Premonition
by Lener
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in Smallville.
Premature Author's Note: Extremely sorry for the late update, but, as you know from the number of reviews I have received since I uploaded the previous chapter, not a lot of people are reviewing so I have decided to slack in the department of uploading fics. Therefore the sixth (next) chapter, which I have not even written yet, will take an even longer time to upload, unless circumstances change. Thank you all for being patient.
Chapter Five
The next day dawned bright and windy, with the sky a beautiful azure blue. Chloe and Pete arrived at Smallville High and spotted Clark a little way off, leaning against the fence and talking to none other than the beautiful Lana Lang.
"He's one lucky dude," Pete said mournfully as they made their way towards the tall farm boy. Pete's father had forbidden him to drive his new car to the dance on Friday night, and Pete still had not gotten a date for the dance. ("Without my car no girl will go with me!" he had moaned to Chloe, acknowledging defeat with unusual haste.)
"Tell me about it," Chloe replied bitterly.
As they both neared Clark and Lana, bits of the ongoing conversation could be heard.
"My dress will be pink, so I guess you know what shade your bowtie should be?" Lana was saying.
"Err… yeah," Clark said, but there seemed to be little conviction in his voice.
Chloe resisted the urge to roll her eyes and gag, but that moment Clark turned around and caught sight of her. Chloe quickly fixed a blank, expressionless look on her face, but next to her Pete gave a friendly wave. Lana stepped away from the fence with, as expected, a honeyed smile on her face.
"Hey Chloe! Hey Pete!" she said brightly.
"Hey Lana. Yo, Clark," Pete exchanged knuckle punches with Clark, as Chloe gave the two dark haired beauties forced smiles.
"Hey Pete!" Clark returned a knuckle punch, then turned to Chloe with a small, uncertain smile, "Chloe."
She did not return it.
"So, Chloe, got a date for the dance yet?" Lana asked, still smiling.
Boy I wish I could wipe that smirk off her face. How does she even manage to keep it on for the whole day?
"Oh, actually, I don't think I'll be going for the dance," Chloe said calmly, quite enjoying the look of shock on Lana's face and the look of- was that disappointment?- in Clark's face, "you know, I've been neglecting the Torch because of that little injury so I think I'll use Friday night to catch up on all my articles… I'm sure the Torch's avid fans would love to catch up on the latest news now that my hands are like, totally scar-free!" And to prove her point she held up her hands which were, indeed, scar-free.
"But I think you should go to the dance!" Lana bit her lip.
Oh, come off it! Chloe wanted to say, but instead settled for, "Oh, no… our favourite reporter hasn't been exactly lucky on the love-life front."
"I think you and Pete would make a great couple at the dance," Lana pointed out, but a confused look crossed her features when Chloe and Pete began to cough simultaneously. Clark gave a little, nervous laugh.
"Anyway I'd better go drop off my Math homework… Think twice about Friday night, okay Chloe? Well, I'll see you guys later! Bye!" and with that, Lana was off.
"That's strange… shouldn't the scars leave a little bit of a mark?" Pete indicated Chloe's hand.
Chloe shrugged. "They seem fine to me," she retorted defensively. To prove her point she grabbed the basketball from Pete's hands and squeezed it easily in her hands. What she did not expect, though, was for the ball to give in like jell-o, so much so that it literally deflated in her hands.
"Whoa… don't you ever fill this with enough air?" she complained, tossing it to Pete, who caught it in the nick of time. His eyes were wide open.
"It… it… was filled with air! Even Clark wouldn't have been able to do that, Chloe!" Pete stuttered.
"Right… now that's weird," she raised an eyebrow.
"Are you all right?" Clark asked, looking at her.
"I'm fine, maybe it deflated on the way here. Anyway, let's not make such a big fuss over this thing… come on," Chloe started off towards the glass doors of the school, with Clark and Pete on her tail.
But somehow as she walked through the corridors of Smallville High, she couldn't help feeling a strange chill race down her spine.
*
"Now, class, today I'll be returning you the essay that you did last week on the advantages and disadvantages of using nuclear power as a main energy source for countries. Most of you did exceptionally well with the highest grades being As and the lowest only Cs… I'll be giving out the papers now, so I want absolute silence," Clark sat back in his seat and temporarily switched Mr. Matthews, his Geography teacher, off his mindset, instead focusing on the person seated on his right.
Chloe's eyes were fixed on the teacher, steadfastly refusing to meet his gaze. Sighing, Clark turned back to face the front and watched as Mr. Matthews slowly made his way to his table, whereupon and he held out his essay and Clark took it from his hands. As Mr. Matthews went down the row, he picked up his paper and looked at the grade scrawled in red across the top. A B+. Not bad, considering it was sort of last minute work. "Good attempt, but avoid occasional sweeping statements," Clark read silently.
Diagonally ahead of him he could see the top of Lana's paper and the grade too, which read B-.
Idly turning his head to the side, Clark watched as Mr. Matthews stopped in front of Chloe and held out the paper, smiling slightly. Chloe's hand made contact, but she did not let go.
Horrified, Clark watched as a jolt coursed through her entire body, making her jerk in her seat.
*
All too soon, Mr. Matthews was standing next to her table, a slight smile on his features. Chloe extended her hand to take her essay back.
The moment Chloe touched the paper, a shock seized her entire being and a strange feeling of lightheadedness suddenly overcame her. And then Chloe found herself standing in a dark alley.
By the looks of it, it was about eight in the evening, but already the blurred image of the white orb in the sky threw little light on the dark surroundings of a deserted alley. The sights and sounds were all dimmed, except for a lone figure of a man walking in front of her. Curious, Chloe followed the man.
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a slight shift in the shadows ahead of them, but, dismissing it as a play or trickery of light, Chloe carried on walking behind the man. After a while, an obvious movement in the shadows made her stop and, surprisingly, so did the person in front of her. Feeling the hair on her nick rise, Chloe turned around and saw people moving out from the darkness.
Gangsters! Heart thumping wildly, she could only watch helplessly as about nine thugs surrounded the man, some holding crowbars in their hands, others with knives that glinted in the dark.
Chloe opened her mouth to warn the man, but within seconds they had descended upon him in a cloud of menace, and she had just enough time to see the look of utter terror on his face before he went down.
There could be no mistaking who he was.
He was Mr. Matthews.
Chloe wrenched her eyes open with much effort, saw the look of anxiety on Mr. Matthews' face, then fell sideways out of her chair. Even before her head reached the floor, her whole world went black.
Author's Note: Lala… a slight cliffhanger here! Not much suspense in it, though… so sorry about that. Well, got any comments, please send them in a review, they will definitely be answered, just like the previous reviews will be answered below:
clovergrl- Hey! Thanks for the review! Let's see… I'm not sure if Clark and Chloe are going to the dance together!!! Since, you know, Lana has already asked Clark and all that. But we'll see what's going to happen on that fateful night! Oh, and I must apologise. I don't think this chapter had enough Chlark in it… and the next ones… erm… not much too. But in the end it'll be a whole lot of Chlark, like how my fics always turn out! So please, do read!!! PLEASE!!!!! *begs* *cries*
Sylphide- Yo! Lol! This reply might seem a little less hyper coz it's been so long since your hyper reply, but I'll make this one long so I think that will be like, compensation, right? LOL… Hmm… you should learn to appreciate whatever time you spend with your family, especially if it involves camping!! LOL… where I am, we probably NEVER get to camp… or at least camp like, normally. Hehe… I'm not sure if you enjoyed this chapter, since Clark and Chloe obviously did not make up in this chapter. THEY WILL NEVER MAKE UP! MUAHAHA! Oh, I'm just kidding. You honestly think I, an avid Lana-hater, would suddenly switch to Clana? NEVER!!!! Of course, never would I depict Lana and Chloe as sisters!!!! They will never ever have a sincere, honest and true relationship simply because Lana does not possess a single one of those qualities! Well, I hope this reply was long enough… oh yeah, I forgot one thing: Thanks for reviewing! You're one of my most faithful reader. *hug* *cries*