"..Uh..yeah..yeah I'm fine." Chloe said..her tone indicating how unsure she was. With a few scrapes and bruises, she brought a hand to her forehead and gently touched the bandage on her forehead.
"Don't worry, we'll find whoever's behind all this." the sheriff told her as he put his notebook away. "Do you want me to give you a ride home?"
"No, that's ok...my dad's coming to pick me up." Chloe nodded.
"Alright." Sheriff Ethan said.
As the sheriff had exited the doorway, another figure walked in. It was apparent by his movements that he was in a rush.
"Chloe." Clark's voice broke in. Clark walked into the small room within Smallville Medical Center. "Are you ok?" He asked, his tone rich with sincerity.
"Clark, hey." Chloe greeted him. "Uh..yeah..I'm a little banged up though.." As if to try and make light of the situation, she continued. "Gee..who would of thought that the hard hitting article I wrote about the not-so-secret meat surprise in the cafeteria could lead to attempted murder."
Under normal circumstances, Clark would've given a slight laugh, but his concern for her suppressed it. He wrapped his secure arm around Chloe's shoulder as he let his head fall gently to view her face better.
"Chloe this is serious...I'm sure that whoever did this is behind all of the other accidents that have been happening lately."
"...I know.." Chloe uttered almost silently. Tears had begun to well up in her eyes. She did her best to try and take it lightly, but the truth was the fact that she could've died scared her...it did every time. Feeling Clark's secure presence, she brought her head to the crux of his shoulder and buried her tear-stricken face into the material of his red denim coat.
With a wince of sadness, he wrapped his other arm around Chloe as they had begun to embrace.
Bringing his hand to the back of her head, he gently stroked her soft blonde hair as his brows lay furrowed in thought and sympathy.
The following Monday, Clark, Chloe, Pete, and Lana were all gathered within the confines of the Torch. Chloe sat at her desk, eager as always to return to work. Pete had been pressed against the windowsill.
"So...are we sure this is gonna work?" Lana questioned. She stood primly near the doorway, arms folded. She wasn't entirely comfortable with the plan they had devised of trapping whoever had done this..but she knew it had to be done.
"Well, yeah." Clark said. He did his best to try and stand by it. "This can't keep going on any longer..especially if its endangering all of us."
Chloe gave a strong nod..still a little shaken up by Friday night's incident. Although, during the weekend, Clark did manage to help console her in between the final shots of Pete's movie.
"Alright!" Pete, yelled to Chloe. "Action!"
With that single word, Chloe had begun to run like a mad woman along the shoreline of Crater Lake. That same panic and fear that she had endured a few nights before seemed to be making a return. Once Pete was satisfied, he yelled "Cut!"
Coming to a stop, Chloe brought a hand to her chest and tried to catch her breath. She was extremely relieved to know that was the last shot she had to film. As Clark and Lana approached her, Clark put a hand on Chloe's back and gave it a small rub. Chloe gave a small smile towards him as she gently leaned in against him.
Keeping her lips tight, Lana nodded and brought her gaze up to Clark. "So...is this it?" She questioned..nervousness interlaced with her words.
Clark gave a nod before throwing his look to Pete who was just off in the distance. With that as the signal, Pete packed up the video camera and had begun to approach the woods. On the call sheet, it was stated that Crater Lake was the final location that was going to be shot at. So far,
Clark and the others had managed to conclude that whoever was behind this must have had a copy.
Clark gave a nod to Chloe and Lana before they had begun to walk and follow Pete. Clark was to stay behind and try to look for this assailant..somehow he knew that the person was there..it was just a matter of finding them. With his abilities...he was sure he'd be able to find him in a matter of minutes. Chloe threw a glance behind her to signal how worried she was for Clark's safety.
Clark offered a small smile to her to let her know he'd be alright. After Lana, Chloe and Pete had reached Pete's car, Clark took off into the woods.
"I'm still not sure I like this." Chloe said...verbalizing her reservations.
"Don't worry Chloe...Clark can take care of himself." She tried to assuage her nervousness by giving her a reassuring arm rub.
"Yeah, Clark can handle it." Pete said, finally sticking all of his equipment in the bed of the truck.
"Pete..do you think you could just..stay here..? You know for reassurance? As much as past evidence indicates that Clark can handle himself..I think it'd be a good idea if you were here..Lana and I could just drive back to town." Chloe had been thinking this plan over all night in her head...and she knew that if Clark was made aware of it, he'd protest it. Him and his savior complex.
"..Yeah, I can do that." Pete said. He handed Lana his car keys and stepped away from the driver's side off of the main road.
"Don't forget to call us if anything happens." Chloe told him as she climbed into the passenger seat.
"Don't worry, I won't." Pete said.
Lana stuck Pete's keys in the ignition and was peeling down the road at a steady pace moments later. Unsure of what to say, she could tell that Chloe was worried. Heck, she was worried herself. Clark was her friend...and she didn't want anything bad happening to him either. As Pete watched the two girls take off, she cleared his throat a little bit uncomfortably and looked around the desolate lake. He rubbed his hands together and muttered.. "...Come on Clark.."
By this time, Clark had been scouring the various environment with his x-ray vision. Trying to spot anything out of the ordinary, he moved along the obscured path with steadiness. Now that Pete, Lana, and Chloe were gone...he was free to use his abilities. Suddenly, something caught his eye. Within a fraction of a second it had taken to realize it, he was there in an instant.
Furrowing his brows, he took note that it seemed to be a pole stuck in the ground with something black draped over it. Moving the corner of his lips downwards in disappointment, he sighed and began to take a quick look around.
"Ah!" Clark let out as he hit the ground.
Something hard had been smashed against the crux of his neck. Startled by its strength, he moaned in agony as he managed to roll onto his back. It hadn't taken long for him to realize what was happening. His blood was boiling...his skin felt on fire...the meteor rocks. Above him stood a dark figure cloaked in all black. Clark continued to let out groans of pain...trying to get to his feet. It just so happened that the figure had taken a rock interlaced with meteor rock to hit him over the head with. The figure dropped the rock near Clark...pleased with himself.
Hearing faint groans...Pete snapped his head to the line of trees that served as the barrier between the shore of the lake and the woods. "Clark.." Pete said to himself before breaking into a run.
The dark figure had Clark down, his foot placed squarely on Clark's chest. "I don't know how you did that...but it still doesn't change the fact that you made a big mistake making this movie"
The figure held within his hand a large pistol. Aiming it at Clark's chest, he tried to decide where exactly he wanted to shoot.
"...no...s-stop.." Clark managed to get out..his voice strained by the pain of the meteor rocks.
"..don't do this.."
Mustering all of his strength, Clark whipped his leg out and tripped the figure. Instantly the gun went off. The dark figure had toppled to the hard ground below. Now they were on a somewhat even playing field. Trying to shy away from the glowing green rocks, he squirmed to try and go for the gun...anything to get it away from him. Who knew what the bullet's effect on him could have if he was in his weakened state.
"Clark!" Pete's voice could be heard through the trees. He was close.
Once the figure had regained the breath he had lost from falling, he tried to get to his feet.
Stumbling towards the fallen teenager and the gun, he tried to wrestle it out of Clark's hand.
Successful, he struggled to fire.
Luckily, Pete had arrived and dove at the criminal. Bringing him down, Clark remained writhing in pain on the ground. Pete had been wrestling with the figure. Now that the figure had managed to get ontop of him, Pete lashed out wildly. His fingers had clutched the figure's mask, and tore it off with ease. Pete's eyes widened in shock to see who it was. The man punched Pete violently.
As he went to punch him again, Pete blocked and countered with his own right hook that brought the man off of him.
Looking over to Clark, Pete had realized that the figure wasn't moving. Running to Clark, Pete absently wiped a trickle of blood from his nose as he grabbed Clark. "Clark, man are you ok"
he yelled.
"..Pete...pete get me out of here.." Clark let out. Scared, Pete was thinking that maybe Clark had been shot. Doing his best to try and drag Clark away, he tried to search for any gunshot wounds.
Once the duo had been away from the meteor rock, the green shine that it procreated dimly died.
Within moments, Clark felt stronger. Able to support himself, he gently eased Pete off. "Pete...I think I'm ok now."
Pete nodded, and let Clark stand. "It's Joe's dad, Clark.." Pete's voice quivered..all of this time he was expecting it to be Joe. Almost immediately he realized that he needed to call the police.
Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out his cell phone. As he dialed, he told Clark took a look back to see that Mr. Lawry was still lying on the ground..apparently he wasn't young enough to take all of the trauma.
By the end of the week, things had seemed to have settled down. Mr. Lawry had been detained by the Smallville police department, and Pete had successfully finished editing his movie. As the Festival arrived on Friday, Pete's nerves had begun to take a hold of him. Sitting with Clark, and Chloe, he along with everyone else sat anxiously awaiting for the verdict on the awards.
"You know, with all the stuff that's happened, I hope they take that into account when voting"
Clark broke the silence..trying to ease Pete's nerves.
"Yeah, you'd think but...this is Smallville...weirder things have happened." Chloe answered.
Looking around, she spotted Joe who had been sitting just at the end of the row in front of them.
"Looks like Joe's handled things pretty well."
Pete and Clark both brought their looks towards him. Knowing how passionate Joe was..Clark was surprised to see he'd been composing himself pretty well, considering the fact that his dad was now gonna be carted off to the nearest medium-security prison.
"What with the sad incidents that took place in the past few weeks, I along with the rest of the Smallville High faculty wish to express our thanks that everyone is safe." Principal Kwan addressed to the crowd. Since Mr. Lawry had been arrested, Principal Kwan took his place with the hosting duties.
"I'm pleased to announce that first place goes to...Debra Flanagan."
As her name was announced, the crowd had begun to clap with whoops and cheers. Sheepishly,
Pete spotted Debra who had begun to approach the stage for her award. With a hint of sadness,
he knew that he wasn't gonna win first place, what with his amateur film making skills and all..but he at least hoped to win some award.
"Second place goes to...Joe Lawry."
The crowd's reaction seemed awkward as a few claps had begun to eminate from it. Clearly the fiasco with Joe's obsessive father had vexed a few of the students. Pete knew that Joe was talented...and wasn't that surprised to learn that he'd managed to beat him.
"And now...honorable mention goes to...Peter Ross."
Pete jumped slightly in surprise as Chloe and Clark gave him warm smiles and clapped hearitly.
A silly grin couldn't help but paint Pete's dark features as he stood up to head on stage for his award.
As the festival's award ceremony ended, Pete's glee was made apparent. Clark gave him a proud pat on the back. "Congratulations Pete." He stated..
"Thanks man." Pete said. "I couldn't have done it without my actors of course." He looked to Clark and then Chloe.
"Yeah...needless to say that this whole experience has kinda soured any modicum of interest I may have had in the acting biz." Chloe lifted a sarcastic brow.
As Pete's parents had approached him with hugs and congratulations, Pete bid farewell to his friends as he left to go and celebrate with his parents. Clark and Chloe were left ambling away from the football field where the ceremony was held.
"I'm just glad everything turned out ok." Chloe said.
"Yeah...it's been a crazy few days hasn't it?" Clark noted, also relieved to know that everyone was going to be safe.
Chloe offered a knowing nod, before dragging her look to Clark. "You know, Clark...if I haven't said it enough...thank you..for you know...offering a shoulder to cry on." Chloe brought her eyes heavenwards and raised the pitch of her voice...it was soon followed by small laughter.
"Of course." Clark said, and wrapped his arm around the smaller blonde. "You know I'm always here for you."
Not being able to contain any giddyness, Chloe let out a small giggle as her features lit up with happiness. It felt nice to have Clark by her side. "So...now that our acting careers are officially over what do you wanna do now?" Chloe threw a sideglance upwards to him.
Clark looked off into the distance with a pondering expression. "How about we go see a movie?..we never did cash in on our plans to spend time together."
Feeling elated, Chloe nodded in agreement. "Alright...sounds like a plan." She smiled whole-heartedly and rested her head on Clark's shoulder.