Hours later, an old and dusty trucked turned into the basement parking lot of the Lakeside Palace Hotel. It went swiftly along the rows of cars, trying to find an empty spot, but there were none. Instead, it turned into a bare space near the elevators. The doors opened and the three girls piled out of the car. Lana stumbled forwards from the car, staring around the basement nervously. Exhaustion had crept in after her fight with Pete, but there had been no way for her to relax in the long car ride. Every time her eyes would start to drift close, she’d see a flash of Clark; his eyes, his shining smile, and she’d bolt upright in her seat. She was beyond tired now, every joint in her body had a mind of its own and her legs could not stop trembling. If there was another fight waiting for them upstairs, she didn’t like their chances this time. Martha seemed just as, if not more, worn out then she was. Lana watched as she staggered around the truck, her skin dangerously pale. The older woman wiped her forehead with the sleeve of her jacket, already dark from sweat. It almost looked like she was going into shock, Lana realized; which was perfectly understandable given the circumstances. Not only was Clark missing, kidnapped, but she’d had to fight off her husband of who knows how many years. Lana couldn’t tell whether the wetness around her eyes was from sweat or tears, or, most likely, both.
Chloe was a different story though. She jumped out of the truck besides Lana and promptly fell to her knees as she landed. Lana grabbed her shoulder and helped her up gently, hearing Chloe wheeze as she climbed to her feet. Steadying her legs with one hand, Chloe blotted underneath her nose with a blood stained piece of cloth. Of all of them, she had been hurt the worse in the fight and Lana doubted that she would still be standing after such abuse. Though she didn’t say anything, Lana could see the tears in Chloe’s eyes every time she moved. Yet, there was a fire in Chloe’s eyes that seemed to keep her going. Shrugging off Lana’s offered hand, Chloe limped over to the elevator and jabbed the up arrow forcefully.
“Do you think Sarah’s expecting us?” Lana asked as the doors opened.
“There’s no way of knowing,” Martha told her. The doors closed behind them and the car lurched as it started to climb. “Jon or the others could have gotten free, found a phone to warn her.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Chloe said. “We have to get Clark back, whether she’s expecting us or not.”
“Ready or not,” Lana whispered to herself. She felt fear start to tighten up in her gut and she tried to force herself to relax. The fear didn’t go away though; instead it seemed to grow even larger. It wasn’t the nerves she’d get before an equestrian show or a race; this was something much worse. This fear was like what she’d felt when she’d been fighting Pete, but that had been so sudden she’d hardly had time to think about it, just fight for her life. Now as the elevator rumbled upwards, all Lana could do was think.
“Do… do you think she’ll make Clark…” her voice trailed off, she couldn’t finish it. Martha bit her lip, suddenly looking much older than she was. Lana was stunned as she saw the blind panic in her eyes, almost fear, when she’d said Clark’s name.
“If she tells him to…” Chloe said slowly, “if she sends him against us, we’ll have to fight him.” She stared at the metal doors of the elevator, not looking at the other two girls. “We can’t leave him with her,” she said again, her voice almost hollow. “We can’t.”
“But its Clark- ,” Lana started to say.
“Yes, it’s Clark,” Chloe snapped right back, “but it was also Pete and Lex. She didn’t mind then, did she?” Lana stared at her and then shook her head.
“Whatever happens,” Martha finally spoke up, “you have to leave Clark to me.” Chloe and Lana both looked at her in surprise. “Sarah’s your responsibility, you’ll have to keep her busy, but Clark is my son. Whatever happens or no matter what you hear, you have to leave Clark to me. You have to promise me that,” she told them. She stared at the two girls until they nodded. “Good,” she said, closing her eyes and leaning her head back.
“What’ll we do with Sarah?” Lana asked her. Her eyes still closed, she shrugged.
“We’ll decide later, I guess. But for now, if you can keep her busy she might not even get a chance to tell Clark to do anything.”
“If she hasn’t had a chance to do so already,” Chloe muttered. Lana felt like agreeing with her. Clark had been with Sarah for close to a day now. Who knows what they’d done together. That thought made her cold as she realized how true it was. No one knew how far Sarah was planning on taking this; how far she was willing to go. She could very well order Clark to kill them all, his mother and friends. When she’d first heard about Sarah’s power, she hadn’t thought much of it. It had seemed a joke, a stupid prank of a power. Now she knew differently. In a way, Sarah was much worse then the others who’d been changed forever by the meteor rocks. They could hurt, maybe even kill, but Sarah could control. She could force someone to damn themselves, make an innocent person do something completely atrocious, and then walk away from it, her hands physically clean. With a shiver, she wondered if they were coming in time to save Clark from that fate, or if they were already too late?
The doors opened with a small ping and the three girls stepped out quickly. Lana was struck for a moment at the posh décor of the lobby. Nell had spent a lot of time and money on decorating their home and Lana had always considered it elegant, but this put everything they owned to shame. Chandeliers lit the vaulted ceilings, accenting large mosaics on the walls. Thick, rich carpets draped gleaming, mirror like hard wood floors. Chloe hardly seemed to notice any of it. She marched around a circle of black leather couches and straight up to the front desk. A balding, official looking man straightened up behind it, frowning as he took in her torn clothing. He cleared his throat as she stopped in front of the desk and stepped in front of the other clerks. “Yes, may I help you?” he asked, giving the three girls a practiced smile.
“Probably not,” Chloe told him and turned to the clerks behind him. “You’ve got two guests staying here, a guy and a girl about our ages. They probably just walked in and took one of the expensive rooms. We’d really like to know which one.”
“The guy would be tall with black hair and the girl would be a little shorter than me with long, brown hair,” Lana spoke up. “Oh, and they might’ve gone by the names of Clark and Sarah.”
“I’m sorry,” the man said, stepping in front of the clerks again, “but there is no one in the hotel matching that description. I oversee all the guests who stay in our suites and certainly no one’s allowed to stay without checking in.”
“You mean the two in the penthouse?” one of the female clerks asked Chloe. Her boss turned around to stare at her.
“Penthouse,” Martha breathed out. “Yeah, it’s probably them.”
“No one’s staying in the penthouse,” the manager insisted firmly.
“You took them up yourself,” the clerk remarked. She opened a cabinet underneath the desk, revealing a long tray with many slots. “If there’s no one there, why are the keys gone?” He gaped at her and then looked down at the case in puzzlement.
“But... I don’t remember,” he stuttered, staring off suddenly. He pinched his lower lip, looking very doubtful.
“You wouldn’t happen to have another key to the room, would you?” Lana asked the clerk. She nodded and pulled another drawer open.
“Here,” she said, handing it to Lana. They were the new type, more like a credit card than a room key. She glanced from Lana and Chloe to Martha and then leaned forwards slightly. “They run off and elope or something?” she asked the three girls. All three of them jumped suddenly, Chloe especially.
“No… definitely not… well, something like it, but no…,” Martha stammered at her helplessly.
“We’re here to take them home,” Lana said quickly, grabbing Martha’s hand and squeezing it gently.
“Well, if you can get them out, I’d be willing to forget the whole thing, but someone’s going to have to cover their room service bill. You wouldn’t believe some of the things they’ve been ordering,” she laughed, rolling her eyes. Lana laughed nervously along with her and started to pull Martha towards the door.
“Thank you, we’ll take care of it,” she said as she tugged Martha after her. Chloe didn’t budge however; she seemed to be rooted in front of the desk, glaring at the clerk.
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“What sort of things?” she asked her quietly. Lana winced as she heard the dangerous tone in her voice and pushed Martha the rest of the way towards the elevators. Hurrying back, she hooked her arm around Chloe’s and yanked her backwards.
“Never mind that,” Lana hissed into her ear. “They probably just ordered take out, that’s all.”
“That better be all,” Chloe grumbled, shaking off Lana’s arm. Martha waved them over impatiently from across the room, holding the elevator door open. Chloe and Lana hurried in and Martha stepped back, the door closing behind her. Martha pressed the button marked, ‘Penthouse’ and the elevator lurched and then started to move upwards. Soft classical music played quietly in the background as they rode up. Mozart, Lana suddenly thought to herself, identifying the piece. Why she was worrying about that now, and not about Clark, she couldn’t understand. “Probably easier,” she muttered to herself, answering her own question. Chloe and Martha glanced at her oddly, and she shook her head. “Nothing,” she said, “just thinking out loud.”
“Mmmm…” Martha nodded, still looking at Lana. “Girls,” she said suddenly, “I meant what I said downstairs. You have to leave Clark to me, alright?” Lana and Chloe both nodded.
“As long as I get to go after Sarah,” Chloe added. Martha nodded, looking up at the floor numbers above the door. They were getting closer now.
The car slowed, stopped, and the doors opened quietly. No one stepped out yet though. They stood there, staring out into a small hallway that branched out right and left from the doorway. The doors remained open for a few seconds, and then started to rumble close. Chloe shot out her arm and hit the ‘door open’ button on the wall. She looked back at Lana and Martha, her face set. “Everyone ready?” she asked in a steady voice. Lana took a deep breath and nodded. Martha bit her lip and then did the same. “Alright,” Chloe breathed, closing her eyes briefly. She stepped out of the elevator and into the hall, glancing at the key quickly. Looking at the numbers on the wall, she started down the right hallway, then double checked the key and turned around to the left hallway. “This way,” she said quickly, starting to run.
“You’re sure?” Lana asked her.
“Very funny,” Chloe snapped, staring at the room numbers. “There,” she pointed down the hall to the doorway at the end. They hurried down the hall and stopped at the door. Chloe tugged the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign off the handle and threw it behind them, angrily. Then she leaned in close to it and put her ear to the door.
“Anything?” Martha asked her in a loud whisper. Chloe waved her to be quiet frantically and kept listening. After a moment, she leaned back, wincing as she did, and shook her head.
“Someone’s talking, but it’s not Clark or Sarah. It might be the TV,” she said quietly. She held up the key and looked at the other two. Martha and Lana nodded to her and she quickly slid it into the slot by the door. The green light by the handle blinked on and Chloe slowly opened the door, inch by inch. When there was enough room, she turned sideways and slipped inside. Lana followed after her, and after her came Martha. The doorway led into a foyer that was about the size of Lana’s bedroom back home. Beyond it, the girls could see part of another room, but so far, no one else. The sound of the TV came somewhere beyond the foyer, but that was all, they couldn’t hear anyone talking. Chloe moved around to the other side of the door and pushed it close just as quietly as she had opened it.
Slowly, the three girls walked out into the other room, looking around nervously for some sign of Sarah or Clark. It was a much larger than they expected; a comfortable living room area in one end, with a small but fully stocked kitchenette in the other. A digital TV was blaring away in the corner of the living area. There were a trio of leather couches spaced around the room, draped with hotel towels and pillows. A white robe had been hung on top of a standing lamp in the corner, glowing brightly from the light underneath it. Martha sniffed as she prodded the edge of an empty chip bag that was lying on the floor. All around them were similar bags on the floor, some still with chips or pretzels spilling out of them. Lana turned around and stared into the kitchenette, wrinkling her nose at the piles of dirty plates and glasses in the sink. Someone had also found the wet bar apparently, there were stacks of the tiny bottles open all over the kitchen. There was a large pink stain at one end of the counter and it only took a moment’s glance for Lana to tell that someone had attempted to make a strawberry daiquiri and failed miserably at it.
“Kind of a slob, isn’t she?” Chloe remarked.
“I could think of worse things to call her,” Lana muttered back. Just as she said it though, a door opened at the other end of the room and everyone froze as Sarah stepped out.
“I think that’s room-service…,” she said as she stepped through the doorway, looking behind her. No one moved, there wasn’t any place to hide. When she turned and saw them, Sarah froze in mid-step, staring at them. She was wearing a loosely tied terry-cloth robe and slippers, looking for all the world like she had just gotten up. Lana stared at her speechless, Martha’s mouth moved up and down, but she didn’t speak. Chloe didn’t have that problem however.
“Just who we were looking for,” she breathed out, staring at Sarah with daggers in her eyes. Shaking off her daze, Sarah blinked and then smiled at them, her arms folded underneath her breasts.
“Now I thought I took care of you,” she greeted them. “Actually, I’m happy to see you here. Wait… no,” she said again, “no, I’m not. What are you doing here?”
“We came to take my son back,” Martha said fiercely, stepping up besides Chloe. “What did you think you were doing up here with him, Sarah? How could you do this to him? To any of us?”
Sarah smiled at her and tilted her head slightly, looking at her from an angle. “He never said ‘no’, Mrs. Kent. It’s not like I did anything to him that he didn’t want.”
“How can you say that?” Lana demanded.
“Why else would he be here?” she countered, smiling wickedly.
“We know about your accident,” Chloe snarled.
Sarah rolled her eyes dramatically and laughed. “Of course you do,” she snapped, “you were there, remember?”
“And what about your voice, Sarah?” Lana asked. “How many people know about that?” Sarah stared at her speculatively, pursing her lips. Finally she smiled and shook her head, tossing her hair across her shoulders.
“Should have expected it what with Chloe being such a ‘good reporter’,” she shrugged. “So you know about it, big deal; doesn’t change anything. Clark!” she called suddenly. Chloe cursed and started to run towards Sarah when she was abruptly brought up short. Wearing only his jeans, Clark had quietly strolled through the doors. He smiled at them brightly and pulled on an undershirt.
Lana stared at him in shock, the sight of him momentarily putting her off. They’d come all this way to rescue him, she’d at least expected him to be tied to a chair or something. At the least, he’d be upset, glad to have them here. Clark might not have been tied up, but he did seem glad to see them, glad to see anyone as a matter of fact. He smiled at them in a vacant, absent-minded sort of way and wandered over to a window, looking down over the city. She didn’t even think that he’d recognized them at all.
“Disappointing I know,” Sarah told them. “Imagine how I feel though. The longer I talk to someone the dumber they seem to get. Well, maybe dumber isn’t the word,” she mused. “Maybe they just give up thinking and let me make all the decisions for them. It makes talking to them really difficult, but hey, like it wasn’t before? And besides, it wasn’t like I really wanted him for that anyways.”
Whatever response she was expecting, she didn’t get. Chloe screamed something in rage and threw herself across the room towards Sarah. Stunned by the move, Sarah froze, gaping stupidly. Chloe hit her hard and they both tumbled back into the kitchen, rolling around on the tile floor, fighting savagely. Lana started forwards to help, but spared a second to glance back at Clark. He was watching Chloe and Sarah fight on the floor, an odd look of puzzlement on his face. He seemed confused, and for a moment Lana thought that he might be breaking free of Sarah’s control.
“Clark!” Sarah called out, still struggling with Chloe. She twisted her head out of reach of Chloe’s hands and called out again. “Clark, get them! Fight!” The puzzlement washed off Clark’s face like it had never been there, replaced by cold fury. Lana stared as he seemed to swell in size, radiating power. He’d always been good old Clark, who never got into fights or hardly raised his voice, but as he stared at her now, Lana could feel her stomach turn to ice. This was worse than Pete, or Lex, or even Jonathon; this was something much worse.
Suddenly, Martha was there in front of Lana, blocking Clark from her. “Remember what I said, Lana,” she cried. “Help Chloe!” Lana gulped and then nodded, dashing over to where the two girls were still fighting.
“Get out of my way,” Clark snarled at his mother. The coldness in his voice stunned her for a second, but she shook her head defiantly.
“Clark, you can’t do this,” she pleaded with him. “We’re trying to help you.”
“You’re not my mother,” he remarked, wrinkling his lips in disgust. “You’re nothing to me. You can’t even compare to me.” She froze in disbelief as he said it, staring at him. His right arm twitched suddenly and it was probably only blind instinct that saved her life. Clark’s fist screamed through the air where her head had been only seconds ago, and part of Martha’s mind cried out, He tried to hit me. Clark tried to hit me! The other part, that coldly rational part, told her that it was a miracle she had been able to dodge it at all. If she couldn’t find some way to reach him, her own son was going to kill her.
“Clark! Stop this,” she cried out, dodging away from him. He took a few more steps towards her and she retreated even further, knowing how useless even that was. If he wanted to, Clark could close the distance between them before she could blink. Behind her, she could hear Chloe and Lana still fighting with Sarah; she had to keep him away from the girls. Maybe if they could knock Sarah out, her control on Clark would shatter. But that was a pretty big maybe, she realized. Dodging to the side, she tried to put a table between herself and Clark, but he just grabbed it with one hand and tossed it aside absently. It hit the wall so hard that it exploded into splinters, showering Martha with dust and debris. Some part of her prayed the girls were too busy fighting to notice it. “Clark, you have to stop!”
“Why do you keep calling me that?” he asked her. “It’s not my name. It’s just another of those human things you’ve tried to chain me down with so you could make me your own. To make me like one of you. Why? So you didn’t have to feel so jealous when you saw how much better I was?” he shouted at her. “Did it make that feeling of worthlessness go away?” he smiled.
“That’s it!” she shouted and did something that she’d never done before, she reared back her hand and hit him. It seemed to be the night for unexpected moves, and this one had the same effect on Clark. All the anger left his face in an instant and was replaced by a look of hurt shock. His hand went to his cheek and touched it delicately, still staring at her. “I am your mother,” she told him angrily, “and you will have some respect when you talk to me, young man. This isn’t you, Clark, this person standing before me. I refuse to believe it. The Clark I raised is kind and caring, and he doesn’t let someone control him and make him hurt his friends.” She took his head in her hands then, her anger all used up. “Come back to us, Clark,” she said gently. “Come back to us.”
“You get away from him,” Sarah screamed from across the room. Lana was trying to pull her off of Chloe with little success, her fingers hooked in Sarah’s hair. Suddenly, Sarah reared up backwards, driving Lana off balance. She stumbled backwards into the counter, wincing as the edge drove into her back. Shaking free of Lana, Sarah glared in triumph at Clark. “He’s mine! You can’t have him,” she cried out. Martha hugged Clark even tighter, staring in horror at the girl. Sarah took a deep breath and opened her mouth.
“Oh no, you don’t,” Lana muttered, and leaned back on the counter. Using both her feet she kicked out at Sarah’s back, sending her flying forwards to the tile besides Chloe. Her head hit the floor hard and she twitched once, and then lay unconscious.
There was a moment of perfect silence, as they all stared around in surprise. Almost in disbelief that it was over, Lana blinked, looking around at what was left of the apartment. Chloe lay gasping on the ground, her face deathly pale, but savagely triumphant. Martha just held Clark even tighter, crying too hard to speak. Clark seemed too disoriented to even stand on his own, but Martha was there to support him. Lana looked over at mother and son, and started to smile. “Did we win?” she asked them in a scratchy voice.
“Yeah,” Martha gasped between sobs, “I think we did.” At that moment, the suite door flew open and Jonathon, Pete, and Lex burst into the room. They stopped on the threshold, staring at the wreck of the suite and then at Sarah lying on the floor. Jonathon saw Martha and Clark first and rushed over, enveloping the two of them in a bear hug. Martha cried even louder as he held them both, and no one was particularly surprised to see tears in Jonathon’s eyes either.
Lex eyed the reunited family and then Sarah’s body on the floor. “Don’t worry,” he said dryly, rubbing a large, purple knot on his forehead, “we’re here to rescue you.”
“Thanks,” Chloe said, “but I think we got it.”
“You know what you can do though,” Martha remarked, pulling back from her husband and Clark. She winced and held up the hand she’d hit Clark with. It was swiftly starting to swell and turn purple. “Could someone drive me to the hospital. I think I broke every bone in my hand.”