Part 2 - Power Games
"…ourth brutal slaying in Midvale this week, when the mutilated body of Mattie Harcourt was found…"
Demi Lee only half-listened to the morning news as she did up the zip on her jeans. For some reason, Professor Byrne always had to have the TV on while they had sex. Always. Still, it was better than Professor David and his Star Trek uniforms.
Thankfully, she wouldn't have to beam him up ever again. And after this morning, Byrne would be watching TV by himself. It wasn't that she was against sleeping with a lecturer or two to keep her grades up; she wasn't naive, she knew how the education system worked, after all.
But sleeping with your professors gave them all the power, and Demi had always been uncomfortable when others had power over her. Her father, the Reverend…
"That was definitely worth an A+, Miss Lee…"
They were behind her now. Dead and buried, so to speak. And soon, this would be too.
"…But if you want to keep that grade up, you've got to keep some other things up too," Byrne said, grabbing her breasts. Demi hated the way he groped her, pawing all over her like some kind of stupid animal. It took all her effort not to plant a knee where it would hurt the most, but instead she calmly removed his hand.
"Actually, Professor, I have another idea," she began, her disgust hidden by a thick layer of forced sweetness. "How about you keep my grade point average up, and I keep the video tapes I've been secretly making away from the press."
"What? What video tapes?"
"Oh, did I forget to mention them? You see, I'm doing a very interesting project for Film Studies. I video tape my lectures having sex with me in exchange for grades, then I blackmail them into maintaining those grades."
"You're bluffing…"
The sweetness in her voice was no longer forced. This was the part Demi loved. Watching the old perverts squirm, knowing she was the one who held all the power. "If you don't believe me, then just watch this… I've fast forwarded it to the good bits."
She threw a videocassette on to the bed as she strode past Professor Byrne. When she reached the bedroom door, she turned around. Byrne glared at her, his lower lip trembling. He was ready to explode with impotent rage, and Demi couldn't help but push him that last little bit over the edge. "Oh, and keep the tape… I've got plenty of copies."
Alexander Luthor had been developing a new plan to use against the Crime Syndicate, one that could finally see justice brought to this tortured world, when the alarm sounded. Without hesitation, he abandoned his research into the matter world he had come to refer to as Earth-2 and travelled to what was left of Leesburg.
It was here that he had buried his greatest failure. He had hoped he would never have to confront It again, hoped that It would remain forgotten for the rest of eternity.
He should have realised that you could never dig a deep enough hole to bury the past.
He should have realised there was no such thing as hope in this world.