As soon as Emmeline woke up the next day, her thoughts drifted to Clark. She was still furious at herself for not doing something. Why did she have to be so shy?
Her parents wanted her to drop by the Farmer's Market and pick up some produce for them, so she found herself getting into the family's car and driving down the road to where the event was being held.
She began walking around the place, looking for anything her parents might want. She ended up passing by the Kent family's tent where Chloe and Pete were helping set up.
"Emmeline?" Chloe called out as she passed by.
Emmeline walked over to the tent. "Hey," she said quietly.
"What are you doing here?"
"My parents wanted some things from here so I'm getting everything for them."
A red-haired woman looked up at that moment and noticed the extra person present. "Hi," she said shaking Emmeline's hand. "I'm Martha Kent and this is my husband, Jonathon. We're Clark's parents."
"Nice to meet you."
"All hail the Homecoming king and queen!" Chloe called out as she saw Lana and Whitney approaching. Emmeline's heart sank as she recognized Whitney from the day before.
Lana came over to the group. "Hi! I'm Lana," she said to Emmeline. "This is Whitney."
"I'm Emmeline." Her eyes avoided Whitney as much as possible, an act that did not go unnoticed by Lana.
"Clark, I didn't see you at the dance last night," Lana said to Clark.
"Oh, I was…" Clark started. He looked over at Whitney. "I was a little tied up."
Tied up? What had those boys done to him?
Lana looked from Clark to Whitney wondering why Clark had directed that sentence at him.
"Hey, congratulations!" Jonathon said to Whitney as he shook his hand. "That was one heck of a game. I haven't seen an offense that good since I played."
"Thank you, Mr. Kent," Whitney said.
"I'm going to get the rest of the boxes out of the truck," Clark said.
"I'll help."
Jonathon handed Lana a peach as Whitney departed. "Lana."
"Thank you."
"See anything you want, Emmeline?"
"Um…I'd love some of your corn, and how about some apples?"
"Sure thing!" Jonathon wrapped up her food in a bag and Emmeline paid him for it.
"Thanks."
"Any time!"
Chloe looked after the girl leaving. "Hey!" she called. "Emmeline!" Emmeline turned around to find Chloe walking towards her. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
"You just seem a little…out of sorts."
Emmeline sighed. "Have you ever seen something you wish you hadn't? And when you look back, you wish you'd have done something?"
"All the time. Did something like that happen?"
"It's…kind of complicated."
"You're talking to the Queen of Complicated. Wanna share?"
"Um…you know, it's not really my place to talk about it. I'll see you at school." Emmeline quickly walked away, leaving Chloe standing alone. On the way out, she ended up bumping into someone. "Sorry," she mumbled.
"No worries," the other person said to her as he kept walking.
She looked back to see who she had bumped into, and her brow furrowed when she realized that it was Greg. But it was not the Greg she knew from around school, the one famous for collecting bugs. This Greg was…kind of handsome. What happened to him?
"Hey!" Greg called as he ran over to her. "It's Emmeline, right?"
Emmeline began blushing. "Yeah."
"Name's Greg. Greg Arkin."
"I've seen you around," Emmeline replied, refusing to meet his eyes.
"You're the new proofreader for the Torch I heard."
Emmeline nodded.
"Well, do you think you could help me with my Lit paper? I could use someone like you to look over it and make sure it's okay."
Emmeline finally looked up at him and began blushing more as she realized that he looked even more attractive up close. "Um, sure. Library tomorrow after school?"
"It's a date."
Emmeline quickly walked away before she completely blew it because her face was beet red.
The next day when Emmeline walked into the Torch office, she went to her desk and proofread more articles for the upcoming issue. At one point, Clark looked over her shoulder at all the red marks she had made.
"Wow, you don't go halfway," he said.
"I want to do a good job."
"So, my parents want you and your family over for dinner tonight if that's okay."
"Really?"
"It's kind of an initiation," Chloe chimed in. "We've all had dinner with the Kents at one point or another. Me, Pete, Lana, we've all done it. So now it's your turn."
"Well, I'm helping Greg Arkin with a paper after school, but after that it should be fine."
"You're helping Greg with a paper?"
"Yeah, he saw me at the Farmer's Market and asked for my help."
The bell rang signaling that free period was over, so neither Chloe nor Clark were able to ask more.
After school, Emmeline showed up in the library and found Greg sitting at one of the tables. "Hi," she said shyly.
"You made it."
"I said I would."
"Take a seat." Emmeline sat down next to him while Greg pulled out some sheets of paper from his backpack. "Here it is."
Emmeline took a red pen and began making marks left and right. By the end, there were so many marks, there was almost more red than black or white.
"Boy, you're a lifesaver. I didn't realize my paper was so bad."
Emmeline smiled a little. "Did I go too overboard?"
"No, these are really good notes. Now I'm sure to get an A. Thanks."
When she looked over at him, she noticed him looking at her kind of longingly which caused her to begin blushing again.
"Hey, you wanna go out and get some dinner?" he asked.
If possible, she blushed even harder. "I wish I could, but Clark invited my family over for dinner and it would look pretty bad if just my parents went."
"Clark Kent? You're gonna blow me off for him?"
"I'm not blowing you off, I promise." Emmeline started to get nervous. If there was anything she hated, confrontation was at the top of the list. "We can do it some other time."
"So you'd rather spend time with Kent? What, is he more important than me?"
"No, it's not that. I just…I have to go." She quickly gathered up her books and papers and took off.
"Wait, Emmeline!" She kept walking until she out of the library and out of the school then rushed home to get ready for dinner.
"Mom!" she called when she got in.
"In here, Emmeline!" her mother called back from the living room.
"The Kents have invited us over for dinner tonight."
"Have they? That's nice of them! I'll go tell your father." Her mother got up and left the room. Emmeline went upstairs and threw her hair up into a ponytail since it was looking a little worse for wear.
Then the three of them, mother, father, and daughter, all went over to the Kent farm. They were eagerly greeted at the door and ushered inside.
"Clark, Mr. and Mrs. Kent, these are my parents," Emmeline said quietly.
Her parents looked at her. They had always known she had been shy and try as they might, they could not get her out of it.
"It's good to meet you," Martha said with a smile. "The table's over here."
Everyone sat down and Emmeline found herself sitting across from Clark. Every now and again, she'd meet eyes with him and he'd give her an encouraging smile. She was always so amazed at just how gorgeous that smile was. She stayed pretty silent through dinner except for an occasional nod.
"Clark," Martha said. "Why don't you show Emmeline the loft?"
"No problem," Clark answered. "Come on."
He and Emmeline headed out to the barn and he led her to the upper level. "Wow," she remarked. "It's nice up here."
"I was just telling Lana earlier that my dad calls it my 'fortress of solitude'."
"I'd love to have a place like this. A place I could just go to whenever I wanted to get away from the world."
"Maybe you should spend some more time in the world."
Emmeline sighed. "I know. It's just…hard when I feel like the world is against me."
"The world isn't against you. I can promise you that."
"Clark…I have to tell you something. And you have every right to hate me for it and kick me out of here."
"What are you talking about?"
"On Saturday, when you left after Chloe showed you her wall…I saw the football guys shove you into the truck. I—I wanted to do something, but I was just scared of what they might do to me if they found out I told someone. It's not like I can defend myself, and I just figured that you were tough and could handle it when I couldn't. But the guilt ate away at me for the rest of the day and I have spent nearly every waking moment since that day wishing that I had done something for you."
"Emmeline, it's okay. You were scared. It happens to everyone. But I don't blame you and I certainly don't hate you. It's not your fault that that happened to me, okay? It was Whitney's and Whitney's alone."
Emmeline gave him a little smile. "Emmeline!" her mother called. "It's time to go!"
"I'll see you later, Clark," Emmeline said as she went down the stairs. "Thanks for showing me your 'fortress of solitude'."
When Emmeline entered the Torch office the next day to start proofreading, no one was there. Chloe had left a note on her desk that read "Meet us at the Wall". So Emmeline went to the room Chloe had showed her and Clark a few days prior. She knocked on the door then entered. "Hey."
"Emmeline," Chloe said. "Come on in. You're not going to believe this."
"What's going on?" Emmeline asked.
"I saw Greg in my barn last night after you left," Clark told her. "He wasn't entirely…human."
"What do you mean?"
"I found an article about Amazonian tribesmen who took on the traits of the insects they'd been bitten by, but nothing as extreme as what you're talking about," Chloe said. "Did you have any luck?"
"Only that Greg didn't move to Smallville until after the meteor shower, so he couldn't have been exposed to the blast," Clark answered.
"Yeah, but his bugs could have been. Think about it, guys. Pieces of that meteor are still buried all over Smallville. The whole habitat's infected. So when boy catches bugs and bugs bite boy, you end up with 'bug-boy'."
"Look, Chloe, you can't even walk out your door in the summertime without being bitten by a mosquito. Why don't we have a whole town of bug people?"
"Uh, because you need a certain level of toxins to cause a mutation. Those Amazonian tribesmen were all attacked by swarms."
"Greg did keep tanks of bugs in his room. Maybe they got sick of the view and staged a revolt."
"Well, according to this, bugs have a very short life cycle. So if he really has gone Kafka, let's hope he isn't in the mating phase."
"Oh, my gosh," Emmeline moaned, putting her hand to her head. "I spent an hour and a half with him yesterday and he's turned into some kind of 'bug freak'?"
"You'll be fine," Clark assured her. "Just try to stay away from him."
"You know, he got really weird when I said I was going to Clark's for dinner."
The three of them looked at each other as they tried to process what was going on. Chloe grabbed Pete after school and they all went over to Greg's house.
"It doesn't look like anyone's home," Chloe said as she peered through the window.
"The place is a mess," Pete remarked. "Remember what a neat freak Greg's mom was?"
"Yeah," Clark agreed. "She used to make us take off our shoes. One time I forgot and she yelled at me."
"Is that what broke up the friendship?" Chloe joked.
"After 7th grade, Greg's parents got divorced and he just stopped calling after that."
"Which stunk because he had a killer tree fort his dad built in the woods!" Pete said with a smile.
"It was okay."
"Clark never liked it. He used to get dizzy just walking over there."
"How come?" Chloe asked.
"He was afraid of heights."
"I didn't believe it was structurally sound," Clark countered.
Chloe pried open one of the windows. "You guys, come here." One by one, they all climbed into the house through the window. It smelled awful in the house and it was really, really hot. Black streak marks went all across the white walls.
"You guys!" Clark called from the bathroom. The other three went in and were met with a gross sight at the bottom of the shower.
"Oh man," Pete said as he took pictures of it. "That's disgusting. What is it?"
"I think it's skin," Clark answered. "He must be molting."
"You guys better come in here!" Chloe called. "Guys?"
They all ran into the room and were met with the whole place covered in spider webs which made Emmeline want to run out of the house screaming.
A video of Lana was playing on the TV. "Looks like you're not the only one in Smallville with the hots for Lana," Pete said.
"I think Greg's found his mate…" Chloe said.
Emmeline shuddered at the thought of sitting so close to the boy just yesterday and actually wanting to go out to eat with him. That's what she got for thinking someone could actually like her.
Clark moved over to the corner of the room where the webs were much thicker. He pulled the web apart and a decayed body fell out of it, making them all jump. Emmeline put her hand to her mouth.
"Oh, my…"
"Lana," Clark said as he took off.
Chloe, Pete, and Emmeline ran out of the house, the image of the corpse still haunting their thoughts.
Lana was usually out riding at that time of day, so Clark ran to the stables. "Lana!" he called. When he walked in, he saw that Whitney was with her.
"Clark?" Lana said. "What's wrong?"
"I think Greg is after you."
"Greg Arkin? I haven't spoken to him for weeks."
"Kent, are you insane?" Whitney asked.
"No, I just went to Greg's house. There was a video of Lana playing on his TV."
"Are you saying he's been recording me?" Lana said disgusted. "But…I can't even remember the last time I talked to him."
Clark's brow furrowed. "But if he hasn't reached out to you at all, then…" A realization crossed him.
"Clark? What is it?"
"Emmeline."
Emmeline ran into her home and into her mother's arms. "Sweetheart, what's wrong?" her mother asked.
"It's complicated."
"You can tell me anything. You know that."
"That guy I helped with his paper yesterday? Greg Arkin?"
"Yes, what about him?"
"He's…he's turned into some kind of bug freak. I mean he's taken on the traits of every single bug out there. And he…he killed his own mother."
"Oh, dear Lord. Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine. I'm just weirded out by all of this."
"Don't you worry. You're safe in this house."
No sooner had the words left her lips when the front door was busted down. There stood Greg.
"Emmeline, run," her mother ordered. "Now!"
"I won't leave you!"
"Go!"
Before her mother could do anything, Greg threw her across the room where she hit her head and got knocked unconscious. "Mom!"
Emmeline tried to run, but Greg stood in front of her everywhere she turned as he moved faster than humanely possible.
"What do you want?" she asked shakily as she tried to back away from him.
"It's time."
"Time for what?"
"For us."
Greg reached for her, and before she could even comprehend what was going on, everything went black.
"Emmeline?!" Clark called as he ran into the girl's house. He panicked at the sight of her mother on the floor unconscious. "Mrs. Brooks!" He gently shook her awake and she began to come to.
"Clark? That boy, Greg, was here!" she told Clark. "He threw me across the house and grabbed Emmeline. He took my baby!"
"It's okay. I think I know where he's going."
"Bring her back to me, Clark."
Clark sped off faster than possible and ran to the old tree house Pete had talked about earlier when they went to Greg's house. Once he saw the tree house, he sped up inside of it. Inside, he saw Emmeline knocked out underneath a blanket of webbing. He started to move towards her when he heard, "Get away from her."
Clark looked over and saw Greg perched in the corner of the tree house. "Greg, I know what's happened to you."
"Well then you know that I've been freed."
"No, you haven't. You're a slave to your instincts."
"I have no rules, Clark. I eat what I want, I go where I want, and I take what I want."
"You're not taking her."
"Well, then try and stop me."
"You're not the only one who's changed."
Greg tackled Clark and they both fell out of the tree house. When Clark got up, he looked over in time to see Greg leap over the wired fence that led to the old Creekside Foundry. Clark followed him, but as soon as he stepped inside, the familiar feeling of pain swept over him. He felt like he was being electrocuted from several different angles and his body was immediately drained of all energy.
He pressed on, but suddenly, Greg appeared behind him and whacked him with a huge pipe. Clark went flying all the way across to the other side of the place which just added to the immense pain he was already feeling.
"You haven't changed at all, Clark," Greg taunted. "You still get sick around this place, just like when we were kids. Hey, Clark. Did you know the Buffalo ant can lift 30 times its own body weight?"
Greg lifted Clark up and threw him across the room once more. Clark forced himself to get up and leaned against a piece of broken concrete. When he looked at his hands, they returned to normal.
"Clark?" Greg called out. "Clark, where are you? Come on out! I just want to play. Clark, please? Come out!"
"It's lined with lead," Clark muttered to himself as he looked at the concrete.
"Give it up, Clark! You can't fight natural law! Only the strong survive." Clark came out of his hiding place and slammed Greg against another concrete slab. "Did you really think you could hide from me?"
Clark threw him hard and Greg crashed against a support beam. He tried to pull himself up, but he accidently knocked over a lever next to him. A huge piece of construction equipment came crashing down.
"Greg, watch out!" Clark yelled.
The construction piece fell onto Greg, crushing him. When Clark walked over, thousands of little bugs crawled out from under it. Clark grimaced then sped off back to the tree house. He approached Emmeline and ripped the webbing, freeing her. She slowly regained consciousness and looked up at Clark.
"It's alright," Clark said to her tenderly as he gently touched her head. He helped her sit up and got her completely out of the webbing.
For someone who was already shy enough as it was, the whole experience took a toll on the poor girl and she began to cry softly. Clark held her in his arms and comforted her as he helped her out of the tree house and took her back to her house.
"You'll be okay?" he asked on her porch.
Emmeline nodded. "Thanks, Clark."
"I'm just glad you're all right."
She smiled and went inside. "Mom?"
"Emmeline?" Her mother rushed towards her and enveloped her into her arms. "Are you alright, baby?"
"Yes, I am," Emmeline said quietly as she hugged her mother back. She looked up at her and saw a massive bruise on her forehead. "You're hurt."
"It's just a bruise, honey. I'd gladly take a thousand of them if it means you're safe with me."
Mother and daughter hugged again tightly. Nowhere was safer than her mother's arms.
