Author: Agent_girlsname

Title: Haunted Life: Chapter 8

Rating: PG13

Summary:

Blaine Anderson has a secret, he can see dead people. It isn't as readily accepted as the movies would have you believe and he has to leave two different schools because of the bullying.

As he attends William McKinley High he resolves to completely ignore the ghosts, hoping they will leave him alone, however the ghost of Kurt Hummel isn't so easy to ignore.

But Kurt isn't dead; he's in a coma after being attacked and needs Blaine to help him catch who did it, Blaine just needs someone to believe in him

Blaine wondered if ghosts could get grey hairs from worrying too much. Kurt had not stopped fretting since they had left Gregory and the school behind. And Blaine couldn't really blame him.

The description of the man who had attacked Kurt had not stirred any memories of the attack, and they had no idea who he was or where he might be now. They were no closer to getting Kurt back in his body then they had been before.

'We still have a few more places to try; maybe someone else will have a name?' Blaine said, trying to keep Kurt from worrying too much.

'If we get a name it'll probably be fake. And even if it's not I don't think he sounds like the type of guy to be listed in the phone book.' Kurt sulked.

Blaine didn't answer, turning back to his mirror to finish gelling down his hair.

Today was Regionals day and in half an hour Blaine would need to leave to get the bus at McKinley and join the rest of the glee club. He was nervous and excited; it was his first time performing in front of an audience, his first chance of actually winning and being a part of something.

But he also felt guilty. It had been a week since they had spoken to Gregory and although they had both wanted to stay longer, or find another victim and try and figure this all out, Blaine had to drive back home before his parents got back.

Blaine had offered to miss Regionals to try and help Kurt some more, but Kurt said no, saying he couldn't let New Directions down and besides, Blaine was doing more than enough to help him.

Soon enough the New Directions were crowded into a dressing room, putting the final touches to their outfits and make up, running through the details one last time before someone called them onto the stage.

Kurt had stayed away from Blaine while he had been on the bus and with the rest of the group, as he usually did when Blaine was with other people. He wanted Blaine to feel comfortable.

But as they all walked on to the stage Kurt was stood by one of the curtains, smiling at Blaine and looking wistfully at the rest of the group.

'Go be amazing.' He grinned at Blaine as they all walked by him. Blaine winked at him and got into position next to Brittany on the stage. When he looked back to where Kurt had been he was gone.

Suddenly the lights went out, the music started and what followed was probably the most exciting few minutes of Blaine's life. He sang clearly, danced in time and as the crowd cheered he knew he found a place where he wanted to be.

While the overwhelming elation that came from the adulation of the crowd was something Blaine had never felt before, the easy approval was something he had always craved.

They all came off the stage, flushed and elated, chattering excitedly between themselves as they returned to the dressing room.

'You were amazing.' Kurt grinned at him as Blaine exited the stage last. Blaine turned and smiled back broadly before turning around to follow the rest of the group.

Suddenly Blaine stumbled, crashing into the wall and crying out as a pain shot through his shoulder. As he looked up he came face to face with someone he had hoped never to lay eyes on again.

'Hey freak show, didn't think I'd ever see you here. Where are all your imaginary friends?' The sneering face of Jamie Langdon loomed down at him as Blaine straightened himself up.

'Yeah, you do know these people are real and not ghosts right?' Oliver joined his friend's side and leered at Blaine.

Blaine felt his insides freeze. Jamie and Oliver had once been his friends at his first school. Not best friends, or even close, but they had been in music, gym and Chemistry together. They had got on well and it had genuinely hurt Blaine when they had found out his secret and turned on him.

Other people taunted him and laughed at him at that school once it got out, but Jamie and Oliver, along with a few of their other friends, had been the worst, setting up practical jokes and spraying stupid things over his locker, inciting everyone else to be just as cruel. Just seeing them again now was enough to make Blaine tremble at the memories.

'Hey, what's going on?' Finn said, walking over to them. Blaine looked over to where he stood. The rest of the New Directions had gathered around them now. Blaine should have felt relieved, but all he could do was worry that they would tell his secret to the group and he would be run out of school again.

'Nothing.' Oliver grinned sadistically, clapping Blaine on the shoulder in a faux friendly manner. 'Just catching up with an old buddy here.'

'Yeah, take it you have Blaine in your little group now?' Jamie joined in. 'Have you met his imaginary friends yet?'

The few faces of New Directions that Blaine could see suddenly adopted confused expressions.

Oh God please no! Blaine could hardly breathe and his heart felt as if it were going to hammer out of his chest at any moment. This couldn't be happening. He had finally found a place where he felt accepted and part of something, he had finally found something he loved doing. And now it was going to be taken away from him.

'What do you mean?' Artie frowned, wheeling himself into Blaine's view. Blaine felt his knees go weak and braced himself against the wall to stop himself from falling.

'Blaine can talk to dead people.' Jamie sneered, laughing at Blaine's horrified expression. 'All his friends are ghosts.'

The corridor went silent and Blaine felt sick.

'He thinks there are ghosts everywhere and he can talk to them.' Oliver joined in, laughing loudly. 'He's such a freak.' He punctuated his statement by shoving Blaine against the wall once more.

'Hey.' Finn, Puck and Mike broke from the New Directions crowd and stepped in between Blaine and his tormenters. 'He may be a freak, but he's our freak.'

'Yeah, you don't get to shove him.' Puck joined in, sizing the two boys up in case a fight broke out.

Blaine blinked. That was... unexpected.

Jamie scoffed. 'Whatever dudes, you're welcome him. We're on next anyway.' He looked over to Oliver and they both left, giving Puck a wide berth in case he decided to start a fight anyway.

Time seemed to freeze as Blaine was left alone with the New Directions once more. He wasn't sure how to react, his secret had been spilled but still they had protected him. They hadn't joined in with the bullying or looked at him as if he were crazy.

He felt a warm hand slip into his and looked up to find Tina smiling at him.

'Come, we need to go get our stuff and go to our seats, the next group is almost up.' She said warmly.

Blaine followed her, feeling numb and confused. He stood in a corner as they rest of the group got their stuff. After a minute Finn noticed him staring at everyone.

'Everything ok dude?' He said.

'You guys heard what they said didn't you?' Blaine asked, suddenly feeling the need to make sure he hadn't imagined the whole thing.

'Yeah, we figured they're full of crap.' Puck shrugged, throwing a few things in his bag. 'Why, is it true?'

Suddenly all eyes were on Blaine and he wished he hadn't said anything at all. He nodded slightly.

'My therapist thinks it's some sort of psychosis.' He said simply.

'Oh.' Finn replied, looking as though he didn't know quite what to say to that. Although Blaine had seen that expression on his a few times now.

'Do you... do you all think I'm crazy?' He asked tentatively. At least if people started tormenting him he knew where he stood. The acceptance of the New Directions was just too easy for it to be true.

'Dude, Brittany thinks her cat reads her diary, we're used to crazy around here.' Finn smiled, clapping Blaine on the shoulder.

'Oh... ok.' Blaine said. So they did think he was crazy, they just didn't see it as a problem.

'I told you they were nice.' Kurt said, appearing at his side. 'They're a group who've been through a lot of crazy things together. They've had teenage pregnancy, inappropriate crushes, Rachel thinking sending someone to a crack house was a good idea and overlong exposure to Sue Sylvester. I know none of that is in the same calibre as someone having a genuine mental disorder, but it takes a lot to throw them now.'

Blaine felt himself relax and he began to clear his stuff away.

'So those guys were from your old school?' Sam asked.

'Yeah, there wasn't a glee club there when I was there, it must be new. They used to be my friends.' He added sadly.

'Wow that sucks.' Sam replied, making Blaine laugh.

'It really does.'

'If I were you I'd stick a ghost on them, make them wet themselves, preferably in public.' Santana suggested.

'If I could I definitely would.' Blaine said. 'But they're not actually real.' He didn't want to push the matter by trying to convince the group he actually saw ghosts.

'Shame, you could dig up some really good dirt on people.' She replied, linking arms with Brittany and walking out of the dressing room.

Blaine head was still reeling by the time he was seated in the audience ready to watch the next group go up. He was sat in the middle of the group, in between Tina and Sam, and he couldn't help sneaking glances at the rest of the group.

None of them were staring at him, but they weren't ignoring him either. There were no strange looks or furtive whispers in his direction; everyone was focused on the next group's performance.

Finally Blaine let himself relax back in the chair and watch the other group. It felt far too easy to be accepted just like that, but maybe Kurt was right, the New Directions were already a group of outcasts, maybe it really didn't matter to them.

He scowled slightly as Oliver took lead vocals. He'd made Blaine's life a misery and was now soaking up the cheers of the crowd, enjoying the moment just as Blaine had a few minutes earlier. He thought maybe he should feel guilty at wanting Oliver to mess up and embarrass himself, get just a little bit of what Blaine had dealt with so much, but then he figured he shouldn't feel guilty; Oliver deserved it after everything he did.

Suddenly, among the dancers on the stage, Kurt appeared. Blaine tensed, what was he doing?

Kurt wandered over to Oliver who was now standing centre stage and belting out notes and dancing a few steps. He stared right into the singers face but of course Oliver looked straight through him. Suddenly Kurt grinned and stuck his foot out, catching Oliver's as he went to take a step and sending him crashing to the ground.

The crowd gasped and the dancers on stage faltered, taking a moment before returning to their steps. Oliver got up and started signing again, but the first few notes were off key. All in all it was not a graceful recovery.

'Ha! Did you see that?' Kurt laughed, appearing next to Blaine and leaning against the chairs in front of them. He was technically standing in Sam's way, but Sam obviously didn't mind.

Blaine frowned slightly, effectively asking Kurt all the questions in his head.

'Well, when we were speaking to Gregory he mentioned something about the movie Ghost, it just reminded me of when he learned to move things, all he had to do was focus. So that's what I did, I put all my focus into my foot and he tripped over it!' Kurt was laughing gleefully now and it was hard for Blaine not to join in.

'I thought it served him right for being such a bully to you.' Kurt added after a moment. Blaine felt his breath catch and he nodded very slightly. Thank you.

The performance ended and Blaine joined in with the applause, but he noticed the crowd wasn't too enthusiastic. The group hadn't recovered well from Oliver's stumble.

'Ok, that was the last group; it's time to get back on stage for the scores.' Mr Schuster said.

If the whole performance had been the most fun Blaine had ever had it was nothing compared to the nervousness he was feeling now.

He stood in a huddle with the rest of the group, clenching hands with Tina and Mercedes as the woman holding the envelopes delivered an important message about giving blood to the audience.

He had loved the taking part; he knew loosing wouldn't take anything away from that. But he desperately wanted to win so he could do it all again.

His blood was rushing through his ears so loudly he almost didn't hear the woman announce second place.

The all girls school glee club had started cheering grabbed their trophy and exited the stage. Blaine felt his chest tighten a little. They hadn't come second, but that didn't mean they hadn't lost yet. There was still Jamie and Oliver's school to go yet.

It seemed to take the woman hours to pull the first place results from the envelope and by the time she had raised the microphone to her lips Blaine's hands were sweaty and his heart was pounding.

'And first place.' She said, licking her lips slowly. Blaine gasped in a breath and willed her to hurry up. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kurt standing at the edge of the New Directions, looking about as tense and nervous as the rest of them.

'New Directions!' She announced. Suddenly all Blaine could hear was yelling. The girls screaming in celebration, the guys cheering and his own cries of happiness.

Everyone was hugging or high fiving each other and as Blaine untangled himself from a messy hug with Rachel and Tina to high five Puck he noticed Kurt doing a half bow half curtsy to the audience. Blaine caught his eye as Kurt turned back.

'What?' Kurt grinned. 'I can celebrate too.' He winked. Blaine just laughed and carried on cheering.

Taking part was fun but winning was just amazing, Blaine decided.

They carried on celebrating for a few minutes more, until the audience begun to disperse, before returning to their dressing room.

As they were exiting the stage, among the excited voices chattering away to each other, there came a bloodcurdling shriek. Blaine felt his blood turn to ice in his veins and his head whipped round to find the source of the scream.

'Come on B, we've got to get on the bus.' Mercedes said, linking her arm through his and trying to pull his along with the rest of the group, no one else had apparently heard the noise.

Blaine shook his head and finally his eyes fell on to Kurt, standing a few feet away and looking terrified.

'I'll be there, I just have to... I'll meet you at the bus.' He mumbled before running over to where Kurt was standing. His hands were shaking and he was staring straight ahead with wide eyes.

Blaine pulled his phone from his pocket so he didn't look as though he was talking to himself.

'What's wrong?' He said, pressing the phone against his ear.

'It's him.' Kurt hissed, pointing ahead with a trembling hand. Blaine followed where he was pointing, his eyes landing on a man in a maintenance uniform unscrewing a notice from the wall. He had long, lanky blonde hair and a red and blue string necklace.

Blaine almost dropped his phone. He looked exactly like the guy Gregory had described.

'I recognize him now Blaine.' Kurt whispered, his hands flying up to his neck. 'Now I've seen him I remember everything.'

'Ok, right, what do we do?' Blaine asked, but Kurt didn't respond. When Blaine looked over to him Kurt had vanished.

Blaine tried not to panic, Kurt disappeared all the time when he was upset or shocked, it didn't mean anything bad had happened, he'd be back. But what was he meant to do now?

This was the part of the plan they hadn't worked out yet, what to do when they did find the man responsible. He was a slippery person, able to hide himself away and disappear at a moment notice; they couldn't leave anything to chance.

But then how was Blaine meant to tell anyone about what had happened?

He sighed deeply. He had one plan half formed in the back of his mind, a desperate attempt when nothing else seemed likely.

Blaine ran over to a bank of payphones by the entrance doors, breathing a sigh of relief that they were empty and no one was around them.

He picked one up and deposited some quarters into the slot, dialling the operator and asking to be put through to the local police.

After a few rings someone picked up and Blaine took a deep breath.

'I'm at the Lincoln Memorial hall, there's a mantienance man here, I think his name badge said he was called Bradley. I accidentally picked up his phone earlier and saw some really sick photos on it, like little kids and stuff, I think you should check it out.' He said in a rush.

It was a half formed plan he had in the back of his mind since last week when Gregory mentioned his murderer had taken pictures of him after he had been killed. He had to keep those pictures somewhere right? So he could look over them again and again at his own sick leisure. And child pornography wasn't something the police were likely to ignore. They'd take away his phone, his camera and his computer, they'd be able to search them thoroughly and keep an eye on him while they did that. They'd find the pictures of Gregory, and the others if this was something he did at every murder.

'Ok son, we take these matters very seriously, can you tell me your name?' The officer at the other end of the phone said.

'I can't, you just have to catch this man.' Blaine said, hanging up the phone. He picked up his bag and hurried out to the bus, hoping he'd done good. He couldn't think of anything else he could have done.

'I'm sorry, I had to call someone.' Blaine said as he rushed back onto the bus. He took his seat next to Mercedes and tried to catch his breath.

'It's ok, we're waiting on Finn anyway, he's outside on the phone.' Mercedes said.

Blaine glanced out of the window and saw that Finn was indeed on the phone. He was grinning and talking excitedly.

'Who's he talking to?'

'His step dad.' Mercedes replied. Blaine faltered for a moment. Kurt's sudden disappearance, Finn talking to his step dad, they couldn't be related could they? Had something happened to Kurt?

But no, Finn was smiling as he climbed back into the bus, that could only mean...

'Kurt's awake!' Finn cried out excitedly.

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