Title: New Game.
Author: Lucy Mars
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: See Prologue.
Summary: It was a new game now. New rules. New players and new losers.
A.N. I am SO sorry for the delay in getting the next chapter
out. Real life has been beyond crazy and hectic with inane things. Rest assured
that I never forgot about this and I will continue on with this story. Again,
sorry for the delay.
Chapter #7:
"How long do you think we've been down here for?"
"It feels like days but in reality it's probably only been a few hours."
"God," Chloe sighed running a nervous hand through her hair, "Lex must be going crazy with worry."
Watching as Chloe's face fell back into that forlorn expression that made her stomach twist uncomfortably with pessimism, Claudia made a ditch attempt at distraction. "Tell me. What's it like being engaged to the infamous Lex Luthor?"
Giving in to the slight smile tugging at her lips, Chloe shivered as she huddled deeper into the blanket she and Claudia were sharing. "You never stop working, do you?"
Rolling her eyes, Claudia grabbed Chloe's ice cold hands and rubbed them vigorously to try and warm her up. "Off the record, I promise. And in my defense, I can't help it if I'm naturally curious."
"Look at where that curiosity got you." Chloe murmured regretfully trying to pull her hand out of Claudia's grasp. She couldn't deal with Claudia being so understanding and caring with her. It was her fault that she was even here in the first place. She didn't know what was worse. The guilt gnawing at her or the worry she felt for Lex and Louis and even Lionel. The Luthor patriarch wasn't as indestructible as he'd like the world to think.
"Okay," Claudia declared firmly catching Chloe's attention without remorse, "Your misplaced guilt was touching the first time, understandable the second time, but right now, it's bordering on annoying. I'm in a room with the notoriously impossible to interview Chloe Sullivan soon to be Luthor," Claudia smirked triumphantly, "The article I'm going to write about this experience is going to get me an internship at the Planet. So stop acting like you've issued me a death sentence."
"You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me." Chloe reminded the girl who brought back so many memories of her youth and the egoism of adolescence that made her mistakenly believe that she was invincible.
"We're going to get out of this," Claudia assured her, "You'll have your loving fiancé to go back to and I'll have the story of a lifetime, and possibly a movie of the week to sell to the Hallmark channel."
Laughing, Chloe grasped Claudia's hand tightly in hers. "You don't strike me as the kind of girl that watches the Hallmark channel."
"Doesn't mean I don't know how to cash in on other people's insanity and their sadistic need for a good cry," Claudia teased, glad to see Chloe do something other than stare somberly at the floor, "You've got to believe that we're going to make it out of this, Chloe. Have some faith in the magical powers of the Luthor money."
Silently observing Claudia as she took a second to catch her breath, Chloe smiled gratefully. "Have you always been such an optimist?"
Shrugging her shoulders, Claudia tucked the errant edges of the blanket tighter around them as an unforgiving chill passed through the room. "I guess I spend so much time writing about the bad that I need to find the good to keep myself sane."
Rubbing soothing circles over her stomach, Chloe asked quietly, "Do you really think that we'll make it out of here?"
Without hesitation, Claudia beamed proudly at Chloe's taut expression. "I'd be willing to bet my laptop and all the chocolate covered coffee beans I have hidden in my locker."
Laughing, Chloe tiredly rested her head on Claudia's shoulder. "That sure, huh?"
"That sure," Claudia assured her, "So come on, dish! What's being the infamous Lex Luthor's leading lady like? Does he shower you with lavish flowers and gifts? Do you find priceless heirlooms tucked into simple little black boxes with your name scrawled on the tag? Is he as romantic as the papers make him out to be?"
Smiling fondly as she twisted her engagement ring around her finger, Chloe shook her head at Claudia's enthusiasm. "I don't know what to tell you."
"Tell me he loves you as much as you obviously love him."
The tight lines around her mouth melting into a tender smile, Chloe answered seriously, "It's an amazing feeling to be loved in return as much as you love someone."
"That's a lot of love,"
"It's the perfect amount."
Looking down at Chloe's softening eyes, Claudia asked wistfully. "Just enough love to make you believe in miracles and those happily ever after's they tell us about when we're little girls?"
"Yeah, just enough."
"See!" Claudia declared triumphantly, momentarily filling the dark room with a burst of light, "I can totally sell this to the Hallmark channel. Screw working this summer. Making money the old fashioned way, through sweat and hard work, is completely overrated."
Giving Claudia a wry smile, Chloe immersed herself in the younger girl's enthusiasm and allowed herself to momentarily forget about their current situation. "I have a feeling you and Lionel would get along very well."
***
"How long has it been?" Louis questioned aloud from his seat under the dim light of the moon as the world continued to spin out of control. His struggle to keep a firm grasp on his sanity proved to be much harder than he'd ever imagined.
"Too long," Lex snapped as he paced a hole into Chloe's favorite rug, "It's been two hours and our men haven't found anything and there haven't been any ransom demands made."
"Patience," the elder Luthor mistakenly preached.
His body rigid with worry, Lex spun around to face his father. "What exactly are you asking me to wait for, dad?"
"News," Lionel answered just as Louis's phone began ringing.
Jumping at the shrill sound that was almost deafening after the hours of silence that had filled the room, Louis fumbled with the contraption briefly before finally answering the call that could tip the axis again. "Yes?"
Both Luthor men held their respective breathes as they waited what felt like an eternity for Louis to turn to them and announce with barely contained excitement, "There's been a development."
***
The smell of garbage was thick in the air as the pampered princes of Metropolis made their way up the rickety staircase that would bring them one step closer to finding Chloe. Clutching a flashlight in one hand, Lex let the light pan over the trash and cobwebs that were littered over every possible surface.
Their combined weight caused the stairs to protest loudly as they strained against the unforgiving hands of time and each step that both men took echoed through the abandoned building. The few squatters that had called the decapitated building home had been promptly relocated to more comfortable accommodations, par Lex's wishes when he had been informed of the homeless children and he heard Chloe's voice fill his ears. Even without the Luthor fortune backing her compassionate nature, Lex knew that Chloe would have done everything to help them. She would have given them the clothes off her back if she had thought that it would help.
"What do you think they've found?" Louis asked his quiet voice ridiculously loud in the dead of the night.
"I don't know," Lex replied as they reached the top floor and he spotted his men standing guard before an open door. Shaking off the unfamiliar jitters that plagued him as his imagination ran ramped with the possible things that his men may have found Lex stood tall and poised with faith. If there was something that Chloe had taught him with her love it was to believe in miracles.
"Mr. Luthor," the leader among the men acknowledged.
"What have you found?" Lex demanded trying to look into the room that his men had found to be important enough to request that he come out and take a look.
Hesitating briefly, the men exchanged brief looks of uncertainty.
"Spit it out," Louis command impatiently, itching to push past Lex's men and see for himself what they had found that would bring them one step closer to bringing Chloe home.
Glancing back towards the light that spilt from the room they'd found, the leader tightened his jaw as he meet Lex's stormy eyes with his own. "I think you'd rather see for yourself, sir."
Ignoring the irrational swell of fear that threatened to push him over the edge, Lex stepped over the soiled threshold and looked down the narrow hallway to the one room at the end of the corridor. The dull florescent glow painted shadows over the paint chipped walls and grimy floorboards, and highlighted the dust that drifted through the air as Lex led the way down the musky hallway towards the source of the light.
His steps certain and swift, Lex didn't even realize his hands where shaking until he registered the wavering path of the light from his flashlight. Clenching his trembling hands into tight balls, Lex turned off his flashlight as the yellow light grew brighter and the dismal state of the building became clearer. Looking back at Louis as they neared the room at the end of the hall, Lex nodded once before stepping into the cramped and chaotic room. No amount of time would have been enough for Lex's imagination to conjure up the scene before him.
"Bloody hell," Louis hissed as he racked his eyes over the unruly and chaotic state of the small room. A large desk was the only piece of furniture in the bare room, as negatives hung from the ceiling and various photos of Chloe adorned the sparse and grey walls. Stepping past Lex when he made no move to walk further into the room, Louis dodged the low light bulb that hung from the ceiling and let his eyes drink in what his mind refused to believe. Taking an unsteady breath as the world tipped beneath him again for the umpteenth time that night, Louis spun around to face Lex's vacant eyes. "Lex?"
Dropping the flashlight as his fingers went limp along with the rest of his body, Lex wordlessly moved past Louis and his quivering off his jaw. The force of impact of caused a deafening ring in his ears, Lex noted distractedly as the glass of the flashlight shattered and the hollowed shell rolled away into a pile of discarded scraps.
"Lex?" Louis called out again, fearing for the fragile state of his friend's mind. One man could only take so much and Louis was terrified that this would push Lex into an abyss so dark and deep that even Chloe could never pull him back out. "Lex, talk to me."
The ringing in his ears prevented Lex from being able to hear Louis desperate plea as his unsteady steps brought him deeper into the room and the madness that surrounded him. Chloe's laughter rung loudly in his head as Lex warily laid his hand over the work desk's cluttered surface and closed his fingers over photos that bore the face of his only love. There were photos he that recognized from various articles and magazine spreads and photos that captured moments never meant for public consumption. A dull throb of violation swept filled him as Chloe's smiling face looked up at him.
Standing over Lex's shoulder, Louis cautiously reached out for his suddenly mute and motionless friend. "We'll find her, Lex."
Louis's words effectively shattering the eerie calm that had descended over him, Lex swiftly grabbed the edge of the desk and flung it across the room.
Instinctively ducking as wood splintered and photos flew through the thick night air, Louis backed away quickly as Lex tore the room apart with a rage that scared even him.
When everything that could be broken effectively was and everything destroyable quickly demolished, Lex was left standing in the middle of the room drained and shaking with fury. The silence that followed was as deafening as it was comforting as Lex struggled to regain a sense of sanity in the insanity that threatened to drown him. Louis presence wasn't forgotten but neither was it acknowledged as Lex tried to piece together his fractured psyche.
"I did this to her," Lex whispered brokenly as the tears he'd forgotten he knew how to cry crept past the walls Chloe had broken down with her laughter and love, "It's all my fault."
"No," Louis practically shouted grabbing Lex and turning him around, "No, it's not your fault Lex."
Not fighting against Louis as he shook him to try and make him understand, Lex lifelessly stared down at the photos jumbled on the ground. "I handed her to the wolf, Louis."
"You didn't know, Lex. None of us did."
"I hired him to protect her." Lex laughed humorlessly as his tears burned straight through his heart and pierced his soul, "I practically handed her over to him on a silver platter."
"Lex," Louis tried to argue, "You can't do this to yourself. Chloe needs you to be strong right now."
"It's my fault." Lex continued, not hearing a word Louis said. "She trusted me to protect her and I've failed, Louis. I've failed them both."
"No!" Louis yelled grabbing Lex's face and forcing him to look up at him. "Don't do this to yourself, Lex. This isn't your bloody fault."
Taking a shuddering breath, Lex immediately backed away from Louis. "You should get away from me, Louis. I taint everything I touch. Leave before I destroy all that is good in your life."
"Oh, fuck off." Louis snapped angrily closing the distance that Lex put between them, "This is not the time to become isolated from everyone because you're bloody afraid you have fatal cooties!"
"Louis…"
"No," Louis declared with an menacing glare, "I don't want anymore self-pitying crap out of your billion dollar mouth. This isn't about you, Lex. This is about, Chloe. After we get her back safe and sound, I give you permission to continue this 'woe is me' sob story. For now, pull it together man."
Swallowing hard, Lex nodded. "You're right,"
"Of course I bloody am,"
"I just…I need a minute."
Clapping a hand on his shoulder, Louis offered Lex a supportive, albeit weak smile. "I understand. Take a second. I'll go and talk to the men and find out what they've got so far."
Pausing in the shadows of the hall Louis watched Lex with worry and sorrow. One man could only take so much and Louis was terrified that Lex had taken all that he could. They had to find Chloe and find her fast, if not for her own safety then for Lex's. Shaking his head, Louis pushed Lionel's ominous words from earlier out of his mind as he focused on his task of finding out what else Lex's men had found.
***
Practically fluttering through the rooms with barely contained glee, Adam merrily sang under his breath as he lit candles and put the final touches on a dinner so grand and brilliant that he had no doubt Chloe would be touched and pleased to the point that she would forget all about Lex Luthor.
She would fall in love with him. She would see Adam to be the utter meaning of perfection. They would live happily ever after.
His eager laughter filling him with warmth and excitement, Adam leapt and bound from room to room as he sang with gusto and passion, "All of Lex's horses and all of Lex's men will never be able to bring Chloe back again."
***
TBC…because my evil tendencies didn't disappear during my hiatus. However, feedback just may prove to make me a nicer person. ;]