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Kurt not is not unfamiliar with the presence of ghosts.
Sometimes, he summons them on purpose. He can feel his mother’s gentle touch straightening his bangs by opening her drawer and lying beside it, remembering her smell. He can hear his brother’s laughter by taking out the small hairbrush he took from Finn’s room and touching the few dark strands caught in the bristles. These ghosts keep him company and make him smile.
Others come uninvitedly, and aren’t as welcome; the echo of mocking words ring in his ears whenever he picks out a piece of clothing he hasn’t worn since high school; visions of drinks spilled on purpose in his section appear before his eyes when he hears the hiss of an espresso machine; a cold shiver of envy runs down his back whenever Blaine checks his phone messages and smiles secretively. Blank terror takes hold of his heart when he hears the sound of a fist fight in the night. Such ghosts he tries to banish straight away, but it isn’t always easy.
And then there’s one more- the nature of which Kurt hasn’t decided yet. It manifests itself all over his apartment. He’ll be cleaning out a cupboard and suddenly find two lost bags of lady grey tea, their cotton strings entangled, stuffed behind a box of cereals, and it feels like someone wraps him inside a warm blanket. He finds flecks of dried cookie batter inside his cook book, and feels hungry for something no meal can satisfy.
When Rachel moves out, she leaves a bottle of contact lense fluid on her shelf - telling Kurt it isn’t hers and she doesn’t know how it got there. It brings tears to Kurt’s eyes, even though he’s never even worn contacts.
When Kurt empties the small bathroom garbage container, he finds a green toothbrush, almost unused, between the bin and its lining bucket, and he aches for a sunny smile he hasn’t seen in a very long time.
It’s the worst when Blaine falls asleep against him, snoring in his ear, and Kurt feels the ghost of a gentler, more patient touch on his skin, raising goosebumps of desire.
Kurt isn’t sure if he needs an exorcist or a medium, but one thing is certain: he can’t go on being haunted by the past.