Fic: Shadows of the Past

[kitmerlot_1213]

Chapter 2

"I couldn’t believe how beautiful the day had turned out. Momma told me not to worry, that God would make sure my wedding day was bright and sunny. I am ashamed to say that I didn’t believe her, but the sun rose clear, and the sky was a light shade of blue, that reminded me of Daniel’s eyes…"
****

Chloe woke with a start, her heart pounding in her chest. She looked at the lilac colored journal on her bedside table, and vowed to stop reading it before she went to bed. It had been a week since she had the journal in her possession, and every night she had a dream about Megan and her family.

At first, Chloe thought that the entries were influencing her dreams, but the night before, she had dreamed of Megan and Daniel’s wedding, but the last entry she’d read had been when Daniel proposed. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but Chloe decided to switch to different bedtime reading.

She sat up and fluffed her pillows, trying to chase her dreams away. She glanced around her room, and her eyes landed on a medium sized canvas, that was resting against her wall, picture side facing inward. It had been a gift from Lana; a "welcome back from the dead" present as her former roommate called it.

When Lana unveiled it, Chloe had to fake a coughing fit, just so she could get out of the room. She ran into the bathroom, and doubled over, trying to keep her hysteria at bay. Chloe had expected a picture of her and her dad, or even Lana, her and her dad. Instead, the picture was of a giant, orange meteor that had crashed into the ground. Standing beside the meteor was a little girl with brown hair, looking horrified.

On an artistic level, the picture had been frightening, capturing the little girl’s horror beautifully. But on a personal level, Chloe was stunned at Lana’s self-absorption. But, she had to hand it to the girl. Only Lana could make someone’s return from the dead all about her pain and suffering. Chloe shook her head, grateful that she no longer had to deal with Lana’s selfishness on a daily basis. Now, they only saw each other at school, and very rarely even then. Chloe was saddened to discover that she didn’t miss the girl that much.

In fact, now that Lana had returned from Paris, she had made a concentrated effort to remove herself from her former existence as Smallville’s princess. She lived above The Talon, but she no longer had a hand in the business. And Chloe knew that she still maintained a friendship with Lex. After all, what girl wouldn’t want to count a suave billionaire as a friend? The question was why Lex still remained friends with Lana. That was not as easily figured out.

This very fact had been the focus of a bitter argument between Chloe and Lex when she had been in hiding. Chloe had been livid when she’d read that Lana hadn’t attended her or her dad’s funeral. She shouted that Lana was an ungrateful, self-centered brat, who couldn’t bother coming to the funeral of the family who had taken her when she had nowhere else to go. Lex had told her to calm down, that Lana couldn’t help it.

This had served to fuel Chloe’s anger even more. How could he forgive Lana’s callousness so readily? That going to a person’s funeral when they died was an outward sign of respect. Lana’s not going to the funeral showed her complete lack of any warmth or understanding of simple human emotions. Lex had attempted to justify Lana’s actions again, and this time Chloe told him to shut up. To stop trying to explain away actions that were inexcusable. She had started to shout, and Lex matched her volume, telling her to grow up and stop being jealous of Lana.

That had been too much for Chloe to hear. She yelled at Lex to get out, and when he left, she’d burst into tears. She and Lex didn’t speak again for the rest of the time she’d been in hiding. She didn’t see him again until the incident with his father happened. Lex came to her house to see if Lionel had harmed her in anyway. He looked genuinely worried, and Chloe decided to put his mind at ease. She was fine physically, and the only thing wounded was her pride.

He shook his head at his father’s ability to hurt people even from prison. And Lex knew that he had to apologize for the argument they had the last time they saw each other. Chloe had been taken aback, surprised at Lex’s admission of wrongdoing. Lex smiled grimly and asked her if she wanted to hear his explanation for defending Lana. Chloe started to shake her head, but then she thought better of it. Yes, she wanted to hear his side of things.

The truth was, he felt that someone had to look out for Lana, because she couldn’t seem to do it herself. He liked being an older brother figure for both Lana and Clark. Clark didn’t want his help any longer, but Lana seemed to almost crave his attention. And he couldn’t stop looking out for her now. He’d encouraged her to go to Paris and expand her horizons. He couldn’t have known she would have become so pretentious, and even more self-absorbed that she’d been before. Lex had to admit to himself that he had created this monster. And, like it or not, Lana was now his responsibility.

It had occurred to him, on more than one occasion, that his feelings for Chloe were not of the brotherly variety, and he couldn’t pretend that they were. Chloe was his partner in crime, his confidant, and his most loyal and trustworthy friend. She was also a young and beautiful woman. But those were dangerous thoughts that could be examined on another day. Now, he just wanted his friend back.

Chloe snorted in disbelief at Lex’s misunderstanding of Lana’s true motives. She was used to being the center of attention for every male between the ages of twelve and forty. Chloe was glad that her dad was forty-two and therefore immune to the deadly Lang influence. She also wanted to point out that she wasn’t jealous of Lana because of her beauty. She was jealous that she was forgiven for everything, while Chloe herself had never been granted any type of reprieve. Lex calmly cut her off, asking if they could agree to disagree. Chloe finally nodded in acceptance, deciding to focus on her and Lex renewing their own friendship.

He was also grateful to have Chloe back in his life, but he couldn’t resist teasing her a little. Lex had jokingly asked if Gabe would start speaking to him again. Chloe grinned and then nodded, the guilt weighing her heart down, lightened considerably with the knowledge that her dad would no longer need to collect unemployment.

Chloe shook her head, and realized that she’d been sitting in her bed, just staring off into space for an hour. She needed to get some sleep and recalling her argument with Lex would not help her peace of mind. Their relationship was back on track, and she intended to keep it that way. Chloe turned off her light, and laid on her side, sleep finally claiming her.

*****

"I can’t explain it, but I feel as if someone is watching me. When I’m in town with Daniel, or walking with Emma, I feel someone’s eyes on me. Daniel tells me it is just my imagination, that I’m nervous from having the baby, but I wonder…."

Chapter 3


"Today, Emma and I were out in the garden, picking flowers to set at the dinner table. We were heading back towards the porch steps, when I noticed it. Or rather, Emma saw it, and hid her face in my skirts. My little girl is very brave, but even she quakes at the sight of a dead cat. It wasn’t that the cat was dead, but that it appeared to have been almost mutilated…"


The journal haunted her. Chloe would go to bed each night, determined not to read it, and yet, before she’d even realized it, she would have it clutched tightly in her hand, eager to read the next entry. She would not only smile at Megan’s quaint writing style, but she would often be amused at her stories. It was more than evident that Megan had a gift as a storyteller, and to Chloe, that made her a kindred soul.

It was that feeling of kinship that made Chloe want to find out whatever happened to Megan. Her last journal entry was November 6, 1920. There was nothing else after that, and Chloe felt a profound sense of loss. Did Megan and Daniel have more children? Who had been watching her? What happened to Emma? Chloe had far too many questions, and not nearly enough answers. So, she decided to launch a full-scale investigation, Chloe Sullivan style.

Her dreams had become connected to the journal so that Chloe couldn’t remember what had been written, and what she had dreamed. So, she began by going through the journal, entry by entry, and cataloguing all of information that she could find about the Todd’s. She even used Megan’s own words to form the outline.

Megan Casey Butler, to her mother’s chagrin, and her father’s amusement, was not a demure little miss, content to stay at home, and bake pies. She was a city girl, having been born in Metropolis, and her family moved to Smallville when she was eleven. Her father’s family still liked in the city, so she was able to visit and get a taste of the real world. Her mother blamed those visits to Metropolis for enforcing her independent nature. Megan’s father said that every Butler woman was spirited.

Marriage didn’t slow her down, either. Megan was active in the suffragists movement, and she was even part of a demonstration in Metropolis that took place in front of the courthouse. And she cried tears of joy when the nineteenth amendment was ratified on August 26, 1920. The citizens of Smallville were shocked when she demanded her right to vote for the town’s mayor. The only people not scandalized were her father and husband.

She would box anyone’s ears that questioned her love for her family. She was a devoted wife to Daniel Todd, and a loving mother to their 2-year-old daughter, Emma. Daniel and Megan were married in May of 1917, and Emma was born a year later. A day did not pass that didn’t find Megan grateful for her kind and loving husband, and their beautiful little daughter.

Daniel’s story was a tad bit more harrowing than Megan’s. Daniel had been wounded on the battlefield during the Great War, and was recovering in Metropolis when his father sent him out to the country, so he could get some fresh air. His father was afraid that too much time in the city would expose him to tuberculosis, and he figured Smallville was the perfect cure.

Mr. Todd was an investor in the railroad, and he sent Daniel to oversee the construction of the railroad line running from Smallville to Metropolis. Daniel was going to stay with cousins from his mother’s side, a family by the name Fordman. Coincidently, the Butler’s and Fordman’s were neighbors, so Megan and Daniel met the first night of Daniel’s arrival. The pair met and were instantly smitten with each other.

Chloe paused in her writing, and contemplated asking Mrs. Fordman if there were any family members left who might remember the Todd’s. Chloe knew that Mrs. Fordman was finally getting her life back on track after the deaths of her husband and son. Chloe didn’t want to cause Mrs. Fordman any unnecessary grief; so visiting her would be a last resort.

About midway through Megan’s journal, her tone began to change. She started to write of nightmares, and feeling watched. She often mentioned being followed, and her belief that her rooms had been searched and her clothing gone through. Megan also seemed fearful for her daughter, as though she knew some harm would come to her. Her last entry was frightening in its brevity. Megan wrote that she was scared of a mysterious "he," a man that Megan knew but refused to name.

It was that final journal entry that had Chloe filled with such dread. Megan seemed hopeless, as if she knew that nothing could be done to help her or Emma. There had been a couple of instances where she had tried to confide her fears to her husband and her parents, but all three told her that she was overreacting, and letting her imagination run away with her. A common explanation was that she was just nervous like all first time mothers. No one even considered the thought that the threat to Megan and her daughter was real, and that she was not hysterical.

Chloe couldn’t say for sure that Megan wasn’t making the whole story up. But she did know that if her dreams were anything to go by, Megan had been terrified. Chloe would often wake up, her heart pounding from the effort to run away from the nameless man. Chloe wished that Megan had written down whom she was scared of, but she seemed to think that even her journal was no longer safe.

Chloe put her pen down and considered her options. She needed to get into the archives of The Smallville Ledger, which had been in circulation since 1895. Unfortunately, the newspaper was still a bit behind the times. The staff still hadn’t converted their old editions to microfilm. Chloe would be literally going through stacks of newspapers, and looking for specific dates. She decided to run the Todd’s names through The Daily Planet archives, to see if anything popped out.

It didn’t take long for a series of articles to appear, all dating from November to December of 1920. Chloe clicked on the link to the first article.

Her face drained of all color when she read the first sentence. Her stomach dropped and her hands started to shake. Chloe had to reread the article five times before it made any sense. And even then, she still couldn’t believe what she had read.

It just wasn’t possible, especially after everything she learned about the Todd’s marriage from the journal and her own dreams. The article was wrong. It just had to be.

*****

An excerpt from The Daily Planet

"Daniel Todd, the son of Metropolis Railroad Magnate Michael Todd, was arrested yesterday for the stabbing death of his wife, Megan, and the drowning of their daughter, Emma, two years old."

Chapters 4 and 5

Comments

[lillianschild.livejournal.com]

Hey, Kit! I´m definitely getting old. I thought I hadn´t read this fic, but when I started chapter one I realised I had. What I´m yet to do is leave you a comment. Shame on me! I love the posting and I think you should keep updating the story here to get another audience to read it.

I hope you´ll keep writing this ship.

[kitmerlot1213.livejournal.com]

No problem Lexie! I'm still getting used to navigating and posting on Live Journal, which is quite different then NS.

Again, I appreciate any and all encouragement :)