The bed was comfortable, but Lisa ignored it as she stared at Lana, who was touching her again.
She’d had to pour even more of the horrible tea out, and Lana was getting suspicious.
“Why do I feel so weak?” she asked sluggishly. “Before I could do things like my daddy could do.”
Her ear tingled where Lana set the red rose, and Lisa felt the familiar sense of apathy and lassitude steal over her. She sighed in relief as the tension and fear that had been knotting her stomach all day finally eased away.
The red poison left her with no fear, no doubt and no regrets. It meant a relief from pain, and while that hadn’t meant as much to Lisa before, it did now.
The quiet fear in the back of her mind that the television program hadn’t been a lie had been growing with each passing moment. Between them her parents had all the resources in the world. How difficult could it be to find her?
Lana stared at her for a moment and said, “Maybe God took them from you. The things your father could do weren’t right. Maybe God is just giving you a chance to be a normal little girl.”
“Why would he make me like this if he didn’t want me to be this way?” Lisa asked, unable to surpass a note of irritation in her voice despite the red poison that seemed to be relaxing her.
“Maybe he was testing you,” Lana said. She stared at Lisa and said, “I don’t imagine that these powers have caused you anything but misery for your entire life anyway.”
Lisa gaped at Lana, who smirked a little in satisfaction. “Maybe you are getting a second chance.”
Patting her on the head, Lana rose and turned off the lamp. A moment later the room was bathed in nothing but moonlight.
Lisa waited until she could hear Lana’s footsteps heading down the hall. She then reached up and grabbed the rose, throwing it across the room.
After the day she’d had, being that relaxed would mean she would go to sleep, which was undoubtedly on what Lana was counting on.
By Lisa’s count she’d already left the lodge twice to go fill up the generators. Lisa had kept a careful count, both of how long it was between trips and how long it took her to finish.
By Lisa’s count, Lana would be leaving soon.
Lisa rose to her feet and dressed as quietly as she was able. Lana had bought her a flannel nightgown and after a moment Lisa decided to put the top on over her other clothes. The homeless people she sometimes saw in Metropolis often seemed to wear all the clothes they owned in layers, one on top of the other.
She had to assume that they knew what they were doing, even if most of them did seem to have a screw loose. It was ironic that she’d feared becoming like some of them for so long and now she was imitating them.
Lisa had heard some of the kitchen staff complaining about how cold it was in the mountains at night, even in the summer. Now that she didn’t seem as immune to the heat or cold it would be important to keep as much warmth as she could.
Opening the drawers Lisa saw that Lana hadn’t provided her with much in the way of clothes; what she did provide was mostly in the form of pajamas.
It was all a way of keeping her from leaving. Lisa silently slipped on three shirts and several pairs of pants. Luckily Lana had guessed wrong about her sizes and had bought outfits in three different varieties.
It made putting things in layers easy. The largest thing was pink pajamas with bunny rabbit designs.
What twelve year old wore that kind of thing anyway? Lana was trying to dress her like she was a six year old girl.
Lisa didn’t have time to worry about what she looked like though. She could hear Lana’s footsteps coming down the hall.
She looked around, grabbed the rose and stuck it behind her ear. She slipped into bed fully clothes and hoped that Lana didn’t notice that her shoes weren’t in the place they had been; she wouldn’t have time to put them on if everything was to work as she’d hoped.
She closed her eyes a moment before Lana opened the door. She could feel Lana standing there for an eternal moment, the light from the hallway lighting the back of her eyelids.
Then she heard the sound of the door closing.
Lisa opened her eyes to see Lana’s face not six inches away. For a moment it felt as though her heart had stopped. She gasped a little in horror.
“I knew you were faking, you little…” Lana’s face twisted into an expression of rage.
She was caught by surprise when Lisa punched her in the face.
The angle wasn’t good, and Lisa only had the strength of a thirteen year old girl, but Lana was frail and the surprise of it caused her to stumble and fall backwards.
Lisa was out of bed in a flash and she landed on Lana with a resounding thud. If Lana reached her bag it was all over.
She was stronger than she looked, almost as strong as Lisa had feared. Furthermore, the bag was firmly attached to her waist. Lisa struggled with Lana, but Lana was stronger than she was, and while one arm fumbled for the bag, the other clawed for her face.
Lana rolled, and suddenly she was on top of Lisa. Lisa heard a metallic sound, and she realized that Lana’s keys had fallen out of her pockets.
With Lana forcing her arms over her head, Lisa did the only thing she could think of.
She bit down hard on Lana’s arm.
Lana shrieked, and Lisa rolled out from under her. She grabbed the keys and ran for the door.
She felt green fire scorching her back, but she managed to skin far enough down the hallway that she was out of range. Then she was up and running.
Lana shrieked behind her and Lisa grimaced as she realized there was more than one key. She pulled the likeliest looking candidate out as she ran and when she finally reached the door to the outside she fumbled as she tried to get the door open.
Her hands were shaking and it was hard to get the key in the door. The first one was a failure. So was the second.
She could hear Lana coming. The woman was running, probably for the first time in years.
As Lisa slid the third key into the lock, she saw Lana at the end of the hall holding a bracelet out before her as though it was a cross to ward off evil.
“I was going to be a mother to you,” she said. “I was going to give you everything and you reject me?”
What Lisa saw on her face was more than just anger. It was more than just rage. There was something that she’d only seen on the faces of some of the sickest homeless people in Metropolis.
Lana had finally snapped.
Lisa felt the door give way under her hand and as Lana came charging toward her she slipped outside.
Her feet slipped in the mud, but her sneakers had fairly good traction.
Lisa ran, stumbling a little as the ground began to slope downwards. She could hear Lana cursing behind her as she slipped and fell in the mud.
A moment later she was in the trees.
The sounds of her breathing combined with that of her feet pounding on the pine needles under her feet were the only thing she could hear. Her senses were gone and she wasn’t sure if they would ever come back.
This would all be so much easier if se had her abilities. She’d have been able to run for miles without getting tired, and if her special vision was working, she’d have been able to see Lana a long time before she could ever reach her.
Lisa could see the road to the left of her and she purposefully tried to run parallel to it. It wouldn’t do her any good to escape Lana but then get lost in the woods.
She was gasping already though, and Lisa slowed to a quick walk. As dimly lit as the place was, she was risking stepping into a hole and twisting her ankle. Her only asset was that she was faster than Lana, and presumably had more stamina. If she hurt herself she’d lose all that.
When she heard the sound of an approaching engine, her heart leapt for a moment until she realized that it was coming from the direction of the hunting lodge.
The old battered pickup truck was moving slowly down the road. There was a searchlight on the top of the vehicle, the kind used to hunt deer, and when it passed over her face Lisa froze.
A moment later the bark on the tree behind her head exploded as the sound of a bullet reached her.
Lisa dived behind the tree and frantically began to work her way away from the road. Being lost was a lot better than being shot.
She heard the sound of the pickup trucks door slamming, and she realized that Lana had gotten out and was going to follow her.
Grimacing, Lisa ran deeper into the dark forest.
*********
“You are going to have to explain to us just what happened, Miss.”
The police officer was standing in her way, and Lois tried to duck around him. “There isn’t time,” she said. “Lana Luthor kidnapped my daughter, and I think she’s going to kill her.”
“Slow down and let’s start from the beginning.”
“She could be killing her right now!” Lois said. “I know exactly where she is, but I don’t know how long she’ll be there!”
One of the officers looked at the other and as one they grabbed Lois by the arm.
“Explain it to us slowly.”
**********
Lisa’s lungs were on fire and she grimaced as she tripped over yet another tree root. The forest was getting darker and it was getting harder to avoid falling down and hurting herself.
She’d made some distance on Lana, but every time she felt safe enough to rest she’d heard Lana following behind her.
Wearing the layers of clothing had been a good idea. Not only had the temperature dropped to somewhere in the upper fifties, but the extra layers protected her a little from the ubiquitous tree branches and tearing thorns on the occasional bit of underbrush.
She could hear the sound of water up ahead and she felt a little better. She vaguely remembered having heard that you were supposed to follow water when you were lost in the woods.
For the first time she wished she’d picked joining the girl scouts instead of dance classes. Wilderness survival had seemed silly when you lived in the city.
Being able to figure out what the moss on trees meant, how to set a fire and ways to make a weapon out of pine needles sounded like exactly the sorts of things she needed to know about now.
Lisa slowed to a walk. How was Lana able to find her so easily in the dark?
She brushed her sweaty hands back and then she grimaced as she realized that the rose was still behind her ear.
Grabbing it, she realized that it was glowing dully.
In the dark of the woods, that much light would shine for miles if there weren’t trees in the way.
Lisa’s mind hadn’t even noticed that she had the extra light.
Stopping as she reached the small creek, Lisa stared down at the expanse of water. Maybe five feet wide and a couple of inches high, the water was moving at a fair clip.
She started to throw the rose in the water, but suddenly she stopped.
She’d been a lot braver through all of this than she would have expected. What if she threw the rose away and she was suddenly unable to deal with her own grief and fear and loss. Was she brave, or was it just an artificially induced state, a product of the red poison affecting her mind.
Now that she knew about it, she could easily tuck the petals of rose inside her shirt next to her skin. No light would show through the multiple lairs of cloth, but she’d still receive all the benefits.
She hesitated, and then threw the rose into the water. Her father had dedicated his life to making sure that people were protected from the poison that had arrived with him from his native planet. He could easily have kept using the red poison but he’d chosen not to.
Lisa bent and drank slowly, carefully warming the water in her mouth before swallowing it. She’d drank too much cold water after gym class in the past and it had given her cramps. She couldn’t afford that, but she hadn’t been drinking anything all day.
She lay on the ground to drink, because her hands were already chilled and she didn’t want to cup water in them and freeze them more.
Lisa froze as she heard footsteps nearby.
Without the rose, it was even darker in the woods, but she could make out Lana’s legs standing not six feet away.
Lisa fought not to breathe as she heard Lana’s heaving gasps interspersed by mutterings to herself that Lisa couldn’t understand.
Lana coughed and then she apparently caught sight of the rose as it floated down the stream.
She lifted her rifle to her shoulder and fired off a quick shot.
The rose turned around a curve and vanished from sight. Lana cursed and began to splash as she ran down the creek bed in pursuit.
Lana could run faster than the creek’s water, so it wouldn’t take her long to figure out what had happened.
Lisa rose to her feet and began to head back the way she came. If she was lucky, Lana would have left the keys in the truck. Although Lisa hadn’t had any experience with driving, how hard could it possibly be?
*********
Lois cursed under her breath as the police cruiser glided down the back country roads. Convincing the police that her story was true had been harder than she had imagined, and she could only hope that the time she’d lost hadn’t given Lana the time she needed to hurt her daughter.
If only Clark still had his powers they’d be there in the space of an instant. The convenience of them was addicting.
The only thing they had in their favor was that Lana thought they were dead and that she’d gotten away Scot free. Whatever she had in mind for Lisa she wouldn’t be in any rush.
**********
The only thing that saved her was the rasping sound of Lana’s breathing moments before the butt of the rifle came flying toward her head.
Lisa rolled with it, and then screamed as the increasingly familiar green pain came over her.
She’d gotten within sight of the pickup before Lana had caught up to her.
The searchlight was still on, illuminating Lana as a silhouette. The green of the bracelet illuminated her face as she held it in front of her.
“Why did you do that?” she gasped. The sound in her lungs wasn’t a healthy one. She coughed, and it sounded like one of the worst smoker’s coughs Lisa had ever heard.
“Why do you make me hurt you?”
“You aren’t my mother,” Lisa said. She gritted her teeth from the pain. “Even if she’s dead, you won’t ever be.”
“I was going to give you shelter, food, clothing…” Lana gasped, staring down at her. “All you had to do was pretend.”
Lisa knew she was going to die. All she could do was die bravely, like her mother and father had. She felt a sudden surge of despair and fear.
“You don’t love me,” Lisa said
“You don’t know that.” Lana said.
“If you loved me, you wouldn’t be doing this.”
Lana stared down at her and grimaced. She dropped the rifle and clutched at her chest with one hand.
“You did this to yourself,” she said, and in that moment the last light of humanity left her eyes.
She grunted again, and a moment later she slumped to the ground.
Whatever illness had coursed through her veins had finally run its course.
Unfortunately, that left Lisa trapped with the green poison.
*************
The police cruiser slid to a stop. Completely blocking the road was a rusted heap of a truck with a searchlight illuminating the two bodies lying off to the side.
Lois screamed and before the policemen could react she was out of the car and running toward her daughter.
Viciously she kicked the glowing green rock out of Lana’s unresponsive hand and then she ran to grab up her daughter.
Lisa had never looked so much like her father in that moment. Her eyes fluttered, and when she looked up at her mother she mumbled, “Am I dead?”
Lois hugged her tightly and said, “Of course not. You are going to live for a long, long time.”
They had all the time in the world now, time to find out what being a family was all about.
Lois knew she was going to treasure every moment.
