Thanatos

Chapter Three

The rest of the night went smoothly for the Kents, as the stranger in their home had simply finished up getting cleaned up, then ate dinner, and finally went up to bed after making a call to the sheriff's to report his accident, or so he thought his hosts believed. Martha had given Tom the number to make the call, but Tom had only pretended to talk to the lawmen while instead he spoke to his own answering machine from his home back in Metropolis, making up answers to the questions he believed the Sheriff would ask. What he didn't know was that the Kents' son had special abilities, one of which just happened to be super hearing. He had no clue that Clark had tuned into his one sided conversation from all the way downstairs.

"Clark, what has your father told you about eavesdropping on a person's conversation?" Martha asked quietly as she recognized the face her son always makes when doing so.

"I wouldn't do it if it wasn't for the bad feeling I'm getting off of him," Clark quickly replied as he looked awkwardly down at his mother standing in front of him. "Something's not right and the fact that he's actually answering no questions and explaining his accident to his own answering machine, only heightens my sense that he's trouble."

Jonathan walked over to them as he responded, "I felt something was off with him too, Martha, but we can't exactly kick him out of our home for no reason, at least not for our reasons. However, we can keep an eye on him. Clark, I hate to ask, but do you think you might be able to keep your eyes and ears open through the night, you know, just in case he does something…?"

Clark interrupted, "In case he does something that's not good? You don't have to ask. I was going to anyway."

"Good, and I think I'm going to go ahead and make the real call down to the Sheriff's," Jonathan continued as he walked into the kitchen and picked up the phone. "Let me know if he comes back down, would you?"

"I still think I should go down to the accident site tonight," Clark spoke again as his father started talking with Sheriff Adams. "You know, before the sheriff arrives with the rest of the department. If there's something Tom is hiding out there, I think we should learn about it first, as he is staying here in our house."

Martha looked at her son nervously and answered reluctantly, "Okay, I suppose you're right, but please be careful out there, Clark. I'm still afraid that we're going to lose you again, you know, after all that's happened lately."

Clark pulled his mother close and kissed her on the top of her head, then replied, "I'm not going anywhere again, Mom. At least not until I've graduated high school and get into college."

"Where's he going?" Jonathan asked after he got off the phone and saw, or at least felt, his son speed past him.

"Clark thought it best if he go take a look at the scene, before Sheriff Adams and the rest of her force get there," Martha responded in frustration as her husband came over to her and then together sat down on their couch. "I still don't like it, but I suppose Clark's right."

Jonathan took her hand in his and pulled her into his arms, then he said, "We should know if there's a threat this man has brought here with him that we or the law enforcement may not be able to see right away. Don't worry, Clark can take care of himself just fine."

Martha spoke again saying, "I can't help, but worry about both of my boys. I think I'm going to go up to bed. Try not to stay up too late, all right?"

"You've got it," he answered tiredly and leaned in to kiss her, watched his wife walk off to their room on the ground floor to go to bed, then continued sitting there as he waited for their son to return home.

Across town…

As soon as Clark arrived at the scene of the accident, he immediately began to look around, starting with looking inside Tom's car, using his x-ray vision for a more thorough search of the vehicle. When he was finished, he ended up finding nothing suspicious. In fact, the car was amazingly clean. If it wasn't for the Metropolis plates and the bumper stick on the car's back fender, Clark would have thought it was a rental car. Finally, he started to look around the entire site, including all around the tree that had caused the crash, and it wasn't long before he found a large hole in the ground a few feet away where a bunch of loose dirt had been filled into it, but that had been recently disturbed as if something had climbed out of it.

Clark slowly moved in for a closer look, but stopped short when he suddenly began to feel dizzy and weak, immediately recognizing the effects were coming from the meteor rocks which were no doubt beneath the dirt within the hole. He quickly backed away and instead used his vision again in order to see if there was anything still buried in the ground that might help him to find out what was there before. It was then that he discovered the shape of a woman's shoe.

Clark started moving toward the hole again despite the kryptonite in hope to grab the shoe before the effects could affect him too much, but it was then that he saw flashing lights not too far in the distance. He realized that it would probably be best if he got out of there before the sheriff or any of her men could see him snooping around where he didn't really belong. It would also be best if he left the shoe behind for them to find in case what he suspected about Smallville's newest visitor came to be true.

"Dad, I think we've got a problem," Clark stated as soon as he ran back home and found his father in the kitchen washing the night's dinner dishes. "Why are you still awake? You should be sleeping by now, it's getting late."

Jonathan stopped what he was doing as he looked back at his son and replied, "I was waiting up for you, now focus. What's the problem? Did you find something out there?"

Clark looked at him worryingly and then lowered his voice as he responded, "Right, I… we were both right about Tom. I mean, he was definitely in a car accident and the tree did crash down into the road in front of them like he said, but I don't think he was alone."

"What are you saying, son?" his father asked, already believing he knew what his answer would be.

"I'm saying that I don't think Tom was travelling here alone," Clark answered. "I found a freshly dug hole in the ground not too far away from the wreck with a woman's shoe still buried there, but there was no body buried with it. I couldn't get real close because there were meteor rocks in the earth as well, so I used my vision to see into it. It was clear that the hole was freshly dug and covered again, then disturbed. I think a woman was buried there tonight. And I don't think she was dead."

Jonathan looked up toward the upstairs room where their guest was supposedly asleep and sighed worryingly, then he looked back at his son as he replied, "So, Tom most likely killed, or tried to kill, whoever this woman was, then buried her without checking to make sure she was actually dead. I knew that there was too much blood on his clothes for it all to be his. I never should have stopped."

Clark put his hand on his father's shoulder for comfort as he responded, "You stopped because you were trying to help a man who you thought was in trouble. You didn't do anything wrong, Dad."

"I wish I had your confidence," Jonathan answered in frustration. "I'm going to need to call Nancy, to let her know that there's… Wait, I can't call the sheriff about the possibility that a woman buried alive might be roaming around like a zombie somewhere here in Smallville. She'll want to know how I know this and I can't tell her that I sent you to the crime scene to have your own look around. When she comes around, hopefully in the morning, we'll just have to let her in to speak with Tom and let her handle things from here, unless of course this situation becomes something worse."

"I'll take care of it if it does," Clark said confidently. "Now, go get some sleep. Everything's going to work out fine, you'll see."

Jonathan nodded and hugged his son, then walked off toward his bedroom, leaving Clark alone in the living room, knowing that he was there to make sure everything was all right while this possible killer was a guest in their home. Because he was exhausted, it didn't take long for Jonathan to fall asleep beside his wife, nor did it take long for his night terrors to start up again, nightmares that had started immediately after bringing Clark home when Jor-El had infused his body with the same abilities as his son and had only grown worse since the same being nearly killed him down in the caves. As soon as he was startled awake for the first time that night, Jonathan raised himself from their bed and took a seat in the rocking chair in the corner of the room like he eventually moved to every other night in hope of not waking his wife too, once again keeping his dreams and fears to himself, not wanting to worry those he loved even though he knew deep down that they would both find out the truth eventually.