Days turned to months. Months turned to years. And still Clark found himself at his brother’s mercy - forced to wear that accursed collar, day in and day out, never getting a respite from it. He hardly noticed the weight of it anymore. It was no different to him than wearing a turtleneck sweater or a scarf around his neck. He barely even looked at it anymore. Not when he stood, fully naked, in front of his full-length mirror after a shower. Not when he checked his appearance when he dressed for the day. Not when he caught glimpses of his reflection in skyscraper windows as he flew off to make his next kill. He no longer took note of how hot or cold the metal became in the elements.
And yet, he was terrifyingly aware of the collar’s presence at all times. Each time he wondered if he could find a way to break free of Lex’s control, the memory of the Kryptonite’s deadly poison attacking his body would surface in his mind. Clark’s heart rate would spike and a sheen of nervous sweat would pop up on his brow while a cold shiver ran down his spine. He dared not risk doing anything to expose the radioactive stone core of the collar.
Only once did that collar come off. As Clark grew from a gangly, but powerful, teen into a well-muscled and broader man, Lex had a new collar made – this one bigger around so that it didn’t choke Clark, though Clark suspected that Lex was more fearful that Clark’s neck muscles would strain the steel ring too badly and accidentally expose the Kryptonite inside in the middle of an assassination. Clark didn’t care what the reasoning was, so long as the metal wasn’t pressing into his windpipe any longer. He even submitted himself to the rock’s deadly effects on him while Lex opened the old collar, exposed the Kryptonite, and inserted the stone plus a little extra into the new collar. The transfer didn’t last long, but, for Clark, the exchange felt like it lasted for eons. It had been almost a relief when the new collar was snapped shut around his neck – a new control method for Lex’s personal slave.
Slave.
Clark knew that was all he was. He was no longer Lex’s little brother if indeed he’d ever truly been – and Clark wondered daily if that had ever been the case. He was no longer a Luthor at all. He was a nobody, a nothing, a possession that Lex took a perverse thrill in owning and siccing on whoever he wished – even innocent people, just because Clark had no choice but to kill them, lest he be killed instead.
He hated it.
His very existence became a nightmare.
He still didn’t allow himself to feel anything when making a kill. It was important that he didn’t. Without that emotional block in place, he knew he would have gone insane long ago.
And yet, he dared not try and escape. He knew only too well that Lex would make good on his threat to open the vents on the collar and let the Kryptonite core do its deadly work. He didn’t want to die – at least, most of the time. There were plenty of nights when Clark went to bed, hoping against hope that he would die in his sleep so that he would finally be free from his life as enslaved assassin. From time to time, he even half-contemplated doing something to make Lex follow through on his promise to kill him, but it was never a serious thought. He feared the Kryptonite with every fiber of his being. He never wanted to experience pain like that ever again. It terrified him beyond the point of words. No, he couldn’t allow the radioactive piece of his home world kill him. He wished he was more like a normal person and able to swallow down an entire bottle of pills, slip into a coma, and pass peacefully from this mortal realm. But, of course, his extraterrestrial roots denied him that. He was stuck, indefinitely, as Lex’s personal assassin.
“Clark, I have an errand for you to run,” Lex said, early one spring evening.
“An errand?” Clark replied, weary skepticism in his voice. He knew what Lex really meant. He wasn’t being sent to pick up a gallon of milk at the store. It was time to murder someone.
Lex nodded calmly. “Yes.”
“Who’s the mark?” Clark asked with a tired sigh.
Lex eyed him critically. “Something the matter?” he asked, a hard edge to his words.
Clark sighed again. “Does it really matter?” he wondered aloud.
Lex’s eyes narrowed. “Tell me,” he commanded, folding his arms across his chest.
“It’s nothing,” Clark said sharply. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. “I’m just sick and tired of killing people for you. How many years has it been now? I’m twenty-eight, Lex! I’ve been your personal assassin my entire adult life and most of my teenage years.”
“What’s your point?” Lex asked, in a voice devoid of any compassion and almost daring Clark to answer.
Clark shook his head, toying with the idea of answering Lex’s question or if he should try to let the subject die. But the expectant look on Lex’s face squashed any hope he had that his “brother” would allow him to keep his silence. He saw the movement as Lex brushed a finger outside of the pocket where he kept the collar’s remote control. Clark slumped his shoulders a little, feeling defeated before he even began to respond. He took a steadying breath and hoped his answer wouldn’t anger Lex too badly.
“I’m just…mentally burned out,” he admitted. “I’ve been killing for so long, Lex. How many more people can you possibly have a vendetta against?”
“That is not your concern,” Lex growled back. “You are a nobody, do you understand? The only reason you’re still alive is through my good graces.”
“No, I’m alive because I’m valuable to you,” Clark countered, his voice steely.
“Yes, you have certain merits,” Lex allowed dangerously. “And the second you aren’t useful anymore…” His voice trailed off, letting the implications and threat hang unvoiced in the air. “I suggest you continue being useful,” Lex added after a moment.
“Who’s the mark?” Clark asked again defeatedly, watching with nervous eyes as Lex felt for the remote to the collar, which never left his pocket.
“A doctor,” Lex said simply, gauging Clark’s level of compliance.
“A doctor?” Clark repeated, confused.
“Not just any doctor,” Lex clarified. “Actually, a doctor and nurse team.”
A thought occurred to Clark. He motioned to Lex. “You don’t mean the ones responsible for…” He couldn’t finish his statement as fear of Lex’s temper froze his vocal chords.
“My permanent hair loss?” Lex supplied. “Yes.”
“But…but…but,” Clark stammered. “They said the treatment was experimental! They laid out all the risks to you. Including baldness. Lex…you had cancer! They saved your life!” Clark rambled on, desperately trying to talk some sense into the man who’d once been his brother.
Lex ignored the protest completely. “You will find and kill Dr. Samuel Lane. And his nurse, Ellen Lane. Or there won’t be a treatment on Earth that will be able to save your pathetic excuse for a life.”
“Lex, please,” Clark began to beg. “Those people…you’ve been cured for three years now. Three years you may not have had, if not for their treatment. They took a chance on you when everyone else said your cancer was too advanced and spreading too quickly for them to treat it. So what if it left you permanently bald? You have your life, Lex. Isn’t that more important?”
“Yes, I have my life. But my dignity?” Lex shot back, a dark look pinching his features tight.
“Dignity?” Clark asked quizzically. “Lex, no one thinks any less of you for being bald,” he reasoned, wishing he could find a way to make Lex change his mind about the hit. “There are plenty of people out there who are bald – by choice or not – who people respect. You’re no different. You’re one of the richest people on this planet! People would give up anything to be you! There are women out there who would stop at nothing just to climb into your bed! No one cares if you have hair or not, Lex.”
“I care,” was the ice-cold response. “In a few week’s time, I’m to announce my bid for the presidency. I need all of this taken care of before then. A tragic accident before I ask the country to rally around me and make me their leader.”
“But, Lex…”
“Enough! One more word and I’ll leave you writhing on the floor for the next half hour,” Lex threatened. “It’s all the same to me if you get a taste of the Kryptonite or not. You’re still going to do what I’ve commanded if you don’t want to wind up in a shallow grave somewhere.”
Clark clenched his jaw so tightly it made his teeth ache and he thought that surely he might pop a vein. But he forced himself to submit to his master’s wishes.
“Fine,” he growled through locked teeth. “When?”
“Tonight. My sources say the good doctor and his wife are working a late shift at the hospital. Wait until they are alone, then eliminate them.” Lex turned to leave Clark to get himself ready for the night’s work. He took one step and stopped, but didn’t turn back. “Oh, and Clark?”
“Yes?” Clark forced himself to say.
“You’re going soft. The Clark I once knew was much tougher. He would have never hesitated to see a job done.” Cold criticism was in Lex’s voice. “He would not have dared to ask me to spare the lives of people who took something – anything – from me. See that the old Clark returns, or else…”
He let the rest go unfinished as he reached into his pocket. Clark saw his intentions too late. The vents on his collar opened up and he crashed to the floor in mind numbing agony. Nothing existed outside of the pain. No thoughts. No protests. No words of submission came to his lips. The only sound he was able to make were cries of agony – formless and unintelligible, yet full of meaning somehow, as though they themselves begged Lex to stop the assault. Lex was merciful this time. He shut the vents after only a few minutes, but it was enough to leave Clark groaning in residual pain, unable to stand or even sit up on his own. His chest felt as though molten lava ran through his lungs while he was being gradually let loose from the invisible vice that had been squeezing his torso during the Kryptonite’s poisoning. His head throbbed and his muscles were water. His brain was abuzz with pain, but his thoughts could come to him more clearly now. He coughed and new agony exploded in his chest and he prayed his still vulnerable body hadn’t just cracked a few ribs.
“Get yourself cleaned up and ready,” Lex snorted in disgust as he looked down on Clark. “You’re to leave at midnight.”
***
“Status report,” Lex called over the headset Clark was required to wear whenever he left Lex Tower.
“This thing has a built-in camera,” Clark shot back angrily. “You can see for yourself.”
“From the clouds?” Lex prompted, his voice strained with the anger Clark knew he was holding back.
Clark sighed softly to himself. Lex was really worked up about this assignment. It had to be more than just his misplaced demand for “revenge” against the doctor and nurse who’d “robbed” him of his hair. But what other reason it could be, Clark simply didn’t know. He knew Dr. Lane was the go-to doctor for all of the athletes LexCorps sponsored. In fact, Dr. Lane was the only doctor allowed to work on repairing any of the athletes’ injuries. And they always came back stronger and better than before. It wasn’t like any of them had been on losing streaks that could have set off Lex’s ire.
Maybe Dr. Lane has had enough of Lex, he thought to himself as he hovered in a bank of clouds. Maybe this is Lex’s way of firing the man.
It didn’t matter. Lex had painted a bright red target on the man’s back, and Clark had to make the kill. If he didn’t, his own life would be forfeit.
Once again, Clark wondered if it might not be better if he just disobeyed and let Lex kill him. Once again, the idea of experiencing the effects of the Kryptonite squashed that notion before Clark could even truly consider it as a viable option. He was stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place, and he saw no hope of ever getting out again.
I should have run when I was younger, before this damn collar, he thought miserably to himself. I just never thought Lex would be cruel enough to use that accursed stone against me. We were brothers!
“Clark?” Lex impatiently prompted.
“Nothing to report yet,” Clark answered distractedly, as he scanned the hospital with his super senses once more. “They haven’t left the building yet. It’s too noisy in there for my hearing to pick them out and I can’t see them. Maybe they’re in surgery or something? If there’s enough lead shielding where they are, it could block them from me. But the car you described to me is still in the lot. They’re in there, somewhere.”
“You’re sure it’s the correct vehicle?” Lex asked broodingly
.
Clark rolled his eyes, hard. “Lex, I may not like being your hitman, but I’m not an idiot. It’s the right car. I checked the license plate. Several times. It’s theirs.”
“You’d do well to mind your tone with me,” Lex warned.
“Okay, okay,” Clark acquiesced without really meaning it, hoping only to smooth things over with Lex. He quickly checked his watch, pressing a button on the side that lit up the face of it with a dull blue light. “Lex, it’s almost three in the morning. I’ve been here since midnight. There’s been no change. Maybe we should try again another night.”
“No,” was the immediate, firm reply. “Keep watching.”
An airplane flew by overhead, the roar of the engines so loud that it drowned out all else. Clark wasn’t worried. The plane was well above where he was floating and the cloud he was in was so thick that it fully concealed him from all sides. Clark was glad for the noise. At least for the moment, Lex couldn’t issue any more commands or ask any more questions as the plane’s tremendous noise obliterated all other sounds.
Once the plane moved on, however, the feed on his headset remained silent. For another half hour, not a word passed between the two men, a fact that Clark silently gave thanks for. Then, just as he was about to once again suggest trying the hit another night, he saw movement in the parking lot.
“I may have a visual on them,” Clark said into the microphone by his mouth.
“May have?” Lex demanded to know.
Clark telescoped in with his enhanced vision. “I can confirm the visual. It’s them. They’re heading to the car.” He paused, double checking what he was seeing. “Oh no,” he whispered.
“What’s the problem now?” Lex snarled.
“They aren’t alone,” Clark responded as he watched. “There are two young women with them.”
“Other doctors?” Lex asked sharply.
Clark shook his head slightly, knowing the movement wouldn’t even show in the grey mist that surrounded him. “No, I don’t think so. There’s no trace of scrubs or anything. I’m guessing friends of Sam and Ellen Lane. Give me a second to listen in.”
He didn’t wait for a response, immediately tuning his hearing in on the foursome as they crossed the dark and quiet parking lot.
“I’m telling you, Mom, Nico is a good guy. Not at all like the others I’ve dated,” one of the young women said.
“Lucy, please,” the other admonished. “You’ve said that about the last three guys. Two of them had a criminal record and the last guy was married with a family.”
“Mind your own business, Lois,” the first woman said snapped.
“Girls, please,” Ellen grumbled exhaustedly.
The second woman – Lois – huffed in annoyance. “You know, sometimes I wonder why I’ve agreed to go on this vacation together. It’s clear we can’t all coexist in one place at the same time.”
Clark severed the connection. He’d heard all he needed.
“Lex? This might complicate things. It seems that the two women with the Lanes are their daughters,” he informed Lex in a neutral tone.
“Perfect,” Lex replied, and Clark could hear the demonic smile in his voice. “Take them all out.”
“But!” Clark sputtered, unsurprised by Lex’s command but still unable to reconcile killing people who were blameless. “Lex, please! They had nothing to do with your…unfortunate loss.
”
“You really are stupid, aren’t you?” Lex said with a tsk tsk in his voice. “One of those two is a nosy reporter. Ensuring that she dies as well will prevent her from digging too deeply into her parents’ deaths.”
“And the other? What has she done to deserve death?” Clark challenged.
“Nothing,” Lex admitted, and Clark could imagine his shrug. “But her death bothers you, so I’m inclined to watch her die. Now, get to it. I’d like this job wrapped up neatly before sunrise. I have a midmorning meeting that I need to be alert and refreshed for.”
“Ah, yes, wouldn’t want to deprive you of your sleep,” Clark retorted. He paused as the Lanes got into the car he’d been watching all evening. “They all got in the same vehicle,” he informed Lex. “They’re pulling out of the parking space now. I’ll follow from above and behind until the right moment comes.”
“Just make it look like an accident. I cannot afford to have this traced back to me in any way.”
“Oh, come on, Lex,” Clark grumbled. “There hasn’t been an assignment yet that’d been traced back to you. Suspicions, maybe, but nothing anyone can prove,” he continued as he began to flew after the Lanes’ car, which had pulled out of the lot and onto the main road before the hospital.
“A trend that had better continue,” Lex threw back. “Or else it will be the last thing you do.”
“I’ve got it under control,” Clark replied, rolling his eyes again. “I’ve been doing this a long, long time now.”
“Yes, and yet you’ve still managed to screw up the occasional assignment,” Lex said with reptilian coldness.
Clark ignored the barb, shutting Lex out of his ears and mind by focusing solely on the car he was following. For several long minutes, he simply followed the Lane family, well out of sight of any prying eyes, waiting for the opportune moment. At first, there were simply too many witnesses around. Metropolis was a city that never slept. Even as late as it was, people were out and about. He saw no less than five patrolling police cars, and dozens of trucks all rumbling down the streets on their way to making deliveries. Some of the bars he passed were still open, the patrons lingering about on the sidewalk in front. Couples walked along, some of them with their dogs. Homeless men and women huddled on benches or in doorways, trying to sleep or actively begging for spare change.
“What are you waiting for?” Lex hissed in his ear at one point.
“Too many witnesses,” Clark replied. “Too many chances for someone to come along and try to save them. But don’t worry. It looks like they’re heading for the city limits and upstate New Troy. Once they get out on those less populated roads, I should be able to complete the job.”
Sure enough, the car soon left the city behind. The bright, glaring lights that flooded Metropolis each night, turning the darkness into midday, vanished. Night time and darkness returned in force. Sam Lane switched his car’s headlights from their normal setting to his high beams. There were, of course, still streetlights along those quieter stretches of road, but it appeared he wanted to take no chances, especially as the woods closed in around them and it became more likely that they would encounter animals in the road.
Clark saw his opportunity. They were less than twenty miles outside of the city limits, but the staging was perfect. Clark aimed a careful, precise, and thin beam of his heat vision at the front passenger tire of the car. He maintained a steady stream of heat until the tire burst. Not expecting this at all, Sam jerked the wheel too hard as the car swerved and he fought to retain control. The front end pointed off the road, directly at a massive, ancient oak tree. But they weren’t going fast enough, Clark gauged. He dropped in elevation and used a blast of his super breath to send the car speeding into the tree.
The sound that followed was one that would come to haunt Clark later on. The brief screams of terror as the car picked up speed. The way those screams immediately died again as the car contacted the tree. The crack! as the car met the solid trunk of the oak. The screeching, crunching, and tearing of metal. The groan as the giant tree lost bark. The snap! as rotting limbs were jolted loose from the behemoth they’d sprouted from. The shattering of the car’s windshield and the tinkling as the glass flew through the air, clattered on the car’s hood, and the soft thunks that only Clark could hear as they hit the soil.
The passenger side headlight flickered for a few fitful seconds, then went out, though the driver’s side stayed lit. The engine sputtered but, miraculously, kept on going. No other sounds could be heard. Not a grunt of pain, not a gasp of horror, not a cough as the occupants struggled to gain their bearings. Cautiously, Clark descended fully, lightly letting his booted feet touch down on the asphalt of the road. With sure, steady steps, he approached the mangled vehicle. When he got to the driver’s door, he didn’t even need to open it. Sam Lane no longer had much of a face left, from slamming so hard into the steering wheel. There would be no miracle on Earth that could bring the oft-proclaimed “miracle-working surgeon” back.
Ellen was only slightly better off. Her face was a mask of blood and glass shards from the windshield, her features frozen in horror and fear. Clark didn’t even need to search for a heartbeat with his super hearing. She, like her husband, had crossed over to the other side. Clark closed his eyes for just a moment, sighing heavily but softly enough so that Lex wouldn’t hear it over the microphone. He made sure to give Lex a good view of the battered bodies over the body cam he wore.
“Both targets are deceased,” he said, confirming his kills.
“And the daughters?” Lex inquired impatiently.
“Checking now.”
Clark peered into the back seat. The window had turned into a spider’s web of cracks, so he punched it in, the glass skipping harmlessly off his impervious flesh. He checked the first young woman and found no signs of life. An ugly wound on her head indicated that, even if she did, miraculously, come back with CPR attempts, she’d likely never leave a vegetative state. He noted that she hadn’t been wearing her seatbelt and wondered briefly if it would have made a difference if she had been wearing it.
Clark went around to the other side. The other window had been rolled down before the car had careened off into the tree. He looked inside at the second young woman and judged her to be the older of the two. Her seatbelt was firmly in place, but she was still in bad shape. Her breaths were strangled sounding and her heartbeat – as Clark heard it with his super hearing – was weak and thready. Blood flowed from several injuries on her scalp, but as Clark X-rayed her, they were superficial at best. Some would require stitches, in all likelihood, but they didn’t pose a threat to her health.
“Well?” Lex asked.
“One of the girls is dead, or close enough to it,” Clark responded in a whisper.
“And the other?”
“Alive, but barely,” Clark replied, and immediately wondered if he should have lied.
“Finish the job.”
“Lex, no. She’s as good as dead if I leave her,” Clark argued back. “There’s no sense in me killing her if we want to maintain the feel of this being nothing more insidious than an accident.”
“Snap her neck,” Lex demanded. “It will fit with the rest of her injuries.”
“No!” Clark shot back. “I know what I’m doing, Lex!”
He turned away from the grisly sight of the car’s interior as he spoke to Lex. He didn’t want his master to see what he was up to. With his face held high to look at the stars, Clark reached behind him, in through the open window. He felt around for a moment, then his fingers touched what he’d been looking for. With his gloved hands, he blindly flipped open the woman’s cell phone – still clenched tightly in her hands – and fumbled for the numbers.
9
“Damn it, Clark! Do you have a death wish? You know I won’t hesitate to open the vents on your collar,” Lex ranted.
1
“Of course not, Lex,” he calmly replied. “I know perfectly well what you’re capable of. But she’s dying, Lex. There’s no need to muddy the work I’ve done with inconsistencies.”
“You forget your place!” Lex roared.
1
With that outburst, Clark heard the woman’s heartbeat go still.
“Lex? She’s dead,” he stoically reported.
“Good. Now get back here immediately, before anyone sees you,” Lex grumbled.
“Of course,” Clark complied.
Send.
Clark brought his hand back away from the phone and out of the window as the phone dialed softly. He trained his hearing on the phone as he lifted slowly off the ground and hoped the operator would be able to trace the call through global positioning systems. He thought that maybe, just maybe, if they got there fast enough, EMTs might be able to revive the woman.
His heart ached as he thought of her. Despite her wounds, she was a stunningly beautiful woman. He wasn’t sure he believed in love at all, let alone love at first sight. How could he? His entire existence was based on what he now recognized as slavery and torture. Had the elder Luthors ever truly loved him? Maybe, he admitted as he thought about it. They’d always seemed genuine in their affections. But so had Lex, once upon a time.
No one can love someone like me, his mind sighed in remonstration. I’m an alien freak. I’m a ruthless killer. I’d be better off dead, except I’m too much of a coward to let Lex kill me with that stone.
Clark was halfway hidden in the clouds again when the gleam of headlights cut through the darkness, coming the opposite way the Lanes had been traveling. They must have seen the crash. Clark saw the lights come to a standstill, and his super hearing picked up the sound of a man calling 911. He smiled a private smile to himself. Even if his attempt to get paramedics to the scene failed, that man – whoever he was – would manage to get medical help to that woman. It was possible she wouldn’t make it, but Clark had to hope that she would.
What’s wrong with me? he asked himself, his heart racing faster than it ever had before. I disobeyed a direct order. If Lex finds out…
He shuddered. He’d taken a huge risk tonight – bigger and more terrifying than he’d ever taken before. He’d killed so many, and all of them with scarcely a thought. So why did the idea of this woman dying bother him so much? Sure, she was an innocent woman who’d happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But that shouldn’t have gotten under his skin as much as it had. He shook his head, trying to fling out the thoughts of that woman.
Doesn’t matter anyway. Either she’ll die tonight or Lex will have me find her again to finish the job. Either way, I’ll never get to know her. I’ve only prolonged the inevitable. If she’s smart, she’ll get out of Metropolis and as far away as possible. But even as the thought entered his mind, he wondered if there was any place that was out of Lex’s reach, and his heart sank with fear for the woman.
To be Continued….
