"Burt Hummel?"
It had been three weeks to the day that Burt had received the phone call that changed his life. It had been a calm, quiet evening at home with Carol since Finn decided to stay over at Puck's for the night since he was in town from LA. That boy was relentless, he was still attempting to convince Finn to move to LA and help him with his pool cleaning business. Finn had dismissed him numerous times, but Puckerman just wasn't giving it. If the boy had applied that drive and will to his schoolwork, his graduating wouldn't have been just short of a miracle. It was just after 11 PM when the worst news imaginable was on its way.
"Who could be calling at this hour?" Burt grumbled as he gently eased himself from Carol's arms. The couple had just settled into bed when the shrill ring from Burt's cellphone sounded from the bedside table.
"You could always ignore it, sweetie," Carol suggested as Burt sat up and reached for the phone.
"This better be good," He stated grouchily as he placed the phone to his ear. "Hello? Rachel, slow down! What are you-What do you mean Kurt's missing?"
"Mr. Hummel, my name is Gene Torrence and I'm a reporter over at the Lima Daily News-"
"Oh yeah? And what can I do for you, Mr. Torrence?" Burt replied gruffly, effectively cutting off the young reporter.
As Burt looked him over, he realized that he couldn't have been much older than Kurt and the thought made Burt's heart drop. He hated that now he had to associate the thoughts of his son with sorrow.
"I'm sorry to burst in on you like this, Mr. Hummel," Gene apologized as he took the seat Burt offered to him on the other side of the desk.
"Burt, please and excuse the mess; Been trying to catch up on the payroll. Been a bit behind as of late," Burt replied as he took his own seat and pushed some of the papers strewn across the desk aside.
"I understand," Gene responded as he began to rummage through his bag for a pen and his mini notepad.
"So, Mr. Torrence, what is it that I can do for you? I take it you're not here to do a story on the garage."
Gene looked a bit nervous and understandably so; Burt was a bit intimidating before he got to know someone. Burt thought back to the early days of Kurt and Blaine's relationship and how Blaine had always tread very carefully around the older man like he was going to attack the kid at any second. Even thinking of Blaine made his heart heavy. Life wasn't supposed to be like this. Both of them were just kids-kids who he should be walking in on as they were doing something inappropriate and proceeding to chastise them for it.
Burt smiled sadly. He'd give anything for things to be that simple again.
"I'm here because I'm doing my own story on the disappearances of Blaine Anderson...and your son, Mr.-Burt," Gene announced nervously.
Burt didn't reply at first. Many journalists had written on his son's disappearance, as well as Blaine's, but none of them has approached him with a story on both. He'd been hounded by a few of them in the week of Kurt's disappearance, but never one on Blaine, too. It was also surprising because with Blaine being missing for so much longer, the media had lost interest in that story and no one was looking for Blaine Anderson anymore.
"Blaine, huh? The last I heard from the media about Blaine, they were saying that they were giving up the search-"
"That's correct. The police have placed his case on the backburner but are still looking for his body."
Burt felt his stomach twist at the casualness of that statement. This was Blaine he was talking about. The kid who was dating his son-the kid who helped Burt work on cars in his free time-the kid who made his son smile more than he had seen in over half of his life.
"I don't mean to be so casual about that statement, Burt, I apologize. I understand that you were close to him seeing as he was dating your son," Gene spoke again, echoing Burt's thoughts. "I'm here today because I know for a fact that their disappearances are not a coincidence. What are the odds that two boys go missing who are not only from the same area, but were both in a relationship together?
Burt had had these thoughts, but had dismissed them because they seemed so ludicrous. Blaine had been abducted in Lima whereas Kurt had gone missing in New York City and both had happened half a year apart. He had to chalk it up to a tragic coincidence; there couldn't be any correlation between these two cases and Burt was guiltily thankful for that in his own way. When Blaine had been abducted, it appeared to have been rough since Blaine's blood had been found in front of his house, but no one found any signs of blood or foul play with Kurt's disappearance.
"Mr. Torrence, I appreciate you coming to speak with me today, but I'm afraid I can't help you. Blaine's kidnapping and Kurt's disappearance can't have anything to do with each other and-"
"I understand your hesitation, Burt, but just hear me out, please," Gene insisted as Burt had gotten up from his chair and had been ready to see him out. Luckily Burt gently slid back into his chair which was more than Gene could have hoped for. He had information that he wanted to make sure got to the correct source. His supervisor wouldn't hear him out without evidence, but he didn't want to solve this mystery for a good story; he had further intentions in mind.
Once Gene realized that he once again had the floor, he decided to fill in Burt with the progress of his research. "You see, Burt, I don't chalk all this up to coincidence. The two disappearances share too many similarities to ignore. Both boys go missing who originate from the same area, both boys happen to be romantically involved and both of them just mysteriously disappear? No ransom note, no demands, nothing. Don't you find that in the least bit peculiar?"
To be honest, Burt had entertained that idea, but trying to put these two abductions together seemed like it was a long shot. Now that Gene was spouting out all of his suspicions, they didn't seem too farfetched. It was a string of coincidences, but how much of a coincidence could all of this be?
"Keep talking, son. I'm ready to hear you out."
"Mr. Hummel, the information I'm about to tell you may seem a little shocking...but I feel that I'm very close to determining the whereabouts of your son and Blaine. With all my research into different cases in the past few years, I've come across some disturbing things...and I think the men who took your son has involved him in one of the most horrifying things I've seen on the internet."
Burt felt his stomach turn. Did Kurt's kidnappers force him into internet porn? That was too awful of a thought to consider. What else could it possibly be?
"Before I let your mind come up with various awful conclusions, there is a website I think you should see, Mr. Hummel."
The pain in his backside was searing. Mr. Lawrence had really done a number on him this time. He sat down on the edge of the bed gingerly and tried to tune out the sounds of pain coming from the room down the hall as he had been trying and failing to do for the past two weeks. It broke his heart that he hadn't seen Blaine in that much time and all that stood between them was that locked door.
Mr. Lawrence had spent two weeks trying to spank the submission back into Blaine and all Kurt could hope was that Blaine was resisting. His Blaine was strong; but he couldn't blame him if this caused him to completely break. Mr. Lawrence had him confined in solitary with nothing to do but think and await his upcoming punishments. Kurt heard Mr. Lawrence entering Blaine's room three times a day and each time, he could hear the unmistakable sound that he'd grown familiar with; the sound of a long hard spanking.
Kurt counted himself as lucky. Mr. Lawrence never spanked him as hard or as long as he would with Blaine. He was actually surprised the first time he was spanked because after watching Blaine receive not only one, but two spankings, he'd been extremely fearful; but Mr. Lawrence seemed to take it easier on him. Sure, it still hurt a lot and Kurt was by no means having the time of his life, but it was evident that Mr. Lawrence was focusing a lot of his energy on making sure Blaine was spanked not only once, but three times a day.
In the beginning, Kurt could hear Blaine's shouts for Mr. Lawrence to stop and Mr. Lawrence answering back with refusal. Now all Kurt could hear was the sound of spanking, but no vocal defiance from Blaine which made his stomach turn. Blaine was just taking it now; was it because he finally broke or was just trying to take it strongly and silently? The not knowing was killing him.
Kurt had only been taking over the scenes for a short time, but even in that short time, it was slowly taking it's toll on him mentally. He couldn't blame Blaine from being traumatized from this experience.
The cameras were set up and ready awaiting the abuse that they would be capturing for the world to see. Lenny had just finished the last of his adjustments when Mr. Lawrence entered the living room dragging a struggling Kurt behind him.
"Are we ready to begin?" Mr. Lawrence inquired, gripping Kurt's arm roughly as a warning to stop all of his struggling.
With a enthusiastic nod from Lenny, Mr. Lawrence turned to Kurt and grabbed him roughly by the shoulders to command his attention. Kurt looked up into Mr. Lawrence's cold blue eyes and swallowed back bile in his throat. Being forced to stare up at this man who had abused his boyfriend for months and was about to perform the same acts on him made him want to gag as a reflex.
"Now Kurt, since Blaine is out of commission right now, we're going to need you to be a good boy and take his place for the time being while we get Blaine back where we mentally need him. He is the star and I already have many angry customers who want more Blaine scenes. For the time being we need you to fill their hunger."
Kurt felt a drop in his stomach at all the information Mr. Lawrence just uttered. He knew Blaine was being practically tortured upstairs to break his will and his mind, but he didn't want to hear it spoken so bluntly.
"What happens if I don't agree to be a part of your psychotic website?" Kurt challenged. He couldn't imagine that they could do anything further to Blaine. They couldn't threaten to spank Blaine for it since they were already doing that what appeared to be several times a day.
"I know what you're thinking, Kurt. You think I can't hurt Blaine more as punishment for your actions-but believe me I can. If you refuse me, I won't hesitate to take a whip to Blaine's back and he will bleed as a result of your refusal. So I suggest you do as we say and save Blaine some extra pain and scars that he didn't deserve. Whaddya say?"
Kurt had to grit his teeth roughly in an effort not to simultaneously throw up and scream up at the man. He knew he had lost this argument and it pissed him off beyond recognition that there was nothing that he could do to stop this. This must have been how Blaine felt if Mr. Lawrence was using him against Blaine in the beginning.
"Let's just get it over with," Kurt relented in defeat.
The tea kettle began to sing in a sharp whistle before Rachel hastily ran over to relieve it from the heat. She gently poured the boiling water into her awaiting tea cup and padded her way over to the couch. She sighed gently as she pulled a blanket over her legs, sipped at her tea and picked up her script for a show she was working on for a tiny upcoming theatre company in uptown New York.
The apartment had been so quiet with Kurt gone. She had no one to help her practice lines, run scales with, gossip with...she was completely and utterly alone. Selfishness aside, she needed Kurt for more than the reasons she had just thought of, she just needed Kurt with her. He was her confidant, her best gay, her friend.
A month had gone by with no word of Kurt's whereabouts or any demands for his return. She couldn't help but be reminded of Blaine's disappearance. It wasn't fair; they already had to go through this pain once when he was taken, why did they deserve to go through it all again? She remembered filing the missing person's report with N.Y.P.D when she had awoken and Kurt hadn't come home. She figured he was just out late, but when he wouldn't pick up any phone calls or respond to her texts, she knew something was wrong. It was the next night when she called Burt. She hadn't wanted to worry Kurt's father over nothing...not until she knew it was something.
She took another sip of her tea and put her script down on the table. She wasn't getting any work done with it anyway with her mind on everything else but the pages that had previously laid on her lap. She had decided to take on this role for this company as a favor for another NYADA student who happened to be a stage manager for the company. She needed to also work on something to take her mind off of all the gloom of her friend's disappearance.
She began to feel her eyes slip closed and her body readying itself for a nap when her phone began to blast a recording of her own version of "Run Joey Run." She knew before she picked up that it was Finn. For whatever reason, she never thought to change his ringtone.
"Hello?" She asked in the middle of a yawn as soon as she placed the phone to her ear.
"Rach, it's Finn."
Rachel had to try to resist rolling her eyes. Of course she knew it was him, why wouldn't she?
"What's up?"
"Rach...Burt's been speaking to this reporter guy...and well...we have some information about Kurt and Blaine."
Hey guys, sorry for the delay, but here I am! And a might big uh oh because things aren't starting to look too good for Mr. Lawrence. People are starting to figure it out. What were Burt's and everybody's reaction to the website and what did they see? Who knows? Well we just might come next chapter. We also need to get an update on how Blaine's doing, too.
Also, this Gene character? What's up with that guy and how does he know what he knows? We'll just have to tune in to chapter 15 and beyond to discover what's up! So guys, drop me a review and let me know your thoughts. As always I remain your humble servant and look forward to bringing you the next chapter. :)
- Jamie