Disclaimers: I don't own Lex Luthor or Smallville nor Metropolis, for that matter.

A/N: Lex is roughly nineteen years old in the particular piece of fiction and living in Metropolis. I sort of got mixed up with the time lines, since everything happens in the early morning. When I said Thrusday Novemeber 18, it's actually Friday the 19th. So on and so forth. Excuse the error.


SATURDAY NOVEMBER 20th

1:00 AM

The moon was still vibrant against the layers of night and its ominous clouds. The glacial winds cut through his skin and settled deep within his worn bones. His fitted jacket barely retained and contained what little heat he possessed; with hands buried deep within pockets, he made his way into the night despite protests from those seemingly "caring" people.

Her voice still echoed within his head: a mantra for the lingering. It haunted him in his inner most sanctuary. For each step he took, the shrill sound of her voice increased ten folds. A loitering spirit grasping as evil clung onto his soul. Dirtying his hands with tainted blood he never dreamt of spilling. Yet, he denied any conduct that may pertain to the incident. It wasn't his fault.

It wasn't his fault.

Or so he continued to tell himself. But even he didn't believe it. If hadn't, if he had just--what was the point anymore? What's done has been done and there was absolutely nothing that could possibly change that fact that she had died in his hands.

He could still feel her frail body against him. He could vividly recall her trembles, her whispers of death and her fear of what was over the "horizon"; the faith of which people so finely believed in lost in the mist of terror and horror. It fell meaningless and everything ever preached to them was long forgotten as life easily dripped like blood from within his grasp.

The air was cold and stung his lungs as he took in a deep breathe and exhaled. Lex rubbed at his red shot eyes which were beginning to become irritating. He gazed upward at the moon as he passed beneath the neatly trimmed trees of the dead city.

Dead.

Everything within the city's border seemed dead. Even, he would admit, himself.

His soul.

Their souls.

Tainted.

Contaminated.

They were there. All of them. Taylor and Mike; they watched as their beloved sister fell lifeless into his arms. And he knew, just as they did, that it was his fault.


THRUSDAY NOVEMBER 18

2:25 AM

"You've been sleeping with her! How could you possibly do that to me!"

He blinked at his unnecessary out burst. Though, he figured it would be better if he allowed the two siblings to lay their emotions down on the table, for all to see. To see their weakness.

Lex casually stuck his hands into the pockets of his wool coat. Gestured with his narrow eye brows and then watched the two siblings intently. Yes, he had been sleeping with their older sister. He would not deny it. It wasn't anything he was ashamed of but apparently, the two siblings did not like the idea.

"Personally, I don't see what--"

"What are you doing here!"

He was interrupted. Lex Luthor did not like to be interrupted in the process of stating something.

"What are we doing here?" Mike, apparently feeling the need to hear himself speak, repeated. Julia nodded. "I'll tell you what we're doing here. You..." his voice shook. "You, Julia, are taken by a man who loves you ever much. But not only are you taken, you're engaged. You're engaged. Do you understand what it god damn means to be engaged, Julia?"

Lex slowly looked to the older woman. He had no idea she had been engaged. Three years older than he was, he never considered it. But hell, it wasn't his position to ask as much as it was her responsibility to tell him. For God's sake! He allowed his gaze to linger a bit longer before looking back to Mike.

"Don't insult my intelligence-"

"Julia?" A new voice rung out. Both Julia and Lex turned around.

It was if time stopped for a moment. As if to present to the Lord what sin had been committed, as if to allow these people who stood in the cold autumn weather to acknowledge what had been done.

"That's him? That's the man, no, boy you've been sleeping with? Oh, don't look so God damn surprised, Julia. You think I wouldn't find out?"

"Jimmy, it wasn't like that," Julia pleaded. Lex remained silent.

"How could you?" Jimmy's hand was dug deep into his jacket pocket. This, however, went unnoticed. "It was like that and we all know it. You!" He now turned to Lex. "You! It's your entire fault."

"I didn't know she was engaged to you," Lex replied. "I didn't know she was engaged at--"

"Shut up!" Jimmy's hand shot out from his pocket and the young Luthor found himself staring down a gun barrel. "You knew, don't try to play stupid with me, Luthor."

Lex remained unfazed. Simply stared calmly at gun point.

"If that's the case, then please be my guest and fucking shoot me, Jimmy. Save the world a lot of grief, will you?" The young boy muttered to him.

Warm tears ran down her pale chick as she watched the two men she loved.

"Jimmy, please," she tried once more.

"Shut up!" he merely bellowed at her.

"Don't you dare yell at her!" Lex shouted at him.

The gun began to shake in his hand: unsteady, he pulled the trigger. Luthor closed his eyes preparing for the bullet to enter through his chest and eliminate him from this frozen over Hell hole.

But no...

It never came. The anticipated pain never filled his body nor did overcoming warmth but a dread wept over his body as he slowly began to open his eyes. However, he knew what had happened before his cold blue eyes settled upon the scene...


SATURDAY NOVEMBER 20th

1:50 AM

The bright neon lights of various clubs buried deep within the city beckoned him. Called to him with temptations he could not resist any longer. With nothing to stop him, he easily entered the club.

He could feel the rough quick moving bodies against him. They followed the beat of the music as their minds focused solely upon matters that did not cease to stop them at their current attempt: To forget the hardships of life. The multicolored lights hit upon him engulfing them in a foreign color. Life disappeared within the beat of the music, thoughts were traded in for less painful ambitions, and people were simply people.

No one choose to acknowledge your problems simply because it didn't matter. Nothing mattered once you crossed through the threshold of the enclosure. Anything that truly clicked within the mind was another drink, another hit, or another song. The spectrum of human emotions was devoid of any importance.

His piercing glacial eyes caught sight of something familiar. It bobbed within the sea of moving bodies. It called to him, however. Entranced, he began to move towards it.


"If I could just hide - The sinner inside - And keep him denied - How sweet life would be- if I could be free - from the sinner in me"

Depeche Mode