Its literally taken me years to update this story. I wrote the first few chapters but then didn't get very many reviews and I was writing other stories at the time which seemed to be a little more popular and since then I kinda forgot about this one. I just received a review from someone (thanks Kit Merlot for reminding me about this lost fiction) so I decided to write a little bit more. And here it is. Thanks to everyone who reviewed before. I promise you all that I totally appreciated it, I just got distracted. Hope anyone who reads this, reviews.
***
'So, working on anything special today?' Clark questioned Chloe as she stuck the key into the lock of the newspaper door. She smiled a secret smile, knowing that her story was coming out that day. She had been working on it for a while and it had taken a lot of effort to fit just the right amount of suspense and mystery into the article to get the average Smallville High student interested. It hadn't been difficult. The case in and of itself was fascinating and although Chloe knew she was subjective and that the average student had an attention span of a 11 seconds at most she figured even they would want to read about the mutant.
Her brow furrowed as she realized that the door was unlocked. She was sure that she had locked it securely the previous night but already her mind was questioning the things she had done. She had always been paranoid about things, recent events not helping her shed that part of her personality, and it made her doubt her own motives. Maybe she hadn't locked it, maybe she had forgotten to, maybe it had been unlocked by the caretaker so he could do his cleaning thing. She rolled her eyes at her own silliness and pushed the door open.
She quickly stripped herself of her coat and scarf, placing them on the hook behind the door. She made the few steps toward her desk and pulled out her chair before realizing, with a start that her computer was on.
Clark looked over at her as he heard the sharp intake of breath. He walked over to her quickly and stared down at the computer screen. A message had been typed on the word processor:
Dear Chloe,
I understand that you were scared, confused and worried over the presence that you cold not quite pinpoint last night. I do most sincerely apologize. I did not mean to cause you to feel afraid, I merely wish to protect you from those who would do you harm. I hope you understand that I act out of love.
Yours...
Chloe's face was ashen as he looked over at her and her hand was shaking as she tried to steady herself. She knew the feeling hadn't just been in her mind. She knew she wasn't just being paranoid. She thought back to all the times when she had felt eyes watching her and she had turned around, searching the ;landscape for some clue as to what it was and had seen nothing. She felt her heart racing and had to sit down before the shaking got so bad that she fell over.
Clark knelt down beside her. He knew that Chloe liked having control over a situation. It wasn't that she was a control freak she just liked being independent. He was worried, of course he was but what happened should be up to Chloe next and he knew she wouldn't appreciate him poking his nose in and trying to make decisions for her.
'What do you wanna do about this?' he asked quietly.
She looked over at him. She hadn't really thought about what she was going to do now. Her thoughts had been stuck in the recent past. She knew the police wouldn't be able to do very much. All they had was a typed message on her computer. She doubted whoever it was had left any fingerprints. And she didn't want to make a fuss. She knew she should. Somebody was stalking her and the chances that that someone would get violent when they didn't get what they wanted, whatever that was, were high. But she didn't like the idea of the police taking over, deciding what was best for her.
'Its probably someone playing a sick and twisted prank.'
'I don't want to scare you Chloe, but what if it isn't?' If it was true he didn't want to scare her, but he couldn't just let her drop it on the off chance that it was somebody's idea of a joke.
She yanked the mouse and clicked to close the box. She looked up at Clarks face.
'I don't know,' she replied. 'We have to get to class,' she said as she stood up and walked out of the room.
***
Her pencil tapped on the edge of her open textbook. Maths had never inspired Chloe but she had always put in atleast the pretense of effort. But she couldn't focus her mind. She was still thinking about the letter on her computer. She was going through every time she had assumed she was being overly suspicious, every time she had berated herself for being so stupid as to think that someone would be stalking her. And the letter hadn't made her feel better, no matter what the intentions of the author had been. She was scared out of her mind. She kept on looking at people like they were going to suddenly pull out a machete and slash her into itty bitty pieces. She knew what the letter had said but she had seen enough crazy stuff going on in Smallville since the meteor shower to know that the most peaceful person could turn on you when they weren't getting what they wanted.
She looked across at Clark. He was frowning over one of the questions, his hair flopping over one of his eyes. She looked beyond him to Alex, a boy with sandy coloured hair and an even tan, one of the popular kids. She had always thought he looked a little shifty. He was far too nice to everyone to not be a psychopath.
She looked down at her page and shook her head in wonder at her own behaviour. Why was she torturing herself like that? Chloe knew she should just forget about it all, try and get on with her life; of course Alex wasn't her stalker. She was turning into a bundle of nerves. The fact that Clark kept on leaning over to her desk and asking her if she was okay wasn't making her feel reassured in any way. She needed to get out of school. The presence of so many people, including Clark and Pete should have made her feel a little more secure but she kept on accusing people, granted in her own head of wanting to kill her and it was driving her crazy. She needed to leave the people behind.
The bell rang and dragged Chloe kicking and screaming out of her thoughts. She looked down at her page to see that the only things she had written were the date and the title. She closed her books with a slam, smoothly making the progression from scared and bewildered to angry and pissed off. How dare anyone watch her without her permission? Did they think it was incredibly romantic or something? Or were they just deranged? In any ordinary town she would have pushed the latter possibility aside without a moments thought but this was Smallville and she was not going to dismiss anything.
'You okay?' Clark asked from behind her as they walked out of the room.
'Stop asking me that,' Chloe said so loudly that it drew the attention of a number of other students. She looked around her, daring any of them to do anything that could be termed as offensive. Gradually one by one they looked away, it was Chloe Sullivan's crisis not theirs and therefore not that important that they had to dwell on it.
'I'm sorry,' she said to Clark as she made her way through the familiar hallways to her office.
'That's alright, you're under a lot of stress at the moment,' he replied. He wanted to help Chloe but she was stubborn as a mule and so he had decided that the best plan of action was to stay with her, to make sure that nobody tried anything.
'There's no need to be so patronizing Clark,' Chloe said with the first genuine smile since she had seen the letter.
Clark smiled back at her as they continued to walk through the crowds of students. Chloe's eyes flitted from person to person even as the smile faded off her face. The anxious look returned and she drew into herself, hoping to fade into the background, wishing the ground would swallow her whole so she wouldn't be in the eyeline of her stalker.
She shook her head trying to remove any paranoid slasher movie scenarios that had popped into her brain but they wouldn't go away. It was all due to her overactive imagination but she couldn't seem to convince herself out of the state of mind she had gotten into. It was too hard to persuade herself that this was not one of the scariest situations she had ever been in. If she could see the guy she could work out how much of a threat he was, she could battle it out with him, she could do something. But not being able to look the guy in the face meant she was helpless, vulnerable. Chloe had always considered herself to be a strong person. She had always left the damsel in distress stuff to people like Lana. She played that part a lot better than Chloe ever could, especially since Clark was so eager to be her knight in shining armour.
Chloe turned her head to look behind her. The self conscious burning sensation on the back of her head had returned. She felt so much like she was being watched. Her face grew redder as the heat moved rapidly up her throat and lit up her cheeks. She looked around again, trying to catch a glimpse of anyone watching her with a murderous glint in their eyes.
'Chloe?' came Clark's voice as if out of nowhere.
She stopped and turned back to look at Clark's bemused smile.
'What?'
'The Torch office is in here,' Clark replied, pointing to the doorway which Chloe had just walked straight past.
***
'So, working on anything special today?' Clark questioned Chloe as she stuck the key into the lock of the newspaper door. She smiled a secret smile, knowing that her story was coming out that day. She had been working on it for a while and it had taken a lot of effort to fit just the right amount of suspense and mystery into the article to get the average Smallville High student interested. It hadn't been difficult. The case in and of itself was fascinating and although Chloe knew she was subjective and that the average student had an attention span of a 11 seconds at most she figured even they would want to read about the mutant.
Her brow furrowed as she realized that the door was unlocked. She was sure that she had locked it securely the previous night but already her mind was questioning the things she had done. She had always been paranoid about things, recent events not helping her shed that part of her personality, and it made her doubt her own motives. Maybe she hadn't locked it, maybe she had forgotten to, maybe it had been unlocked by the caretaker so he could do his cleaning thing. She rolled her eyes at her own silliness and pushed the door open.
She quickly stripped herself of her coat and scarf, placing them on the hook behind the door. She made the few steps toward her desk and pulled out her chair before realizing, with a start that her computer was on.
Clark looked over at her as he heard the sharp intake of breath. He walked over to her quickly and stared down at the computer screen. A message had been typed on the word processor:
Dear Chloe,
I understand that you were scared, confused and worried over the presence that you cold not quite pinpoint last night. I do most sincerely apologize. I did not mean to cause you to feel afraid, I merely wish to protect you from those who would do you harm. I hope you understand that I act out of love.
Yours...
Chloe's face was ashen as he looked over at her and her hand was shaking as she tried to steady herself. She knew the feeling hadn't just been in her mind. She knew she wasn't just being paranoid. She thought back to all the times when she had felt eyes watching her and she had turned around, searching the ;landscape for some clue as to what it was and had seen nothing. She felt her heart racing and had to sit down before the shaking got so bad that she fell over.
Clark knelt down beside her. He knew that Chloe liked having control over a situation. It wasn't that she was a control freak she just liked being independent. He was worried, of course he was but what happened should be up to Chloe next and he knew she wouldn't appreciate him poking his nose in and trying to make decisions for her.
'What do you wanna do about this?' he asked quietly.
She looked over at him. She hadn't really thought about what she was going to do now. Her thoughts had been stuck in the recent past. She knew the police wouldn't be able to do very much. All they had was a typed message on her computer. She doubted whoever it was had left any fingerprints. And she didn't want to make a fuss. She knew she should. Somebody was stalking her and the chances that that someone would get violent when they didn't get what they wanted, whatever that was, were high. But she didn't like the idea of the police taking over, deciding what was best for her.
'Its probably someone playing a sick and twisted prank.'
'I don't want to scare you Chloe, but what if it isn't?' If it was true he didn't want to scare her, but he couldn't just let her drop it on the off chance that it was somebody's idea of a joke.
She yanked the mouse and clicked to close the box. She looked up at Clarks face.
'I don't know,' she replied. 'We have to get to class,' she said as she stood up and walked out of the room.
***
Her pencil tapped on the edge of her open textbook. Maths had never inspired Chloe but she had always put in atleast the pretense of effort. But she couldn't focus her mind. She was still thinking about the letter on her computer. She was going through every time she had assumed she was being overly suspicious, every time she had berated herself for being so stupid as to think that someone would be stalking her. And the letter hadn't made her feel better, no matter what the intentions of the author had been. She was scared out of her mind. She kept on looking at people like they were going to suddenly pull out a machete and slash her into itty bitty pieces. She knew what the letter had said but she had seen enough crazy stuff going on in Smallville since the meteor shower to know that the most peaceful person could turn on you when they weren't getting what they wanted.
She looked across at Clark. He was frowning over one of the questions, his hair flopping over one of his eyes. She looked beyond him to Alex, a boy with sandy coloured hair and an even tan, one of the popular kids. She had always thought he looked a little shifty. He was far too nice to everyone to not be a psychopath.
She looked down at her page and shook her head in wonder at her own behaviour. Why was she torturing herself like that? Chloe knew she should just forget about it all, try and get on with her life; of course Alex wasn't her stalker. She was turning into a bundle of nerves. The fact that Clark kept on leaning over to her desk and asking her if she was okay wasn't making her feel reassured in any way. She needed to get out of school. The presence of so many people, including Clark and Pete should have made her feel a little more secure but she kept on accusing people, granted in her own head of wanting to kill her and it was driving her crazy. She needed to leave the people behind.
The bell rang and dragged Chloe kicking and screaming out of her thoughts. She looked down at her page to see that the only things she had written were the date and the title. She closed her books with a slam, smoothly making the progression from scared and bewildered to angry and pissed off. How dare anyone watch her without her permission? Did they think it was incredibly romantic or something? Or were they just deranged? In any ordinary town she would have pushed the latter possibility aside without a moments thought but this was Smallville and she was not going to dismiss anything.
'You okay?' Clark asked from behind her as they walked out of the room.
'Stop asking me that,' Chloe said so loudly that it drew the attention of a number of other students. She looked around her, daring any of them to do anything that could be termed as offensive. Gradually one by one they looked away, it was Chloe Sullivan's crisis not theirs and therefore not that important that they had to dwell on it.
'I'm sorry,' she said to Clark as she made her way through the familiar hallways to her office.
'That's alright, you're under a lot of stress at the moment,' he replied. He wanted to help Chloe but she was stubborn as a mule and so he had decided that the best plan of action was to stay with her, to make sure that nobody tried anything.
'There's no need to be so patronizing Clark,' Chloe said with the first genuine smile since she had seen the letter.
Clark smiled back at her as they continued to walk through the crowds of students. Chloe's eyes flitted from person to person even as the smile faded off her face. The anxious look returned and she drew into herself, hoping to fade into the background, wishing the ground would swallow her whole so she wouldn't be in the eyeline of her stalker.
She shook her head trying to remove any paranoid slasher movie scenarios that had popped into her brain but they wouldn't go away. It was all due to her overactive imagination but she couldn't seem to convince herself out of the state of mind she had gotten into. It was too hard to persuade herself that this was not one of the scariest situations she had ever been in. If she could see the guy she could work out how much of a threat he was, she could battle it out with him, she could do something. But not being able to look the guy in the face meant she was helpless, vulnerable. Chloe had always considered herself to be a strong person. She had always left the damsel in distress stuff to people like Lana. She played that part a lot better than Chloe ever could, especially since Clark was so eager to be her knight in shining armour.
Chloe turned her head to look behind her. The self conscious burning sensation on the back of her head had returned. She felt so much like she was being watched. Her face grew redder as the heat moved rapidly up her throat and lit up her cheeks. She looked around again, trying to catch a glimpse of anyone watching her with a murderous glint in their eyes.
'Chloe?' came Clark's voice as if out of nowhere.
She stopped and turned back to look at Clark's bemused smile.
'What?'
'The Torch office is in here,' Clark replied, pointing to the doorway which Chloe had just walked straight past.
