A/N: This is the final chapter of my story, so I'd like to say "thanks" to all of you who stuck with me through this strange story, and to let you know how much I appreciated all the reviews.

Shadows of the Past

Chapter 13

The sight of Clark standing in the kitchen caused Chloe's stomach to clench in fear. Outwardly, she tried to remain calm, but when she felt Clark wrap his arms around her in a hug, it took all of her self-control not to kick him in the shins.

She saw how Owen reacted when Megan rebuffed his advances and Chloe decided that she wasn't going to provoke Clark if she could avoid it. She was determined to stay alive so she could get herself and Lex away from Clark and out of this god-forsaken house.

But, the first thing she had to do was break Clark out of the hold the curse had on him. And she didn't have a clue how to do it.

Clark held her much longer than was necessary, and she took several deep breaths to stop herself from visibly shaking. To her relief, he finally pulled back, but he didn't release her from his grip. Instead, he stared into her face, as if he were trying to memorize it. Chloe stood perfectly still and watched him watching her.

Clark's face was pale, his eyes were glazed over, and he was sweating. Chloe remembered that Clark seemed to be exhibiting the same symptoms when he confronted her at her house, right after she and Lex had first gotten together.

She should have put it all together then, but she had been distracted by her feelings for Lex, and her happiness that he returned her feelings. Truthfully, she had been more concerned with her father's reaction to her and Lex being involved than what Clark thought.

She wished that she had paid more attention to how irrational Clark had been acting that night. Perhaps they could have circumvented all of the drama and escalating violence that was happening now.

Chloe shook her head at her own negativity, and instead, turned her attentions to planning her next move. She doubted that telling Clark off would be the wisest move that she could make. Yet, he seemed relatively calm, and he hadn't made any violent moves towards her. Maybe she could still get out of this in one piece.

She tried to back away from his embrace, but he tightened his hold on her. She tried not to wince, but Clark's fingers dug into her arms. Clark smiled down at her, and Chloe's blood chilled in her veins.

Clark's once bashful smile was now a sinister leer and Chloe's fear mounted when he pulled her in towards his body. He lowered his head to kiss her, and Chloe reacted instinctively. Her body went rigid, and she threw herself forward, headfirst. Clark's mouth made contact with Chloe's head, and they both cried out: Chloe, in pain, and Clark in surprise.

Clark was stunned enough that he let go of Chloe and she quickly scrambled to Lex's side. She checked for his pulse, and whispered a silent prayer when she found it beating strongly. He was unconscious, and he had a broken arm, but he didn't appear to have any other injuries. Now, she had to get them out of there.

Chloe quickly looked around for a weapon, and mistakenly turned her back on Clark. In that short span of time, Clark grabbed her by the throat, his fingers slowly squeezing her windpipe. The only sound that Chloe could make was a rasping croak.

Clark grinned and loosened his grip. "I gave you a chance, Chloe, to leave here with me. But the first opportunity you got, you ran back to HIM! What do you have to say for yourself?"

The first time she went to speak, Chloe's voice could barely be heard. She carefully cleared her throat, and spoke again. "Clark, please listen to me. This isn't you. You don't want to hurt us. We're you're friends."

Clark snorted. "Chloe, I love you. What do I have to do to prove it to you? Kill Lex?' Clark's eyes brightened at this thought. "Now there's a plan. Nothing says 'I love you' like murdering your rival!"

Chloe shivered at the sheer malevolence in Clark's voice and her fear made her snap out at him. "Clark, stop being a jackass! You and Lex aren't rivals, you're friends. You aren't going to murder anyone, especially Lex and me. And if you try, God help me, I'll kick the shit out of you myself!"

Clark was startled at Chloe's speech and his fingers loosened slightly from around her neck. Chloe took full advantage of his lapse in concentration. She pushed him away from her and ran to Lex's prone form, fully intending on dragging him out of the house with her.

Clark's anger returned, but before he could go after Chloe, the light in the room changed. It became brighter, and a woman materialized in the room. His eyes widened in fear and he stood still, unsure of what was happening.

Chloe saw the bright light appear again, and she closed her eyes in resignation at having to watch the murders happen all over again. But her eyes snapped open just as quickly when she realized what it meant. This time the murders were being replayed for Clark's benefit, and hopefully, watching the killing of an innocent woman and her daughter would get through to him.

She muttered another silent prayer, and leaned in closer to Lex. He had started to stir, and Chloe was afraid that his regaining consciousness would cause Clark to try to injure him again. Lex slowly opened his eyes, and when his gaze fixed on Chloe, he started to speak to her. She covered his mouth with her hand, and she nodded to Clark.

Lex saw his friend staring transfixed at the sight of Megan. As if sensing their eyes on him, he turned to the pair and asked, "What's going on? What's happening?"

Chloe didn't have a chance to answer, because Owen had made his appearance. She watched Clark's reactions to Megan's murder, and she was oddly satisfied when she saw his already pale skin become almost ghostly white. Chloe could see his agonized expression when Megan's screams finally stopped.

She saw him shuddering, and gasping for breath. Clark put his head in his hands, and he seemed to be talking to himself. His inner monologue came to an abrupt halt when he heard the little girl's voice. He raised his head slowly, and he seemed to be afraid of what he was going to see next.

He didn't have long to wait. Clark's mouth opened in mute horror when Owen placed Emma in the sink, and turned on the water. Clark moved forward as if to help her, but he seemed to understand the futility of the gesture. His face turned a sickening greenish hue, and he looked like he was going to pass out. Instead, he fell to his knees, unable to move.

Chloe and Lex moved towards Clark hesitantly, unsure of what to expect. Lex held his broken arm close to his chest, but he was ready to react if Clark tried to hurt Chloe in anyway. They looked down at their friend, and they were surprised to see that he was crying. His head was bowed, and tears were falling off his cheeks and landing on the floor.

Chloe and Lex went on either side of Clark and they lifted him to his feet. They tried to move him towards the door, but he appeared to be almost catatonic. Chloe slapped him lightly, but she didn't get any type of reaction. Lex leaned into Clark's face and spoke slowly and evenly. "It's over now, Clark. We have to get you out of here."

Finally, Clark lifted his eyes to his friends' faces, and Chloe nearly cried when she saw Clark's sorrow filled gaze. The curse was broken, and their friend was back

It had been four weeks since the incident at the Todd house, and many changes had been made to the Smallville landscape.

Lex, using contractors based in Metropolis, had the farmhouse demolished, and the farms' well dredged. His contractors recovered the toolbox, and the knife inside was checked for fingerprints, and DNA. The prints came back a positive match for Owen Todd, and the DNA came back a positive match for Megan Butler Todd.

Owen Todd had been a suspect in a series of unsolved murders on young women in Metropolis and Gotham. In the case of each murder, Mr. Todd paid the family a substantial amount of money. He would make it in the guise of a philanthropic gesture, but the police viewed the money as payoff. Mr. Todd may have been trying to divert suspicion from his son, but he only resulted in raising the police's interest even more.

Chloe wrote the article that cleared Daniel Todd of his family's murder. She also named Owen as the actual killer, laying out the evidence against him. She provided a timeline that proved Owen being present in both Metropolis and Gotham on the dates when the other women were killed. She was careful to show her timeline as her own theory and she allowed the readers to draw their own conclusions.

Chloe also implied Mr. Todd senior's involvement in the cover-up, citing the evidence that Owen was always institutionalized after a woman's body was found. After Megan and Emma's death, Owen had been found by the doctors at the Almshouse to be in a catatonic state. The doctors couldn't determine what caused it, and he never recovered.

She couldn't put in her story, but both Chloe and Lex felt that the catatonia was caused by the curse finally releasing him. Unfortunately, Owen had been insane before his fury created the curse. Once it left him, his brain was completely fried. Thankfully, the same fate didn't befall Clark. They had successfully broken the curse, and Clark's sanity did return.

Chloe's article was published in The Smallville Ledger, and it was picked up in The Daily Planet, because of the Metropolis connection. She was proud that they were able to help the Todd's but she was still troubled by Daniel's suicide.

One afternoon, when they were in Lex's study, she asked him what he thought. He paused in consideration and then he spoke. "I think Daniel's father told him that Owen killed his wife and daughter. And I think Daniel couldn't live with the guilt that he brought this violence into his family."

Again, Lex paused, and when he spoke again, his own pain colored his speech. "But I don't think Mr. Todd expected Daniel to feel the amount of guilt that he felt. His father underestimated his son again, but this time, his son destroyed himself."

The bitterness in Lex's tone angered Chloe, but her rage wasn't directed at Lex, but towards the man who warped his view on father/son relationships. She reached out a tentative hand, and traced her fingers across his cheek. He captured her hand in his, and pulled her into his lap. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, and buried his face into her neck, breathing in her scent.

Chloe could feel his heart racing, and she tried to calm him. She knew that he fought against his father's upbringing everyday of his life, and she vowed to help him anyway she could. She soothingly ran her hand up and down his back, trying to help him keep his demons at bay.

After several moments, Lex lifted his head and smiled at Chloe. She smiled back and leaned in to kiss him lightly on the lips. She barely brushed her lips across his, when a loud clearing of a throat startled the pair. They looked towards the door, and Clark was standing there, trying to fight down his urge to pull Chloe off of Lex's lap.

He was still amazed at how enraged he had been when he had first seen Chloe and Lex together. When he followed them into the farmhouse, he shoved Lex out of the way so he could get to Chloe. He hadn't even meant to break Lex's arm, because his only thought had been to get Chloe away from him.

But, she had fought him and the irrational part of his brain decided that Chloe had to be punished. Clark's gut still twisted when he remembered how close he had come to suffocating her.

But then, the vision happened.

The vision was what stopped him from hurting Chloe and then going after Lex. He hadn't realized it, but there had been a voice in his head whispering to him that he had to hurt Chloe. When he heard Owen's voice, he recognized it as the voice in his head. Then, when he saw how callously he killed that lady and her daughter, Clark finally understood that the voice wasn't sane.

He was able to push the insane whispering to the back of his mind and focus on the fact that Chloe and Lex were his friends, and they didn't deserve to die because they loved each other. He was not a jilted lover, and they were not having a clandestine affair.

As soon as the three of them left the house, Clark felt as though a haze lifted from his brain. The urge to hurt his friends vanished, but a whole host of other emotions remained. He was envious of Chloe and Lex's relationship, and he was mortified at how he had acted towards them.

He couldn't look either of his friends in the eye, because he was overcome with guilt for trying to hurt them. He started to avoid them at all costs, and he relied on his mom to tell him about how they were doing.

Finally, he bit the bullet and approached them while they were at the Talon. Or, rather, he walked up to Lex and apologized for nearly killing him and Chloe. Clark knew that an apology didn't even begin to come close to making things right between the three of them, but it was a start.

Lex merely raised an eyebrow at Clark's words, but then he'd graciously accepted Clark's apology and extended his hand, saying, "Another week and Chloe was going to call in the Marines to look for you."

Clark smiled sheepishly and tried to calm the nerves in his stomach at the mention of Chloe's name. He opened his mouth to ask Lex to give her his best when he felt a hand on his arm.

Clark turned around to find Chloe there, a wry smile on her face "It's about time you came out of hiding!"

Clark swallowed the painful lump in his throat when he saw her. She was letting her hair go curly, and she was wearing one of his personal favorite shirts: a red, sleeveless v-neck shirt, with a plunging neckline. Chloe always looked particularly good in red. He shook his head at his own thoughts, and cursed his own blindness. How was it, that after all the years of knowing her, he never noticed how pretty she was?

He ignored the urge to tell how gorgeous she looked and instead, held the article in his hand. "I have a ton of questions about what happened at the farmhouse. Can you spare an afternoon?"

That was the beginning of Clark finally accepting that he lost Chloe, and that she and Lex were together. And here he was now, standing in Lex's study and trying not to grimace at the sight of Chloe in Lex's arms.

This time, he knew that his anger wasn't the result of a curse, but pure jealousy. He had always thought that Chloe would be on the sidelines waiting for him. That she would be right by his side whenever he needed her help, regardless of her own problems.

But while he had been pining over lost opportunities with Lana, Chloe found someone else, a man who treasured her, cared for her, and wanted the best for her.

Clark was sickened that he wasn't that man, and that Chloe didn't need him anymore because she had Lex. Sure, they would be friends, but Clark missed that feeling of knowing he had Chloe's complete devotion. And now, Lex had it.

As long as he lived, Clark would regret losing Chloe to Lex. If he were completely honest with himself, he would acknowledge that she had never been his. That Lex hadn't stolen Chloe from him, but that Chloe left him willingly. Lex won Chloe's heart by always being there for her, and telling her that he cared for her. Two things that Clark had never managed to do.

He looked at his two friends, and finally admitted to himself that they looked good together. They obviously cared for each other, and Chloe's beaming smile told him everything that he needed to know. He turned his attention to Lex, and was amazed to see how relaxed he seemed. His smile was genuine and his eyes softened whenever they rested on Chloe, which was often.

Clark was torn from his reverie by Chloe's concerned voice. "Clark, is everything okay?"

He smiled at his two friends, and nodded in acceptance. "I'm getting there, but I think everything is going to be fine."

THE END