A/N : Hey everybody! Thanx to all you wonderful people who reviewed - purfectchild, AHobbitLassRosie, Queen of Tact, kj, raniatlw, Corinne, Kai, scifichick774, ella, lil, robyn, Spot, Glitter Bug, Michelle, Di, Maria - I really appreciate all your positive comments.
Now its time for the next chapter, and time to answer the question - did I really kill off Chloe?
(Disclaimer : see chapter 1)
When we are children, we are taught things that could save our lives. 'Don't put strange objects in your mouth' and 'don't put your fingers in electric sockets' and even as we get older the lessons continue. We tire of hearing them but we know there is a reason for them. I remember as a teen, when my father started teaching me to drive, there was one rule that I was known for breaking, almost every time we went out.
'Chloe,' he would say, 'what have I told you about your seatbelt?' It was a rhetorical question, and he would reach over and strap me in, saying 'One day, this thing could save your life'.
My father was a wise man, and I still believe that, but in that case, he couldn't have been more wrong, because it seems that in that instant, my absent-mindedness when it came to safety had in fact saved my life.
As the car began to roll for the first time, I knew if I stayed inside I was going to die. I yanked at the handle of the door and it flew open. With no restraint holding me down, I easily tumbled from the vehicle. I continued to roll down from the road and into the nearby field. I saw flashes of the red carcass that had once been my priceless Ferrari, continue to spin away in the opposite direction.
When I finally came to a halt, I lifted my head just enough to see the almost unrecognisable wreckage ignite and explode into a ball of pure orange flame.
I hadn't the energy to cry or to scream. My body was aching all over, my head thumped and inside it my mind was still spinning. That was when the whole world, everything, went black.
I guess it was shock, or maybe just that I was completely overwhelmed by it all, I don't know for sure, but I didn't think to call 911, it didn't occur to me to call anyone. I just cried - it was all I could do for, I'm not sure how long. Minutes, hours, days may have past and I don't think I would've noticed.
Eventually my body went into some kind of auto pilot. I lifted myself up off the round and I remember thinking I should go home, but I never went back to my car. I just started walking, aimlessly, in the general direction of the castle. I carried on down the centre of the road, staring out across the fields if the town that stretched for miles.
When I first saw it, I thought it was a mirage, or maybe, an angel, but as I wiped the old tears away from my eyes and blinked to stop the new ones, I realised I couldn't be dreaming.
"Chloe?" I said, more to myself than to her. I walked off of the road and into the field. It seemed to take forever to reach the side of the figure I could see lying on the ground and yet she was barely a few feet from me.
"Chloe?" I said more loudly, and more deliberately to her, instead of myself, now. As I arrived next to her, I fell to my knees again. It was the blood that I noticed first. It streaked her blonde hair and was seeping from a cut across her head as well as somewhere beneath the white cotton of her blouse.
She looked so fragile, lying there. Not the strong willed, head strong woman I knew and loved, but a weak and broken angel that had fallen to harshly from the heavens to the earth.
I put a hand on her neck, careful not to move her too much. She had a pulse and, although each breath was shallow, she was still taking in oxygen. I fumbled in my pockets for the cell phone I always carried. Suddenly it was as if my good sense returned to me and told me to call for the ambulance to save my precious love.
"Ambulance, please, it's Chloe, I think she's dying" I said as soon as I got an answer. The woman on the other end of the line started asking questions, none of which I listened to or tried to answer.
"We're a few miles from the Luthor Mansion, in a field, she needs help, please, I can't lose her" I rambled, and then, with the important words said, I dropped the phone to the ground.
I pushed some blood stained hair off of Chloe's face as tears fell from my own eyes again.
"You can't leave me" I told her, "I need you, baby or not. I've lost too much already and I need you, I need you here with me" I sobbed as I sat beside her, stroking her head gently, until the ambulance arrived.
I honestly don't remember exactly what happened next but I know that the paramedics asked a lot of questions that I didn't answer and then eventually we arrived at the hospital.
All I could think about was wanting to do something, anything, I could to save Chloe and knowing I could do nothing. I was useless to her, just as I had been useless to my mother so many years ago and then Lillian more recently.
With all my money and power, I could not help her now, so I did the only thing I could think of that stood a chance of making a difference. I prayed to whoever would listen, to keep my darling Chloe safe, when I could not.
A/N : Well, as usual, if you keep reviewing and wanting more, then I will keep updating as fast as I can.