"What are you doing, sweetheart?"
Chloe blinked. An unknown voice had guided her here into the attic; now she was hearing her father's.
"We all still need you, Chloe. I know how hard these past few weeks have been for you. You've been withdrawn, lonely. But you're forgetting one thing: Our lives were worse off without you, as yours was without us."
She couldn't see him anywhere, but she didn't need to. She knew he wasn't really in the attic but in some way she was certain he was here all the same. Telling her what she needed to hear. A few deep breaths and she knew she was regaining her senses. Thanks to the memory of her father's love.
Her father.
Everyone was going to kill themselves.
She had to help her father, she thought, when a treacherous foot suddenly kicked the chair she was standing on backwards.
Your father's dead, shrieked the voice she'd heard before. Smashed his own window and stabbed his Adam's Apple through the glass!
The chair wobbled on two legs, Chloe trying desperately to balance it with her heel. If it fell, she'd be hung. She struggled to try and remove the noose from around her neck, but she'd tied it tight. Oh God, she thought, don't like it end like this…
The chair toppled backwards and suddenly Chloe couldn't breathe. With one last effort she swung her legs back and snapped them shut around the back of the chair. The lace was tight against her throat, face turning red through lack of air. Swinging forward she just barely managed to drop the chairs on all fours. Her feet found their target and she untied the noose as quickly as she could.
She fell off the chair, landing hard on the floor, coughing uncontrollably. Her hands scrambled around, trying to find her phone. She knew she had to call Clark and warn him. It had been stupid to try and deal with this by herself. She'd thought The Memento would leave him alone so long as Clark didn't know about him. Instead, Memento apparently wanted to kill everyone in town… or rather, have them kill themselves. Clark's parents were in danger. Now that she considered it, would even Clark be immune?
A shadow fell over her as if in response. Not having fully recovered, she turned round and a fist smacked against her face. She fell back, blood coming from her nose, head reeling. There was a man there. He must have seen the whole thing. He held a small box in his free hand. The lid was off. Chloe gasped as she remembered Stephanie's ramblings.
"Listen to me," she said, rubbing her nose and getting to her feet. "We need the lid for that box."
She recognised the man from a photo she'd seen downstairs – this must be Stephanie's husband, Martin. His wife was right now lying dead downstairs with most of her face missing. Bill was next to her with a knife in his heart. If she'd never went to him in the first place, he'd still be alive now.
Martin grabbed her by the throat. There was a strange light behind his eyes.
"Why didn't you kill yourself?" he asked. It was presumably a rhetorical question, since Chloe had no way of answering. She tried to kick out at him to break his cold grip but he forced her to her knees. He was too strong for her to fight against. In desperation she swiped out with her left hand, knocking the box from his grasp. Martin first gasped then roared as it went flying down the attic stairs. He lunged after it and as he moved past Chloe shoved him with all the strength she had left. He hurtled downwards out of control, crashing against the stairs and landing at the bottom painfully.
She was hurt and frightened but knew there was no time to waste. She grabbed her phone and called Clark. Maybe she'd been right, and even Clark couldn't stop Memento. But maybe she should have put her faith in him from the beginning.
The Memento was looking at Clark with an expression of sympathy on his face.
"The memories don't usually come as violently as that. I suppose it must be due to your alien nature," he said as Clark regained his bearings.
"You did that?" Clark asked blinking repeatedly.
"Better than a whole week at Summerholt, I am!"
The Memento went back round the bar, stopping only as Clark's phone began to ring. Clark's heart skipped a beat as he saw it was Chloe calling. He saw The Memento looking keenly at him and realised – he didn't know where she was.
"Hello?" Clark answered quickly.
"Clark, please help me! I'm in big trouble. So is everybody in Smallville," said Chloe. She sounded panicked. Clark wanted desperately to ask where she was, but realised with frustration that he couldn't without putting her in danger.
"No, I haven't found her yet, Lois. I'm working on it though," he said, looking at The Memento meaningfully. Clark didn't know if he was fooled or not. Either way, Chloe caught on. She gave him the address he could find her at.
"Please hurry. And be careful, Clark."
He terminated the call. There was so much he wanted to say to her but couldn't. There would be time later, he told himself. There would.
He began walking towards the exit. The Memento made no move to stop him.
"I'm through playing your game," said Clark. "I don't care if I have to turn Metropolis upside down, I'm going to find Chloe."
Memento nodded.
"She isn't in Metropolis though, is she now, Clark?"
Clark's eyes narrowed.
"It's funny really," said Memento, grinning. "I bring you here to distract you from the chain of events I set in motion, but it's me who loses track of things! I lose sight of Chloe because I'm looking at the box. I lose sight of the box because I'm talking to you. And now Chloe is with the box!"
The Memento began to laugh hysterically. Clark moved over to the door, opened it and peered out. Into nothing. The street outside had disappeared, leaving behind a white void. It was like looking at a blank canvass God hadn't gotten round to filling in. He made to step into it anyway when The Memento called to him.
"I wouldn't step out there, if I were you. If you do that, I'm afraid you will be lost forever."
Clark spun round to see The Memento was vanishing. Using his speed, Clark ran towards him, but The Memento's disappearance never slowed. For a moment he expected The Memento's grin to remain floating in the air like The Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland.
He was trapped here. Returning to the door, being careful not to step outside, he used his telescopic vision to look far off into the distance. Yet no matter how far he looked he could see nothing but emptiness. He knew it could be another trick. If he stepped through he might find himself in Metropolis.
I'm afraid you will be lost forever.
If I go, I might just be lost forever, he told himself. If I don't, Chloe definitely will be.
Steeling himself, Clark stepped out into the unknown.