Note: Sorry all for the short chapters. Trying my best to keep them manageable so I can update more quickly. Thanks for hanging in there with me even though I keep throwing curves at you! You guys are the BEST!! This one is a slight step back in time for Clark's POV on what Lois just went through…kinda. Next chapter you'll find out who the mystery person is from chpt 8. ;)
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Chapter 9
It had finally happened.
He was officially losing his mind.
He heard her voice.
Not that that was an anomaly. It wasn't. Over the past few months, he'd heard it often. Over and over. In his head. In his dreams. Little things she'd said to him through the years. Lost in the drumbeat of time. Forgotten to everything but his heart.
They were his constant companion now.
"Oh, we're friends now?"
More than you know. More than I realized. The best and truest. The one and the only. The most trusted. The most cherished. Come back to me and I'll prove it. I'll shout the truth of it to the world.
"…you haven't been saving for a bike, you've really been saving for a Harley.
A Harley.
Liberating. Powerful. Exhilarating. A symbol of freedom. Of unrestraint. Leaving a whirlwind of uninhibited dust in the wake of untapped passion. Of endless exploration.
To you, it's a Harley. To me…my Lois. The king of the road to describe the queen of my heart.
"Where would we be if you'd answered that question?"
Not alone. Not empty. Not crushed under the weight of this never ending nothingness. This void. This abyss. Not falling into dreams of you only to be pulled from the beauty of your steady heartbeat, my only solace. My sacred lullaby. Not living again for five glorious seconds before the deafening silence drowns out the last beat of your heart.
The last beat of mine.
"A pity party. These are always fun..."
That's the one that broke him. Angrily swiping the tears from his face, fierce resolve replaced helpless sorrow. He would not allow his emotions to keep him from what he had to do. Not this time. Not ever again.
Lois was out there. Somewhere. He would find her.
Or he would die trying.
He shot out of the Fortress in record speed.
That's when he heard it.
"Hang on, Smallville. Don't give up on me. Not now. Not when we're so close…"
The words slammed into his consciousness.
She'd never said that to him before.
Clark skidded to a halt, spun around and flew back to the Fortress. On air. No thought. No fear. Just overwhelming, exhilarating hope.
He hovered over the frozen earth without even realizing it. His gaze, a constant sweep over the entire expanse of the crystal bastion as x-ray vision surveyed every inch. Every crevice. "Lois! LOIS! Lois, where are you? Are you here? LOIS!!!"
His questions echoed in the silence. Lilting upward on the wings of conviction. Fading into a hollow reminder of who he had become.
No one.
Not without her.
He was higher than he knew. His fall, harder than he anticipated. He came crashing back to earth with a thunderous groan. He felt solid ground give way under him then cradle him in its icy palm.
It had finally happened.
He was officially losing his mind.
Darkness threatened to overtake him as tears flooded his eyes for the second time in the space of an eternity. Clark gritted his teeth against the overwhelming loneliness. The heart searing ache. The pleading echo in his head.
"Hang on, Smallville. Don't give up on me…"
A ragged breath of irrational optimism. A jaw set by the sheer power of his will. A whispered promise as sacred to him as her name.
"Never. Never. Never…"
With that mantra on his lips, Clark shot straight out of the Fortress.
This time, with a roar of anguished determination that threatened to shake the world.
Tbc…