"He had to ask, didn't he?" Rachel asked aloud, rummaging through a tall filing cabinet.

Quinn had closed the door behind them in the stuffy records room and was herself immersed in a box of medical charts.

"It's fine. We just find that little girl Janie's record. Five minutes, tops. Then, we can go back to your house and I can add glitter to the posters while you practise My Heart Will Go On."

"I know I announced the fundraiser to the glee club earlier but I have a feeling their performances are going to take a back-burner to this whole grim reaper thing."

"Yes, well, priorities, Rachel."

"I know, I know, this is far more important. Life and death and such. I just want to make sure we all have a place to go once we're out of harm's way. Glee club is that place."

"I know, I know, our safe haven-"

"I'm worrying too much, aren't I?"

"No, it's just, it's not like-"

"What are you doing here?"

Rachel and Quinn gasped, dropping the files they'd been rooting through and looked to the door to see a portly security guard giving them the evil eye, crumbs stuck in his toothbrush moustache. Quinn straightened her posture and stared steady-eyed at the security guard.

"Um, we're looking through the files. But that's okay. We have permission."

The guard looked at her skeptically for a moment. "Oh... Okay."

Rachel gaped at Quinn as she continued talking to the guard.

"Yeah, in fact, we could use your help."

"Sure," shrugged the guard.

"We're looking for a file on a little girl who died last night. Janie...?"

"Yeah, one of Dr. Backer's patients."

"Dr. Backer?" Rachel raised an eyebrow.

The guard's eyes shifted to Rachel and he started to look unnerved.

"It's okay," said Quinn, staring at him, "You can tell us."

His gaze returned to Quinn and he looked like he was in a trance. "Dr. Backer's a good guy. He understands the truth. About children."

"The truth?"

"Sometimes they die."

Quinn and Rachel glanced uneasily at each other.

"Right..." said Quinn, "So, Janie's file."

"Her last name is Reed," said the guard, "It should be in there."

He pointed at one drawer of the filing cabinet labelled 'R'.

"Right. Thank you, uh... Don," said Quinn, narrowing her eyes at the guard's name tag, "You can go now."

The guard nodded and shuffled away as Rachel retrieved a file labelled 'Jane Reed'.

"Got it," she said and followed Quinn out of the records room, "We should get this to Mr. Schuester. He's meeting Mike and Tina at his apartment. Say, that was, um, weird..."

"Yeah, Don's kind of creepy. I mean, sometimes children die? What kind of vague, morbid reply is that?"

"No, I mean... Did you just control is mind?"

"Oh," Quinn blushed, "Well, yeah."

"I didn't know that was something you could do."

"I don't use it that often."

"How often do you use it?"

"Only when it's really important," Quinn shrugged, "Like now. I would never use it on you, if that's what you're asking."

"No, of course not, I just... Magic is more than I thought it was. There's probably a lot of stuff you can do that I don't know about."

Quinn frowned. "You could do that stuff, too, probably."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, technically, Shelby is your mother. Some of that power had to transfer."

Rachel shook her head. "I don't think it's my kind of thing, Quinn. I wouldn't be as good at it."

"It's not about being good at it, it's just... a nice release. Like glee club or... snowboarding. But, better. Definitely better."

Rachel shrugged. "Let's just get this to Mr. Schue."

xxx

Will locked his office door behind him with leather bound books under his arm; volumes on death and the plague and the biblical apocalypse. He was trying to put all his focus into Buffy's problem, to find a solution with the information she and Kurt had given him. It was a long shot but any other issue was a welcome distraction from the numbing pain that had encompassed him since Emma's death. He wondered how long he'd be finding strands of red hair on his vests or his throw pillows.

There was a comb she'd left in his bathroom with her gleaming red hair weaved in between the teeth. He couldn't bear to throw it out. As ridiculous as he knew it was, it was almost like she could walk in at any moment and laugh at herself for forgetting it. He wished he'd thought of swiping one of her perfume bottles from her apartment before forensics had bagged everything up, so that he could smell her floral scent and feel like she was there.

He knew that wouldn't help him, though. He would have to make it through this miserable routine of numbness and sharp pain that came at unequal intervals. Somehow.

"Will?"

He'd almost reached the exit when a voice called to him. He turned around to see it was Terri, her blond hair curled and a look of both fear and concern in her blue eyes. He realized he didn't even have enough room to feel contempt for her. All he felt was emptiness.

"Terri."

"I'm probably the last person you wanted to see, but..." she sighed, "I'm so sorry. For your loss."

Will swallowed down a sharp feeling in his throat. "Thank you," he said, hollow.

"I know you loved her. She... She was good for you," Terri shook her head, "I'm sorry. I won't talk about her. I didn't know her. I'm just trying to say that I wish I could help and if there's anything-"

"There's nothing." He immediately felt sorry for sounding so cold, but it was the truth. There was nothing she could do.

Terri nodded, pursing her lips. "Of course. I wish I could do something for Santana but... I can't. I was there to give her a soul the first time. I don't think I could do it again. Even if I could, it wouldn't end well."

"That's fine, Terri... I have to go."

"Y-Yeah, okay. I'll see you around, I guess."

"Yeah," Will sighed and brought his hand to the exit before he turned around once more, "...Thank you."

xxx

Buffy poked her head around the door of the children's ward. The kids were still up, reading nursery rhymes, playing with stuffed animals or simply watching the static-y TV from their beds. Buffy scoped out the room and quickly spotted Ryan sitting at plastic playtable, fervently coloring into a sketchbook. Buffy walked over to him in her hospital gown and bent her knees, trying to smile warmly.

"Hi," she smiled, "Remember me?"

Ryan looked up to her, his face remaining sallow and cold. "You're not supposed to be here."

"Why not?" frowned Buffy.

"Contagious," he said simply.

"Oh, it's okay. I already got what you got."

He shook his head and continued his drawing.

"Why? Cause I'm grown-up? Believe me, I'm not that grown-up..." she trailed off, distracted by the dark drawing that Ryan was coloring in.

It was the thing. The exact likeness of what she saw in her fever dream, of what Kurt described in his vision. Death, with his black hat, beak nose and soulless white eyes.

"He'll come again tonight," said Ryan.

"Ryan, listen to me. I'm not going to let this thing hurt you. Any of you."

Ryan remained silently skeptical.

"The grown-ups don't believe you, right? Well, I do. I believe in monsters. They're real. But guess what? So are heroes. I'm one of them."

Ryan gave her a sober look and said matter-of-factly, "You can't fight death."

xxx

"Sometimes, little kids can see stuff that older people can't," said Mike, "I've seen in, like, a hundred horror movies."

"Right," Tina nodded, her eyes trailing through the file that Rachel and Quinn had brought over to Mr. Schuester's apartment, "Our true selves. Hidden faces."

"So the kids might just be afraid of a regular person," said Rachel, "Well, what looks like a regular person to us."

"I nominate Dr. Backer as a suspect," said Quinn.

"I second that," said Will, closing a hefty book on bad omens, "Tina, can you find anything on him?"

Tina opened her laptop and started typing away into her typical search engines. "Well, the good Dr. Backer has somewhat of a rap sheet."

"You found something already?" asked Rachel.

"What can I say? I'm a whiz," Tina smirked and shrugged, "He's been reprimanded for controversial experiments, risky procedures... a malpractice suit... that was dropped all of a sudden."

"Plus, he gives me, as Buffy says, 'the wiggins," said Quinn.

"Could he be our guy?" asked Rachel.

"We have to find out what he's doing to those kids," said Will.

xxx

Buffy drummed her fingers against her thigh and waited patiently in the dark recesses of the hospital halls at night. Dr. Backer had kept the light in his office on and she could see his silhouette as he turned it off and walked down the hall, with only the moonlight indicating his figure. She quietly followed him at a safe distance as he walked into the children's ward.

Buffy quietly held herself against the doorframe as Dr. Backer slid a syringe into one of the children's IVs. She watched as he moved to the next kid and did the same, when suddenly they both shook as they heard a noise from inside the room, like a heavy footstep. Dr. Backer turned around to squint into the darkness when something slashed his arm. Claw marks shredded at him by an invisible weapon and when he began to cry out, an unseen hand clamped over his mouth. Something stabbed into his stomach and he released an anguished cry before the invisible force lifted him and threw him to the door.

Buffy gasped and leapt out of the way as Dr. Backer's body crashed through the doorway and collapsed onto the ground in a shredded, bloody mess. She rushed to kneel down to him, but something swiped at her and knocked her aside. She tried lifting her head, dazed, to see Dr. Backer's body being dragged away down the hall by... nothing.

xxx

"It looks like you were onto something, after all," said Will, sitting on the edge of Buffy's hospital bed, the morning light blanketing the bed covers.

"I know," Buffy replied solemnly.

"It looks like Janie died from the fever but her records show her getting better and then suddenly getting worse. We did some research on Dr. Backer-"

"It's not him. He was clean."

"What do you mean?' asked Will, taken aback.

Buffy removed a crumpled piece of paper from under her pillow and straightened it out for Will to see. It was Ryan's drawing of the ghastly thing from the night before.

"This killed him," Buffy said certainly, "And not with kindness."

"You saw it?"

"No. I mean, it was invisible. But it killed Dr. Backer and knocked me down. It's real. Meaning, I get to fight it."

"It would help if you could see it. I thought you saw it the other night?"

"I might have been dreaming..." Buffy shrugged, "I don't know. I was pretty out of it."

"Good morning!" Joyce entered cheerily with her purse swinging from one shoulder, "Oh, looks like I'm interrupting a secret meeting."

"Not at all," Will stood up and smiled, "Just filling Buffy in on this week's glee club assignment.

"Oh. Honey, I just talked to Dr. Wilkinson," said Joyce, "She says I can take you home."

Buffy hesitated. "I... I have to stay here."

Joyce looked taken aback. "Stay here? But honey-"

"I think my symptoms are coming back."

"She doesn't look so well," Will chimed in.

"I feel oogy," Buffy said, leaning back against her pillow pathetically.

"Are you sure?" asked Joyce.

"Yeah. I think I have to stay another day."

"Well, I'll talk to the doctor..." said Joyce, disappointed, leaving the room.

"Get a mugshot on this guy," Buffy said, shoving the drawing into Will's hands, "I need to know who I'm fighting."

"Right."

"And maybe get Tina to skip school and come help me. I'll look through Dr. Backer's office but if I find any medical evidence I might not have any idea what it is."

"Sure. I'll call when I know something."

"Know something soon."

xxx

Kurt watched water and sugar bubble over a bunsen burner in the back of Chemistry class with Blaine beside him, squeezing lime juice into a petri dish. They were making flavored rock candy that would be ready for tomorrow - a fun exercise their teacher let them do after exams. But Kurt wasn't much in the mood for fun with his vision in the back of his mind.

It wasn't just the horrifying face that unnerved him, it was the fact that he'd had a vision at all. In the beginning, they had only come in dreams and now it seemed like no matter how hard he tried to control his abilities, they were getting more and more sporadic and uncontrollable.

"Pass me the dye?" Blaine asked.

Kurt absentmindedly picked up a bottle of green food dye to make their lime rock candy. As he handed it to Blaine, their hands touched for a moment and muddled voices and images flooded Kurt's mind for a split-second. Foreign thoughts swimming together in a fast-paced rhythm. Sharpness. Running. Fencing. A laboratory. Music. Kurt. Mr. Anderson's stern face. The moon.

Kurt gasped and lunged back.

"Kurt, what's wrong?" Blaine eyes widened, fearing his boyfriend was getting an ill-timed vision.

"Nothing, I... I have to go to the bathroom," Kurt said quickly and stumbled around the counter, rushing out of class without a word to the teacher.

Kurt rushed in the drafty hallway and found an empty stairwell. He collapsed on the bottom step and held his head in his hands. He'd just read Blaine's mind. In that split second, he hadn't made sense of much, but he knew that's what had happened. It was getting worse.

"Kurt!"

Kurt lifted his head to see Blaine rushing towards him.

"I told Mr. Mason you had a migraine," he said, "What happened?"

"I read your mind," said Kurt, "I read it and I didn't mean to."

"It's okay-"

"No, it's not. Nothing's working. I'm not in control of anything. It's in control of me. The mind reading and the visions, it happens whenever it wants to! What am I supposed to do?!"

Blaine frowned helplessly and took a seat on the stairwell. "We'll figure something out."

"I thought that this would bring me close to her," Kurt sniffed, "To my mom. We both had powers we didn't ask for... At least she knew how she got them. But maybe this is too close. She couldn't control her destiny. It drove her away from the people she loved."

"That's not going to happen to you," said Blaine, putting his arm over Kurt's shoulder, "Look, I know what it's like to not be in control of your own mind."

Kurt nodded. "Yeah, I know..." he sighed, "I just thought I knew what I was doing. And now I have no idea. I don't even know why this is happening to me, Blaine."

Blaine pursed his lips. "It's okay," was the only thing he could think of saying, "It's okay."

xxx

Buffy turned on the unflattering fluorescent lights in Dr. Backer's office. It was eery seeing it just the way he left it, as if he could come back and catch them at any moment.

"He didn't finish his coffee," Tina said morbidly, staring at a cold mug of black coffee on the desk, "I guess he never will."

"Yet another person I wasn't in time to save," Buffy frowned as Tina started leafing through a file left near the computer.

"I think I got something here."

"Yeah?"

"Dr. Backer was trying to inoculate kids with a dosage of the same virus they already had. Raising their temperatures to burn the fever out of them."

Buffy knelt down to a mini fridge and opened it to find vials with different colored labels on them. "Would that work?"

"According to this, it was starting to. He was really helping the kids after all."

Buffy frowned. "Until that thing stopped him."

Tina's phone began to ring - the theme song for The Walking Dead - and she quickly looked at the screen to see it was Mike.

"Mike?" she held the phone to her ear.

"It's called Der Kindestod."

Tina furrowed her brow. "What?"

"Your monster. It's called Der Kindestod. It means 'child death'. He sucks the life force out of children. Sick children."

"So it did kill Janie?"

Buffy looked up from the medical vials.

"My guess is that it would be looking at the children's ward as an all-you-can-eat buffet," Mike said on the other line.

"What's going on?" asked Buffy.

Tina pressed the phone to her shoulder. "The monster is called Der Kindestod. It means 'child death'. He's feeding off of sick children."

Buffy frowned. "It killed Dr. Backer because he was curing the children..."

Tina brought her phone back to her ear to hear Mike make a disgusted noise. "What? What's wrong?"

"We found a picture of how it feeds. God, it's disgusting..."

"What? What is he saying?" Buffy urged as Tina grimaced.

"It pins down the victim and slowly draws the life out of them..."

Her words faded away as a memory flooded Buffy's mind...

Buffy's small hand grabbed a fistful of green fabric from the hospital curtain and pulled back. Celia laid flat down on the bed, her light brown hair splayed against the thin white pillow, her eyes open wide in horror.

"Celia?" Buffy said, her voice small and scared.

Terror covered Celia's face and she struggled to breathe as she reached out and grabbed Buffy's small wrist.

"Get it off me!" Celia ordered.

Buffy paled. "Celia... I don't know what to do!" Buffy said helplessly.

"Buffy?! Buffy, what's wrong?" asked Tina, a hand over her phone.

Buffy looked at Tina's concerned expression and shook her head, banishing the memory. "I've got to get this thing, Tina. Before it gets those kids."

"You will. We will," said Tina, hanging up the phone and shoving it back into her black sweater pocket.

"How?! I can't even see it!" Buffy lamented.

"You saw it once."

"Did I, though, or was my mind messing with me? I mean, I was crazed with fever and..."

"Buff?"

"The fever! That's how I could see Der Kindestod! Only sick people can see him!"

"But how can you fight him with a hundred and seven degree temperature?"

Buffy eyed the vials in Dr. Backer's open mini fridge. "I guess we'll find out." Buffy grabbed one of the vials and screwed the top off.

"Buffy!" Tina gasped.

"Tina, I have to do this!"

"That's a hundred percent pure! It'll kill you in an instant!"

Buffy paused with the vial in her hand. "Oh... well, they should put that on the label."

Tina sighed and took a beaker from Dr. Backer's desk and filled it with water at the cooler. She took the vial from Buffy's hand and added a few small drops of the clear liquid to it.

"This is going to have to work fast," said Buffy.

Tina hesitated and added another drop.

"Faster than that."

Tina sighed and reluctantly added another drop. "Drink."

Buffy took the beaker and raised it in the air. "Here's to my health," she said and gulped it down.

Ten minutes later, Buffy's palms and forehead were clammy and her body burned up. She draped her arm over Tina and let the girl lead her down the hall to the children's ward.

"I'm not sure this was such a great idea," said Buffy, looking nauseated.

"Hang in there. You'll be okay."

"Okay..." Buffy nodded as they reached the door to the ward, "I'm okay."

The both reached the children's ward and looked through the window in the closed door to see the entire ward abandoned, every bed empty.

"They're gone," Buffy said to herself, perplexed, her temperature rising.

"What could have happened?" asked Tina, steading Buffy beside her.

"I don't know. Maybe I was too late. Maybe they moved them... I don't want to think of another maybe... God, I'm burning up."

Buffy put her hand to her head and swayed.

"It'll be okay," said Tina, trying to keep her upright.

Buffy looked back into the room and froze, stunned. "Tina..."

"What?"

"I think it's in there."

Buffy steadied her gaze inside and sure enough, Der Kindestod stood like a ghost in his long black cloak, his white eyes glowing from under his wide black hat.

"Good to see you," Buffy groaned.

Der Kindestod lifted his head and sniffed. Buffy pushed the door handle but it wouldn't budge. The door was locked. Der Kindestod smiled knowingly from inside and sniffed again, turning around and spotting a thin doorway in the corner with an emergency push handle across it, marked 'Basement Access'.

"He's going after them," Buffy wheezed as Der Kindestod slipped through the door.

She rammed her shoulder against the door to no avail. She was too weak to break it down, but she tried again.

"We've got to get him," she said wearily, "Give me a second and I'll get him..."

"Buffy? What's going on?"

Tina and Buffy turned to see Dr. Wilkinson rushing towards them looking concerned.

"Um, she's not feeling well, again," Tina said quickly.

"You should be in bed," Dr. Wilkinson frowned.

"No, its fine-"

"No. You're coming with me. And visiting hours are over."

Dr. Wilkinson grabbed Buffy's wrist and attempted to drag her back to her hospital room.

"No!" Buffy yelled and shoved Dr. Wilkinson. He fell back against the wall, startled.

Tina and Buffy whipped around and took off down the hall as fast as they could with Buffy swaying sickly. Tina helped her along as she stumbled. The intercom crackled and Dr. Wilkinson's voice could be heard through the halls, "Security to the children's ward. We have a situation! Security!"

Tina and Buffy raced down the hall when two security guards appeared at the other end.

"Come on, now," said one of the guards, slapping a baton against his hand, "Let's make this easy."

Tina looked at Buffy and then back at the guards. Suddenly, she raised her arms and began waving them wildly around.

"Bats!" she screamed, "Get them off me!"

The guards rushed for her, grabbing her arms and pinning them to her sides as Dr. Wilkinson rushed towards them looking flabbergasted.

"Not her!" Dr. Wilkinson exclaimed, "The other one!"

The guards turned, but Buffy was already gone. She staggered down the stairs, away from the yelling of Dr. Wilkinson and the guards and towards the hospital's entrance.

"Buffy? What are you doing?"

Buffy gasped, Angel's figure looming by the doorway. "What are you doing here?!" she demanded.

"Watching out for Santana," he said, "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. What's going-"

"We have to get down to the basement," she said, and stumbled forward, "Give me your... you."

Angel moved forward and caught her before she fainted to the floor. "Buffy!"

"It's okay. I'm okay," she sighed, "Come on. It's going to the basement. We have to save the kids."

"You don't know how to fight this thing," Angel said as he led her down through the basement entrance.

"I thought I might try violence."

"Solid call."

They stepped to the dank underground recesses of the hospital to see the children gathered there, shivering in fear. Buffy squinted to see Der Kindestod pinning Ryan to the ground. The monster's eyeballs had protruded from their sockets and like tentacles, had attached themselves to Ryan's forehead, draining the life from him. With a rush of adrenaline, Buffy picked up an idle two-by-four stacked in the corner and swung it at Der Kindestod's head, knocking him off of the child.

Never too ill to quip, Buffy venomously said, "You make me sick."

The creature got to his feet and dove at Buffy, knocking her to the ground. Angel pulled him back by the back of his coat.

"No, get the kids out!" Buffy ordered.

"Buffy-"

"He's mine!"

Angel quickly let go of Der Kindestod and moved to Ryan, picking him up and ushering out the other children. Buffy swung her fist at the monster, and he grabbed her wrist, pulling her in and shoving her to the ground. He got down and straddled her, his eyes bulging out of his head. She struggled weakly against him as he pinned her down and with her last bit of strength, she reached up and firmly grasped his neck, twisting it and feeling it crack.

"Buffy, are you okay?" Angel rushed towards her as the children flooded out, crying.

Buffy pushed Der Kindestod's body off of her and stood up. "Actually, I'm feeling a little better."

xxx

Rachel folded her arms from one of the fenced off stairwells in the quad as Mercedes sang into a microphone from their makeshift stage on the steps - an impressive Otis Redding medley.

"Good turnout," said Quinn, coming up behind Rachel in a pink sweater she'd borrowed.

"Yeah," Rachel nodded, trying to sound more enthusiastic, "It's just... I don't know if it's going to be enough."

"Don't worry about it, Rach," Quinn nudged her playfully, "It'll be fine."

"And what if it's not? What if we don't have enough to keep glee club open for the rest of the year?"

"It's not the end of the world, Rachel. We'll have glee club next year."

"What if next year is too late?!"

"What do you mean?"

"Sometimes it feels like glee club is the only thing that bonds all of us. I don't want us to go back to Cheerios and football and theatre club, where none of us will be friends anymore."

"Seriously? You think glee club is what bonds us all? If you haven't noticed, our lives are in danger like every other week. There are some bonds that can't be broken."

"No, I know, but... with everybody hanging out at different cliques, it's not going to be the same."

"I think you're overreacting, Rachel."

"No, I'm not! I can't expect you to wait for me, especially with brighter horizons ahead of you."

Quinn sighed. "Is that what this is about? You're afraid if we're not together in glee club everyday, I'll get sick of waiting for you and start dating someone else?"

Rachel sheepishly eyed the blonde. "Maybe."

"Rachel! You're going to drive me crazy!"

Rachel flinched. "Sorry, but-"

"No, just chill out for a second, okay? Glee club is not what bonds us. Definitely not. The friends you have now are going to keep being your friends whether or not you spend hours together singing about your feelings everyday. Especially me. I could care less about glee club."

"Quinn!"

"It's true! It's a fun way to waste time but other than that, I just don't care. What I care about is spending time with you and with Brittany and with Puck and helping Buffy defeat evil or whatever. Those are the important things. And there are no brighter horizons, Rachel. I will wait until the end of time for you to be ready."

Rachel bit down hard on her bottom lip. "Why would you do that?"

Quinn sighed wearily and slipped her hand into Rachel's. "Because nobody drives me crazy like you do."

Rachel sniffed and smiled. "You deserve better. You deserve someone who wants to be with you, now, in front of everyone."

Quinn shrugged. "Relationships aren't about who deserves each other. I want to be with you and you want to be with me. That's that."

Rachel paused. "Thank you, Quinn. I've never known you to be patient."

Quinn smirked. "I just know when something's worth waiting for."

Next up: A ghost haunts McKinley and relationships are put to the test...