He's not Chris," he said slowly.

Lea scoffed, "Sure looks like him!"

"He's… well, he's Kurt. As for what has happened to him, I have no idea."

"Have you gone insane or is this some sort of practical joke the two of you have come up with?" and Lea did think he was playing a prank until she saw the serious expression on Darren's face. If this was all a practical joke then he would have started laughing by now.

"Lea…" He stopped unsure of what to say.

Lea looked down at the unconscious teen on the couch, "How is this possible?"

So Darren proceeded to tell her everything. He started with Kurt and Blaine coming through his bathroom mirror a few months previous. Then he explained the power of the scripts. Lastly he described how Kurt and Chris had switched bodies once. The significance of the last had confused Lea somewhat.

They sat in silence for several minutes, when Kurt began to stir. He blinked, sitting up, his palm pressed against his pounding head. He accepted the glass of water Lea offered him, taking a small sip. The cool liquid made him feel a little better. "Does she…?"

Lea nodded, "I know."

"You told her?"

"I didn't exactly have much choice," Darren shrugged, "she kept asking questions."

"It's absolutely incredible!" Lea exclaimed, "I almost can't believe you're real. I guess this means Rachel is real too. And everyone else too. So strange." She poked his arm gently as if to make absolutely sure he was, in fact, there.

"I'm perfectly real, I assure you, Lea!"

"Sorry," she said, blushing slightly.

"What happened?" He could vaguely remember his hand disappearing when it went through the mirror, but he was rather sure it was a hallucination caused by whatever really did happen.

"To tell you the truth we're not quite sure. You seemed to be disappearing."

Okay, so maybe it did happen. Kurt's headache was receding making it easier for him to think clearly. "Have you heard from Blaine or Chris?"

Darren shook his head, "But Chris was supposed to come back sometime tonight. It's almost two; he should have been here ages ago, so I don't know what's taking him so long."

"I had to run around Lima looking for a phonebook," Chris had just climbed through the mirror, hearing the last sentence of their conversation.

Kurt frowned, looking over at his actor, "Why exactly did you have to do that?"

"I don't know what the two," he spotted Lea, doing something of a double take, "the three of you did, but nothing is like it's supposed to be. Kurt… I don't know what happened, but you're dead."

Kurt raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

"Actually that might explain why you collapsed, Kurt," Lea said gently.

"Do I look dead?" sarcasm dripped from Kurt's voice.

Lea sighed, "What I'm saying is…"

"Wait a second," Chris sat down on the chair across from the coffee table, "what's this about collapsing?"

Darren explained what had happened.

"So you can't get through the mirror?"

Kurt shook his head, "Now going back to the whole 'being dead' thing."

"Oh… um…" Chris swung the strap of the shoulder bag over his neck, placing the bag on the table and searching through it. "Here," he withdrew a folder of papers, handing it to Kurt.

Kurt took the folder silently, flipping it open and reading it. His face remained emotionless, but his hands were shaking as he read. After going through several of the documents, he pushed the folder away, looking unsettled. He couldn't take his eyes off the picture sticking out of the folder, a picture taken of his body when it was found at the crime scene. He felt nauseous, the image of his broken body imbedded in his mind. "I was murdered," he whispered, "me and some girl Zoey Kenton. Karofsky… he did it… I guess he fulfilled his threat."

Darren closed the folder, slipping it out of view. "Kurt, we'll figure this out."

"Blaine." Kurt sniffed, "Please, I just want Blaine here, please," he lay back down on the couch, turning his back to the other three and crying silently.

"Alright I'll go find him, I promise," Darren said gently, patting Kurt's shoulder.

Chris shook his head urgently, grabbing Darren's arm and leading him to the kitchen, where hopefully they would not be heard. Lea followed. "Darren, think!" Chris' voice was low to prevent Kurt from hearing what was being said, but his tone was far from calm. "Think of what you're promising! Kurt died back in '09. He and Blaine never met!"

I am actually almost done writing this story, I just have to edit and write the last few chapters. So I thought I should tell you now, there will be a threequel! I'm not quite sure how it's going to work exactly, but the next few chapters set it up and at least some of the threequel will take place in Michael and Heart.