Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any of its characters. Those would be the property of Ryan Murphy, Fox and so on and so forth.
Author's Note:
I enjoyed reading all of those wonderful reviews! Thanks guys, it really does help and also means a lot to me that you all are enjoying this story. Also note that the things coming up may seem a tad bit unrealistic to the Glee plotline, but alas, that is why it's fiction after all, right? ;P Prepare for a REALLY long chapter as a huge thank you…and a certain stroke of the writing bug. ;D
Casey
Reviewers:
FValconbridge – Thank you very much. =D No need for begging, here I bring you chapter 3. Thanks for the amazing review, you are the golden one. ^.^
xLizziexLupinx – Poor Blaine, indeed. =( I hate to do this to precious Blaine, but it had to be done. Thanks for the review and I'm glad you like it thus far!
Totallystarstruck – You are a sweetheart, thank you very much and I'm glad I've captured your interest. =)
dsfgagfd – Lol, here it is, hate to have kept ya waiting. ;D
riker-rocky-ross-lynchlover795 – Much angst awaits, you are correct. I'm happy that you're liking the story. It does indeed warm my little heart. =D
katiek723 – I'm so glad you like it! I'm excited to bring you another chapter!
rnoele – Thy wish is granted! Chapter 3 awaits!
GreggoAddict – I'm stoked to have your interest! I know I'm a big meanie. ;P On I'm really known for my evil cliffies! But hey, they work, right? Teehee!
peaceout333 – Your wish is my command! -.^
As always, reviews are a breath of fresh air to me and they inspire me to keep going. All of your kind words motivate the story into being, so definitely keep those reviews coming, guys! They help immensely, plus I love to hear your feedback and thoughts! Reviews = gold!
Chapter 3."Don't Give Up On Me"
"Today we'll be working on duets," Mr. Schue explained as he was met with a myriad of groans from the Glee Club. Summer had ended and with the disappointment from Nationals in New York the few months prior, Mr. Schue decided on an early start on preparing the club for competition. Despite the negative response from his students, he wrote the word DUET in enormous font on the board. He remained steadfast with his decision. The students always complained that Rachel and Finn got all of the ballads for competitions but that was because the couple worked tirelessly on their duets. If any of the others wanted to step into the spotlight, Mr. Schue decided that he needed to see more effort out of them.
"Come on, Mr. Schue. We've done so many duets, I'm surprised we don't have our own movie musical deal," Mercedes complained with a murmur of agreement from all, excluding Rachel and Finn who looked at each other longingly and shared a determined look as if they had telepathically decided on their choice for the assignment.
"Guys," Mr. Schue began sternly, commanding attention from the room. "I don't want to hear it. If you don't do this assignment, you can once again watch Finn and Rachel take the ballad at Sectionals."
This statement started an uproar of protest from the room at Mr. Schue's statement which he immediately put an end to.
"Say what you want about Rachel and Finn always getting the spotlight, guys. I don't see any of you put as much effort in as they do and until I see that you want it more, I remain unconvinced that you deserve it or are entitled to it, are we clear?"
The club resigned to the fact and began discussing who they planned to partner up with, that is all except for Kurt who sat quietly in the back row away from everyone, eyes fixated on the wall as if there was nothing going on in the room what-so-ever. His eyes held a terrible longing, his hair remained flat, he hadn't bothered accessorizing in any way since school began but most of all, he looked completely defeated. It had been a whole two days without a word in Glee club from Kurt.
Mr. Schue had noticed Kurt's withdrawn demeanor immediately and hadn't been immediately concerned. It was sometimes hard to tell if Kurt was just pouting or if he had experienced another traumatic experience. Mr. Schue cared for Kurt and knew that he had been through a lot with the bullying, his father's heart attack and the transfer from McKinley to Dalton and back. He decided that Kurt's feelings were more important than his prejudgement and decided to investigate the matter further. He was usually in the know about all the Glee club gossip, so whatever was bothering Kurt, it had to be bigger than some petty drama.
As the students filed out for the day, Kurt lagging behind them, Mr. Schue called Kurt to stay behind.
"Kurt, come sit with me," Mr. Schue instructed and as Kurt did as he was told, Mr. Schue rolled his chair over so that he was right across from Kurt and could look him in the eye as he talked. "I've noticed that you haven't been yourself the past 2 days, Kurt and frankly I'm concerned."
Kurt just stared at him.
"I've seen you upset a great number of times but something tells me this is different. Tell me what's going on," Mr. Schue tried to reason but Kurt just continued to stare on with his sullen eyes. He didn't get the vibe that Kurt wouldn't talk to him, it was that he couldn't. Whatever was wrong with him, it was tearing him apart; he could see that much. He slowly began to realize there was something very, very wrong.
"Please, Kurt. Holding that pain inside is going to kill you. You don't deserve that. You have plenty of people here who want to be there for you, me especially. You are very special, Kurt. Please," Mr. Schue grabbed one of Kurt's hands that had been folded on his lap. "Talk to me."
Kurt pulled his gaze that had fallen to the floor during Mr. Schue's speech and looked his teacher straight in the eye.
"It's Blaine," He whispered.
"Blaine?" Mr. Schue asked in complete confusion. He had been surprised when Blaine hadn't been in class yesterday for the first day of school since there had been rumors floating around during the summer that Blaine would possibly be transferring. He had assumed that he had decided to stay with Dalton; after all, the boy was very talented and that's where he had made a name for himself already.
"Kurt, I think I know what this is about. You're upset about Blaine staying at Dalton which is understandable but you have to understand that Blaine had a life at Dalton and he couldn't just-" Kurt cut him off immediately with a surprisingly quiet response.
"I wish that he was at Dalton, better than wherever he is now," Kurt replied, wiping a stray tear from his cheek.
Mr. Schue furrowed his brow in confusion. "What do you mean wherever he is now?"
"It's been all over the news...how haven't you seen it?" Kurt responded a bit harsher than he meant to.
Will was a little taken aback by Kurt's tone but decided to ignore it. Kurt needed help right now and lecturing him on his tone wouldn't be in any way helpful.
"I'm sorry, I haven't been keeping an eye on the news," He admitted. "What's going on, Kurt?"
"Blaine's missing. Kidnapped," Kurt explained. "Someone took him from my front yard a week ago and we haven't heard anything since. Not a ransom note, nothing."
Mr. Schue was in shock. He had heard about this. Earlier in the teacher's lounge he had heard a few members of the faculty discussing the disappearance of a teen from Westerville.
"It's just terrible, the boy was leaving a friend's house when someone took him; just snatched him right up. I can't even imagine what his poor parents must be going through. I keep saying that parents should be stricter on curfews; there's danger everywhere we turn these days. I for one won't let my Natalie out past dark. A 16 year old has no business out and about once the sun goes down. She may hate me for it now but when she has a family of her own, she'll thank me for keeping her alive. I plan to bring it up at this weeks PTA meeting. I feel so terrible for the boy but maybe we can use his disappearance as an example and at least there can be one good thing to come from all of this."
"Kurt, I-" Mr. Schue began to say but didn't manage to get further before Kurt interjected, cutting him off.
"I think I've heard all the 'I'm sorry, we're here for you, if there's anything you need's' for one day, thank you."
With that said, Kurt scooped his backpack off the chair and without another word, ran as far as he could from the choir room.
Kurt couldn't feel anything. It had been a week and a half since Blaine had gone missing and the police were making no progress on finding him. He felt as if a piece of his soul was missing. He didn't know how much longer he could hold on to the hope that Blaine was just going to appear out of thin air to hold him, kiss him and tell him it was all just some horrible nightmare.
He walked down the hall silently still feeling a little guilty from running out on Mr. Schue the day before but he couldn't talk about Blaine anymore to anybody. Everyone in Glee had already talked to him excessively about it asking him question after question. He already felt like it was his fault. If the pain of Blaine's disappearance wasn't enough, he had a bountiful plate of guilt to go along with it.
"So, Lady-boy, feeling any less gay now that your pretty-boy is dead in an alley somewhere?"
Kurt stopped dead. He knew the voice. It came as a total surprise; this cold-hearted voice hadn't spoken to him like that since before Kurt had gone to Dalton.
"Dave?" Asked Kurt, surprised at Dave Karofsky's horrible words.
"Heard your fag boyfriend was taken and no one knows where he is, which is all for the better. One less fairy in the world trying to corrupt innocent people."
Kurt was shocked. He thought Dave had moved past this after his anti-bullying movement and coming to terms with the fact that Dave was in fact gay himself. This was all coming straight out of left field. Santana and Dave had started The Bully Whips together and Kurt was certain that Dave had began to look inside himself after the debacle at prom. He never could have expected this.
"How can you say things like that Dave? Where is this coming from?" Kurt asked in a shocked whisper.
Dave moved closer to Kurt so that they were almost nose to nose and spoke quietly so that there wasn't a chance that they could be overheard.
"It's a show, Hummel. Can't let everyone think I've gone soft and that I'm—anyway, that Dalton kid is gone. He's probably dead in a ditch somewhere and it's time that you just moved on. He's gone."
"And how the hell would you know that, Dave?"
"Because no one would be dumb enough to let him live once they see how unnatural he is. The truth hurts, Hummel. Best save yourself the time you'll waste worrying over someone who's never coming back."
Kurt opened his mouth for a retort to put Dave in his place but closed it before he could make a sound. Dave couldn't be right, could he? Rather than stay and attempt to fight back with his words, Kurt turned on his heal and briskly darted away from the cruel jock feeling even more broken and terrified that it was highly possible that Blaine could potentially be dead by now. He had to find Mercedes, she'd know what to say.
Dave felt very accomplished by his interaction with Kurt that afternoon; he practically skipped as he made his way up the stairs to his room. He was thankful that football practice had been canceled for the afternoon and that he could play with his new "pet". His father left that morning on business, so Dave had the house to himself for a week, which meant he no longer had to keep him in his bedroom closet and could move him back down to the basement.
Dave made his way to the closet and threw open the door to his spacious walk-in.
"Long day, but now I'm glad I'm home to tell you all about it," Dave sneered as he removed the tape from his victim's mouth.
"Go to hell," Blaine responded in a weak voice as he let out a cough. The lack of water kept his throat hoarse and extremely dry.
"Now, now, now Blaine, that's no way to speak to me," Dave responded, backhanding Blaine. Causing a hiss of pain, but nothing more. Blaine wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
"Why do you insist on making me resort to beating you? You've been beaten enough as it is this week and I don't think we need any more of that, do we? You're still healing. How are those welts healing on your back, hmm?"
It had been a week and a half since Blaine had been kidnapped by Dave and Azimio. He never knew that this bully was capable of something like this. In the beginning he only knew him as the guy who had been the reason for Kurt coming to Dalton in the first place but now he knew that Dave was sick, not just mentally, but every fiber of his being was absolutely sick.
That first night when Blaine had awoken in the basement, he had never expected what had followed…
"Looks like pretty boy's awake. Now the real fun can begin, huh?"
Blaine knew that voice. It was the same voice he heard when he tried to help Kurt out on the stairwell at McKinley. The voice that belonged to the guy that Blaine had tried to offer comforting words to and tell him he wasn't alone in his struggle to come to terms with his sexuality. The guy whom he had shoved at the Glee club benefit when he wouldn't back off of Kurt. That same scared prom king who couldn't muster up the courage to "come out" and dance with the prom queen, "Kurt" at prom. Blaine looked up and sure enough, he was right.
"Karofsky?"
"The fag knows your name, dude?" Came the other voice from behind Dave.
"It would appear so."
"So this is one of them Dalton Academy fairies, is that right? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute! I know you," The boy declared making his way from behind Karofsky to examine Blaine closer and make his presence known. He too was clad in a McKinley Letterman's jacket. "I'll be damned! If it ain't Anderson! Long time no see, Tinker Bell!"
Blaine cringed at the nickname from his old school. Azimio. It just had to be Azimio. Blaine couldn't help but feel a twinge of fear at his personal bully from his old school and ring leader of the thugs who had beaten the living hell out of him at Sadie Hawkins before he transferred. He had dreamt of the day that he could face his attacker once again but he had hoped for a little more even circumstances. Being tied down was far from ideal.
"Wait, you know him? How do you know him?" Karofsky inquired in confusion.
"Ah, Anderson and I go way back to Westerville High before I got expelled and transferred to McKinley. This little pixie and I had some great times, didn't we?"
"The best," Blaine replied sarcastically.
"I admire your choice of captures, Dave. This one is a little fighter. I like it when they fight and none of them come remotely close to Anderson. Oh how I've missed you, Tinker Bell," Azimio stated pinching one of Blaine's cheeks, which in turn caused Blaine to struggle a bit to try to get away.
"See what I mean? Feisty," Azimio chuckled darkly. "I see that my lessons from Westerville had no long term impact on you. So I think it's time we did what we set out to do and beat the living gay out of you. I think it's high time you had a reminder."
"I agree," Dave responded matching Azimio's enthusiasm.
"So this is what all of this about? To beat the gay out of me? Coming from you, Karofsky, I find that rich," Blaine responded and was promptly met with a hand to his throat.
"Don't you threaten me, fairy-boy, I'm the one with the power here!"
"Come on, Dave, let's do this! I'm itching to teach Tinker Bell here another lesson he won't ever forget," Azimio urged.
"Let's have some fun," Dave stated in agreement and those four words began the attack.
It all began with a few punches to his face; extremely painful, yes, but it was nothing he hadn't felt before. Azimio had personally sought out to make sure Blaine had been beaten in some way nearly every week. Normally it was just the usual locker slams and threats but Sadie Hawkins had taken it to an entirely different level. The pain he was in now still held no measure to that awful experience but at the very least it was familiar. There was a pause in which Blaine seized the opportunity to spit the blood from his mouth. Whilst he took a second to recuperate, Azimio and Dave discussed their next course of action. A belt.
A belt...that was new. He had never been hit with a belt before. He had to admit that that instilled a bit of fear in him. That was a pain he had never felt before and he had no idea what to expect. He swallowed painfully and tried to keep himself calm. Maybe it wouldn't hurt as much as he was imagining it would. All he could do was hope he was right. He watched as Azimio undid his belt and closed the distance between them the offending implement in hand.
"Have you ever felt the sting of the belt, Tinker Bell?"
Blaine didn't respond, he just glared darkly at his attacker trying to appear as tough as he could despite the circumstances.
Azimio clearly didn't like not being responded to. He grabbed a fistful of Blaine's hair and yanked back making sure that Blaine could look no where else but at him.
"You answer me when I'm talking to you, Anderson! You know the drill!"
"No. I haven't," Blaine responded through gritted teeth.
Azimo nodded at Dave in response giving him the go ahead to untie Blaine. As he did so, Blaine decided that this would probably be his only possible chance to escape, so he tried to fight Dave off of him but it was a wasted effort, Dave was too strong. He had Blaine's arms in his hands instantly and wasted no time as he threw him down to all fours. He kept his hands wrapped around Blaine's arms as he held the smaller boy in position for Azimio.
That's when the first stinging lash of the belt hit his back. Blaine bit back a scream. He had never experienced pain like that. It was as if a hot branding iron had made contact with his back. It wasn't the usual throbbing pain he was accustomed to; this had a blinding sharp sting to it. The next lash came down right where the first had landed and Blaine had to bite his lip to hold back any shout of pain. He wouldn't scream. He couldn't let them hear him scream.
Over and over the belt fell onto his back. He could feel the blood beginning to soak into his shirt as he clenched his teeth so hard that he was surprised that he hadn't broken any yet. It took everything he had not to yell out. All of the Sadie Hawkins memories came crashing down on him as he was once again being beaten by the very same guy who had done it before. It was like it was Azimio's mission to find him in every stage of his life and remind him that he'll never be free of him. Blaine continued to struggle to get away from the pain; even if the reprieve was only for a moment but Karofsky's grip couldn't be broken.
"See what I mean, dude? A fighter. Eventually we'll wear him down enough to get a scream out of him; that's my favorite part. You've got the most beautiful voice when you scream, Tinker Bell."
"Stop," Blaine whispered through clenched teeth.
"Come again?" Azimio asked politely.
"Stop. Calling. Me. That."
Azimio chuckled darkly and brought the belt down another time, the hardest lash of all. "Sorry Anderson, no can do. You'll always be my little Tinker Bell and hopefully this is a reminder as to why. No one can make you scream like I can."
Blaine closed his eyes as another belt lash came down. He couldn't stay silent anymore. No matter how strong he wanted to be, another lash from the belt was going to break him. He waited for the whistling sound and the impact of leather hitting skin followed by the blinding hot pain but it never came. What saved Blaine was the sound of a text message going off.
"Ah shit, it's mom. I gotta get home," Azimio announced as he reluctantly put his belt back on. "You can't let Anderson go just yet. There's still some lessons needing to be taught and I'm no where near finished."
Dave had no intention of Azimio being any further part in his capture of Blaine but he agreed as the larger boy made his way up the stairs, closing the basement door behind him.
Blaine lay curled up on the floor bleeding, broken and sputtering for breath.
"Why, Dave? Him I oddly understand but you? What do you have to gain from this?" Blaine asked between pain stricken breaths.
Dave roughly rolled Blaine over on his back which elicited a hiss of pain from the smaller boy. He glared down at his victim without a word in response; instead, he surprised him by scooping him off the floor and throwing him over his shoulder. Blaine being so small made it easy for Dave to get him all the way upstairs to his room. Blaine made no struggle as they made their way up the stairs. He was too weak to fight as he watched himself being carried further and further away from his only chance at freedom; the front door. He hadn't even taken the opportunity to look at his surroundings before they had arrived upstairs.
Once Dave had Blaine in his room, he opened the door to his walk-in closet and sat Blaine up against the wall gingerly, then proceeded to tie his wrists together. As he was working to do the same to his ankles, Blaine asked again softly, "What do you have to gain from this, Dave? Why won't you just let me go? No one has to find out about this. I'll make up something, no one has to know what happened."
"I can't let you go, I won't." Dave refused. "Not after all I had to go through to get you. You have no idea how long I had to wait to make this happen. Ever since I saw you on those stairs at McKinley, I knew I had to have you."
"W-what do you mean?" Blaine stammered. What the hell was Karofsky talking about?
"You were like this gorgeous angel who was sent to make me realize that I could be gay and not to fight it anymore. It was you who told me it was a hard thing to come to terms with and that I wasn't alone. You were right; I'm not alone…not anymore. I have you now to show me the way. You're mine, Blaine Anderson. All mine. I only needed Azimio to help make you weak and get some of that fight out of you. I needed you weak so that you would listen to me."
Blaine swallowed the bile in his throat and tried to come to terms with what he had just been told. Karofsky had been planning this since the day he had accompanied Kurt to McKinley to confront him. This was more twisted than just a gay bashing, no...this was much more than that.
"Dave...I'm-well, I'm flattered," Blaine began as gently as he could. "But I'm with Kurt and I need to get back to him. He's probably worried sick seeing as I have no way of telling him where I am. We can talk about what we plan to do about this but first you need to let me go."
Dave didn't waste a second before he began shaking his head. "Oh no you don't. I know you have fancy words, Blaine but I won't let you go. You are mine and I don't care how much sense I have to beat into you to make you see that. Mine."
"Now Blainey-bear, don't you want to hear about my day?" Dave asked after checking that the welts were healing on Blaine's back. They looked just as prominent as they did before he left for school that morning.
"Don't call me that and I really could give a hell less about your day," Blaine responded in irritation. That's all he needed was another awful nickname. "Tinker Bell" and now "Blainey-bear". When was the stupidity ever going to end? He had tried to be nice and reason with Dave on that first night but he wouldn't listen, so Blaine had thrown all the politeness straight out the window.
"You should be more grateful to me that I got Azimio to back off as I had insisted that we had beaten all of the gay out of you. He's not convinced. He assures me that you belong to him and that he should be the only one to torture you but I still got him to back off. All it took was a little lie that my dad might be coming home early before his next business trip and that I had to keep you a secret or let you go. I could always tell him that before you're completely healed, you need another reminder."
"A reminder to shoot myself, maybe."
"I wouldn't mouth off like that if I were you, my dad's gone for a week and it's just you and me. If you don't stop being naughty and mouthing off to me, I'll have to put you over my lap and give you a spanking…and you don't want one of those, do you?"
Blaine looked sickened and annoyed by Dave's threat. "Whatever."
"You don't think I'll do it?"
"You better not even think about touching me like that."
"Oh and why is that?"
"Because the only one allowed to touch me like that is Kurt and you're not even a fraction of who Kurt is."
Dave quirked an eyebrow at him and his lips formed into the shape of a "I know something that you don't know" kind of smirk.
"What if I told you that Kurt doesn't give a shit now that you're gone?"
"I'd think you were a piece of shit liar which isn't really far removed from my current frame of mind," Blaine answered honestly.
"He doesn't care that you're gone; he's already moved on to the next big thing. He assumes that you stayed at Dalton and won't return his calls because you're done with him. So naturally, he moved on."
"You're lying."
"Try me, sweetheart. Now, I've got to go and make us some dinner, don't want my Blaine to get too thin on me, now."
"I'm not yours, I'm Kurt's."
"You keep telling yourself that, baby," Dave responded as he slammed the closet door behind him leaving Blaine in the dark alone with his thougts.
Blaine knew Dave was lying. Kurt wouldn't just give up on him like that. Just because no one found him yet didn't mean that Kurt wasn't trying or had moved on…it was just a dumb lie Dave was telling Blaine to make him give himself up completely and forget about Kurt. He couldn't. Kurt was the only thing keeping him sane and giving him hope. All he wanted right now was Kurt. His head was starting to spin and he felt extremely dizzy from all the thoughts spinning around in his head. "Don't give up on me Kurt…" Blaine whispered to himself before he passed out.
Wow, that was a nice long chapter! It was much needed. So, a lot's happened in this chapter…we found out who has Blaine and why. So, I would definitely love those reviews to tell me what you all think. ;D Yes, there's a lot of OOCness, but it's definitely needed to make this fic work. Hopefully you guys liked it. It took quite a while to write it all, so I anxiously await those reviews!
Casey