Bring Me to Life (Six/?)
Prologue | One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Conclusion
Chapter Six
Lana Lang stared at her roommate, wide-eyed. “How did you…what just happened?”
“That’s…a very good question.” Chloe swallowed hard, her heart pounding wildly. “Um, and there’s an explanation, I promise, but I…will be right back.” She quickly headed out of the room, raking a hand through her hair in disbelief. Somehow she’d just teleported from Smallville to Metropolis!
She felt a wave of panic and she closed her eyes, wondering why she was so freaked out when she didn’t feel like she should be. The idea of superpowers had never freaked her out before. Of course she’d never had any before, either, she reasoned.
She suddenly wondered what Clark’s reaction to her disappearance was. Knowing him he was probably more freaked out than her. She reached for her cell phone, but realized she didn’t have it because she was wearing Clark’s clothes. Crap.
And she was definitely not prepared to walk back into the dorm room and face Lana.
Biting her lower lip nervously, she glanced around the empty hallway, then closed her eyes, hoping when she opened them again, she’d be back in Clark’s loft. However, she didn’t get her wish. “Crap,” she whispered, frustrated. She paced the floor a little, trying to decide what to do. After a moment, she spotted Lana standing in the doorway, looking almost as freaked out as she felt.
“Chloe?” she ventured hesitantly.
Drawing in a breath, she realized she had little choice but to go face Lana. It’s not like wishing herself back to Smallville was actually working. She slowly headed back to their shared room and moved past her friend, sitting down on the edge of her bed. “Okay, um…where to start,” she murmured, her mind racing to come up with a believable cover story. It wasn’t like she could tell Lana that Clark’s biological alien father had brought her back to life and she now had weird powers.
“The beginning?” Lana suggested, sitting down on her own bed, still gazing at her wide-eyed.
“Right.” She swallowed hard. “I was…in a car accident.”
“Oh my God,” she whispered in concern. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, but there were um, meteor rocks all around when I crashed and…I was hurt but the rocks…did something to me. I’m not sure what exactly, but um, I seem to be able to do things now that I couldn’t do before,” Chloe lied, hoping she was convincing.
Lana gazed at her, slightly paler than she had been. “Wow, that’s…”
“Weird. I know.” She bit her lower lip, looking across the room at her friend.
She tried to smile, but looked worried. “So…you can teleport from place to place now?”
“It appears that way. But to be honest, that was the first time it happened, so…I mean, I don’t know if this is a permanent thing or just something temporary.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
Lana slowly stood up, looking a bit nervous as she moved over to her desk. “So…is there a particular reason you’re dressed in Clark’s clothes?” Her voice was slightly more distant.
Chloe quickly looked down at what she was wearing and her heart sank. That wasn’t going to be nearly as easy to explain. There was a loud knock on their dorm room door and she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, silently thanking whoever was on the other side for the distraction.
Sighing, Lana moved over and pulled it open, surprised to see Clark standing there. Frowning, she glanced over her shoulder at Chloe. “How did you get here so fast?”
His eyes widening a bit, Chloe felt another wave of panic and she quickly stood up. “He was in the car with me.”
“What?” Lana frowned.
“When I crashed…he was in the car, too. I think it affected both of us.”
“Oh my God,” she murmured, looking up at Clark worriedly. “Are you all right?” She wrapped her arms around his waist.
Clark’s eyebrows raised and he put his arms around his girlfriend, shooting a questioning look at Chloe.
Chloe made a face, shrugging helplessly as if to say, ‘it was all I could come up with.’
“Clark? Are you all right?” Lana repeated, pulling away to look at him.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I wasn’t hurt in the accident.” He forced a smile, feeling unsettled as he looked at her.
“So what powers do you have?” she asked him.
“Oh.” He shot another look at Chloe. “Uh, I can move from place to place really fast.”
She nodded, looking fascinated. “Is that all?”
“Chloe, can I talk to you in the hall for a minute?” he asked suddenly.
“Sure.” Feeling uncomfortable, she followed him out of the room, leaving a bewildered Lana staring after them.
“What the heck happened?” he whispered, pulling her down the hallway far enough from the room so that Lana wasn’t in earshot.
“Apparently in addition to moving things with my mind, I can also teleport,” she whispered back, her eyes wide.
Clark stared at her, letting that sink in slowly. “So you told Lana we were in a car accident?”
“Yeah. And that we crashed by meteor rocks that must have somehow given us powers. And considering all the things we know about the rocks, it’s not that much of a stretch of the imagination.”
“You think she bought it?”
“I think so. But I don’t know.” She wrapped her arms around herself, looking worried.
“Are you all right?”
Chloe looked at him, nodding. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little freaked out, I guess. I’m not sure which one of us was more startled--me, you, or Lana.”
Clark let out a breath, glancing toward their dorm room. “She must be really weirded out right now.”
Her jaw tensed slightly but she forced the expression on her face to remain neutral. “I’m sure she is.”
“I should go…” He nodded toward the room.
“By all means.” She stepped aside to let him by, her voice cool.
Clark gazed at her. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fantastic,” she said, pasting a smile on her face. “Oh, Clark?”
“Yeah?” He turned to look at her once more.
“She wanted to know why I was wearing your clothes.”
He swallowed hard, nodding. “I’ll just…tell her the truth. Well, you know what I mean.”
A faint, bitter smile touched her lips. She wished she didn’t. Watching him go, she bit down hard on her tongue, trying to hold back the tears that were now prickling at her eyes. She suddenly wished she was anywhere but Metropolis.
* * *
Lois sat on her sofa in her apartment above the Talon, glaring at the television screen as she played an old Nintendo game. She wasn’t winning and she hated not winning.
It was her first day off in over a week and she’d planned to just hang out and relax, but so far it hadn’t been a very relaxing day. People kept coming up to her apartment to tell her that the cappuccino machine was broken--like she was supposed to know how to fix the stupid thing. Yeah, right.
It took her a moment to realize that she wasn’t alone and she glanced sideways, springing off the couch as she caught sight of her cousin sitting there. “Chloe?? What the hell?”
If anything, Chloe looked almost as startled as she felt. “Uh, hi.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You wanna explain what just happened?”
“I teleported.”
Lois blinked.
“I was in a car crash, there were meteor rocks, I now have powers.”
She shook her head a little. “You were in a car crash? Are you all right?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. Mostly.” Chloe managed a small smile, but it didn’t reach her hazel eyes and Lois frowned. Something was wrong.
She sat down beside her cousin and put a hand on her shoulder. “Mostly?”
“No, I’m completely fine, actually. I’m just…a little freaked out by these new abilities.” She put her head in her hands and Lois put an arm around her, worried.
“Maybe we should get you to a hospital?”
“No way. I don’t wanna be experimented on like some lab rat, Lois.” Chloe stood up and began to pace the floor.
Lois watched her, wondering why she wasn’t more freaked out by the idea that her little cousin had some kind of magic super-powers. It took a moment for the other thing to register. Her eyebrows shot up. “Hey, Cous?”
“Yeah?” She didn’t stop pacing.
“Wanna tell me why you’re wearing Smallville’s clothes?”