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Description: Chloe is a ghost (is she really?) haunting Lex. Loosely based on the movie and the book Just Like Heaven.
Little spoiler: for those who are worried this will have a tragic ending because Chloe is a ghost… no worries It will be happy
AN I don’t know if anyone’s interested, but I also started a Hunger Games story about Haymitch & Katniss.
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Part 1
Lex Luthor finally came home. If he could call the mansion his home, because somehow his definition of this word was different. To most people home was a place they were with their family or loved ones, the place they were the happiest and Lex wasn’t sure he had ever experienced that. The mansion was a place where he slept, that was all. He even usually ate in his office or during some important business lunches or dinners.
He sighed deeply and stretched himself out a little. It had been a really hard day for him in the office. His father, as always, had been giving him a very hard time, mocking him and trying to prove him that Lex couldn’t do anything right on the contrary to Luthor senior. Then there also was the other thing on his mind, his special project and those he was about to start. His mother wouldn’t be very proud of him, he knew it deep down in his heart, but that didn’t stop him. His mother was dead and he needed to do anything to survive. What else could he put his mind to when not this? He didn’t have anything or anyone in his life. Well, there was Amanda, his supposed girlfriend, but they just showed up together at business banquets from time to time, that was all.
Suddenly, he heard some strange noise like rustling in the study.
He frowned and looked behind. There was nothing to see but the empty room. Too empty, he thought but he figured it would never be alive. There would never be a real family in it.
Lex shook his head and took off his jacket and his tie, then undid one button on his shirt right on his neck and could finally feel no restrictions. He could finally relax.
All his evenings, all his nights were the same. He had used to invite girls over but he rarely bothered those times. They didn’t bring him any satisfaction, physical, yes, but not for long. The emptiness inside him was always there and he learnt how to live with it. Nothing helped, casual sex, girls, parties, those times were long behind him. Now he was just drinking alone and watching the fire…
…which he forgot to ignite.
He heaved himself from the couch and walked over to the fireplace when he definitely felt that somebody was watching him.
Years of constant attacks on his life taught him well, so he just casually walked over to his desk like he decided he didn’t want a fire after all. He grabbed a gun from the drawer and turned around.
“Whose there?!” he asked, trying to penetrate the room with his eyes. Maybe he should have ignite that fire first, he thought, it would have been easier to see.
“Put the gun down, Lex. It won’t help you,” he suddenly heard a familiar female voice. He just didn’t know whom it belonged to. It was there, on the back of his mind, but he couldn’t remember…
He tried harder to see something and finally, there she was, standing in the door.
He knew her, but from where… then it hit him. He must have been very tired if he didn’t recognize the woman right away. It was Chloe Sullivan. He had known her briefly a few years back when she had been living in Smallville and been the editor of surprisingly good high school paper called the Torch. Its quality had deteriorated rapidly when she had graduated. She had moved to Metropolis, probably gone to college and it wouldn’t surprise Lex if she chose the journalist major.
“Chloe?” he asked.
“You can see me?!” she suddenly exclaimed, looking so happy and elated than he could just stand there, completely dumbfounded, with a gun in his hand. He could at least lower it as he knew she was no danger to him. Unless she was still so stubborn and decided to trap him here in his own house until he would give her an interview.
“Chloe Sullivan, what the hell are you doing in my mansion and what are you talking about?” he asked, the gun finally disappearing back in his desk. “I could have shot you!”
“No, you couldn’t have,” she denied, making a few steps toward him.
“Oh, is that so? I assure you that I…”
“No, you don’t understand…” she started.
“Chloe,” Lex sighed heavily, “let’s just get to the chase, shall we? You want an interview, but I will not give it to you. You can see yourself out.”
“Lex…” she sighed heavily. “I wish I knew what I’m doing here.”
He shot her a confused look.
“Just look!” she said and started running right toward him.
“Chloe, what…” He was ready to jump away as she clearly wanted to knock him off his feet, but… he felt completely nothing and she wasn’t there anymore. “Chloe!?”
“Behind you,” he heard.
“How did you do that?” he asked and turned around, bewildered.
“I’m a ghost,” she just said like she was telling him she decided to watch TV.
For a moment there he was just watching her face, but then… he burst out laughing.
“Good one!” he appreciated the supposed joke. “And now I should take pity on you and tell you everything you need to know and then read about it in the paper somewhere?”
“Lex, I am serious!” she huffed, clearly exasperated. “Look!” She reached her hand and stuck it into his stomach.
He listened and looked down, feeling nauseous as now her hand was gone.
He made a step back and leaned against the desk, closing his eyes.
“It’s a bad dream or I’m drunk,” he said to himself.
“I hate to break it to you, but no, you’re not. You didn’t fall asleep nor did you touch a drink tonight.”
“But this… this isn’t possible!” he snapped at her and opened his eyes to meet hers. She was standing right in front of him. “Ghosts don’t exist!”
“We’re in Smallville, Lex.”
“Have you come in contact with any meter rocks recently?” he asked.
“No, I haven’t been here in years… only…” she frowned.
“Only what?”
“Only I don’t remember anything besides Smallville,” she confessed.
“Chloe, if you expect me to believe that you are a ghost now, what indicated that you died and then you add that you have no recollection of the last few years…” he started.
“I know how it sounds! Do you think I enjoy it?!” she suddenly burst out crying. “I am a ghost, Lex! I can’t touch anything! I can’t feel anything! I am dead!! I don’t even know how I died and why I’m still here! And then I appear here and you are the only person who can see me, so please, please, help me!”
“Chloe…”
“Lex, help me.”
“I’m clearly going insane, but well… alright, let’s assume you’re a ghost…”
“I am!” she interrupted him.
“You must have been coming back from a party, drunk and you had an accident,” he concluded, very proud of himself.
“Are parties all you can think of?” she asked, clearly mad at him.
“Well, you’re wearing an evening dress, so I just assumed…”
Chloe looked down at herself.
“You’re right.” She had a black evening dress on her. “I don’t know how I got into that one, but I am not the drinking type!”
“Chloe, people change, so maybe through all those years you started.”
“I don’t think so.”
“There is one question left, you know,” he noticed. “Why me? Why did you come haunting me?”
“I’m not haunting you!” she burst at him again. “You’re the one person that can see me!”
“So you are haunting me. Why me?”
That actually was the perfect question and Chloe didn’t know how to answer it.
“You haven’t seen me for years. Not since my father’s trial. We were never really friends. Why me, then?” he repeated.
“I don’t know. Maybe because I had a crush on you back in high school?” she suggested.
“Are you serious?” He seemed to be surprised. “Me? I thought you were in love with Clark and it was forever,” Lex was mocking her now.
“Yeah, laugh all you want, Lex. Yes, I was so stupid to believe in something like that, but I changed, ok? I got over Clark when I realized there would never be anything between us and… well, then I went to you to testify against your father and… I liked you that summer.”
“I never knew.”
“I know,” she said, what sounded silly.
“Chloe, I’m sorry if I treated you badly back then.”
“I understood it all, Lex. I wasn’t a little girl anymore. All thanks to your father and his blackmail. I knew you weren’t interested in me and that even if you were, you would never do anything because I was still in high school. I got that. And…” she frowned again as she was trying to think hard. “God… why there is so much missing pieces in my head?!” she growled. “I know I got over you too, after I moved out, but then… nothing. And I know I had an accident. I was rushing… somewhere…”
“It it helps I always thought you were attractive,” Lex suddenly said, feeling sorry for her. Maybe he was, indeed, losing his mind, but maybe Chloe was really there, talking to him. She was right. It was Smallville after all. “I was always wondering why the whole town was chasing Lana Lang when they had you, brilliant, too smart for your age, pesky. You were wonderful, Chloe. I liked you, I really did. I never tried to think of you in any other way than a friend though, because you said it yourself, better not to go there.”
“Thank you, Lex, for you honestly, but I don’t think I could beat Lana.”
“Well, what can I say? Boys are blind. Men can see.” He managed to send her a smile. “Now when we settled that one, could you please go to the light or something?”
“Are you serious?!” she started yelling at him again. “Do you honestly think I came back to haunt you because I was mad that you didn’t acknowledge me few years ago?! Don’t you think I would have better matters to figure out before moving on?! Pompous, narcissistic bastard!”
“Hey, calm down! I’m just trying to help!”
“Well, you’re not!” she huffed.
“Then what is the other thing that keeps you here?” he asked, his head aching now. “Just think, Chloe. You don’t remember it.”
“Maybe it’s not about moving on… I just… I don’t know what to do!” she sat on Lex’s sofa and his her face in her hands.
He just now took a good look at her and he had to admit she looked beautiful. She lost some weight and now had the perfect body. The dress fitted perfectly. She kept her hair short as he remembered, they were just to her shoulders now and curly. He liked that. Her face matured and she became more a woman than a girl he had known once.
“Chloe…” he said in a soft voice and sat beside her, tried to touch her but obviously that didn’t work out. He could just talk to her. “I will see what I can do, alright? I will look for your files and we will find out what happened and why you are here.”
“You’d do that for me?” she asked, looking at him with her teary eyes.
How a ghost could cry was beyond his reasoning.
“Yes, I will. It’s either this or being pestered by you to the rest of my life. I think I like my peace,” he joked and she laughed.
“Thanks, Lex. Maybe I came here because I knew you could help me.”
“Maybe.” But he doubted that very much. He thought he was losing his mind.
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