Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or anything else this story is based upon.

Note: I forgot to mention in the first chapter that I am also borrowing a few ideas from the book Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin (which is an incredible novel that I recommend to anyone). Also, I am pleased with the response I have gotten for this so far; please keep it up, fans.

"Okay," I whispered to myself. "Okay," I said a little louder, knowing now that nobody could hear me. "I'm dead…yet I'm still alive." I blinked, looking around the room. My heart would be racing, if I still had a heart. This was strange; I could talk and think and feel, I could feel things and seemed to be made of somewhat solid mass, yet no one could hear me or see me, and I did not have a heart or lungs. "Maybe I'm a ghost," I mused to myself. "I can walk through walls, in that case!" To test it out, I slowly climbed the stairs of the basement, closed my eyes, and attempted to walk through the closed door. Instead of feeling the funny floating feeling I thought I would as I passed through it, I wound up slamming my head against the solid wood. "Okay, maybe I can't walk through walls," I grumbled. "So then what the hell has happened to me?"

"I can explain that," a woman's voice sounded from behind me. I whipped around immediately. "Down here," she called to me. Cautiously, I re-entered the basement to find a beautiful woman with long red hair standing down there. Like me, she was clearly dead. I could almost see through her to the wall behind her, but just barely, and I realized that's what I must look like as well. "Hello, Kurt," she said softly.

"Who are you?" I questioned.

"I am Kara Evans. I, like yourself, have passed on. But unlike yourself, I act as a liaison between the Dead and the Living."

"Why are you here?"

"When you took your life by shooting yourself through your heart, you left unfinished business here on Earth. Fragments of your heart floated to other parts of the world to hide themselves in clever places, to people who needed it. To punish you by taking your life at such an early age when you had so much to live for, Death has sentenced you to not only find the missing fragments of your heart, but additionally, you will be forced to watch certain events in your life, and to watch your family and friends go about their lives without you."

"What is this, It's a Wonderful Life?" I asked sarcastically.

"No, Kurt," she remained calm. "For you truly are dead, but you cannot pass on to the Afterlife until you finish what you have left behind in the Living."

"So what you're saying," I tapped my chin. "Is that I not only have to watch things happen and not be able to intervene, but I also have to do some sort of video-game fetch quest all over the world to find missing pieces of my heart or soul or whatever?"

She nodded. "That is correct."

"No deal," I sat down on the couch, shivering as I caught sight of the bloodstains on the floor.

"That's a shame," Kara sighed. "For I know your mother is missing you greatly."

That caught my attention. "My…my mother?" She had been dead for nearly nine years, and there wasn't a day that went by that I didn't miss her or think of her.

"Yes," Kara said. "She did not want you to die so soon, of course, but she was looking forward to seeing you again. But if you're so sure that you don't want to find your missing pieces…" she began to walk away.

"Wait," I stood up quickly. "So what you're saying is, if I finish what I've done on Earth, I can go to Heaven or the Afterlife or whatever and see my mother again?" She nodded affirmatively. "Okay," I sighed. "I'll do it."

"Good," she smiled. "Your first mission, besides watching your funeral service, is to fix what you've done to your Glee club members—nay, your best and closest friends—by taking your life. If you need my help or guidance at any time, all you have to do is summon me, and I shall appear."

"Got it," I waved her off. "Oh, shit, Dad and Carole are home…"

"Go to them," she gestured towards the door.

I ran up the stairs. "Oh, wait, one more question?" She closed her eyes briefly in response. "How come I can't walk through walls?"

"You're not a ghost, Kurt," she smiled. "Just caught in the In-Between."

"Got it," I carefully opened the door and peered into the kitchen. Dad and Carole were sitting at the kitchen table, talking to Finn. Carole was sobbing, a wad of tissues already crumpled up on the table.

"Finn, tell me again what happened," Dad clutched Carole's hand tightly.

"I told you," Finn was crying softly, his voice shaky. "Kurt must've left in the middle of the day. I didn't see him go, and I'm not sure who the last person to see him was. I forgot my English paper here, so I came during lunch to grab it so I could turn it in at the end of the day. One of the neighbors, Mrs. Johansson, heard the shot and called the police. They were just pulling up when I was. I panicked and followed them downstairs. That's when I…saw him…" his voice broke off, and he put his head in his hands, chest heaving in sobs. "He looked so peaceful," Finn managed to say.

"Did you know that he was suicidal?" Carole whispered.

"No," Finn shook his head firmly. "I had no idea. None of us did. I mean, I haven't told…anyone else…but we should've seen it. But I did find this note on his mirror," he slid it across the table to his mother. I stood over her shoulder and read it along with her and my Dad. She couldn't hear me or see me, but could she feel me? Obviously not, as I remembered that Finn hadn't felt my hand on his shoulder.

"He didn't finish it," Dad's hands were shaking as he held it.

"I guess we'll never really know," Finn said, defeated.

"Well, I'm going to make some calls," Dad said, standing up slowly. "Gotta make the funeral plans and all that…"

"Burt…your heart…" Carole gently reminded him.

"It'll be fine, dear," he reassured her. "It's broken…but it'll hold up just fine." He walked out of the room, crying softly as he began to call family and friends.

"Oh, Finn," Carole sobbed. "This wasn't supposed to happen."

"I just can't believe my brother is dead," Finn whispered. I reached out for him, wanting to comfort him, but knew I couldn't. Kara had hinted that I wasn't supposed to make contact with the Living too much. He got up from the table and ran upstairs to his room, slamming the door behind him. Brushing past Carole, I followed him and pressed my ear to the door. I heard him sobbing, crying as I've never seen or heard him cry before. I felt guilty; how could I have done this to my family? After some time, I heard Finn talking again, presumably calling Rachel. "Rachel?" He sniffled. "Kurt's dead." I heard her wail from the other line. "He killed himself," Finn managed to tell her. "He's really gone, Rach. He's really, really gone."