Summary: What you are about to read is inspired by true events. According to the FBI, there are an estimated 1.4 million violent crimes in America each year. On the night of February 11, 2014, Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson left a friend's wedding reception and returned to the Anderson family's summer home. The brutal events that took place there are still not entirely known.

Warnings: Angst, Horror, Torture, Suspense, Swearing, Home Invasion, Character Deaths.

The Strangers

The car ride back to the summer house was quiet, too quiet. Kurt's head was turned, facing away from Blaine, looking out of the window while Blaine concentrated on the road ahead. Now that Kurt had time to think of it, tonight could have gone better than it already had.

One minute, they were sipping champagne around a table full of their friends, toasting to Finn and Rachel, the happy couple. The next thing Kurt knew, Blaine had taken his hand and walked him outside into the gardens of the Hotel. Fairy lights were hanging from the walls and along the window sills, the air was cold, but not enough for a coat, the area was empty, except for the two lovers.

"Why are we out here darling?" Kurt asked his boyfriend of five years.

"Well, I thought this would be the best opportunity and the perfect setting." Blaine said.

"For what?"

Blaine sighed a breathe he didn't even know he was holding, and began to speak.

"Kurt, you are the love of my life. These past five years we've been to hell and back, but we've come out of it a lot stronger. I can never picture myself with anyone else but with you. Which is why I need to ask you something."

Kurt gasped and brought his hand to his mouth in shock when Blaine knelt down on one knee, holding a ring box in his left hand.

"Kurt Hummel, will you make me the happiest man alive by marrying me?" Blaine asked, opening the box lid and showing a thin silver band with a diamond in.

Kurt's mind wouldn't comprehend or register what was happening or what he was supposed to reply, so his reply went like this.

"Blaine, I would love to become you're husband. But not yet. We're still young, you've still got two more years of law school, and I've got this big promotion coming up after this fashion show, so I'll have no time to discuss a wedding." Kurt said, he was surprised at how his words came out naturally and seemed to make sense in his head.

However, Kurt wished he could take away the hurt and disappointment etched on Blaine's face, who looked like he was very close to bursting into tears. Instead, Blaine just nodded slowly, he closed the lid of the ring box, pocketing it, and quickly stood up, brushing off invisible dirt on his trousers.

"No you're right. It was a stupid idea," Blaine said, he refused to look at Kurt, he smiled quickly but it soon faded.

"No Blaine, it wasn't-"

"We better get back in there don't we? Don't want you're dad or anyone walking in on this awkward conversation. Come on," Blaine said, this time he didn't take Kurt's hand, so Kurt trailed after Blaine as they made their way back to the table.

As Kurt took his seat next to Blaine (who kept his distance a small bit), he could feel the looks both Tina and Santana were firing at him. If Kurt was them, he would be confused as well, if he had seen one of the couples go outside hand in hand, and return in single file with looks of sadness on their faces, he would be concerned too. Kurt smiled back at them reassuringly, before taking a large gulp from his champagne glass.

Kurt and Blaine stayed an extra half an hour before Blaine said he wanted to leave because it was getting late, and they still had a long journey back to the house. Kurt had wanted to stay longer, but agreed. Just as he stood up from his chair, Kurt bumped into Rachel.

"Ooh! Sorry Kurt, you're not leaving already are you?" Rachel said, she had one hand resting on Kurt's shoulder, holding her up, while the other hand was cupping his cheek, her face was getting closer to Kurt's like she was about to kiss him, Kurt could smell the waft of wine on Rachel's breathe, and a drunk Rachel was not something he wanted to deal with right now.

"Yeah we are, we have a long drive to get back to the house. But, I will call you tomorrow morning, and laugh at you're evident hangover you are sure to have," Kurt teased.

"You'll be there to wave me and Finn off before we go to Hawaii?" Rachel asked, biting her bottom lip.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world." Kurt said, he kissed her on the cheek and stepped back; she dropped her arms to her side and smiled warmly at him. "Tell Finn I said congrats, and tell Dad and Carole I love them, and I'll see them tomorrow morning." Kurt said, when Rachel nodded, he congratulated her one more time and gave her his love, before waving at her and turning around to join Blaine, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. Kurt sighed, his hand automatically rested on Blaine's back, but Blaine shrugged him off, and stormed forwards towards the exit. Kurt tried hard to ignore the hurt feeling, and followed his boyfriend.

Kurt and Blaine had to travel down from New York to South Carolina. Rachel was performing in some charity theatre production in Columbia, so her and Finn decided to hold the wedding in Columbia. Blaine had begged his parents to let him and Kurt use the Anderson Summer House just outside of Florence, his parents agreed as long as they didn't get up to any funny business, obviously unaware that Blaine had planned on proposing to Kurt during the trip. As they were staying at the family home, it did mean that they would have to drive around 1 hour and 30 minutes both ways to get to the reception; and because the area was very remote, there wasn't much to look at out of the window.

The only noise filling the car and the tension between the two was the radio, which kept crackling every now and then as they were losing reception. It was playing some country crap, so Kurt wasn't interested, as long as it was droning out the silence. Kurt kept opening his mouth to say something, to explain to Blaine that he did want to marry him...just not yet, but no words would come out. The car started to feel very claustrophobic, so when Kurt got sick of looking at nothing outside his window, he decided to look up at Blaine for the first time since they got in the car.

Blaine just kept staring straight ahead, he either didn't know Kurt was looking at him, or he was ignoring him. By the time either of them knew it, Blaine was pulling up to the driveway of the large house and put the car into park. They both got out of the car quickly, finally able to breathe in the open space and fresh air, instead of the air in the stale car. Kurt looked down at his watch and read the clock at 3:02 am. Blaine was the first to reach the front door, the keys jingled as he got them out from his bag, the sound almost deafening in the silence. Blaine opened the door, the first thing he did was flick the light switch on, so Kurt could get a proper look of the inside, but it only caused his heart to ache more.

It was a very old fashioned house, the walls were a creamy colour, decorated with numerous portraits hanging on the walls, towards the back of the living room was a stone wall with a fire, which is where Blaine bounded towards and started to light a fire, giving the living room a more homey feel to it. There were shelves along the wall filled with books and DVD's, and a flat screen TV hung on the wall, with two sets of sofa's facing it. He walked past a piano, which was a few steps away from the front door; Kurt would have to remind himself to ask Blaine if he could play it before they left. What made Kurt's heart hurt was the fact the floor was littered with red rose petals, a glass of champagne sat in a bucket full of ice on the coffee table. Kurt couldn't think of how Blaine had been able to do all this under Kurt's nose, especially when Kurt was with Blaine more or less the whole time.

Blaine had finally managed to get the fire going after a few tries with the match; he threw the useless match into the fire and stood up, knee's cracking at the action. He stood and faced Kurt, both of whom looked incredibly uncomfortable.

"Um, why don't you take a nice long bath, I'll clear all this away." Blaine said quietly, Kurt had to listen carefully to be able to hear him clearly.

Kurt nodded; he hung his coat on the coat rack and tossed his bag onto the sofa, and walked towards the bathroom. Kurt stripped off his clothes and stepped into the bath as the water was starting to get warmer. He noticed that there were even candles and more rose petals in a small cup on the shelf to the side, so Kurt tossed a few rose petals into the water, and sat in the bath. He wrapped his arms around his thighs, and lay his head on top of his knees; he sighed deeply and closed his eyes, the night kept replaying itself in his head, and the disappointed look Blaine kept shooting him. Kurt must have sat in the bath for a little over half an hour before he had the willpower to get out, and the fact that the water was starting to get cold. He wrapped the towel around his waist and exited the bathroom. He shivered as his feet touched the cold wooden floorboards in the hallway, making him hurry to the bedroom to change into his pyjamas.

After he was dressed in his warm, comfy pyjamas and had completed his skin moisturising routine, Kurt tiptoed down the hall into the living room. Kurt looked around sadly as he saw the rose petals had all been cleared up, and the room was empty. He walked into the kitchen where he saw Blaine, who had already helped himself to a glass of the celebratory champagne; he was sitting on a stool, elbows resting on the kitchen counter. He looked up when he saw Kurt enter the room, but immediately put his head down. Kurt sighed, and sat on the other stool opposite the table from Blaine, Kurt noticed Blaine looking at the ring box, which sat on the middle of the table, in between Kurt and Blaine.

"Blaine, I'm sorry-"

"It's fine Kurt, seriously. Let's just forget it happened." Blaine said sulkily.

"It's kinda hard to forget what happened tonight Blaine, especially when you're acting so coldly to me," Kurt said, shrugging his shoulders slightly.

"I'm not acting anything Kurt, I'm just coping." Blaine said, gulping down another mouthful of the alcohol.

"Oh yeah that's the best way to deal with this." Kurt snapped.

Blaine chuckled to himself quietly; he drank the last sip of champagne and slammed the glass down on the counter, before standing up from the stool and heading towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Kurt said, getting up to follow him.

"I need – I need to clear my head, go for a walk, go for a drive, something."

"Blaine-"

They both froze when they heard a knock at the door. The house was in a remote area, there were no houses for miles, who would be knocking here, especially this late at night? Blaine stepped forward towards the door, but Kurt tugged on his arm to hold him back.

"What are you doing? Don't answer the door." Kurt whispered loudly at Blaine.

"Why? Come on Kurt, they'll have seen the lights on in the house." Blaine said, he ripped his arm out of Kurt's hand and walked over to the door.

Blaine looked through the peep hole, but it was too dark all he could make out was a small figure of a woman. He slowly opened the door halfway and poked his head out. His guess was correct, as a woman was standing on his doorstep, she was wearing bright colours, her blonde hair almost covering her face as she looked down, not giving Blaine eye contact. When the stranger didn't make a move to talk, Blaine spoke.

"Um, can we help you?"

Kurt wrapped his arms around his stomach as the cold from outdoors seeped through the door, he slowly walked towards Blaine to get a better look at the girl, but Blaine was blocking his view. The girl remained silent, just the sound of her breathing could be heard. When she finally did speak, it was eerily quiet, and sounded like she was putting it on.

"Is Tamara here?"

Blaine blinked down at her, not expecting the sudden voice to come from the girl.

"No, no there's no one called Tamara here." Blaine said, the girl remained standing on the porch, looking down. The atmosphere was quiet again for a few long seconds, before she finally spoke again.

"Are you sure?"

The certainty in her voice concerned Kurt, he couldn't see a car or a bike or anything ahead, so how had she travelled here? Especially now as it was now a waste of a journey.

"No, there is no one of that name living here. Sorry." Blaine said, faking sympathy. When the woman still stood in front of him he sighed. "Look, do you need a ride somewhere? I can't see a car or anything-"

The girl just walked away from them, Blaine had shut the door by the time Kurt could see where she headed off to.

"Well that was weird." Blaine said, he stood in front of Kurt, contemplating what he was about to do. "Right, well I'm going to get some more cigarettes." Blaine said, he took his coat off from the hanger and shrugged it on.

"But you said you quit-"

"We all have our secrets Kurt." Blaine said, he picked his keys up from the jar by the door and headed out of the door, Kurt winced as the door slammed shut.

He was all alone in this big house. Kurt's relationship with Blaine was starting to strain, that much was evident. He hugged himself tighter and began to walk over to the old fashioned record player, and turned on the first song that played. Again, it was another country song, and Kurt never thought he would be able to survive the first verses of this kind of music; he needed his Beyonce, Lady GaGa, and Judy Garland. It seems like everyone who lives around here have some sort of obsession with country music.

As the music was playing in the background, Kurt plopped himself on top of the sofa and breathed out a sigh in content. He was mad at Blaine for leaving him in this unfamiliar house by himself, he felt rude if he went snooping around the house. When he was sick of just looking at the wall in front of him, he got up from the sofa and decided to have a look around. He knew the Anderson family were well off and came from money, but he wasn't expecting this, the house was quite small and old fashioned, Kurt expected it to be a huge mansion and made out of marble.

Kurt looked in through the bedrooms, the bathroom, and finally the kitchen. He noted the different sizes of knives, saucepans and chopping boards, Emilie Anderson loved to cook, so Kurt wasn't surprised at all the different sizes of kitchen utensils. Kurt was inspecting the cupboards when there was a knock at the door. Kurt sighed, Blaine must have forgotten his keys…but then how did he drive the car? The door sounded a second time, and Kurt debated in his head whether to answer it.

He walked slowly to the door, taking his time as he did not want to open the door. When he reached the door, he made no heed to open it, but took a deep breathe, before speaking through the door.

"Hello?" He said softly, the side of his face resting on the wooden door. He let out a shaky breathe as he received no answer from the other side of the door. "Hello, is anyone there?" Another pause before he heard a small voice.

"Is Tamara here?"

Kurt scrunched his eyebrows together, listening carefully. Surely he misheard? Why was this person back?

"You already came by to this house. We don't have a Tamara here." Kurt said.

"Are you sure?" The voice said back.

"Yes, I'm sure. Please don't come back again." Kurt said carefully.

The other end of the door was quite again, and Kurt was sure the woman had given up and left. Suddenly, the woman in the other side started to knock lightly on the door, almost as if she was tapping it. The knocking persisted and continued to get louder. He was in a freaking house, all by himself, with this weirdo banging on the door.

"Just go away!" Kurt shouted through the door, but the woman only knocked harder each time.

Kurt was at a loss of what to do, he made sure the door was locked, as well as the windows, and ran over to his bag to get his phone to call Blaine. Luck wasn't on his side unfortunately, as his phone signalled low battery.

"Shit." Kurt muttered, he ran over to his overnight bag in the living room and got his phone charger out. He couldn't see anywhere to plug it into; he found one by the fireplace, so he walked over to the plug socket and plugged his phone into the switch.

As he wouldn't be able to make any calls at the time being, he walked over to the house phone situated in Mr Anderson's office and dialled Blaine's number which he knew by heart. The phone rang five times before Blaine answered.

"Kurt?"

"Blaine! That girl's back and she keeps banging on the door and she won't leave. Where are you?"

"I'm-"

The line goes dead and Kurt freezes. He puts the phone down, and tries to dial again, this time the line won't even ring. The constant slamming of the door made tears of fear and frustration appear in his eyes. Kurt swiftly walks out of the office and back into the living room, he noticed that the knocking had slowly stopped, and was just a repeated knocking. He walked over to where he left his phone, but it wasn't there anymore, all that was left was his charger.

A tapping sound was coming from the back door. Kurt spun around at the noise, startled. Kurt gulps, before running into the kitchen and grabbing the nearest knife he can see. He walks over to where the source of the tapping is coming from; the door is covered by a curtain. Kurt tries to control his breathing and takes a few deep breathes before pulling the curtain across quickly. A man wearing what looks like a sack over his head with holes cut for his eyes was standing on the other side of the window in the door. Kurt screams and trips over the lead for the record player, playing an eerie tune repeatedly. The door handle starts to twist, Kurt's breathing heavily when suddenly the front door slowly opens. Kurt blinks slowly, almost like he was trying to wake up from some nightmare. He walks quickly over to the front door, he looks through the gap, where he sees's the woman wearing a large mask, like a Doll Face. Kurt slams the door shut and makes sure it is properly locked this time, before running into the bedroom to hide, knife still clutched in his hand, and the song playing on repeat.

The slamming and the tapping are back, and Kurt is breathing heavily in fright. He sits on the side of the bed on the floor, knife up high in case of sudden attack. Kurt kneels up and reaches for the bedside lamp which is turned on, as he tries to bring it down next to him it smashes on the floor, cutting his palm. Kurt's fear overpowers the pain, as the continuous slamming of the door hammered through his head.

"GO AWAY!" Kurt screams out loud.

This time, the tapping and the knocking comes to an abrupt halt, he can hear the front door creaking open and closing. The record player suddenly stops, and the house is silent, except for Kurt's panting. Loud footsteps can be heard in the hallway, and Kurt squeezes his eyes closed, begging this nightmare to end.

GUESS WHOSE BACK!

AISLING CROWE IS BACK ON ! (Sorry, but I'm no Kurt Hummel, as much as I would love to be)

So this fic is a little different from the others I've written (you'll see soon.)

Also, whose read Struck By Lightning? I need to fangirl with you guys about the awesomeness that is Chris Colfer.

I want to thank EVERYONE who sent me the lovely messages and reviewed on my other stories AN. I seriously almost cried reading most of them, and I am sorry if I didn't reply to everyone.

So please tell me what you think, and if it's worth continuing. :-) i'm really nervous about this fic.

Jeeze, long Authors Note, I'll leave you guys alone.

CrissColferCrowe