Blaine stared. The name meant as much to him as the boy — Rajeesh's — face: nothing. Apart from a couple of students back at Dalton with completely different names, he didn't even know anyone of Indian descent.

Yet there was something about the name that niggled at the back of his mind, sending pinpricks up and down his spine. It was as though the sound of the name was a piece of music that stirred faded memories somewhere deep on his subconscious. It was a discomfiting feeling, to say the least.

He knew he was in a delicate situation; his eyes flickered towards the basement stairs. But here were all the answers, right in front of him. Besides, he had a feeling that now that he was in Rajeesh's grasp, he wouldn't be letting go. Why not find out what was going on — stall, until Tina or Dave (and God, where was he?) figured out what to do?

But what could he say, what could he ask, that wouldn't tip this obviously unstable boy over the edge?

He felt like he was doing a pirouette on a razor blade.

Blaine swallowed; his throat was parched dry in what seemed to be instants. "A-are..." he began. He closed his eyes for a moment to regain his bearings before he continued. "Are you... a ghost?"

He wasn't sure how Rajeesh would react to the question. But it certainly wasn't how he did react.

The translucent figure laughed, a high pitched, nearly hysterical laugh that sent Rajeesh doubled over. "A g-ghost?" he cackled. "I wish! I wish I were dead; it would be better than this!" He quickly regained his composure, wiping non-existent tears off his face. "No, I'm not a ghost." He crossed his spectral arms, glaring at him with eyes that seemed to glow in the flickering firelight. "But I might as well be, for all the world cares."

"Wh—" Blaine's voice cracked on the syllable. He had to swallow and start again. "What did you mean when you said this was about me?"

Rajeesh laughed again, a bitter sound that pierced Blaine's eardrums. "What irony!" he cackled. "The one thing that really is about you, and you don't even realize it!" He circled around the burning drum, sauntering with the casualness of an average, corporeal boy meeting an old acquaintance. "I can't wait until your memory is back, at least in the moments before I... Well, let's leave that for later. But I'll explain, and you know why?"

Blaine nervously licked his lips; a bead of sweat dripped onto his tongue, the cool saltiness tingling. "Why?"

Rajeesh smiled, a toothy grin that sent shudders down Blaine's spine. "Because I want you to know, even if you don't remember. I want you to know, so that when it all finally ends, you'll know why, and take that with you as you breathe... your... last... breath." He giggled manically; if Blaine hadn't known that this boy was insane before, it was all too clear now.

Rajeesh whirled on his heel, circling back around to the other side of the drum. Even with his ghostly state, the fire sent flickering shadows under his chin and across his face, forming a devilish mien in Blaine's whirling imagination.

"Let me tell you a story," Rajeesh said with a casual calmness that almost, but not quite, hid his excitement and insanity. "The story of an average boy living in Mumbai. He was happy in his average life in the big city, when his parents decided, for reasons that are boring and incomprehensible at the same time, to move to a small town in the middle of nowhere in America. You know what that town's name was?" He looked at Blaine expectantly.

Blaine didn't know why (or rather, he knew why: he was scared out of his mind), but his tongue stumbled over itself to answer. "Uh, L-Lima?"

Rajeesh clapped his hands in delight. "Yes! Lima! Oh, you are so very smart, Mr. Anderson! Yes, Lima! The boy was quite young then, and it took him a while to learn the language, which led to so much teasing. And he was homesick, oh so very homesick, but you know what got him through the lonely nights?" There was another expectant pause; this time, it dragged on. "Not even a guess?" Rajeesh clucked his tongue and shook his head. "So disappointing. Well, the answer is: movies. The Bollywood films of his homeland. He'd sing along and dance along, imagine himself in those grand crowd sequences, and feel a little less alone.

"When this boy entered high school, he knew it would be very very hard. His whole life had been very very hard, after all. But he found something special, something that would help him get through those hard times: the glee club. Although they didn't know much about his favorite music, his favorite movies, they knew the power that music had. And they were friends, real friends, for that boy, for the first time since he had to leave India. It was the first place he felt like he really belonged."

He paused. It was a deadly pause, Blaine could tell; it was as though the air physically got colder (although he knew that when faced with what appeared to be a ghost, it was a distinct possibility it actually did). The silence stretched. Blaine remained silent, convinced that speaking then would probably kill him. Finally, Rajeesh spoke again, with a tooth-clenched growl filled with hatred and rage.

"Until it was all taken from him."

He raised his arm and pointed.

"Until you took it away!"

Blaine felt light-headed. "Me...? But I don't—"

"Even know me, yes, yes, I know! But it was still you, you and that boyfriend of yours!"

"Kurt? But why would he—"

"No! Not Kurt!" Rajeesh screeched, his hands clenched into fists. "That blonde slimy Sebastian! Him!"

Sebastian... his boyfriend? "No way..." Blaine finally croaked. "This is impossible, I don't understand—"

"Don't you get it?" Rajeesh's face was pinched and tight; he began pacing like a caged animal. "You and your boyfriend... You thought we were a threat. So the two of you came in and charmed us and got into our heads..." He was muttering now as he paced; Blaine wasn't even sure Rajeesh was actually consciously speaking to him anymore. "Your schemes and conspiracies... I still don't know how you did it all..."

"Look..." The word smacked in Blaine's dry mouth. He had no idea how to handle this; he'd never dealt with an actually insane person before, never mind one who could actually do actual fucking magic. But he had the horrible feeling that if he did nothing, he was walking straight into death anyway. Goddammit, if he had to die here (never being able to make up for any of the shit he'd done, never able to change), he was going to do it fighting. Still, taking that first step out into the minefield, seeing Rajeesh's attention turn to him... He couldn't pretend that it didn't send his heart into a jackrabbit beat. And with just one word too. "Look," he began again, after moistening his tongue, "I don't know what you think I did, but—"

"You destroyed New Directions!" Rajeesh screamed. Blaine actually jumped back at the force of his rage, the hard stone wall slamming against his back. "Mr. Schuester was fired! Rachel transferred to Carmel! Puck went back to juvenile hall! Mercedes got an eating disorder! She was in the fucking hospital! Brittany, she... she just gave up on life!" His eyes bore right into Blaine's, a hateful glare that drilled straight into the back of his brain. "You... You and that boyfriend of yours... You did all that. You ruined us, ruined our lives! All so you could win fucking Regionals!"

Blaine had no idea how to even begin to defend himself. Even as his mind was telling him that this was crazy, he didn't remember doing any of this, there was no way he was capable of any of it... Another part asked snidely, Oh, you're not capable of anything like that? Even with Sebastian as a boyfriend? Think about what you've learned about yourself in the past twelve hours, then think about whether you're "not capable" of doing something like that... Yet... "But none of that happened..."

"No," Rajeesh said, with such sudden calm that Blaine wasn't at all comforted by the mood swing. "Because it didn't." He began pacing again. "I had to do something about it. I couldn't just let it all go. I couldn't let my friends leave me... That's why Tina and I..."

"Tina?" Blaine couldn't hold back the word before it jumped out of his mouth.

"She's my best friend..." Rajeesh continued, as if he hadn't heard the interruption. "We practiced magick together, she said I was so talented, that's why I knew I had to do something... The grimoire was right there... We pooled our money to buy it one weekend. She said it belonged to both of us but I knew she wouldn't like what I was thinking..." His head snapped up, looking up at Blaine with eyes that he could only describe as pleading. "What else could I do? It was the only thing I could think of. Everything was falling apart, I had to do something. I found a spell that would alter the world to my choosing. I could bring back New Directions, bring back my friends, even stronger than before!" He was panting now; Blaine couldn't help but think, I didn't know ghosts could run out of breath. "I don't know what went wrong," Rajeesh whined, as if lamenting over an ice cream cone he'd dropped. "I followed the ritual perfectly, I know I did!" He shook his head. "But... maybe I did do everything right. Maybe this was how the spell was supposed to work, and I, like a fool, just didn't realize..."

Once again, the light of truth started to banish the shadows of confusion in Blaine's mind. "You erased yourself..."

Rajeesh, rather than flying into a rage as Blaine feared, merely nodded. "I brought back New Directions, fixed my friends' lives... But at the ultimate cost. I didn't die... I ceased to exist. It was as if I was never born at all. Because there was still a physical object that bound me to the new reality, I didn't even get oblivion. Instead, I became trapped between the reality that was and the reality that is. I went back to the moment of my birth... Only I wasn't born. I had to watch the world go by, watch as my parents and friends lived without me, no one able to see me or hear me..."

No wonder he went insane, Blaine thought. Sixteen or seventeen years of "living" as a tormented soul, unable to die as you were forgotten by everyone who knew you, having to see them get along just fine without you... Blaine wondered when Rajeesh went irrevocably mad. After the first year? The first six months? The first month? Blaine couldn't help but think that he probably wouldn't have survived the first week with his mind intact...

"I was replaced," Rajeesh snarled. "Replaced by someone who wasn't supposed to be there. I'm not even sure he was supposed to exist..."

"Kurt?" Blaine burst out, and it made so much sense. All this insanity was actually coming together in a sane way, and it scared Blaine even more than the threat to his life.

"Yes, Kurt." He spat out the name as if it was a disease. "Taking my place, taking what was mine..." There was that hateful look again, this time directed at someone who wasn't even there. It took a long minute for the ghost's non-existent breath to slow. "It took me a while..." Rajeesh continued. "It took me so long... But I realized that I still had my magic talent intact. I realized that I could fix things, for real this time. It took me months... years, actually... to remember all the wards, recreate the rituals. If I could just erase the lynchpin, the cause of my misery, from reality, then everything would go back to normal. Then I wouldn't have had to do the original flawed spell in the first place, then I'd exist again, and be with New Directions, as I should always have been. But... my memory must've been wrong. I must've fucked up the spell again, because—"

"You..." The truth was starting to blaze in Blaine's mind, hot and clear. But there was one part of it that was just out of reach, one that Blaine couldn't grasp no matter how hard he tried... Even as he wondered how hard he actually wanted to. "You're why no one remembers Dave! But... why him? I thought you said—"

"That's the point!" Rajeesh snapped with a frustrated shake of his head. "I wasn't trying to erase Karofsky! Yeah, he pushed us around and Slushied us, but that was nothing compared with what—" The hateful, piercing glare came back, and oh God Blaine would've done anything, said anything, to escape that gaze. "I was trying to erase you!"

There it was, that elusive truth. Someone hated him so much that he wanted him dead... It wasn't something one found out every day, and every single reaction battered at him all at once: confusion, denial, fear, anger... He slid a little down the wall before his jelly-like knees hardened just enough to support his weight.

"I have no idea how it hit Karofsky instead... It was supposed to just make someone vanish, quick and clean, never existed. But this... This messy in between... Maybe because you were my intended target... When it affected Karofsky instead, it left your memory alone, because you weren't supposed to exist, and—" He groaned, rubbing his forehead with one hand. He stared at Blaine, the haze of confusion gone from his eyes. "I can fix it," he whispered. "I can still fix it. You can see me — I'm getting more real as Karofsky gets less real. The spell just has to take its course—"

The name stirred his memory. "Dave! What happened to Dave? What did you do to—?"

Rajeesh rolled his eyes. "Why are you concerned with that oaf? You want to see him? Fine, I needed him anyway." Before Blaine could make any sense of any of those words, heavy footfalls came down the stairs. Dave Karofsky appeared, looking as solid and as existent as he had when they'd arrived at the house.

"Dave! Thank God! What happened to—"

"Grab him, Karofsky," Rajeesh said mildly. "Don't let him go for any reason." Without a word or a pause, Dave did just that, walking over to Blaine and pinning his arms behind his back before the smaller boy could make a single move. Over his shock in a moment, Blaine knew at once that he simply didn't have the strength to break the crushing grip that bound him. He was no athlete.

"Dave! Wh— Let me go!"

"Shut up!" Dave snarled.

"Why are you—?" Blaine turned back to Rajeesh, who was smirking. "This is you—! But how...?"

Rajeesh rolled his eyes again. "Those charms Tina made? Very cute. But the two of you are practically standing on my center of power. It's taking a lot of effort to overwhelm their protection, but it's enough. Now I have my captive audience." He rubbed his hands in wicked glee. "Which is good, because I want you alive and conscious to see every bit of my triumphant return... And revenge."

"What are you going to do?" Blaine asked quietly as he futilely yanked at Dave's arms.

"Well, first we're going to wait while Karofsky there vanishes out of existence." Blaine looked behind him; Dave showed absolutely no reaction to Rajeesh's words. "That will fully restore my existence as well. Then I'll have my full power back, enough to finish what I started, and get rid of you." The last word was snarled through gritted teeth. "Maybe this time I won't use fancy spells. Maybe I'll just kill you. There are plenty of spells that will give you agony you can't even imagine, the kind of suffering that'll have you begging for death..."

The sheer joy that lit up Rajeesh's eyes at the prospect sent flutters through Blaine's stomach. "You won't get away with this." Even as the words left his lips, he winced; how cliche could he get?

Rajeesh laughed scornfully. "In case you haven't notice, I am. Seriously, Blaine Anderson, what are you thinking? No one can stop me now!"

A flash of light suddenly burst out, as if someone had snapped a photograph in a dark room. The odd thing to Blaine was that he could've sworn, in the seconds before he was dazzled in the sudden nova, that it originated in the air between Rajeesh and the basement stairs.

The pseudo-ghost cried out, throwing his arm across his eyes. Through the spots in his eyes, Blaine heard footsteps come down the stairs. As his vision cleared, he made out a figure in black now standing before them.

"I'd like to test that theory," Tina said grimly. Then her face broke out in a smile. "Oooh, that really was badass. I love it!"

"Tina!" Blaine cried. "But how...?"

"When you didn't answer my calls, I got worried," she said as she drew what looked like a bunch of feathers attached to a stick from her backpack. "Tracked you through the charms." She looked over at the ghostly figure, who was recovering from the sudden burst of light. "Who's...?"

"Your friend..." Rajeesh's voice was quiet, almost awestruck. "Tina... I've missed you so much..."

"Be careful!" Blaine shouted.

Tina's forehead wrinkled. "I don't know you..."

"Come on, Tina, it's me. Rajeesh. Don't you remember?"

"Tina, it's him! He's the magician! He's the one making Dave disappear!"

"Ra— Rajeesh? I don't know anyone by that name. But... there's something in my mind that's..." Tina frowned, shaking her head. "I keep thinking... It sounds familiar, but..."

"Yes, Tina! Remember all talks we had about magick? When we bought the grimoire?"

"The grimoire...?" Tina's head turned a little, towards the backpack hanging from her shoulder.

Rajeesh saw the gesture and paled. His eyes flickered towards the backpack, but quickly returned to Tina's face. "Remember our first duet? It was 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart', remember? What about that night you cried on my shoulder because you couldn't decide whether to break up with Artie so you could date Mike?"

"I..." Tina shook her head violently. "I don't... I..." Her shoulders were trembling.

The ghost circled the drum, slowly approaching. "Tina... I want you to remember... I want to have my friend back." He lifted his hands towards her in a pleading gesture. "I want to have what we used to have... what we should have..."

"Rajeesh..." she whispered. She raised her hand, reaching out for Rajeesh's outstretched arms.

"Tina...!" The word was so hoarse with emotion that Blaine honestly couldn't remember afterward who said it: him or Rajeesh.

Then Tina's other arm shot out, throwing something small right at Rajeesh. It passed through him, but hit the drum; Blaine could now see it was a small leather pouch. The pouch burst open at the impact sending a scattering of glittering particles into the air. Rajeesh screamed, as if in pain, staggering back blindly as he rubbed and clawed at himself.

"Tina...?" Now that was definitely Blaine.

She turned to him in reply and grinned. "Gonna take a little more than a cheap mind game to get into my head," she said happily. "After three years of hanging around Quinn and Santana, this guy's amateur hour."

An animal roar of pain sent their attention back to the magic circle. Rajeesh was glaring at them both, a pitiless abyss shining in his eyes. He raised his hands in an odd gesture, his fingers both crossed and separated, waving them around in the air in what even Blaine could tell was an intricate pattern. He was muttering under his breath, the few words Blaine could hear incomprehensible.

Before he could ask, Tina's eyes widened. "Shit!" She shifted her hands into an identical gesture, waving them around in an identical pattern, similar words spilling from her lips. She and Rajeesh locked eyes as they continued to mutter, continued to wave. There was no light show, no audible hum of power, but Blaine could feel the energy in the room; it sent his hackles rising and a prickling through his extremities. There were no punches being thrown, but Blaine knew in his soul that a battle was unfolding before his very eyes. And if Rajeesh was as powerful as Tina had speculated...

He had to save himself. He had to do something, before Rajeesh gained the upper hand or Dave disappeared...

Wait... Both Rajeesh and Tina said a lot of concentration was needed for mind control spells. If Rajeesh's wincing and panting breaths were any sign... Maybe...

"Dave..." he hissed. The grip on his arms didn't shift at all. "Dave!"

"Shut up," came the low reply.

"Dave, you're being controlled! You have to fight it!"

"I said, shut up."

Tina was paling. She staggered a bit in her steps, her waving arms starting to lose speed. Blaine swallowed. "I know you're in there somewhere," he said to Dave.

"If you don't shut up, I'll—"

"Do what? Hit me?" He shook his head. "No, you won't. You know how I know? Because you're not a bully." There was no response; this had to be good, right? Blaine pressed on, even as he watched beads of sweat drip down Tina's face, even as Rajeesh was calm, almost serene in his chanting. "I... I admit that I hadn't given you a chance. Even if I was justified... I should have." His mind was whirling, trying desperately to find a finger hold on something, anything, that would stick. "You bullied because you were afraid of being weak. So you played sports and pushed around those who couldn't fight back because you wanted to look strong. But you were strong. You are strong — inside, where it counts. You've proved that to me tonight. You've been rolling with punches that no one should ever be rolling with, and... You've been controlled all your life: by your mom, by your friends, by everyone expecting you to be straight... Don't give in, to anyone. You have the power to decide, Dave. You have the strength to do what you know is right."

It may have been Blaine's imagination, but he thought he felt the iron grip on his arms loosen, just a smidgen. But he knew he wasn't imagining Tina's growing weakness; she was stumbling over her words, her knees starting to buckle.

"You don't want to hurt people anymore, Dave," Blaine continued, as evenly as he could. "I know you don't. That's why you have to fight this! If Rajeesh wins... He'll hurt so many people. Me, Tina, Kurt..."

"Kurt?" The name was whispered, and Blaine couldn't help but feel an icy stab in his chest. But no, this was good; this was the lever he was looking for.

"Yes, Kurt! You heard him; he thinks Kurt's stolen his life, and he wants it back, remember?" He looked up at Dave; the jock was covered in sweat, his eyes blinking rapidly. "Yes! That's it! Fight him, Dave! You can do it! I believe in you... We believe in you."

Tina screamed. She was thrown violently back, as if by a massive gust of wind. She slammed against the cold concrete wall, and crashed to the floor. She groaned, dazed, her eyelids fluttering, as if it was an effort to even keep them open.

Rajeesh shook his head in mock sadness. "Poor Tina. She was always a little jealous of my power, even if she never admitted it. Don't worry, sweetie; when my power is back, I'll make sure you forget all of this, including the pain." His eyes flickered towards Tina for a moment as he said this, but his focus was quickly back on Blaine. Rajeesh clapped his hands, which actually made a sound; Blaine wasn't sure if that made any sense. "Now that business is over, I get to have some fun! Bring him over here, Karofsky, so I can... express my gratitude for everything young Mr. Anderson has done to... for me."

The grip around Blaine's arms tightened. "Yeah. Okay." Blaine's heart simultaneously sank and pounded in his throat as he was roughly pushed forward. "What are you gonna do, exactly?"

Rajeesh raised an eyebrow, but said, "I actually haven't decided how long I want to torture him before I finally end his miserable life. But maybe... Maybe he should experience what I have. Maybe I'll erase him from existence — while he's bloody and broken. Ooh, that's what I should do! I'll get to visit him all the time, and watch him suffer for the rest of my life!" He bounced up and down on his heels like a child. "What do you think, Karofsky? Sound good?"

"I think..." Just like that, Dave's arms were no longer locked around his. Blaine nearly stumbled with the sudden freedom. "... I think that fucking sucks," he snarled. "I also really wish I could remember bullying you, because shit, that must've been good."

Blaine couldn't help the smile that broke over his face. "Dave..."

"How?" Rajeesh screeched. "You can't have— You shouldn't have been able to— You're just an idiot! A bully! A monster!"

"No," Blaine whispered. "He's Dave."

Dave turned to Blaine, even as he backed away from him. "You gotta get out of here, man."

"What? But—"

"Take Tina and run! I'll try to hold him off while—"

"Don't be stupid, Karofsky! What can you do against a ghost?"

"I don't know! But he might control me again, and Tina's hurt! You have to—"

"Don't tell me what to fucking do! We're both fighting this guy! Together! That's the only way—"

"Stop fucking arguing and—" Then Dave screamed. He doubled over, crying out in agony. Blaine gasped, watching as Dave sank to his knees, nearly sobbing. Somewhere, Rajeesh was cackling — actually cackling, like a goddamn Disney villain.

"It's happening!" he crowed. "Finally!"

Dave was disappearing. His entire body was starting to fade as he huddled in a fetal position on the floor. His face was twisted in pain, but even those features were becoming hazier and hazier with each passing second.

"Yes... Yes!" Blaine whirled. As Dave vanished, Rajeesh was becoming more... real. There was no other word for it; his skin and clothes became more solid, more vibrant — Blaine could now see wisps of arm hair, a scabbed cut on Rajeesh's left knuckle. Rajeesh's face was that of nearly orgasmic joy; he held his own fingers in front of his face, wiggling them as they grew more distinct. "Yes!" he cried out, laughing. "I'm back! I'm real!"

He's real... It was almost eerie, the calm that descended over Blaine when he realized what he had to do. He no longer heard Dave's rapidly fading cries, Rajeesh's laughter, Tina's groans behind him. There was only him — his muscles, bunching and shifting, his mind, already calculating, already aiming.

"You having this isn't exactly... legal due to your age," his father rumbled in his memory. "But if you're going to be... homosexual, then you'll need to defend yourself. Learn how to use it... Don't be afraid to use it..." He'd paused then, looking over his son thoughtfully. "Though I doubt that'll be a problem." Blaine was almost startled to find it wasn't.

He'd kept it hidden, of course; he'd had to sneak it into Dalton stashed in a box of books. Fortunately, the uniforms allowed him to carry it around with him without anyone seeing it. When he transferred to McKinley, that was less of an option, so he had to hide it at Trent's house a lot more often than he liked. Fortunately, he escaped bullying (though he still wasn't sure how), so he almost forgot he had it... Until he and Dave escaped that cop.

Blaine reminded himself to actually thank his father if he lived through this.

The small canister was cold and hard in his hand. He raised it, trying to remember how to make sure it was ready. A flick of his thumb — that was all it took, right? God, he hoped so.

"Hey!" Blaine barked. Rajeesh raised his eyes... Perfect. "You're real. Congratulations."

He fired.

A stream of pepper spray shot out of the canister. It splashed against Rajeesh's nose; Blaine quickly notched his aim higher. Bullseye — it hit directly in his eyes. Rajeesh screeched, his cries of agony mixing with David's. He stumbled back, clawing at his face.

"You fucking—! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll—"

Blaine ignored the hysteria. He was wondering, in the back of his mind, if this would do any good. Dave was still disappearing, and this wouldn't stop it.

That was when the pieces began to fall together in his mind. He had no idea how it happened; perhaps it was the stress, the urgency, that allowed him to pluck those memories out of his brain.

"Because there was still a physical object that bound me to the new reality..."

"The grimoire was right there... We pooled our money to buy it one weekend..."

"The grimoire...?" Tina's head turned a little, towards the backpack hanging from her shoulder. Rajeesh saw the gesture and paled. His eyes flickered towards the backpack, but quickly returned to Tina's face.

His eyes flickered towards Tina for a moment...

Praying to the heavens, and to every other god, living or dead, he could think of, Blaine whirled on his heel and almost leaped for Tina. He ripped open her backpack and drew out the grimoire. It'd make sense she'd have it, assuming that she'd need it to counter whatever spell Rajeesh cooked up. But if he was right... if this was the physical object binding him to reality (and Blaine was growing more and more sure that Rajeesh, at least, thought so), then...

Rajeesh was drawing to his feet, blinking away the pepper spray much more quickly than he should've been able to. Dave was now as much of a ghost as Rajeesh had been, and fading fast. His fingers tightening over the old book, Blaine rushed forward, towards the burning drum.

Through bleary, red, stinging eyes, Rajeesh saw him. "No!" He stumbled forward, trying to intercept, but far too little far too late. With a grunt, Blaine heaved the grimoire into the fire.

Still screaming, Rajeesh tried to pluck it out, but was driven back by the flaring flames. Blaine watched the crackling, blackening pages, smelled the burning paper and leather. Rajeesh was watching too, his shoulders slumped and drained.

"It's not fair..." His voice was echoing, as if far away in an empty room. Now he was the one who was disappearing, but he didn't even seem to notice. He looked up at Blaine, his eyes full of tears and self-pity. "It's not fair," he whined. "I just wanted my life back. I just wanted to exist again." He returned to his ghostly state, then went beyond, his entire form vanishing as if he were a photographic negative left out in the light. "It's not fair... It's not f—" The voice didn't fade or echo; it just... stopped.

He was gone.

He heard Tina get unsteadily to her feet behind him. Blaine started to turn to ask if she was all right, when it hit him.

Dave!

He whirled to his left. Dave Karofsky was laying on the floor, still in the fetal position, his eyes closed but his breath steady. Relief flooded into Blaine's body even as the adrenaline flowed out; he ran to Dave's side, dropping to his knees next to him. He touched Dave's solid (thank God, solid) arm. "Hey..." Dave coughed. "A-are you okay?"

"I..." He coughed again. "Y-yeah, I think... so."

Blaine was conscious of a warm body by his side — Tina. She pulled stray strands of hair out of her face; one was still caught in the corner of her mouth. "Are you okay?" he asked her.

She nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine." She watched as Dave slowly, painfully, managed to sit upright. "You sure you're all right?" she asked him.

"I... God, I never felt anything like that..." He shuddered, wiping sweat from his brow and tears from his eyes. "But it's going away really fast, so... I think I'm okay now."

"Good." Then she punched him in the arm. Hard.

"Ow!" Dave glared as he rubbed the tender spot. "What the fuck was that for?"

"That was for shoving me during Lady Gaga week my freshman year!" she snapped.

There was a dead silence, except for the sputtering of the flames nearby. Dave slowly turned to Blaine, his mouth opening. They locked eyes. Then, at the same time, they started laughing.

And laughing.

They hugged, tears flowing down both their faces. But Blaine didn't fucking care.

It was over. The nightmare was finally over.

And still they laughed.

A jarring, rock/metal ringtone suddenly blared through the basement. Dave shoved himself away from Blaine and yanked his cell phone out of his pocket. "It's my dad!" he roared, still laughing. He thumbed the screen; Blaine quieted down. "Hello...? Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine, Dad. Where—? I... It's hard to explain... Yeah, I'm gonna come right home. Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry I— No, I don't think it's funny, I— Okay, okay, I'll be home soon, I swear! Okay! Okay, bye!" He put down the phone, his eyes shining, his smile threatening to split his face. "That was Dad!" he cried, almost hysterical laughter starting to rise from his chest again. "He was wondering where I was!" Blaine snickered, his cheeks wet and aching from smiling so hard. "I'm... I'm in a lot of fucking trouble!"

The two boys embraced again, their tight grip on each other suffused with their joy and relief. Tina smiled a little, shook her head, and joined them, the three teenagers laughing and crying and hugging in that cold, dank, empty basement.

AN: Whew. Just an epilogue left...