Fear of Blood creates a fear of Flesh
Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Silent Hill or any of the characters affiliated with them. This is purely for entertainment. Smallville and its characters are owned by W.B. and Silent Hill is owned by Konomi. This partly follows the plot of the movie and plot of the game. This is an AU fanfiction with an established relationship between Clark and Lex. It's set before season 4, and the bit were Lana found out Mr. Small was her real father never happened. For the purposes of the story the part of Alessa and Lana have been merged. If you like it please tell, me. If you hate it, please go easy on me this is my first time. Write a review or let me know what you think by writing me at .com. Enjoy
Prologue:
Chloe Sullivan paced back in forth in the small living room of her apartment. She was trying to decide what to do about a certain friend that had gone missing. One Lana Lang had disappeared four days ago and Chloe had been unable to reach her. The windows of her living room had been left open as summer had not completely faded away in Kansas. But with the setting of the sun a chilly autumn breeze was beginning to seep into the room. Tendrils of cold air wafted through the space like icy fingers. As Chloe paced the length of the room she mentally went over the events of the last few days. Earlier that week she had scheduled some girlfriend time with her best gal pal, and then had been surprised when, Lana had uncharacteristically stood her up. It wasn't like Lana to pull a no call, no show. But, Chloe had simply chalked the incident up to Lana's sometimes flighty memory. She had shrugged it off and vowed to stop by the next morning for coffee and slight verbal lashing for Lana's carelessness. However, when Chloe had stopped by Lana's apartment above the Talon the next morning Lana hadn't answered the door. Chloe gave her a quick ring on her cell phone but it went straight to voice mail.
At that point Chloe began to wonder if Lana had been upset with her over some unnoticed slight. It seemed that whatever Lana was up to she wanted to be undisturbed. After a few minutes of hanging around Chloe decided to just go home and try calling Lana later. Throughout the rest of that day Chloe left several messages on Lana's cell phone urging her to call Chloe as soon as she could. By day three with still no word from Lana, Chloe began to worry. She had a gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach that something was not right. She hopped into her car and headed straight back over to Lana's apartment. She found the spare key that Lana had hidden in case she was ever locked out of the apartment and opened the door. From the state of the apartment Chloe could tell that wherever Lana had gone, she'd left in a hurry. Dirty dishes were piled in the sink, mail had piled up under the mail slot, and some food that had been left out was beginning to mold. Chloe walked through into Lana's bedroom and found it in disarray as well. The closet door was wide open and clothes were scattered all over the floor.
There didn't seem to be any signs of foul-play or that Lana had been taken by force, so Chloe had to assume that Lana's sudden take off had been of her own accord. As she was about to turn and leave, she noticed a spray of papers on the bed. She sat down and began sifting through them. They seemed to be legal documents of some kind. Then one page in particular caught her eye and she stared at the header in shock. Toluca County Orphanage stared back at her in bold letters. "Adoption papers?" She said aloud. In fact that's exactly what they were. The documents were the standard papers any parent has to fill out when adopting a child. Chloe flipped through the papers until she reached the final clause that the adopties have to sign. The signature of Mr. and Mrs. Lang was right there in black ink on the line. Chloe's mind began to whirl. Mr. and Mrs. Lang were not Lana's birth parents. Lana had been an orphan before the meteor shower that eventually killed her adoptive parents. Chloe felt a tug on her heart as she thought of what Lana must have felt when she'd found these documents. But who could have sent them to her? Were her birth parents trying to contact her? Chloe noticed a manila envelope resting beside the documents. She picked it up to read the address. Unfortunately there was no return address written on it. Whoever had sent these documents to Lana had wished to remain anonymous. But why? Chloe was beyond puzzled, but then the next stack of papers on Lana's bed made the confusion worse.
She riffled through them and a frown creased her brow. "Silent Hill?" She said as she scanned the contents of the page. It appeared to be printed off of a website. Silent Hill the town time forgot, the title read. It appeared the Silent Hill was a town that had been abandoned since the late seventies. And, it was located in Toluca County, West Virginia, the same county as the orphanage that Lana had been adopted from. The rest of the article went on to say that a fire had broken out in the town and had spread to the coal mines that had been the source of the town's industry. The fire had raged so out of control that most of the citizen's perished in the first few hours or were never found in the burnt wreckage. The town had to be evacuated for good because the coal mines had caught fire and began spewing toxic fumes. According to the article the fires were still raging below the streets of the ghost town as the firefighters could do nothing about putting out the coal mines. The gnawing feeling in Chloe's stomach began to grow as a horrible thought occurred to her. What if Lana had taken off to this Silent Hill in the hopes that she might be able to locate her birth parents?
Chloe couldn't really blame Lana for getting her hopes up after receiving the documents in the mail. After all Mr. and Mrs. Lang had been killed when Lana was just a little girl. Perhaps this was Lana's chance and having a family again. But, there was something not right about all of this. If the town was such a hazard why would Lana rush off to it? Chloe noticed that Lana's laptop had been left behind. Normally she wouldn't snoop through Lana's private matters, but this time she was willing to make an exception. She opened it and pressed the power button to wake it out of sleep mode. When the screen flickered back to life Chloe's suspicions were confirmed. The internet browser had been left running and the website open. It was a set of driving directions to Toluca County, West Virginia. The directions on the map seemed to dead end into and old county road though. Chloe searched through the history on the browser and found a link to the Toluca County archives website. She was able to pull up a map of Silent Hill from 1953. The country road that seemed to dead end on the Map Quest site lined up perfectly with the road leading into Silent Hill.
There was no doubt in Chloe's mind that Lana had indeed taken off to the town of Silent Hill. Chloe gathered up the papers on the town and the adoption papers and slipped them into her canvas bag along with the envelope. She then closed the screen of Lana's laptop and carried it with her as she exited the apartment. She locked the door behind her and slid the key into her bag as well. Her mind was racing. She didn't know if Lana was making a wise decision by gallivanting off to some condemned town on her own. But, then again Lana must not have been thinking clearly. As Chloe got back into her car she reached for the cell phone in her pocket. She pulled up Clark on the speed dial but her finger hesitated over the connect button for a moment. Maybe she was overreacting. Maybe Lana hadn't gone to Silent Hill at all. What if she went to the Toluca County Orphanage? Or, what if she was just hanging around Toluca County trying to find out what happened to the survivors of Silent Hill? Though even if she was overreacting she thought Clark should know about it. After all Clark was just as close to Lana as she was. Or, at least he had been until Lex came into the picture.
Lately Clark had been spending a lot of time with the boy wonder billionaire Lex Luthor. The two of them had been friends for a couple of years after Lex had smashed his luxury sports car right into Clark sending them both off a bridge and into a river. However, thanks to fact that Clark was an invulnerable, super strong alien, he was able to get out of the incident without so much as a scratch and rescue Lex, who would have drowned. From that moment on the Clark and Lex had started a friendship that only got deeper as time went on. Chloe and there other mutual friend Pete had been put out by this a bit. But when Clark had finally shared his secret about his extraterrestrial origin, she felt like she was back on the inside of his private life. That would not be the only revelation that Clark would lay on her. The next one, oh by the way I'm a gay alien, and oh yeah I'm in love with Lex Luthor, had been more difficult to swallow then his super strength, x-ray vision, heat vision, super speed, and invulnerability. The irony of that was not lost on Chloe.
Chloe was hesitant to give Clark the thumbs up about revealing his secret to Lex and the tender affections he was harboring for him, but once Clark put his mind to something it was almost impossible to get him to change it. More shocking than any revelation Clark had laid on her was that Lex not only accepted Clark's secret with sublime equanimity, but he also shared the budding feelings of romance. From that day on they became even more inseparable. Chloe began to feel on the out again after than but decided not to begrudge her best friend some of lifes simple pleasures like falling in love for the first time. And when you have a boyfriend like Lex Luthor, the world is your oyster. But, Lana was still one of Clark's closest friends. It looked like Chloe would have to interrupt his euphoria. She finally pressed the connect button and began ringing Clark. It ran three times before Clark answered.
"Hey Chloe, what's up?" Clark said over the phone in his usual jovial manner. The caller ID had let him know that it was her before he'd picked up the phone.
"Clark!" Chloe said in a tone more desperate than she had intended. "I think something has happed to Lana. I haven't heard from her in four days, her apartment is empty and her car is gone. I think she's run off to some abandoned town but I'm not sure." Chloe's words were coming out in a torrent and she had to breathe to calm herself down. "I have bad feeling about this Clark." She said and waited for his response.
"Chloe calm down." Clark said as concern rose in his voice. "Now what are you talking about?"
"Look Clark." She said as she started up her car's engine. "Meet me at my apartment as soon as you can, and bring Lex with you, he might be able to help. I don't know exactly what's going on but I have this gnawing feeling that Lana is in trouble."
"I'll be there as soon as I can." Clark said. Chloe could hear the sounds on his end of the line that sounded like he was getting up to get to his car.
"Good." Chloe said and then rang off. The sun was only a few hours from setting as Chloe made her way back to her apartment on the other side of town. The shadows of twilight began to stretch across the town of Smallville. Normally Chloe would have found it peaceful, but the worry knotting inside her caused the pink and orange glow of the sky to look more ominous than tranquil.
And now here she was pacing in her living room waiting for Clark and Lex to arrive. The chill beginning to permeate the room caused her to shudder and she moved to close the window before the room got too cold. She pulled on a jacket and sat down on the couch. She absentminded began wringing her hands in anticipation of what she was going to tell Clark and Lex. A moment later she heard a knock at the front door. She moved quickly to answer and swung the door open for Clark and Lex to enter.
"Thanks." She said as they entered into her modest apartment. "Another minute and I thought I was going to have a panic attack."
Clark stepped into the living room and turned around to face Chloe. He wore his usual jeans, t-shirt, boots and heavy brown jacket. His eyes showed genuine concern as he spoke.
"Okay Chloe what is this all about?" he said. "What makes you think Lana is in trouble?"
Lex hovered by the door uncertain what to say. He and Chloe had never exchanged many words, and he was wondering if he should really be involved. After all, in truth Lex had never been very fond of Lana. Once, Clark had thought he'd had a crush on Lana, but soon discovered his affections for men, and his affections for Lex. Though, Lex still saw Lana as a little competition.
"Both of you sit down and I'll explain." Chloe said motioning to the two chairs facing the couch before she sat back down.
Clark and Lex too their respective seats and Chloe opened up her canvas bag and began unloading the contents. She began reiterating the events of the last few days as she spread out some of the papers on her coffee table.
"So four days ago Lana and I were supposed to hang out, but she never showed and she never called. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but, after leaving tons of voicemails and then stopping by her apartment I knew something was up. I used the spare key and got in. Guys, wherever she went she was in a hurry, the apartment is a wreck. And, I found all these papers on her bed." She handed the stack of legal documents to Lex and the stack of papers on the town to Clark.
"Adoption papers?" Lex asked confusion thick in his voice. "I thought Lana's parents were killed in the meteor shower that brought Clark here?"
"They were, but it seems that Mr. and Mrs. Lang were not Lana's birth parents." Chloe said in answer to his question. "It looks like someone sent her the adoption papers in the mail in this envelope." She pulled the manila envelope from her bag to show him. "No return address."
Lex reached out to take the envelope to see the address of Lana Lang, Smallville, with nothing to indicate where the papers had come from or who had sent them. Then Clark piped up with his own question.
"What's Silent Hill?" He asked looking to Chloe, a frown creasing his brow.
"That's where I think she went." Chloe said looking from Lex to Clark. "Silent Hill is in Toluca County, it's possible that Silent Hill is the town she was born in. And, it looks like Lana pulled as much research on the town as she could before she left."
"Well what's the problem?" Lex asked. "I mean, so Lana discovered she might not be an orphan. Are you really going to begrudge her a chance at meeting her real parents? Why are you so worried about her going to this Silent Hill?"
"Because." Clark said "According to this article the town has been abandoned." He flipped through the pages in his hands. "Apparently it's a hazard zone. And, it's been shut down since the late seventies."
"Exactly." Chloe said. "There was a fire that consumed nearly the entire town and killed over half the populace. And then once the fire spread to the coal mines under the town the air became toxic. So, if Lana has gone to Silent Hill, she could be walking into a disaster zone."
It was Lex's turn to frown. "I still don't see why you think she's run off to Silent Hill. This isn't exactly proof." He said as he set his stack of papers down on the coffee table.
Chloe was ready for that rebuttal. She pulled out Lana's laptop and opened the screen. She brought the computer back out of sleep mode and when the screen came back to life she turned it around to show Clark and Lex the website that was still up.
"This website has driving directions to Toluca County. And the directions dead end on an old country road. Now I looked up that road on a map from the county archives. The abandoned country road lines up perfectly with the old road into Silent Hill." She said as she glanced back and forth between two of them. "If she's not there I defy you to tell me where else she is."
"Okay wait a minute." Lex said brining up his hands in a gesture for Chloe to calm down. "Say Lana didn't go rushing off to this ghost town. Suppose she's just going to West Virginia to see if she can find out if her birth parents are still alive and where they might be living now. Lana might be young but she's not prone to pulling foolhardy stunts like wandering into a hazard zone."
Lex had a point, but, Lana had also been known to act rashly when her emotions were running high.
"Think about how Lana must be feeling right now Lex." Chloe said looking him dead in the eyes. "She just found out that the parents she thought were hers were actually just adoptive parents. Practically everything she ever knew about her past is a lie. Now throw in the mix the possibility of finding your real parents and the mystery of a town that may or may not be your birth place. Chances are she wasn't thinking when she ran off."
"Chloe's right." Clark said looking up from the papers in his hand. He turned to Lex and continued. "I mean come on Lex, put yourself in Lana's shoes, what would you have done?"
Lex chose not to answer, as he was sure neither Chloe nor Clark would have liked it. He simply sighed and pulled out his cellphone. Chloe's eyes shot to his phone as he flipped it open.
"Lex what are you doing." She said a slight edge in her tone.
"Calling the police." He said in response. "We need to file a missing persons report."
Before Lex could dial Chloe bounded off the couch and snatched the cellphone from his hand.
"Wait Lex, no I don't think that's a good idea." She said as she backed away from him, his cellphone clutched in her hands.
"Chloe what's gotten into you?" Lex said in an annoyed tone. "If Lana is in potential danger we need to alert the authorities."
Chloe held out a hand to stop Lex from getting up from his chair to take the cellphone back. "Lex, I'm not sure we should tell anyone else about this."
Lex cocked an eyebrow at her and she sighed before continuing. "Look, Lana's probably not in the right frame of mind right now. She could scared, confused, lost, or panicked. I don't think involving the police would make it any better. The last thing she needs right now is a troupe of officers chasing after her while she's trying to figure out what's happened to her parents."
"So what are you suggesting?" Lex asked.
"Well." Chloe said as she returned to the couch. "I think we should go after her."
"Pardon me?" Lex asked giving her an exasperated look. "You want us to go across the country to some remote part of West Virginia to chase after a girl that may or may not be traipsing through a ghost town?"
"I think she needs friends more than she needs law enforcement." Chloe said resolutely
Clark who had been silent during Chloe and Lex's exchange spoke up. "I agree." He put a hand on Lex's knee. "Lex, if we go involving the police this could get out of hand, and Chloe's right about Lana's state. If she's fragile, the cops could just make the situation worse."
"Oh Clark come on." Lex said turning to face his lover. "What makes us more qualified to locate her than the police? And, besides if we don't report this Lana could end up in more trouble than she already is, supposedly." Lex added the last part because he wasn't convinced yet that Lana had really gone off to Silent Hill.
"We know her better, and we could convince her come home, or at the very least help her search." Chloe interjected before Clark could answer.
Lex looked from Clark back to Chloe and then back to Clark again. "You two are serious about this aren't you?" He asked.
"Absolutely." Chloe said still clutching Lex's cellphone in her hands.
"Lex, I think this is the best way, and to tell the truth I feel a little responsible." Clark said as he ran a hand through his dark locks. "I mean, I've been so wrapped up in, us that I forgot to pay attention to the people around me that I care about. Maybe if I had noticed that something was wrong sooner Lana wouldn't have rushed off."
Lex let his face relax and took Clark's hand in his. It was true that the two of them had been very involved with one another lately, but that's what happened with new love. He realized that there was no way to talk Chloe and Clark out of this rescue mission. "What about your parents? What are you going to tell them?"
"They're out of town for another couple of days at a tri county market. I think I'll leave them a note, to be honest I don't want to have to explain too much about what we're doing. Hopefully they won't be too mad." Clark said as he shrugged.
Yeah fat chance, Lex thought. He sighed again and held out his other hand to Chloe. "Can I have my cellphone back now?" He asked.
"Why?" Chloe asked, pulling back a bit into the couch.
"Because I want to phone the airport and tell them to prepare my jet, we can be there in a few hours if we leave now. And, I need to get a hold of my security team, no sense in going in unprepared." He said still holding out his hand.
"Lex have you been listening?" Chloe said refusing to hand over his phone. "We need to do this as simply and with as much stealth as possible. A jet and an entourage would draw too much attention."
"So how do you propose we get there?" Lex said growing more agitated that Chloe would not hand over his phone.
"My truck." Clark said offering up the solution.
Chloe nodded her agreement.
"You expect us to drive cross country in Clark's beater?" Lex asked both eyebrows shooting up.
"That's the best way to avoid any unwanted attention." Chloe said.
"And my truck is not a beater." Clark said as he got up from his chair. "Chloe, when should we leave?"
Chloe looked up at Clark and said. "As soon as possible, though I think we should get some sleep before we head out." She looked at the clock on the wall. "It's 10 pm now, I think we should be on the road by 6 am at the latest."
Lex was about to protest further or make another suggestion, but he realized the futility in that and so he just got up from his own chair, and addressed Chloe. "Alright, alright, have it your way. Now can I have my phone back?"
Chloe hesitated. "Promise you won't call the police or any of your hired goons?" She said in a wary tone.
Lex sighed exasperatedly once more. "Yes damn it!" he said, and held out his hand again. Chloe finally returned the phone to its rightful owner.
"Okay then." She said as she stood up to let Clark and Lex out. "Be back here at 5:30, sharp." She said as the boys headed for the door. "The sooner we go after her the sooner we find her."
Lex went out the door first and as Clark followed behind him he turned back to Chloe. "You don't really think anything bad has happened to her do you?" He asked, his eyes were filled with worry.
"I don't know Clark." She said. "But, something tells me she needs us."
Clark nodded and turned to leave. "I'll see you in the morning." He called over his shoulder.
Chloe closed and locked the front door. She pressed her forehead against the cool wood and drew in a deep breath before exhaling it. She wished could shake the feeling of dread that had come over her but it has seeped into her bones. She turned off the lights as she headed to her bed room and flopped down onto the bed to get some sleep. Somewhere deep inside her, Chloe felt that there was something lurking on the horizon, and it was going to be horrific.
*So that's the prologue, chapter 1 should be up in the next couple of days, I hope you enjoyed it so far.