HOUNDS 2 - Skinned

Prologue – The Stones

September

Turbulence took Lex by surprise, causing him to drop the figure of Ra. It broke into several different pieces.

"No! Don't move; I'll get it," insisted the female doctor, motioning for Lex to stay put in the chair attached to the blood-purifying machine.

She noticed a small, clear crystal amongst the rubble - had it been inside the figure? Lex motioned for it, and she complied. He gripped it in fascination of what he had found.

The doctor got a broom and began sweeping and for five minutes, there was calm. Lex fondled the crystal gently and took careful notice of the strange alien symbol on it. It reminded him instantly of the symbols on the cave walls back in Smallville and, for that matter, the same ones on the figure of Ra.

And then the five minutes ended.

The plane was rocked back and forth as if something had hit it. He looked back down at his newfound toy and widened his eyes as he saw it begin to glow and levitate on its own. Before he could snatch it back, it zoomed out of his hand and through the door that separated his private medical facility from the passenger lounge. He jumped to his feet and looked through the hole the crystal had made just in time to see a blurry black figure jump out of the plane through the open hatch.

October

Lex sat down in front of his father. He was babbling, but Lex wasn't really paying attention. It sounded like some gibberish that would inevitably lead to an apology of some sort. Indeed, he caught the last few words his father spoke, "I never told you I loved you."

Lionel put out his hand. Should he take it? His father seemed sincere... Take his hand, you fool.

But before he could, he heard a familiar voice call out, "Lex!"

The next thing he knew, he was knocked to the ground while Clark Kent tussled with Lionel Luthor. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a flash of bright light and some pain in their faces, but it was much too quick to be for sure. He dismissed it as a trick of the light.

December

Lex Luthor had a dream.

He was on his knees in front of a fire, bowing down to it. By his side was a knife, a wooden bowl full of ointment, and a silver stone. On his other side was a thick wolf skin. Just outside of him and the fire was a circle he'd drawn into the ground.

He picked up the knife and began to chant. He thrust the knife into his wrist and led the blood seep out. He dropped the knife and picked up the stone, letting the blood drip onto it. The stone began to glow – dimly at first; then brighter. A blanket of light enveloped him in and all that was left was to put on the ointment and the wolf skin, all while chanting his allegiance to the devil. He did so and he became one with the skin and felt his teeth grow long and his fingernails grow sharp.

The stone kept glowing.

Meanwhile, on a farm in the Midwestern region of a land called North America, in a nation ruled by a democracy, there is a small farm town inhabited by forty thousand people, one of whom was not a human.

The sole survivor of an ancient race on another planet, Kal-El lived among the humans in disharmony. It seemed to be very week that Kal managed to anger some human and a conflict would arise ending in someone either very injured or very dead. The casualties had accumulated over the years.

His freshman year of High School saw the deaths of Tina Greer's mother; a crooked cop named Sam Phelan; a persuasive salesman named Bob Rickman; their first principal, Mr. Kwan; and a twisted reporter named Roger Nixon, just to name a few. His sophomore year was even worse – the obituaries included the mad Dr. Steven Hamilton; the innocent Ryan James; the beautiful Kyla; the former jock and Lana's boyfriend, Whitney Fordman; the brain-dead Doctor Frederick Walden; and countless other students that Clark had never known well but had suffered at the hands of vengeful teenagers with powers.

His Junior year saw a record high for deaths – and they weren't all a result of abusive teenagers with powers. Morgan Edge was killed in a car "accident"; the mysterious and already-dead Adam Knight troubled Clark for quite a while before biting the dust; Van McNulty went on a one-man crusade against those infected by the meteor rocks; the brilliant Dr. Teng was murdered by one of her own patients, along with her staff; Pete Ross' brief stint as a drag racer ended the life of the cheater Dante; an FBI agent dug too deep into the mystery of Clark Kent and was killed by Lindsay – who masqueraded as the Kryptonian Kara and was eventually disposed of by Jor-El, Kal-El's father. In addition, Lex found out his father, Lionel, was responsible for his grandparents' deaths and had him arrested.

But the most violent and mysterious series of deaths of all was taboo to the citizens of Smallville. It all began when a teenager from Gotham City moved in. His name was Edward Drake.

Edward Drake had spent some time in Ireland and received the werewolf disease. When he came to Smallville, it was passed on to Lex and half of the police force. By the time the whole situation had ended – which led Clark and Lionel to origin of the werewolves themselves, Ireland – enough people had died to rival the total amount of murders in the past three years.

Werewolves.

Even today, when someone heard that word, everyone within distance of hearing it shuddered. The mere idea that something so mystical, so legendary could cause such destruction and death was frightening to think about. When you went to go see movies, you could always take comfort in knowing that none of it was real.

And even in Smallville, home of the weird, people turned a blind eye to all the mysterious events no one could seem to explain. When alien symbols got burned into crops and the sides of barns, it was clearly the sadistic work of arsonists; nothing more. As far as anyone was concerned, the town of Smallville was as normal as normal could get. Normalville is what it should have been called. Nothing strange about here.

People like Chloe Sullivan were frowned upon; always insistent that there was a supernatural element to Smallville. Her fascination with the weird was the origin of the Wall of Weird that sat in the office of the school newspaper, the Torch.

But even she could always trace all of the weird occurrences back to the meteor shower and the radioactive rocks it had littered all over the town. For Smallville, meteor rocks – which Clark and his family had dubbed 'kryptonite' – and their effects were what passed for normal.

So when furry wolf-men come into town, with no previous kryptonite exposure, everyone got scared. Where did they come from? Why were they here? Who would the scapegoat be this time?

Smallville was scared.

So it seems appropriate that no one could shake off the effects of a virus that gripped Smallville recently. LuthorCorp was experimenting with another new drug and there was an outbreak. People were reliving their worse fears in horribly realistic nightmares. Even Clark was not immune; dreaming of a new meteor shower that brought even more destruction and mayhem. He was, however, the only one to shake off the effects in time to save the day.

But people are still scared. And they have the right to be.

Because on this morning, Clark heard a high-pitched squeal, causing him to clutch his ears in pain. He'd felt this feeling before – several times in fact – but it always caught him by surprise. It would only last a few moments before finally wearing off…

But today it took longer than he expected. And louder. And when he finally felt the pain ease and the squeal dim he pulled his hands away from the sides of his head and gaped in horror at the blood on his hands.

He ran to the bathroom and tried to wash it off but it would not come off.

And the more he washed, the more blood appeared as if bleeding from invisible cuts on his hands. He looked in the mirror and was shocked to see red tears pour from his eyes down his cheeks. He could feel black sores all over his body and – though it rarely ever happened to him – he passed out.