Chapter 3 Up In Flames

( that afternoon)

Clarks eyes slowly opened and he groaned as he rolled over onto his back, laying in bed he stared up at his blank ceiling pondering life. "I should probably try to do something productive today." He rolled onto his side and tried to get up but he felt too weak to even stand. "Well, maybe not" he groaned as he rolled back over. "Guess I'll just take the day off." As he stretched and closed his eyes a familiar voice rang through his head.

"It's time!" It yelled.

Clark's eyes shot back open and he suddenly felt an immense heat rising from within. It began in his chest and increased in intensity with every second. The heat brought pain, a pain like he had never felt before. His bed felt like an inferno, he jumped up quickly and walked over to his mirror, he looked at himself confused. He was in Kal's clothes again. "I didn't go to bed in these."

" I told you to keep them handy." Lucifer chimed in.

Suddenly his legs grew weak and he fell to his knees. writhing in pain he couldn't help but yell out. Now on all fours he watched as beads of sweat began to fall from his face. One fell onto his hand and immediately evaporated into a small puff of steam. Struggling to move he slowly brought his hand up to his face to examine it. "What is happening to me?"

Suddenly an incredible pressure built up inside his head and it felt like it was on fire. Drawing from past experience with his heat vision he knew this wasn't a good sign. He tried to push himself up onto his feet but the overwhelming pain inside made it nearly impossible. Finally he managed to get him self up and faced the mirror again, he noticed that his eyes were now glowing a fiery orange. he knew he couldn't move fast enough to get downstairs without burning the house down.

"Oh no! Whatever will you do?" Lucifer asked sarcastically.

Clark turned and looked at his bedroom window. While this wasn't the ideal choice he had no other option. Clutching his face with both hands he walked over to it struggling to take each step. Once there he gave into his exhaustion and allowed himself to fall forward smashing through the glass pane and falling to the ground below.

"Enjoy the trip." The dark prince chuckled

Clark didn't even feel the impact, he was already in so much pain. He couldn't fight anymore, his vision began to go black and he felt himself passing out.

"Oh I'm not done with you yet!" Lucifer yelled.

Just before he lost consciousness and even greater pain presented itself, again emanating from his chest. Unable to control his movements his back arched up and he let out another yell. As he did jets of fire shot from his eyes. It took several excruciating moments for this to stop so he could regain control of his site. He looked on helplessly as flames began to ignite from under his clothes, seemingly coming from nowhere. His shirt was disappearing under the flames and the black leather of his coat began to warp, bubble and crack from the incredible heat. He shook his head and looked again to make sure he wasn't seeing things, he wasn't. He wanted to try to stand so he began to roll over onto his stomach, as he did he pushed his fist into the ground for support. As his fist touched the earth several tiny cracks opened up around it and small flames sprung forth from them. Again he asked himself, " what is happening to me?"

"Did you not hear a thing I said boy? I told you this was coming!"

As Clark struggled to push himself up off the ground he brought his head up. His eyes were still drenched in a red hue but he could make out a blurry figure standing in front of him. As the figure came into focus he recognized it. "Lana?" He shook his head in disbelief. "Lana!" He called out to her but she didn't move at all. "Lana! What's happening? How are you here?" Still she said nothing.

"She can't hear you." Lucifer stated laughing.

Confused and frustrated Clark screamed at the top of his lungs but the voice that came out of his mouth was not his own. As he continued to call her name his voice deepened and took on a more animalistic tone and eventually became more of an indistinguishable roar. "Lana!" Clark reached out to her and watched as the flesh on his hand began to burn away exposing the boney fingers underneath. Again he examined his hand, opening and closing it until there was nothing left but bone. "How? How can I still move it?" He thought.

Lucifer continued to mock him. "Oh it must be magic!" He laughed

Clark looked down to see that the same was happening to the rest of his body, he looked back to see Lana, still standing there looking on. "Help me!" He cried.

"I told you boy, she can't hear you!"

He began to notice that as more and more of his flesh burned away the intense pain he felt began to subside. "How am I still alive?" He kept thinking. As the last of the flesh on his body disappeared for a few precious moments he felt no pain at all. "Is it over?" He asked looking himself over in terror, realizing he was nothing but a blackened smoking skeleton.

"No!" the voice of Lucifer rang out.

Now on all fours he felt he could finally stand up but the moment he tried another incredible pain erupted from his chest cavity. With his now skeletal hand he grabbed at the area where his heart used to be and noticed some kind of molten material spreading across his body. Within seconds it had coved his torso, arms and legs. It stopped at the base of his neck. Then a blinding light broke through the material and as it did the pain increased. Unable to withstand it any longer Clark slammed both fists into the ground and as he did a huge column of fire shot up from beneath him and engulfed him in the flames. Scared and alone Clark roared again, "Lana!" Then he blacked out.

( a few minutes earlier in town outside of the talon)

Martha Kent exited the talon with a fresh cup of coffee. She had just finished running some errands in town. She took in a deep breath and smiled at the feeling of the afternoon air entering her lungs. She looked up into the sky and arched her back in a stretch. As she did she turned her head in the direction of home. Suddenly a huge column of what appeared to be fire shot up into the air. Her mouth gaped open and her hand shot up to cover it as she gasped. "Clark!"

One of the townspeople ran up to Martha and put his hand on her shoulder. "Martha is that coming from your farm? What's going on?"

"I don't know but I've got to get home!" She shot over to her truck, jumped in and raced down the street. Once she was out of town she put the gas pedal to the floor and pushed her old truck as hard as it would go. She looked nervously in the rear view mirror hoping there wouldn't be blue lights following her, nothing, she was safe. She turned her attention back to the Kent house. There was still fire shooting up into the sky. "Oh Clark what happened? That can't be your heat vision acting up!"She thought to herself. She sped down the road and after several minutes she finally turned down the Kent farm drive. As she pulled closer she could see that the column of fire was coming from the side yard next to clarks bedroom. Luckily it wasn't close enough to catch the house on fire. She pulled up to the house and slammed on the breaks causing the tires to kick up dirt. She threw the door open and jumped out. As she ran to the side of the house she began to feel an intense heat, it grew hotter and hotter the closer she got. She stopped just close enough to be able to see what was going on. All she could see were the flames bursting from the ground. She could hear a faint noise coming from within them.

"Lana!" A strange sounding voice called.

"Lana?" Martha asked herself. "Did I hear that right?"

"Lana!" The voice called again.

Martha became more confused. "Who is that calling Lana's name?" She paused and a realization came to her. "Clark!" She began to scream. "Clark! Are you in there? Clark!"

"No!" The strange voice yelled as the column of fire quickly retreated back into the earth. Left there was a figure hunched over on all fours. She recognized the clothes as the ones Clark had worn when he became Kal. Thinking that her son had been the one engulfed in those flames she began to run to him.

"Clark are you ok?" She called out to him. "Clark answer me!" But before she could reach him the figure stood up and turned to face her. She was greeted with a vision of something that looked nothing like her son. It wore clark's clothes and a large black trench coat but there seemed to be no flesh on its bones. Instead its body appeared to be covered in some kind of molten rock. The only exception was the head. Where it's face should be there was nothing but a flaming, charred skull. It began to sway back and forth turning its head from side to side. As she looked closer, she could see a familiar diamond shape etched into the molten skin on its chest, it glowed yellow. It appeared to be a kryptonian symbol though it was one Clark had never shown her. She began to slowly step backwards away from the figure, but as she did it's body went rigid and it snapped its head to face her.

Martha froze out of fear and stared into the things non-existent eyes. "What are you?" She asked timidly.

It ignored her and instead cocked its head to the side as if it was perplexed by her presence. It then reached out towards her with its blackened hand, small drops of an orange liquid slowly fell from its fingers and scorched the earth as they splashed on the ground. In a strained low voice it spoke,"mo-ther." Sounding the word, out almost as if it was just learning to speak.

"Mother?" Martha quietly replied. "You're not my son." She spoke up. "What have you done with him?"

"Mo-ther." The monster spoke again.

"Where is Clark?" Martha yelled at it.

The monster cocked it's head to the other side as If Martha's words had confused it. It stared at her blankly for several moments, suddenly it shook its head aggressively. It did this a several times, pawing at its face as if it was fighting some sort of internal battle. Then it brought its fiery hand up and tapped on the side of its skull. "In. Here."

"What's that supposed to mean? Tell me what you've done to my boy! Tell me right now!"

Seeming to ignore her the monster stared out into the fields. It seemed to be focused on something. But Martha couldn't see anything.

"Look at me!" Martha demanded as tears began to roll down her cheek. "Did you hurt my son?"

The monster ignored her and continued its stare. After several moments it spoke again. "La-na."

Martha's expression changed from desperate to confused. "Lana? Wa-was that you calling her name in that fire? But how do you kno- Clark? Is that you? Are you really inside that thing?"

The monster shook its head again, grabbed its face with both hands, hunched over and let out a terrifying roar. A wave of intense heat erupted from its body. Despite this Martha tried to step towards it.

"Clark!" She called, but the monster stepped back each time she took a step forward. After three or four steps the monster planted its feet, bent down slightly and pushed off the ground launching itself into the air. It rose above the house, stopped and hovered in mid air staring down at her. Martha stared back in disbelief. It turned towards the sun, stretched out its arms and looked up into the sky. The Kryptonian symbol on its molten chest glowed brighter and brighter as it hovered there. It was almost as if it was drawing power from the sunlight.

Martha dropped to her knees and her hand moved up to cover her mouth as it dawned on her. "It is you." She gasped. More tears began to roll down her cheeks. "Oh Clark!"

The monster brought its arms and legs in towards its chest then threw them back out sending another wave of heat radiating outward, as it did smoke erupted from its back and formed what appeared to be a pair of torn and tattered wings. It stared down at her a moment more then turned its head to the sky, let out another demonic roar, and flew off into the distance.

Martha cried. "Clark, what could have happened to turn you into that-that thing?" She forced herself to stand, she could hear sirens wailing from down the road. "Someone must've called the fire dept." She ran into the house to call Jonathan.