Title: The Killing Moon
Author: scifichick774
Rating: NC-17
Category: Horror/Smut
Spoilers: Everything through the spoilers for season 3 at Kryptonsite.
Summary: Still halfway insane from his time on the island, Lex convinces himself that the only way to win Chloe’s affections is to offer her a sacrifice.
Disclaimer: Obviously not mine. I’m just playing with the imaginary characters’ lives for fun and not for profit.
Feedback: Yes please.
Archival: Sure – just let me know where.
Author’s Note: The title is from the song by Echo and the Bunnymen, but this is not a song fic. What else? Oh yeah. It’s kind of…graphic – and not just in the smut way. So, if you get squicked really easily, you might want to avoid this one. Just warning you ahead of time.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Dr. Claire Foster barely resisted taking off her thin-wire glasses and rubbing her eyes in frustration. Lex Luthor had been her patient for a good six months already, and though she knew that some cases took longer than others, she had thought that Lex would be the exception because of his quick wit and overall intelligence.
She was wrong.
“Tell me Doctor,” Lex started, snapping Claire out of her thoughts. “How much do you know about sacrificial killings?”
Claire had to hold back a flinch. Not only had she been wrong, but as of late, her conversations with the young man had been growing increasingly frightening. She was tempted to call the police, but Lex was smart enough to always speak in hypotheticals and never implicated himself along with the content of any of the questions he asked.
“Very little,” she finally admitted. Hoping he was finally opening up to her, she put on the determined, yet disinterested look she had practiced for so long and stared him straight in the eye. “Does this have to do with Helen?”
Doctor Helen Bryce. Despite her playing the grieving widow to perfection in front of the press, it was later discovered that she had planned to kill Lex all along; the confession of the missing pilot being the last nail in her coffin.
Or, almost the last nail.
The money she was paid to agree to an annulment of her and Lex’s marriage kept her financially well endowed enough to afford a penthouse in Metropolis. Unfortunately, she had been there little more than a month before she was out on bail and her body was found butchered in her lush living accommodations.
The police suspected that it was a ritualistic killing because of the way her organs were literally ripped from her body and arranged in a circle around her, and it was certainly easier to lump her death in with the similar ones that had been happening on every full moon for the last year, but they still had no suspects.
“Just…in general,” he said; one corner of his lips curling up ever so slightly as he leaned forward and rested his forearms against his thighs. “Do you think it works?”
Claire had to swallow down the panic that suddenly overwhelmed her. Her eyes darted to the phone, but she knew if her patient had any real intention to kill her that he would be able to before she even got the receiver off the hook. Remembering the metal detector at the entrance of the building, she let out a small inner breath of relief.
“Do you?” she retorted.
Lex arched a mocking eyebrow at her, unwilling to delve into the sinister motives that lay behind his question in the first place, and half-surprised that she thought such a basic tactic could work on him.
“I was just curious,” he said. “It seems strange that someone would go to such extremes if they didn’t fully believe that they would receive what they hoped to gain.”
“Many cultures believed it worked,” she said, surprised by the amount of levity her voice carried on such a serious topic. “Though, I’d like to believe that our civilization has progressed past the point of such beliefs, there are obviously still the occasional stragglers.”
Lex sat up straight and gave her a curt nod in acceptance of her answer as he hadn’t really expected her to give him her own opinion to the question anyway. She never did.
Claire’s watch made a beeping sound and it was all she could do not to jump out of her chair and escort Lex to the door.
“It looks like our time is up,” she said, her relieved tone not slipping by Lex’s notice.
He smirked as she frantically jaunted down some notes in her notebook.
“So it is,” he agreed, standing up and walking over to the door. “Next week then?”
Claire looked up at him, hoping that her eyes weren’t popping out of their sockets.
“Actually, I’m out of town all next week. Did the secretary not call you?”
“She may have. I haven’t had time to check all of my messages.”
“Dr. Lewis is covering for me if you’d like to set an appointment up with him.”
“Lewis,” Lex repeated, his mind flitting to the imaginary psychopath he had created in his mind while on the island. Appearing unaffected one way or the other, Lex gave her a bland expression. “I think I’ll pass.”
Claire nodded, having expected that Lex wouldn’t want to see anybody new when it had taken him so long to even start talking to her other than to accuse her of just wanting another celebrity patient.
No formal goodbyes were said as Lex simply walked out of the office and left the door open behind him.
~*~*~*~*~*~
He narrowed his eyes at her over the rim of his coffee cup; the action quite innocent in and of itself, but considerably darker if one knew his true intent.
Lana flipped her brunette hair back with her fingers, fluttering her eyelashes at Clark in what was clearly a much practiced attempt at minor seduction; a lesson Lex ventured she learned from the small amount of time that she had seen her aunt and his father together when she was younger.
Though, there was no way that Clark could have known that. And if he did, then he chose to gloss over it like everyone else in town did. Lionel and Nell had only been ‘friends’ in their eyes, and even if they had been more than that, then Lana, Smallville’s very own princess, would never think of following in her aunt’s flirtatiously manipulative ways.
Lex barely resisted rolling his eyes at the couple. A small part of his mind told him that they deserved each other; that they deserved to die together. But he couldn’t allow that. In order for his plan to work, Lana would have to be the only one to be sacrificed. Otherwise, the police might not write it off as Metropolis’s serial killer simply taking a trip.
And he needed that. He would need to rely on the police department’s inability to realize that the crimes committed in Metropolis were committed by a completely different killer so that he wouldn’t be a suspect, but he would still reap the rewards of the sacrificial killing. But, learning from his father that you could never completely rely on other people, Lex made sure he had an unbreakable alibi.
The bell above the Talon’s front door chimed, stirring him from his thoughts. The object of his affections strolled into the building.
Chloe Sullivan.
Unfortunately, she seemed completely oblivious to the fact that he was even in the same establishment, which was the problem at hand.
Although he had always admired her quick wit and spunk, he had never viewed her as anything more than one of Clark’s best friends until he saw her arguing with his father. Instead of the tantrum throwing that Helen had done, Chloe had used her intelligence rather than a raised voice and temper to put the elder Luthor in his place. It was one of the most spectacular events he had ever witnessed in his life.
Lex’s admiration of the young woman only grew with each fleeting moment he saw her; the way she distanced herself from Clark so she wouldn’t have to outright lie to Lionel, the way she carried her head high after Lana made biting, hypocritical remarks to and about her.
But admiration was not love.
And Lex knew the very instant he had fallen in love with her.
Metropolis. Despite her insistence that she had no desire to attend The Daily Planet’s annual charity ball, she had been forced to, and he had been fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of her chatting with a colleague before he was cornered by an up and coming reporter hoping to make a name for herself.
Chloe wore a dark green dress in a silky fabric, the material clinging to her curves without being too tight and overly suggestive, but making him want her all the same. Lex felt his heart start to pound harder in his chest at the very sight of her and harder yet when she flashed him a knowing look and came to his rescue – swiftly reminding the reporter that the younger Luthor was off limits for an interview per their boss’s orders and that she might have better luck with his dad.
“I suppose I should thank you,” Lex said, giving her the most charming smile he could, the one that usually worked wonders with the women who flocked around him.
“I didn’t do it for you,” Chloe answered simply. “Reporters like that give us all a bad name.”
With that, she smiled and walked away from him.
Lex’s eyes stayed glued on Chloe as she ordered her drink in a to-go cup. It wasn’t a surprise seeing as how she rarely stayed in the coffee shop anymore to torture herself with the ongoing saga that was Clark and Lana, but he had been hoping for at least a smile, or a wave, or any sign of acknowledgement of his existence.
Love was not obsession.
Obsession had come later.
Two months later to be exact; when Lex realized that although Chloe treated him cordially enough, she only saw him as Lionel’s son and Clark’s friend; when he realized that she had no feelings for him whatsoever, not even feigned feelings of attraction to get at his money.
It drove him crazy and made him only want her more at the same time.
He sent her flowers and little gifts, some anonymously and some not, but they were always returned, and he couldn’t understand why. He knew she didn’t like Clark anymore, at least not more than as a one-time friend, and she didn’t like his dad personally or professionally – of that much he was completely certain. So, why hadn’t she responded to him if even just to tell him that she wasn’t interested and that he should move on?
It made little sense, but then, neither did the fact that he was sitting in a building that he half-owned, seriously plotting Lana Lang’s murder in order to not only get Chloe to notice him, but hopefully to reciprocate his feelings as well.
Obsession was not always insanity, but Lex had reached the breaking point.
He would make his sacrifice and Chloe Sullivan would be his.
One way or another.
TBC...
Reply With Quote
hmy: woah, that's...woah...
Bookmarks