“Chloeeeee!  Where are you, Chloe?” the sinister, deep voice echoed throughout the warehouse.

Chloe Sullivan closed her eyes and desperately tried to quiet her breathing.  Opening them, she pressed her back against a cold, steel wall and peered around the corner.  To her intense relief, Jason Perry wasn’t behind her.  Satisfied, she sank to the ground and checked the large gash on her leg.

How did she get herself into these things? 

One minute, Jason had been the perfect charming gentleman.  He brought her flowers, took her out to dinner, and even kissed her on her front porch.  But then the accident happened.  A strange explosion had happened at his house, and from that moment on, he went all meteor-freak on her.  

Right after he got out of the hospital, he had seemed fine.  Then he slowly grew more and more possessive.  She didn’t know how it happened, but every part of his body seemed to be enhanced, including his senses and his strength.   Now he had Chloe running for her life.

“Chloeeee!  Come out, come out, wherever you are!”  he called again.  His voice grew closer along with his footsteps.  Chloe stood very still and held her breath.  However, she couldn’t silence the fast pound of her heart.

Within minutes, he turned the corner and found her sitting there.  She couldn’t find the strength to stand and run; the pain in her leg wouldn’t let her.  Crouching down, Jason reached out to touch her.  His fingers barely grazed her cheek before she turned her head.

“Now, why do you have to be like this?  Don’t you know you’re mine?”

Her green eyes turned cold.  “You don’t own me,” she stated in a hard voice.

He gripped her by the arms, causing her to call out in pain.  “Yes, I do.  You’ll always be mine.  Never forget that.”  Releasing one of her arms, he backhanded her across the face.  The force was so great that she fell sideways and spit blood onto the floor.  As she tried to right herself, she gingerly touched her cheek, which was searing with pain.

Not giving her any time to recover, Jason roughly pulled her to a standing position.  She winced as her leg throbbed.

“Chloe?”  Her heart swelled the minute she heard Clark Kent’s voice.  A part of her wanted him to help her, but the other part feared for his life.

“Get out of here, Clark!  He’s crazy!”  she yelled.  Before she could say anymore, Jason picked her up and slammed her against the wall.  Everything went black.

Clark and Jason yelling and the loud bang of a body slamming against a wall filtered through Chloe’s dreamlike state.  Carefully, she opened her eyes and saw Jason’s fist connect with Clark’s jaw.  The impact didn’t faze the taller boy a bit.  Without any effort at all, Clark lifted Jason off his feet and tossed him like a rag doll across the length of the warehouse.  Silence filled the open space for nearly a minute or two followed by a thud in the distance.

Clark glanced over at her, and their eyes locked for a second.  Before she could formulate any words, her best friend was gone in a blur of light.

Chloe rested her head on the icy, solid cement floor. Her mind tried to comprehend what she just saw as memories began to make sense.  Clark pulling a cylinder confining her from the ground, Clark saving Lana Lang on numerous occasions, and even the story of how he survived Lex hitting him with his car on the bridge all swam around in her head.  She then remembered how he behaved the previous summer and the strength he seemed to display.  Even though it all seemed fuzzy, things also seemed to start making sense.

Unable to keep her eyes open, she let her lids slide close and was engulfed in darkness again.

Waking up in the hospital wasn’t what Chloe was expecting.  She had prepared herself for the fact that Jason would kill her.  However, she felt a wave of relief rush over her as she cautiously sat up in bed and looked around.  Her father was slumped in the chair beside her bed, fast asleep.  

She touched him lightly on the knee.  “Dad?”

Gabe Sullivan mumbled something unintelligible and opened his eyes.  They widened when he saw Chloe sitting up.  Immediately, he straightened up.

“Honey, how do you feel?”  He stood up as his voice came out in a rush.  “Do you need anything?  Soda?  A snack?”

She smiled.  “No, Dad, I’m fine.”  Relieved, Gabe sat back down.  “What happened?  How did I get here?”

“Clark brought you in.  He said he found you lying unconscious in the old corn plant warehouse.”

“Did he say what happened?”  She shifted too quickly and winced at the pain from both her leg and her head.

“Careful.  Don’t move too quickly.”  When he was satisfied that she was comfortable, Gabe answered her question.  “You can ask him yourself; he’s waiting outside.”

“He’s here?”  Another wince.  “Can I see him?”

“Sure.”  With that, Gabe stood up and crossed to the door.  Opening it, he leaned out and said something. He then stepped back in with Clark shyly ambling in
behind him.

Clark perked up the minute he saw Chloe.  “Hey!  How are you?”

She managed a smile.  “Still sore, but I think I’m going to be okay.”

“I’m going to get some coffee and let you guys talk.  I’ll be right back,” Gabe announced as he disappeared out the door.

When he was gone, Chloe’s expression turned serious.  “Thank you…for saving my life.”

Clark just shrugged as he sat down in the vacated chair.  He stared at the floor.  “I didn’t do anything.  I just found you.”

“No, you did more than that.  I saw you.”

Clark sharply looked up, and his face turned beet red.  “What makes you say that?”  he asked, quickly trying to cover up his reaction.  

Chloe told him what she saw and how it made sense with all the other times he had helped her or Lana or Whitney or Pete.  Clark didn’t say anything, just sat
motionless in the chair.

“Maybe it was your head playing tricks,” he finally suggested.  

Chloe had known Clark for a long time, and she could tell when he was lying.  At that moment, he was definitely lying.  

“You’re scared I’m going to freak out, aren’t you? That maybe I’ll start screaming for help or something?”  Clark’s eyes shifted to the floor.  “You know you can trust me, but I won’t push.  I’ve pushed for information too many times in my life and got pretty badly burned.  I know you’ll tell me when
you’re ready.”

Clark didn’t reply, and another strained silence passed between them.  Then Chloe spoke again.  “What happened to Jason?”

“The police found him lying on the floor at the end of the warehouse, unconscious.  I don’t think he’ll be bothering you anymore,” Clark answered, his blue eyes eventually meeting hers.  From the concentrated look on his face, he seemed to be weighing her words in his mind.  Finally, he took a deep breath and then asked, “You won’t tell anybody about this, will you?”

She was taken aback by the question.  Was Clark admitting that he threw Jason across the length of the warehouse?  Was he trusting her completely?  “Of course not.  You’re my best friend; I’d never hurt you like that,” she replied, leaning back into her pillow.

“And you don’t think it’s weird?”

Chloe’s eyes widened.  “No, I think it’s cool,” she said.  “But you’ve got to promise me one thing.”

“What?”

“That you’ll never go crazy like Jason and the others did.”

Clark’s shoulders relaxed as he sat back in the chair.  Reaching out, he placed his hand over hers.   “I promise,” he said quietly, a smile crossing his
face.

Chloe matched his smile.  “Good.  And thank you again.”  Satisfied by her newfound connection with Clark, she closed her eyes and went back to sleep.