A/N Okay, it's that time of year again! My favorite time of year to write, Halloween! I hope you all enjoy this year's offering!

Warning for descriptions of attempted suicide. If this is a trigger, skip to the ellipses.

Reviews are Spooktacular!

…

The New Kid

Kurt Hummel was no stranger to death. It had visited his life regularly throughout his sixteen years. The first time had been when he was four, and his grandfather had passed away. And again a year later when his grandmother had followed him. Then, when he was eight, his mother had passed away.

But perhaps his most intimate encounter with death had come just weeks ago. He had welcomed its embrace, having been pushed to the limits of his ability to cope with life. But he had been pulled back. His father had found him, passed out on the floor of his bathroom, the empty pill bottle forgotten on the floor beside him.

It had been a strange experience. Kurt had found himself floating above the scene, watching his dad screaming in terror for help. The look on Burt Hummel's face had shocked him. His dad looked as if someone had ripped his heart to shreds. How could Kurt have done that to him? That look would haunt him for the rest of his life.

And then Carole was there, pulling Kurt from his dad's hands and laying him out, beginning CPR. Paramedics rushed in. Kurt caught a glimpse of Finn standing in the doorway, a look of utter disbelief on his face.

There was a rushing sensation, and then he was in a hospital room. A tube was forced down his throat, his stomach suctioned. He was assailed on every side by loud noises, beeping from machines that breathed for him, shouting by the doctors and nurses as they fought to stabilize him. And over all of it, the sound of his father's anguished cries as he asked over and over, why?

At one point he sensed another presence nearby, familiar, loved, and so missed. He felt rather than heard her calling to him, inviting him to remain, to let go, but he couldn't look away from his dad. He couldn't leave him, not like this.

He felt his mother's spirit wrap him in love, heard her voice whisper, "Someday, when you are ready, I will be here waiting for you. Remember, no matter how bad it gets, you are so very loved. And soon, you will meet someone who will prove it to you. But beware, what you did today will have consequences. I am not the only one who watches you from the other side. The veil will be thinner now, and some of them may try to break free. You must be careful."

He had wanted to ask her what she meant, but a loud noise drew his attention, and he saw his body writhe as they placed paddles to it, and felt himself being pulled back into his shell.

…

Blaine sat outside the headmaster's office, not sure why he had been called in. He hoped it wasn't another attempt by the administration to psychoanalyze him after the incident. He didn't want to talk about it. The police had cleared him of any wrongdoing. He had been the victim, after all.

He shook his head to clear it from those thoughts, as the door opened and Headmaster Michealson waved him in. The first thing he noticed as he entered was the pale boy with auburn hair, who kept his head down, gaze on the floor. Beside him was an older gentleman, most likely his father.

"Mr. Anderson, allow me to introduce you to the Hummels, Kurt, and his father, Burt. Gentlemen, this is Blaine Anderson. Kurt will be your new roommate."

He forced a smile to his face as the pale boy briefly raised his eyes to glance at him, but didn't speak. Headmaster Michealson addressed them once again.

"I'd like you to show Mr. Hummel around the school, introduce him to some of the other boys. I've asked Mr. Montgomery to allow him to try out for the Warblers. He was a part of his previous school's Glee club."

Blaine nodded as the other two men stood. The older man leaned down and whispered something to the pale boy, who only nodded in response, and hugged him tightly. "I'm sorry, Dad," he heard him whisper. The older man hugged him back.

"I know, kiddo. I love you."

Mr. Hummel paused as he moved towards Blaine, looking him over. He must have approved of what he saw in Blaine, because he just nodded, shook his hand, and walked away.

"I'll have someone take your things to the room in a little while. In the meantime, it is lunchtime. Blaine will show you to the cafeteria. The pale man just nodded and slung his satchel over his shoulder, and followed Blaine out of the office.

They walked in silence for a moment, before Blaine spoke. "So, which hellhole of a public school did you transfer from?"

The boy glanced at him sharply before looking back down. "What makes you think I transferred from public school?"

Blaine gave him a wry smile, even though the other boy didn't look up to see it. "You have that look in your eyes. I've seen it on more than one mid-semester transfer. Hell, I used to see it in my mirror all the time." Still did, though he didn't say that out loud.

"And what kind of look is that?"

"The one that says, 'I knew life was rough, but no one told me it would be a living hell.' Let me guess, you were bullied pretty badly?"

Kurt shrugged, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. "Is that why you are here?"

Blaine nodded. Dalton was supposed to be a safe place with its zero tolerance, no harassment policy.

"So, why were you bullied?" Blaine asked, although he was sure he could guess.

The pale boy quickly shifted his eyes back to the ground, hunching his shoulders as if to protect himself. "I'm gay," he said, voice so quiet, Blaine almost didn't hear him.

Blaine shrugged, and smiled at him. "Me too. That's why I was bullied. You don't have to worry about that here, though. You'll find that most of the student body are accepting of you, and those who aren't don't want to risk being expelled, so they will leave you alone."

The other boy just shrugged again. Blaine didn't blame him for having doubts. He'd had his own when he'd first come to Dalton, but after a while, he'd realized he was safe, and had lost the stooped shoulders and defensive position, and began to walk with confidence once more.

"So, which public school was it?" he asked again.

"McKinley," the auburn haired boy finally answered.

Blaine smiled at him. "William McKinley? As in The New Directions? Is it true you guys won your sectionals last year, despite having your set list stolen?"

A ghost of a smile passed over the taller boy's face for a moment, before disappearing. "Yes."

They reached the cafeteria, which was full of boys in blazers. He led Kurt through the food line, noticing the boy only took a small salad and a bottle of water.

"Do you mind sitting with the Warblers? You're going to audition for them anyway, right? Might as well meet them now."

Kurt just shrugged. He lead the pale boy to the large table near the back, where more than a dozen boys sat, all smiling and laughing.

"Blaine!" a handsome Asian boy called out. "There you are! Where have you been?"

"Michealson called me into his office to introduce me to my new roommate. Guys, this is Kurt Hummel. Kurt, these are the Warblers. Wes is the lead councilman, along with David and Thad. The rest of them can introduce themselves, although you might not want to associate with some of them, unless you like hanging out in detention."

"Hey!" a tall blonde boy looked offended. "It was only once! And no one said you had to join in!"

Blaine rolled his eyes. "No one told me the punch was spiked, Jeff!"

The boy sitting on the blonde's other side grinned. "You needed to loosen up. Besides, you didn't get detention anyway. You sweet talked and charmed your way out of it, as usual."

"Guys," David said, "You're going to scare away the new guy before he's even auditioned!"

"So, Kurt, was it?" Wes asked. "You were in your old school's show choir?"

"Yes, New Directions."

The young Asian man raised his eyebrow. He'd heard some things about New Directions through the Asian community chat rooms, but for the moment he just smiled at the younger boy. "Warblers meeting is today at three thirty. You can audition then."

The pale boy nodded and picked at his salad, although Blaine noticed he only ate a slice of tomato.

…

After lunch, Kurt followed Blaine to his first class of the afternoon, French V. "You must be very fluent if you are in the level five," The curly haired boy observed.

Kurt shrugged. "I started studying French when I was six. My mother taught me for two years, and then I took online tutorials."

"That's cool. I've only met one other person who was that fluent." The darker boy frowned.

"Is he in this class?" Kurt asked.

Blaine's frown deepened. "He was. He died last semester."

"Oh," Kurt said, feeling a shiver down his back. "I'm sorry. Was he a friend of yours?"

Blaine shook his head. "I wouldn't call him that."

Kurt noticed the other boy seemed uncomfortable talking about it, so shrugged his shoulders.

Blaine seemed to shake himself out of a memory, and then smiled at Kurt. "Well, I'll see you after class. You have AP Calculus next, same as me."

"Oh, I thought you were older. I didn't realize you were a junior, too." Kurt said.

"I'm not. I should be, but I missed half my freshman year and had to retake it. I just have a few AP classes, since I tested extremely high in those subjects."

Kurt didn't know what to say to that, so just thanked the curly haired boy once more and took his seat, glancing around the room, relieved when he didn't spot any of them staring back at him, unlike in the cafeteria, where he had felt more than one pair of eyes focused on him.

He sighed and opened his course book as the teacher began the class.

After French, Blaine met him at the door and showed him to their shared Calculus class, followed by History. When the final bell rang, Blaine once again met him at the door.

"Ready to see your dorm room now?" The darker boy asked. Kurt just shrugged his shoulders.

The room was larger than Kurt was expecting. Two full size beds with heavy wooden frames occupied two corners of the room. The other two corners each had a computer desk, while book shelves lined the walls between the doors and the desks. Between the two beds were a pair of matching wardrobes, and a large double window. In the center of the room was a couch and coffee table, and two very comfortable looking padded chairs. There was another door on the left wall between the desk and the bed.

While the right half of the room was clearly occupied, the left was bare, except for the luggage and a couple boxes sitting on the bed.

"Well, here it is. Home sweet home. Such as it is. That's the bathroom, there," Blaine pointed to the door off to the left. "We share it with Trent and Beatz in the dorm next door, so make sure to check the lock if you want privacy. We have about thirty minutes before Warbler's practice if you want to freshen up, or unpack some."

Kurt set his messenger bag on the bed next to his boxes, and sat down, facing the other boy, and for the first time really looked at him. Blaine was a little shorter than him, with dark curly hair that was gelled into submission. He had a friendly smile, and warm hazel eyes that seemed to notice everything. Over all, Kurt thought the other boy was handsome, in a dapper, 50's movie star kind of way.

"Have you always had the room to yourself?" Kurt asked.

Blaine frowned and shook his head. "I had a roommate last semester. The boy I was telling you about earlier, actually."

Kurt frowned too. "The one who died?"

Blaine nodded. "We didn't exactly get along."

"Oh. Well, I hope I'm a better roommate than he was. I promise not to leave my clothes laying around, and to keep my half of the room neat." Kurt babbled nervously.

Blaine just smiled at him. "I'm sure you and I will get along much better. You don't seem as cocky and arrogant as he was."

Kurt flashed a hesitant smile. He lowered his eyes to the ground, a slightly thoughtful expression dawning on his face and didn't notice he mouthed a thought to himself.

"Did you say something?" Blaine asked

The pale boy's head shot up suddenly and his eyes became rounded in surprise. Clearly, he hadn't noticed that the other boy was still watching him. "Oh...um, no," he said, tearing his eyes away from Blaine.

Blaine smiled at him. "Really? I'm pretty sure I heard you say something about the right and wrong way to be cocky."

Kurt's pale face flushed with color and his eyes darted around the room in an effort to look anywhere but at Blaine. "I should...I should unpack something."

Blaine looked chagrined. "I'm sorry, I was just teasing you a little. I tend to use humor as a tension breaker."

Kurt just shrugged. "It's okay. I just didn't realize I'd spoken out loud."

"Do you do that often?" Blaine asked. "Talk to yourself, I mean. Not that there's anything wrong with it, I tend to do it myself now and then."

Kurt shrugged. "Sometimes it feels like the only time I get to have an intelligent conversation with someone."

Blaine laughed at that. "Touche."

As Kurt began putting his clothes in the wardrobe, Blaine's cell phone pinged an incoming text.

"Oh, hey, it's from Wes. He wants us to come down to the Warbler's hall a little early."

Kurt glanced at the other boy. "Why?"

"He didn't say. Maybe he wants to ask you a few questions before your audition."

Kurt nodded and placed the scarf he had just folded into the top drawer. "Do I have time to use the restroom first?"

Blaine nodded and began to text Wes back. Kurt slipped into the bathroom, which had two sinks, two separate toilet stalls, and a large shower stall. The wall behind the sink counter was one long mirror.

Kurt glanced at his reflection for a moment, before turning on the faucet to splash some water on his face. When he finished, he reached for the terry cloth towel folded neatly on a shelf to the side (no paper towels here,) and dried off. As he stood up straight once again, he had to hold back a startled yelp.

Where his own face should have been, the mirror was warped, as if it had turned to silver liquid, and another face seemed to be pushing through the reflective surface.