I didn't sleep well the night after Clark's funeral, despite how drained the day's events had made me. Instead, I lay on my back, snoozing fitfully and dreaming of things I would rather not see.
One minute I was at Luthorcorp, reliving the hellish day of the explosion, the next, I was back in the cemetery, but it was different somehow. The sky was dark, and the earth seemed black and foreboding. Rain poured down from the heavens, making the recently dug soil turn to mud.
I walked to Clark's tombstone and fell to my knees in the wet earth, tears streaming down my face and mixing with the torrents pouring from the raven-black sky.
The scene switched again in my nightmare, and I was in some unending black place. It was like having my eyes closed and feeling smothered by the darkness. I gasped for air, but all I inhaled was the stale oxygen free atmosphere that I suddenly realized meant I was inside a casket- Clark's casket. Somehow, I was sensing his thoughts, his terror and my mind could take no more.
I shot upright in my bed and gasped in lungfulls of air as I awoke feeling totally numb. The sensation of being buried alive wouldn't leave me, and I considered going down to the kitchen to get a glass of milk.
It was then that I saw the photo frame beside my bed. It had been placed face down on my dresser as if to hide the picture it portrayed. I didn't do that, so how did it happen? I picked up the frame, caressing it as I turned it over to reveal an image of Clark and myself at our graduation ceremony. He had that goofy grin, and to be honest he looked pretty un-cool in his gown, but I still adored the shot. We had shared the moment together, and it was something I would never forget.
I smiled and stood the silver frame back up so that Clark's face was watching over me, and then I lay back down on my pillow, praying for sleep. At first, I tossed restlessly on top of my duvet, but after an hour I must have dozed once again.
As soon as I returned to my slumber the images and sounds came back to haunt me. I was back in the dark place, but now there was more. Something so frightening in fact, that even in my reverie my body stiffened in trepidation.
Clark was calling to me, pleading with me, and I was powerless to help his trapped and tormented soul.
"Chloe…so dark …so dark. Please don't leave me here…"
For a brief moment it was if I felt his hand touch me, and then I was awake again, panting as I tried to regain my breath. I shuddered, and then it hit me. The photo frame was back in the face-down position on my dresser. Did I do that subconsciously? I shook my head. No, I didn't.
Tentatively, I reached out to once again set the frame back upright, but as my fingers touched the metal I felt it jerk from my hand and tumble to the carpeted floor.
"Whoa!" I jumped from the bed, and as the glass in the frame shattered as it hit, I ran for the door, totally spooked by my experience. As I reached the top of the stairs, I calmed somewhat and considered my options. I could fetch dad, or Lois who was sleeping on the couch, or I could return to my bedroom and pick up the frame.
In the end I chose the latter. Where my nerve came from I'll never know, but somehow I pushed myself forward and picked the photograph from it's now tattered frame. Clark still smiled up at me from it with his boyish charm, and my hands shook as I looked at him. Did I just have one freaky nightmare, or is there more?
Being the queen of weird, I considered the facts and found I didn't like what had just happened in the Sullivan household. Clark wouldn't haunt me! But why did I feel like I was in a coffin and hear his voice? And then there was the frame moving on its own…
I inhaled deeply, trying to calm my nerves, and then headed back down to the kitchen with the photo still in my hand. I'd only gotten halfway towards the refrigerator when Lois' sleep-filled voice greeted me.
"Chloe? What are you doing up?" I saw a pair of pink bunny slippers appear, shortly followed by Lois tugging herself up from where she lay. "Stupid question, I guess." She answered herself, and then shot me a curious expression as she noted the picture in my hand. "You have to stop punishing yourself, Chloe!"
Could I tell her what just happened, or would she think I was going nuts? I decided to give it a try. "I just had a nightmare…well several, actually. Except I don't think they were nightmares exactly…"
Lois' brow furrowed and she walked across the room and put an arm around me. "Things like this are bound to happen. You have to give it time. It's just your mind playing tricks on you. What else could it be?"
I grabbed a glass of milk and quickly offered Lois the picture. "I had this by my bedside. It was my favourite picture of Clark and me together. Tonight I swear it moved on its own, and eventually pulled free of my grip to smash out of its frame on the floor. I dreamed of being trapped inside a casket too. Well, at least that's what it felt like."
Lois looked at me sympathetically and pulled out a chair. She forced me to sit on it, and I was sure I was going to get a 'Lane talking to' the general himself would be proud of. I wasn't wrong. "Chloe, Clark's dead, accept it or you'll find yourself in Belle Reve instead of Lionel Luthor!"
"Lionel's out," I corrected. "He was released last week. And I'm not going insane! It happened! What's more I have a theory and I need your help…"
"Oh?" Lois couldn't help but look intrigued. "Is it anything I'm likely to get arrested for?"
I nodded apologetically.
"Okay, I'm in, just tell me this theory isn't wall of weird?"
"Worse," I admitted. "Lois, I want to dig up Clark's casket." I saw her eyes go wide and I quickly explained my idea. "What if Clark's not dead? What if they somehow buried him alive and he's crying out to me somehow for help? Lois, that was no dream I just had, it was more…more intense…"
My cousin scoffed and shook her head in disbelief. "Chloe, Clark is DEAD! I refuse to turn ghoul and desecrate his grave that way. What would your dad say? Heck, what about the Kents? Could you put them through that?"
My eyes began to water, but still I couldn't shake the feeling that I was somehow right. What if he's down there right now, running out of air, just like in my nightmare? "You dug my grave up. You didn't care then." It was a cruel card to play, but I knew Lois would have no satisfactory answer.
"I was convinced you were alive!"
"Without any real evidence save your own intuition, just like me now!" I said, triumphantly. "So, are you with me or not?" I began to jog back to my room to get changed.
Lois rolled her eyes but had already begun tugging off the pink bunnies. "I'm with you, Chloe. I just hope you know what you're letting yourself in for. The chances of finding anything…"
She didn't have to say it. I knew she meant the chances of finding anything but a corpse were pretty thin. Still, I had to follow my own heart. I knew I was probably wrong, and was about to get into more trouble than I could handle with Sheriff Adams, but if there was just a chance in a billion I could save Clark as he had me so many times, then I had to take it.
Lois and I sneaked out of the house at around 2am and pushed my car down the drive to avoid any noise. My dad would definitely not have approved of my clandestine activities, and I didn't want to wait till daylight anyway. If I waited, I knew I would lose the nerve to go through with the task. Could I face to look upon Clark's mangled body should I be wrong? I shuddered and hopped into my VW once we were safe enough away from the house.
Lois remained silent as I cranked the engine, and I could see she was less than happy with what we were about to do. I ignored her frown and looked in my mirror. There was nothing behind us, and yet I couldn't shake the sensation of being watched. I glanced at the empty sidewalks, searching for the watcher, but all I got was Goosebumps and a tingling down my spine that screamed I was being stalked. I kept my thoughts to myself. Lois didn't need to hear more rambling and think I was going psycho.
"If Clark is…" Lois didn't finish. "Well, you know. Please tell me this is the last of it? You have to let him rest."
I nodded, my knuckles turning white as I gripped the wheel too tightly because of my frayed nerves. "Something's not right, though, Lois. I know it." I pulled up outside the cemetery and climbed out of my car. Again, I sensed eyes upon me, and I spun around feeling a cold chill grip my body. Get a grip, it's not a ghost. Clark wouldn't do that. He'd never want to frighten me!
I saw Lois watching my erratic behaviour and realized she hadn't felt the same sensations that I had. I shrugged it off and grabbed a flashlight and shovel from my trunk. "Ready?"
Lois took a breath and let it out again, making a thin vapour trail in the cold atmosphere of the graveyard. "No," she admitted, and then grabbed the shovel from me. "But I think we should get this over with."
We walked to the tombstone then, and I was reminded of my dream. There was no rain, no mud, but still the ever present gnawing in my mind like a voice yearning for my attention.
When we reached the headstone I paused and said a small prayer. I'm not the most religious person in Smallville, but tonight I felt it was somehow apt. Then, it was time for the digging. Lois took first turn, and as the shovel bit deep into the loose soil I felt my heart skip a beat. Was I simply in denial so bad I had to see the body to truly believe it, or had I really felt the picture frame jar from my hand?
After what seemed like hours of digging, finally a metallic clang signalled that we had reached Clark's last resting place. This was the moment of truth, but was I ready for what I was about to face?
Tbc...
