Chapter 2- Everyone's Looking For Something

Hannah was just running. She didn't know where she was going, but she knew that she had to run away. Even just for a little while. To get away from everything. Even her sister and brother, the former of who she knew was rapidly chasing after her. Beth would reach her eventually, but Hannah needed time to collect her thoughts.

So she continued to sprint deeper into the snowy woods, her breath spiralling into the air as the cold hit her. She felt a deep burn in her chest, but she tried to ignore it. Her head pounded from running but she knew she needed to go further, the more distance put between her and her life, the better. Hannah wished she could just forget it all, wished that she had never been able to develop romantic feelings for another human person, because all they ever did was disappoint you and choose somebody else.

She was of the opinion that Mike only acknowledged her because they were a group. Mike had been friends with Josh first, and in turn had been introduced to the girls. She reckoned that if they weren't a unit, Mike wouldn't even look at her in the halls at school.

And why would he?

She wasn't special, she wasn't beautiful like Jess or Sam, she wasn't super-smart like her sister or Emily. She had nothing particularly striking going for her, nothing about her couldn't be found in one of the other girls in the group.

Or, apparently, one of the boys.

It was disappointing, because Hannah Washington adored Kurt Hummel.

It had been like that for as long as she could remember. She barely remembered her life without Kurt in it. He was the first guy to tell her that she was beautiful besides her father. And he truly meant it. Just like Mike and Sam, Kurt's opinions were always honest and you could always count on him to tell you the absolute truth, or at least his honest opinion. Hannah had gone to him so many times about everything and he had always set her straight. He had told her that he didn't think she would ever be with Mike, but that just meant he wasn't the right guy for her, no matter how much he might have seemed like it at the time.

Hannah knew he wasn't being malicious or trying to get her out of the way so that he could make a move on Mike, it was just the unfortunate way the situation had played itself out.

Hannah finally stopped running, seeing nothing but snow and trees all around her. She blinked a snowflake out of her eyes as the cold trapped her in its grasp. Her lungs were burning, letting oxygen soak into her body. She turned around and saw nothing, nobody. So maybe she had overreacted earlier. Or maybe she hadn't, her brain wasn't working too clearly at the moment.

She braced herself on a nearby tree and sighed. This was what she wanted.

Kurt sat on the sofa holding his head. Jess was on the opposite side doing the very same. Everybody else had decided to go out and look for Hannah and Beth, who had been gone for some time now. They had bottles of water which they were furiously gulping down. Kurt's throat burned with the familiar aftertaste of tequila, something that he thought he had gotten used to. Apparently not, considering now his throat felt like someone just stabbed it with an acid-coated blade. Jess shuffled in her seat slightly to face him.

"So…you and Mike, huh?" She wiggled her eyebrows.

Kurt blushed, although momentarily. He regained his composure before answering. "I don't know. It might have been merely a drunken kiss."

"It didn't look like that to me. He was really going in there. I'm half-surprised that you didn't swallow his tongue."

"I don't know where it came from. Honestly."

"What are you so worried about?"

Kurt shrugged. "That the thing I've wanted for so long has finally happened and Mike doesn't feel the same way about it. We didn't talk about it afterwards, so I don't know how he's feeling. People make drunken mistakes all the time, I should know, I've made enough of them."

"Somehow, I don't think that this was a mistake. I saw the determination in his eyes. I saw what it meant to him. He definitely figured something out."

"You're okay with this, right?"

Jess rolled her eyes. "If you think you're going to get away with not being with Mike because you think I have feelings for him, you're mistaken. I'm into someone else."

Kurt was excited. "Who is it? It can't be Chris or Josh. It's not Mike…oh my god. Are you into Matt?"

Jess scoffed. "As if I'd want someone who was into Emily."

"Play nice. So if…wait."

"You're forgetting about the girls, dude."

"Sam?"

Jess blushed. "Nobody else knows. Nobody even knows that I'm bi. I'm going to keep it that way for now. I know you won't say anything to anyone."

"Of course not. If I learned anything from this whole thing, it's that you never really know what people are hiding."

"Way to sound ominous, Kurt."

"Nice word. Did Sam teach it to you?"

"Nice comeback. Did Mike teach it to you?"

"He did. Shortly before he grabbed my ass and stuck his tongue down my throat. Shit, that really did happen didn't it?"

"And not just in a wet dream this time."

Kurt scoffed. "You're a heathen."

"Hey, you're the one grinding on boys and partaking in underage drinking."

"Yeah, like you're sober and wouldn't be sucking face with Sam right now if you had the chance."

Jess clapped a hand on his leg. "Don't think she's into girls, dude."

Kurt shrugged. "I didn't think Mike would be into guys until today. Like I said, you never really know what people are hiding."

Jess looked out of the window. "Do you think Hannah's okay?"

An unsettling feeling swelled in Kurt's stomach. He didn't like how Hannah was feeling, mostly because he knew all too well how Hannah was feeling. It happened years ago, when his first crush on Josh was still ever so strong in his head and heart. And then Josh had kissed some girl who wasn't even in their group. And her name was Patty. Kurt had made up so many cruel rhymes about her that he was deeply ashamed of. But he was a kid, he had learned from his mistakes.

And now he was Patty.

And Hannah was him.

He had wanted to be out there looking for her, but Sam had kindly advised him to start sobering up and that he was probably the last person that Hannah would have wanted to see. She was right, as usual, so he concentrated on trying to keep a clear head. Hannah running away had really sobered him up, something he was immensely glad about.

Kurt didn't know this, but he would need all his wits about him for the night that was about to unfold.

Meanwhile, Ashley, Chris, Emily, Josh, Matt, Mike and Sam wandered through the forest, scanning their surroundings for any signs of Beth or Hannah. Beth had sprinted off in front of them and they had all followed suit. The more the merrier applied here and they had Kurt and Jess to hold down the fort at the cabin. It was a rather chilly night out and nobody had brought a jacket. Josh wrapped his arm around a shivering Ashley, much to Chris'...well, Chris didn't know how he felt about that. Things were confusing. Feelings were confusing.

"Hannah! Beth!" Sam shouted through her cupped hands.

Emily rolled her eyes. "You seriously think they're going to hear you over the wind?"

Sam spun around, eyes narrowed. "Well it's better than just bumbling along the path hoping to bump into them. If you've got a better plan, Emily, by all means please execute it."

Emily mumbled something that rather sounded like "I'd like to execute you", which nobody but Matt heard.

"Play nice," he whispered into her ear. She shrugged him off, walking ahead of the group.

"We'll find them," Mike said unhelpfully.

Emily scoffed. "You're the reason she ran off in the first place, Munroe."

Mike held his hands up. "Look, I'm not about to get into that right now. We just need to focus on finding Hannah."

"Have you tried looking down Kurt's throat? Oh, you already did. So we know she isn't there."

Josh shook his head, passing a seriously trembling Ashley along to Chris, who smiled at the gesture. "It would help a lot if everyone would just stop bickering and concentrated on trying to find my sisters. So the path diverges down here, so we can cover more ground by going in groups. Chris, Ashley and I will take the left track and you guys take the right. Whoever finds her, text the group thread and we'll all head back to the cabin. Sound good?"

Nobody wanted to argue with the worried brother, so they all just nodded quietly as they approached the split in the paths. Emily let Matt wrap his arm around her shoulders this time as they surged ahead down the right path, leaving Mike and Sam to bring up the rear.

They parted ways with the other three when Sam turned to Mike.

"Do you regret it?"

Mike's lips tightened instinctively. "I don't think so. It sucks that Hannah saw us, but it was a really great kiss. Like, thinking about all the times I could done that but haven't really fucks me up, Sam."

"Sounds like someone had their Cinderella moment."

Mike nodded seriously. "I think I did. Let's hope I don't lose a shoe or my foot might literally fall off."

Sam smirked. "I'm glad. It's about time you guys hooked up The sexual chemistry has been a lot to handle."

"I don't know if this is just a hook-up, Sam."

Sam blinked, unsure she was hearing correctly. "Wait, so you..."

"I don't know. Maybe. I mean, it's Kurt. Who isn't completely obsessed with him? It's Kurt."

Sam conceded that point with a nod. It was Kurt, after all. He had moved to their elementary school halfway through a school year and he had enchanted just about everyone by the end of it. There had been some bullies, but Mike and Matt had seen to it that it ceased. Everybody listened to them and they knew that Kurt Hummel was something special and therefore was off-limits.

Kurt had developed a friendship with their group, but also individual connection with literally all of them, even Emily, who had taken the longest to warm up to him as she did with everybody she met. Kurt saw something in her that the others didn't and perhaps they were more alike than she thought. Kurt brought out the best in them all and their lives weren't the same since he met them.

"You can't just assume that you have feelings for him, Mike. You have to feel it."

"I'm not sure what I feel. I was drawn to Kurt the day I met him and it might be too much to share, but I've been jerking off thinking about him since I first discovered what it was."

Sam pretended to cringe, but straightened immediately. "Yeah, that was too much dude. But Kurt, despite all of his veneers, is extremely fragile when it comes to this stuff. You remember seeing him confess his feelings for Josh way back when and that was a minor childhood crush."

Mike did remember that, and he had also remembered how it had stung him even though he wasn't involved. Kurt and Josh had been inseparable back then. Josh clung to Kurt's every word and Kurt had fallen for him. Kurt decided that enough was enough and told Josh how he felt, not realising that Josh was into Patricia Underwood. Josh had let him down as gently as he knew how, still maintaining that Kurt was the best person he knew, but Kurt had been devastated. He didn't really know how romantic feelings worked outside of movies. He figured that if you liked someone enough, they would like you back, because that was just how it worked, wasn't it?

"You're right. I don't want to hurt him."

Sam noticed Matt and Emily getting a little too far away for comfort, so she ushered Mike along quickly, effectively ending their conversation.

In front of them, Emily was scolding Matt over something they didn't particularly care to concentrate on. As she ranted, Matt quickly turned around to them and mimed a gun going off against his head. Emily didn't notice a thing apart from Sam and Mike chuckling. She narrowed her eyes at them, but they continued to walk straight ahead.

Ashley watched as Chris and Josh walked ahead of her, easing into their natural banter. She wasn't one to join in as much, although she did partake sometimes. She left the witty comebacks to those two, and Kurt, Sam, and Emily. Jess was slowly rising in the ranks, though, particularly with the assistance of Kurt, who blew each of them out of the water. Sam was the only one who could even compete with him, but her general niceness ruined most of her barbs.

She felt something peculiar in her stomach watching the boys talk. She focused on Chris, the feeling remained as she knew it would. She looked to Josh to calm the sensation, but it stayed. It lingered when she didn't think it would. They always joked about them being a package deal, but Ashley had never thought it would apply like this.

She knew that she loved both of them, but she just didn't know how. She and Chris had been building something stronger gradually over time, but Josh had always been there for her with her problems about Chris, as his best friend. She didn't imagine that Josh felt anything for her, but then again nobody ever really knew how anybody felt about anything in the sanctuary of their own minds.

"Hey, Ash, you okay?"

Josh was smiling at her and she really couldn't help the uneasy feeling that parked in her gut. Chris had stopped too, concerned.

She nodded. "Yeah, just worried about the girls. I hope we find them soon."

The boys nodded and continued to walk, scanning the area for movement.

Ashley didn't feel bad because it wasn't a lie. She was worried about Beth and Hannah, particularly in a bad storm like this. None of them should really be out of the cabin in this weather, but some things just had to be done. Using the 'worried' excuse was easier than delving into whatever it was that was going on in her stomach...and her heart. She knew it wasn't alcohol talking, she knew that something was going on that she would have to confront.

But there were other times, better times, now she had to focus on finding their friends. Before it was too late and before she really started to think about what was going on with her.

Because that was a box that was better left sealed.

Beth ignored the burning in her lungs as she spotted Hannah leaning against a tree, head in her hands. She sprinted up to her and put a tentative hand on her shoulder.

Hannah's head snapped up. "Jesus, Beth, you scared me."

"I scared you? Han, you can't just go running off like that."

Hannah nodded feebly. "I know. I just needed to collect myself."

"That's why we have the panic room. For when you just need to scream it out."

"I really do."

"Then let's do it. There's nobody about. Just scream off this cliff, as loud as you need." Beth knew this would be good for her, Hannah was way too tightly wound.

Hannah turned to the chasm below her, one that she hadn't really realised was there and took a deep breath.

She unleashed an almighty scream into the empty space, one that ripped her lungs apart, sending shockwaves through her throat and chest. Beth was impressed.

"They're here!" A voice yelled through the silence.

Beth turned around and groaned.

Hannah knew that voice anywhere. She had been listening to that voice in her head for years now. And now she wished she couldn't hear it. She didn't want to see Mike right now, it was too much.

Mike and Sam sprinted into the clearing, sighing in relief. Matt and Emily trailed closely behind, smiling.

"It's not safe to be out here, guys, we should go back," Sam said, shooting off a text to the group thread. Several phones beeped.

"I don't really want to be there right now," Hannah said quietly. It was definitely awkward and she couldn't meet Mike's eyes, ones that she knew were boring into her. Usually she would have jumped at the chance to meet his beautiful gaze, but this was different. They would be filled with apologies and pity and Hannah didn't want that right now.

Emily huffed. "It's a shitty situation, but the weather's only going to get worse. You can't stay out here all night."

Beth turned to Hannah. "They're right, Han. You could just go straight to your room when we get back."

Sam tugged on Mike's hand. "Let's walk ahead," she whispered. "See you guys at the cabin."

Mike followed, wishing Hannah would just look at him. He needed to apologise, tell her that he had no idea about her feelings until he had been told and was sorry that he had kissed Kurt in front of her. He had done a shitty done and he had to handle this carefully, to not risk alienating both Hannah and Kurt, which could so easily happen.

Sam and Mike stumbled through the forest, wanting to get back as quickly as possible. The warmth of the cabin seemed so good right about now.

Kurt placed the back of red solo cups onto the cold floor of the kitchen, heaving a sigh. He was pretty much sober now, but his limbs still ached from walking up to the cabin and dancing and his chest ached from the events of the night. He stretched out his back and grabbed himself another bottle of water, just to be on the safe side.

Picking his head up, Kurt stared out of the window.

He gasped.

A figure stood, also staring at him, from the other side of the glass. Cloaked in shadow, it stood menacingly. He knew the others were out looking for the girls, which meant...

"JESS!" He shouted, whirling around quickly. He slid into the entrance of the kitchen as Jess bounded over to him.

"What, what's going on?"

Kurt turned back around and the figure was gone.

"There was a...something was watching me."

Jess narrowed her eyes. "Are you fucking with me, Hummel? 'Cause it's not funny."

Kurt looked at her solemnly. "I'm not kidding, Jess. Someone was outside, looking in through the window."

"Maybe one of the others is trying to play a prank on us."

"There are a lot of them, we would've heard them. Besides, from the way they came, the outside light should have come on."

"So it's...someone else."

Kurt nodded. "Yes. But who? There's not supposed to be anybody else here this weekend."

Jess smiled grimly. "Looks like we have an intruder."