Sorry about the delay in updating, folks, but I've had a few personal problems ;) Thanks for reading & reviewing!
Lois didn't reply to his comment, but hit the brakes a little too harshly as she finally screeched up to the Talon's front double doors. Clark hopped out of the hole left by the sheared off door before the truck's wheels had even stopped spinning. "Stay here and keep the engine running. I'll go check on Lana." He didn't tell the two girls, but he had already kicked into x-ray mode and was scanning the coffee shop.
When he spotted Lana and her friend cut off by some mist-constructed phantom, he almost couldn't stop himself from hitting superspeed.
"You better hurry, Smallville. This gas gauge is dropping awful fast!" Lois checked the dash again and was tempted to defy her ex-quarterback host. What if those things in the fog are already in there? She looked over to Chloe, who appeared to be having similar thoughts.
"We better wait here," Chloe suggested as she watched the two doors swing wide when Clark entered the Talon. "I think they'll be coming out in one big rush!" Especially if Clark decides to go speedy on those spooks!
Lois tapped at the steering wheel and bit her lip as thin tentacles of grey vapour began to creep in through the gaping doorframe. The main mass of malevolence wasn't far behind. "Well they just might come out to two corpses if they don't hurry!" She reached for the door handle, intent on joining Clark, but Chloe pulled her back with a hard tug.
""Stay!" The young reporter's bark reminded Lois so much of her father giving a command she froze and looked at her cousin in surprise. If Chloe was this adamant, maybe she should wait.
Clark stormed into the Talon and stopped just short of the misty silhouette enveloping the floor before him. He held up a hand and shouted, hoping to distract the thing from its two obvious targets. "They're not the ones you want! You've been lied to…"
The presence of Elizabeth Dane didn't turn. Instead, the thing that represented her head seemed to turn in on itself, so that her features disappeared and then reappeared where only seconds earlier the back of her skull had been. It was like the ghostly head had morphed its shape and was now staring at Clark with its evil red orbs.
Clark continued, unperturbed by its grotesque features. "Lana, Stacey…Lois is outside in the truck. Go…and don't wait for me!" He yelled the order while keeping his gaze fixed firmly on Dane. He spoke to the presence then, urging it to believe his words with his boyish innocence. "Lana's family didn't wrong you. She doesn't deserve to die this way anymore than you did. Stacey's family didn't even live in Smallville when you were murdered…"
Dane hissed, and for the first time since their ungodly appearance, one of the ghosts attempted to communicate with the living. Her mouth opened, but only a black void was visible. The sound was an echoing, tormented declaration of what was to come. "Six must die…"
Clark shook his head. "You're killing the wrong people." He pulled the journal from his pocket and held it towards the fog. "My relative documented the night you died. He was there, but played no part. He knew who the real conspirators were." While he spoke, Clark watched to see his deception was apparently working.
Lana and Stacey had grabbed one another's hands and were stealthily edging past the ebbing haze. Once they reached the main entrance, Clark felt his pounding heart rate slow just a little.
"You are a Kent. Six must die…" Dane or the fog that gave the illusion of her presence began to move forward.
Clark didn't need to guess it wasn't to discuss what he was trying to explain. "Malone lied to you!" he pushed on, hoping his stalling was giving Lois time to get away. Why can't I hear the truck leaving? He focused his ears out onto Main Street while still hoping to appease the angry spirit with his words. They're still out there! Lois, Lana and Chloe had all agreed not to leave without him. Only Stacey was protesting and losing the argument.
"Six must die!" This time, Dane's statement was accompanied by an arm forming from the fog to her left. In the grizzled hand, was the now familiar 'sickle of death.' The blade lashed out in a hacking motion as if a human arm had wielded it, and even Clark was pushed to avoid its deathly edge.
"Whoa!" he dodged sideways but not fast enough. As he watched in slow motion, the sickle slammed down on his forearm as he held it up defensively- and then passed clean through his flesh without doing any damage.
Clark gaped and couldn't help scanning his own arm in amazement. Either his Kryptonian heritage had saved him, or some other force was at work.
The spirit of Elizabeth Dane appeared equally amazed, and angered by the revelation. She struck out again, but this time Clark retaliated by shooting a burst of heat vision at the offending sickle. The metal should have melted but it didn't. The two rays of energy that burst from his eyes simply shot across the Talon as if the sickle wasn't in the room.
He stopped, quickly realizing all he was doing was potentially causing a fire hazard to the building. I can't fight this thing with my gifts! Knowing he had no way to stop the creature even though it couldn't hurt him, Clark made a dash for the exit. The fog followed, but it didn't hurry. In here, its presence was insignificant. Outside, it would soon join up with its main body, and the souls of more deceased brethren.
About halfway towards the two double doors, a girl's scream made Clark want to shut off his hyper-sensitive ears. The yelp was so agonized he almost put his palms over the side of his head, but instead he continued running. Someone in the truck was being hurt, and he had to try and save them. What was worse, he knew who had made the gut-churning cry and it wasn't likely to be because she was a coward in the face of a few ghosts. That was Lois…
The glass in the doors almost shattered as Clark supersped through them to get to the truck. He was moving so fast he didn't even need to scan ahead to check on what was going on, because he was there in an instant.
The scene outside was just as the teenager had expected. The family pickup had been enveloped by the deadly mist, and at the driver's door one of the demonic spirits from Smallville's past was attacking Lois.
Clark cringed as he realized why she had screamed. The blackened spectre had rammed an arm through the side window, and had impaled Lois' forearm to the dashboard with what looked like a meat hook. She was squirming to pull free, even though she must have been in agony. How do I stop it? I can't touch them! In the second he took to deliberate, another form began to emerge from the fog in front of the truck's hood. For now, it had no real essence to do damage, but should he wait any longer, the phantom would be fully formed and ready to kill.
"Hit the gas!" Clark shrieked his order in the hopes Lana or Chloe would floor the accelerator. Lois was still too busy with her attacker to do much, and Stacey had climbed in the back and was now hiding under a blanket.
Instead, Chloe began to try and climb over to punch the relentless ghost assaulting her cousin.
Clark winced at her mistake and dived through the hole where the passenger door should be. He landed flat on his stomach in the truck's foot well, but was still able to easily reach his intended target. Forcing down hard on Lois shoe, Clark rammed the gas pedal to the floor and hoped Chloe now had the good sense to steer.
Lana yelped in surprise as the vehicle rushed forward, but dragged Chloe back slightly until the reporter stopped punching at thin air and grabbed the wheel. Again, the truck lurched as it hit a curb, but after a few heart-pounding seconds they were heading out of town.
"I hate to tell you this but we still have company!" Lois grimaced as she held onto her forearm. It was still pinned to the dash just left of the steering wheel and she couldn't budge it.
Chloe looked to the side window, and then realized her cousin was nodding towards the hood with a wince of pain. She glanced up, already expecting company. "Clark…"
Clark let go of the accelerator and tried desperately to scramble from his stomach back into a sitting position. It was awkward with Lana's and Chloe's legs in the way, and his own legs still dangling outside the truck, but in seconds he was up and staring into the face of yet another corpse.
The spirit he had seen forming earlier was now fully fashioned from the swirling fog. It held on to the hood somehow with an ethereal grip of iron, and a toothless decaying grin. Clark shook his head it true panic. "I don't know how to fight them! My hands go straight through!"
"Yeah, well I can sure as hell feel them!" Lois pressed hard on her bleeding arm. "We better get rid of that guy before he gets spear happy with someone else."
"How?" Clark watched in despair as the thing seemed to weigh them up. Its head cocked mockingly at them, and it bounced up and down effortlessly on the hood with the truck's every movement. "Can't you knock it off?" he finally asked Chloe, who still had the job of steering.
Chloe gulped and stared at the nearest shop wall. She was terrified to try and ram the thing off for fear it would damage the truck's gas tank further. And then there was the risk of sparks from the friction igniting the already leaking fuel. "We could go up in a ball of flames!" she shook her head. "Besides, can we actually knock something off made of mist?"
For one of the few times in his life, Clark was powerless. Lana clung to his arm in fear, but didn't speak as they all watched the ghostly presence begin to climb towards them. Their speed was taking them out of the main fog bank, but even in its thinner form the ghost could survive enough to kill.
It reached the windscreen in seconds, and punched a hole in the safety glass with one rotting stump of a hand. Stacey screamed, even though she wasn't in the truck's cab, and then retreated beneath her blanket on the flat bed. Had she seen what came next, she would probably have fainted.
The ghost began to dematerialise and channel its smoky form through the hole it had created. Once inside the truck, its presence started to reform to do more harm.
Clark lashed out in a desperate attempt to stop the evil creature reappearing, but as before his fist simply passed through the grey miasma. His brow furrowed as he tried to concentrate on a way to dissuade the thing. "These haven't harmed you. Let them go!" he pulled out the diary from his pocket and offered it up. "Read the truth."
The ghost ignored his pleas and lashed out with its charred hand, hoping to pin the teen by the throat. Its efforts were as thwarted as Clark's had been moments earlier.
Lana, on the other hand had more luck.
The ex-cheerleader grabbed at the spectre's period coat and was shocked when she was actually able to touch something like material. Her eyes widened but she didn't let go when the creature spun around. Instead, she indicated to Clark that she could make physical contact with the thing.
Clark's eyes brightened as he realized they suddenly had a chance. Ignoring all else, he kicked at the hole in the windscreen with his left boot. The already weakened glass gave way to his immense strength, and the remaining windscreen tumbled outwards in almost one piece.
As the glass fell by the roadside, Lana yanked back on the ghost's coat and as he was pushed towards the dash. She kicked out then, just as Lex had taught her, and the spectre found himself propelled over the hood and under the truck's churning wheels. The action couldn't hurt his long dead form, but he was left long behind as the Dodge roared onto the only fog-free road in Smallville.
"Nice kick," Lois offered as she smiled at Lana. "Now can you just tell me why you can touch those things and Clark can't?"
Clark felt something begin to churn in his stomach and tried to think fast. "Maybe it's because those things think Lana is a direct descendant of one of the people who wronged them? I'm adopted, remember," he added hastily.
Lois wasn't buying it. "So why did I have the pleasure of getting skewered?"
"Wrong place, wrong time maybe?" Chloe squirmed as she leaned over to continue steering. "Guys, I hate to mention this, but we're about out of gas…"
Clark could see the gauge needle was at the bottom of the area marked in red. Just to make sure, he turned around and scanned through the truck and into the tank. It was empty.
"Great! We outrun the fog, only to have it catch up and those guys play stab the student again!" Lois was obviously not amused. "How far are we away from the church?"
Clark calculated the distance in his mind in an instant. "Too far," he admitted. "We can't outrun the fog on foot." And I can't carry everyone at once at superspeed!
As they talked, the engine began to cough and splutter. The last dregs of fuel were almost gone, and they were out of options.
Lois cringed as she sensed the accelerator fail her requests for more speed. Eventually, she took her foot from the pedal and let the truck come to a stop. "It's over, Guys. You better start making a run for it. I'll catch up once I get free…" She began half-heartedly tugging at the thing that held her arm to the dash again.
Stacey hopped from the back first and looked in the direction of the church. It was still so far away it wasn't visible from their position. She shook her head, and ignoring Lois' plight, began to run.
Clark shook his head at her selfish attitude, and then rushed to pull open the driver's door. Lois might not have the strength to remove the hook, but it shouldn't be a problem to him. He looked at the rusty metal that had pierced her flesh, and abruptly felt sorry for the girl who enjoyed taunting him.
"Well don't just stand there, Smallville!" Lois pushed at the door with her good hand to help Clark gain access.
He smiled reassuringly, and then with one quick jerk pulled out the hook, hoping not to hurt Lois too much. To her credit, she didn't cry out, but simply slumped forward slightly until Chloe helped her sit back.
Clark tried to examine the weapon he had retrieved, but as he scrutinized the hook it dematerialized in his palm, dissipating into the air like the wraith it had stemmed from. How can fog become solid? He didn't dwell on the thought, but instead tore off a piece of his shirt sleeve and wrapped it around Lois' bleeding arm. "Can you walk," he asked, genuinely concerned.
"Lois grinned through gritted teeth. "Still trying to get your hands on my butt, huh, Smallville?"
Clark couldn't help but smile back as he helped her from the cab. "Hey, you were the one who refused my offer of a dance that night…the least you can do is let me carry you now."
"It's okay, I can walk." Lois looked at the other two girls and asked a little shakily, "So are we going to try and catch Stacey up, or what?"
Lana turned around to glance at the rapidly approaching fog. It was far too close now to escape from, no matter how fast they ran, or how quick witted Lois managed to be. Humor couldn't save them now. Nothing could. "We can try," she shook her head and launched into a quick jog.
Chloe and Clark followed, keeping Lois in the middle as they ran.
"You know," Lois panted, "I should have taken you up on that offer of a dance, Smallville." She waited for Clark to look at her questioningly before answering, "After tonight, I'll never have that chance again…none of us will…"
TBC...