Bored of happy things?
Come read Darkest Dreams!
lol. You see why I'm not a poet.
Anyway, here you go. I wasn't planning on posting until later tonight, but I want to get this show on the road...
Again...no beta. Nothing is mine except the mistakes...you know how it goes.
Oh, and I've never been to Switzerland, if you care.
Enjoy. And, as always...PLEASE REVIEW!!
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Chapter 7: To Lose it All
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“Trust me, you don’t want to know about my family,” Lois replied to Superman’s inquiry. “They’re all crazy.” It was a bit after lunch, the second day after being locked away in this room. They had been talking for some time, but his last question had taken Lois by surprise.
As she hesitated, however, she looked at him and wondered. He was the last of all Kryptonians. She had thought of it, but it had never struck her how truly awful that thought was. How terribly lonely. How did he go on doing what he did, all alone? He must have had a family that hadn’t been able to get off his planet before it exploded. She swore at herself mentally. Had he been married? Had kids? Who knew how old he was—whether he even aged at the same rate as humans? If he wasn’t married (Or did Kryptonians marry at all?
That was a weird thought.), what about his parents? Goodness, did he even
have parents like humans did…?
Lois shook her head, trying to calm the sudden attack of questions that had never even occurred to her to ask the superhero. She had always assumed that since he looked like a human, he came from a place not so different from Earth. After all, he seemed to have adjusted to Earth’s culture well enough, and he had been so impersonal that such questions had seemed ridiculous. But now everything was different. She realized that she didn’t know anything about him at all—and furiously squashed the rising curiosity of how different he really was. She was not like Bureau 39, and was furious that they had put that thought into her mind at all.
She shuddered, wondering why he had asked after her family at all; it must have cost him terribly to ask, having lost them, along with
everything. Not just his family, but his favorite sport (Some form of flying basketball?), his job (Alien fire-fighter, perhaps?), his favorite hologram or whatever they did for wasting time…his whole
culture. How did he manage?
“Well, there’s Lucy,” she started in a softer tone. “She has a new man on her arm every other month, it seems, and each one as much rash as the last. She’s a good girl, though. I just…worry about her, you know?” Had he had any brothers and sisters that had been left behind? She took a deep breath. “My parents aren’t…the best of people. My mom was an alcoholic when I was younger, and Dad was just…never around. They got divorced years ago, and can’t stand the sight of each other.”
“I’m sorry,” Clark murmured, feeling bad for asking.
Lois looked at him sharply. “What did I tell you about apologizing?” she snapped.
“Sor—uh,” Clark choked to stop himself as Lois’s glare turned deadly.
“That’s right,” Lois said after a moment’s pause as if to make sure her glare had burned a mark into his heart as a reminder of her warning. “Don’t forget it.”
They fell into another one of the countless silences of the day, but it was not uncomfortable. The ceiling lights hummed brightly overhead.
“Do you miss your family?” Lois asked after a very long pause. Superman tensed and turned to look at her, the look in his eyes unfathomable. He looked away without answering, his brow furrowed. Lois immediately felt guilty. She shouldn’t be bringing up such things—not in here, where both of them were working so hard to keep the gloom at bay. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have asked.”
Clark shrugged, but still didn’t speak. “It’s all right. I—yeah. I do miss them. Especially with, you know…” He dragged to a stop, looking at the door. Every time a meal was brought he was terrified that the person beyond the door was coming for him. It was only a matter of time. He took a long, shaky breath. He was so dreadfully alone—more alone than he ever had felt…more
different than he ever had felt…
Lois’s warm hand squeezed his, bringing him out of his sinking thoughts.
“How awful you must think we are,” Lois said, and her tone had regained some of the awe of happier days, though it was tarnished with shame for mankind. “You’ve only been here a short time, and I can’t imagine all the horrible things you see…all alone.”
“It’s worth it,” Clark said, looking at her. He had helped her so much already, and there was no harm in telling of some of Superman’s experiences. After all, he was Superman, not matter how un-super he felt right now. “You know—the thank yous are enough, most of the time. Knowing that I’m helping one more family from losing a son, or a father, or a mother or a daughter. That’s enough for me.”
Lois shook her head. Considering his recent loss of his planet, it was no wonder that he felt that way. But still…
“The rescuing I can understand. But the wars, the crime…people killing people. And when you can’t save them…what do you do?” She looked around the terrible white room, feeling a sudden prickling over her arms as she saw the camera staring back at her. She rubbed her arms to quell the slight chill. “How can you stand it?”
“It’s not that bad, Lois,” Clark said with a slight smile. There were the things that did indeed make it more than worth it. Besides the sincere thanks—the tears of relief, the realization that he was doing some good—there were those rare but cherished times that he had rushed back to the newsroom struggling for composure after a particularly humorous rescue situation. He just kept them to himself most of the time—what else was there to do? But he was sure Lois would appreciate them.
“See, I was flying over Switzerland a couple months ago,” he said, “and some skydiver’s parachute didn’t open properly. He was having a great time feeling how it felt to fly without wings, but when he pulled the cord…he realized it wasn’t all it was cut out to be.” Clark gave a crooked smile. “I picked the guy up a good couple hundred feet above the ground. Usually they like me to, you know, take my time getting to the ground and all, but I think the guy almost kissed me when I finally put him back on solid ground.”
He paused, his amusement turning slightly towards some good-humored embarrassment. Something tickled at the back of Lois’s mind, then, but she couldn’t put a finger on it.
“Well, we landed in a field by some of his friends, but people around had seen it all and, well…they get kind of excited, when they see me for the first time and all…” He looked embarrassed by this admittance, which Lois thought was amusing. There were people in Metropolis that had seen him every day since the day he first appeared that still screamed in worship and swooned whenever he even flew overhead. In fact, she had been one of them only a few days earlier….Not the swooning and screaming part, of course, but still…
She had never thought that he might actually be embarrassed by such a thing—the suit was certainly not one meant to keep him out of the spotlight.
Clark cleared his throat. “Well, you know, I just set the guy down and told him, you know, that it wasn’t too good of an idea to fly unless you could make sure you knew how to land, then left. We were in a valley sort of thing, you know, and I took off. There were some kids there, and so I looked back to wave and…well, I guess I…just shot off at full speed before looking forward again. It was only a second, but…uh…going that speed without looking…” He winced, looking guilty. “I crashed into their mountain.”
Lois laughed in pure surprise. “What?”
“It was near the tip,” Clark explained, the slightest of a red tinge brushing his pale cheeks. “You know how tall the mountains get in Switzerland. I just…crashed through. I…I didn’t even realize what had happened until I came out on the other side.”
Lois couldn’t help it—she burst out laughing helplessly, and couldn’t seem to stop. She remembered seeing a poorly translated article from some random rural newspaper in Switzerland during one of her searches for her “Superman File” (which she was now somewhat embarrassed to remember. She was sure Superman would be quite embarrassed if he were to discover of it.). “Superman Hits Mountain in Alps.” It had opened something like this: “Superman crashed into a mountain near the small Swiss town of Arosa this Thursday, after rescuing a Jonny Wilson, who was skydiving when his parachute failed to open correctly. Shortly before the accident it is reported that Superman had warned the man ‘not try to fly without being able to land.’”
All sorts of paparazzi had jumped on the story and turned it into a brief but still noticeable flare of drama: whether Superman could be trusted in their skies or not. For most respectable people (like Lois), however, they had assumed it was one of the endless baseless stories revolving around the superhero that had no truth to them at all.
Lois leaned over, clutching her sides as she struggled to control her laughter. To have heard it was true would have been humorous, if a bit shocking. To hear it come from Superman’s own mouth in such a clearly embarrassed—yet amused at his own mistake—way, was too much for her. It shouldn’t have even been that funny, but with all the stress that had built up around her it felt like the funniest thing she had ever heard.
As she finally settled down she looked at Superman, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. He was grinning broadly—his eyes laughing even as he held his own sore ribs as he chuckled with her, but that was more for her own laughter than at his story.
“I heard about that!” Lois said. “The Star was pumping it all up to say that you needed to have a license for flying, or something…or had to pay a fee for an accident like that—something like a speeding ticket.”
“I don’t even know if they can track me at full speed,” Superman said.
“No one paid any attention to them anyway.”
“Still,” Clark said slowly, his voice more serious. “I have been extra careful since—you know, keeping an eye open. With all of my extra senses…that shouldn’t have happened. I was lucky no one got hurt.”
Lois rolled her eyes. “Relax, Superman. Geez, sometimes it’s like you try to carry the whole world on your shoulders.” She sat back, her eyes dancing. “Do you have any more secrets?”
Clark blinked. “Well, uh. I do have more funny stories.” He thought for a moment, then chuckled suddenly, leaning towards Lois the slightest bit.
“I was doing my rounds over Metropolis one day—you know, like always—and I…uh…”
He trailed off, looking away from her and towards the white door. He could feel something. His skin was beginning to crawl as ripples of slight pain—like the passing of icy cold drops of acid—began to tickle across his being.
“What is it?” Lois asked as he looked towards the door, his face drained of blood so completely that he looked like a ghost. “Superman?”
“I can feel it,” he whispered. “It’s just beyond the door, Lois—it must not lead, because I can feel it. T-they’re com—”
The blinking yellow light on the door’s lock beeped and turned green. The door opened. Clark cut off with a tight gasp as he recoiled in pain.
TBC......
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