The pounding rhythm of the music was like sex, grinding, guttural, almost overwhelming. Lois swayed for a moment. Her face felt numb, and she wondered if this was what her mother felt like when she wanted to forget.
She wasn’t supposed to be here at all. A fake ID, a quick lie…it wasn’t supposed to be that easy to get away from your parents. There had been a time where it wouldn’t have been that easy with hers.
Now that they were imploding, their marriage disintegrating faster than snow on a hot day, they didn’t have time for Lois or Lucy. It seemed to be all they could do to keep it together.
So they were at home, and Lois was here.
She hadn’t even had to buy her own drinks. Different people had been handing them to her all night.
For a moment she wondered where the others had gone, and then she shrugged.
She was here to forget, not to worry.
Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her on to the dance floor. As she danced, Lois stared at the glowing bracelet she was wearing. How they got the tiny crystals embedded in it to glow she didn’t know, but it was the coolest thing she’d seen in a while.
Some guy out of Kansas was selling them for fifty bucks each.
As Lois waved her arm, she could see the pretty colors it made. The light almost seemed to streak into a single trail.
**********
“I don’t think we should be here.”
Clark allowed himself to be shoved along by his teammates. This was wrong, and if the coach found out they were all going to be in hot water. Still, alcohol couldn’t affect him as far as he knew, and at least here in Metropolis he wasn’t likely to find any of those damned bracelets Wayne Irig’s grandkid was selling.
He hated the way they made him feel. He wasn’t himself. At the rate things were going, he was going to have to leave Smallville sooner than later. Maybe the fad would fade after a few years, but given what he could do, it’d be safer to stay away.
Clark winced as the pounding music overwhelmed him. By the time he’d regained his senses, his buddies had already bribed the guy at the door and they were in.
“You know what they say about city girls, Clark…” Pete said, turning to grin at him.
“No,” Clark said. He tensed, waiting for the punch line, but Pete had already caught the eye of a girl across the dance floor, and he was off.
As long as they stayed more focused on the girls and less on the booze, they would probably be ok. Clark didn’t want to have to answer any questions about hung over teammates if he didn’t have to.
He was the sensible one. That seemed to be his role in life. Sometimes he wondered if he just didn’t have the same glands as an ordinary person. He liked girls, but he didn’t seem to have the same sort of overwhelming feeling of need that some of his peers had.
Maybe it made him a little superior, being able to….
Clark’s sense of smug superiority vanished in an instant as he caught the eye of a girl across the room. She was dancing on the dance floor, her tight dress sliding provocatively up and down her figure.
She was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen.
His entire body felt as though it was tingling. From his scalp to his back and spreading outward, he felt numb.
Flushing, he realized that for the first time since he was a child he felt sweaty and hot.
He began to work his way toward her.
*************
He was handsome, and obviously a jock. When he smiled, Lois felt a familiar thrill going through her. It was something more than what she usually felt when she saw a handsome boy. Tonight she felt different than she normally did. Her world was falling apart, and she felt…restless.
It felt as though anything could possibly happen, as though the night was filled with endless possibilities.
As she slid up to him, she saw that he was noticing the bracelet on her arm. He stiffened, and a sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead.
She was sixteen and she felt numb. As she slid into his arms, she at least felt something.
************
Hangovers were even worse than Lois had been told. Her eyes felt as though they were stuck together with a mixture of sand and mud. Her mouth felt dry, and her head pounded. It took her a moment to realize that she was home in bed.
She had no idea how she’d gotten there.
A flash of memory, and she groaned. She’d been all over that guy last night. She’d wanted to feel something.
Well, she felt something now. An unfamiliar soreness, an unfamiliar ache was in places she hadn’t realized existed.
She was never drinking again. Lois closed her eyes and tried desperately to remember his face.
All she could remember was the feeling of his hands on her body…the feeling she’d had when they were together.
His face was a blank.
At least none of the guys who went to her school had been there. The other girls had split out early, and Lois was going to be able to deny everything.
As far as the world was concerned, last night had never happened.
Lois was just going to have to move on.
***************
Cold, clinical tile. The coarseness of the paper gown she was wearing. The cold knot of fear deep in her gut…every visit to the doctor was difficult, but this one was different.
Her periods had been affected by all the stress she was under. Hopefully she was only nauseous in the morning due to the stomach flu.
Maybe she’d get lucky and have an ulcer.
The doctor stepped into the room and looked down at her.
“Your STD panels are all clean, but we need to talk.”
Lois slowly sat up.
“You’re approximately three months pregnant. You need to start considering your options.”
Her world was never going to be the same.
**************
Thirteen years later, Lois thought exactly the same thing as she stared at the hole in her living room wall. The couch was in the back yard, crushed to bits, and she and her daughter simply stood and stared at the destruction.
“I’m sorry,” Lisa stared up at Lois, and for a moment she reminded Lois of the sweet child she’d once been, before she’d entered this rebellious phase.
Before all the freakish things had begun happening around her. Fires starting spontaneously whenever she was angry. Getting in trouble for spying on people, when she claimed she was nowhere near them.
Losing all of her friendships because of things she heard them say about her, when she wasn’t even in the area.
Lois had been considering sending her to see Doctor Friskin, but the hole in the wall put an entirely new light on things.
It was a brick wall, and her daughter had thrown a couch through it.
Contritely, her daughter handed her the red glowing bracelet.
“Don’t go through my jewelry box,” Lois said absently.
Every time Lisa got into it, she got into trouble, but for some reason, it just seemed to call to her.
“Take the couch out to the alley and make sure nobody sees you.” Lois said quickly.
Seeing her daughter pick up the three hundred pound couch easily and carry it through the back yard convinced her that it was finally time to face the truth.
Her daughter wasn’t completely human.
