Page 74 of Saving Little Clark

And I believe in you, with everything I am, everything I have. Always.

I love you. To the moon and back.

Forever yours,

Daddy"

A hitching gasp punched its way out of my chest, tears spilling anew to splash against the page. I traced the words reverently.

Slowly, carefully, I pushed to my feet. Let the note drift to the carpet, Daddy's love a living ember in my chest.

Sterling was still ranting beyond the door, a stream of vitriol and venom. Promising me suffering, painting garish pictures of the ways he'd unmake me.

My eyes caught on a glint of metal, and my breath stilled. There, hanging innocuously on the wall was a fire poker. Wrought iron and wickedly sharp, a relic of the mansion's grander days.

Moving on autopilot, I crossed to it. Lifted it down with nerveless fingers, the weight of it cold and solid in my palm.

As Sterling finally burst through the door, splinters flying like shrapnel, my life flashed before my eyes. Not the tragedies, the traumas, but the moments of shining joy.

Alex, that first day in the dorms, his grin wide and infectious as he slings an arm around my shoulders. "You and me, Clark," he declares, eyes sparkling with mischief and promise. "We're gonna be best friends, I can feel it."

Alex, face uncharacteristically solemn as he takes my hand, his own trembling almost imperceptibly. "I think I might be like you, Clark. A Little, I mean. And it scares me, but if you can be brave enough to own it, then I can too."

Alex, his grip tight and urgent on my elbow as he pulls me aside, gaze darting around the party in search of prying ears. "I don't trust him," he hisses, jerking his chin at where Sterling schmoozes with the crowd, all slick smiles and empty charm. "He's bad news, Clark. The way he looks at you sometimes... like you're a possession, a thing to be controlled. Just be careful, okay?"

Daddy, haloed by sunlight and the emerald green of the park, his hand extended in invitation as I crouch over a makeshift treasure map. "Mind if I join you on this noble quest?" he asks, eyes crinkling at the corners, and it feels like coming home.

Chapter 30: Clark

The memories flickered and faded like old film as reality crashed back in. Because Sterling was advancing, a wolf stalking its prey, madness dancing in his eyes.

"You have no idea," he crooned, head cocked at a sickening angle, "how long I've waited for this moment. How many hours I've spent picturing it,savoringit."

He spread his arms wide. "You see Clark, you're my masterpiece. The culmination of all my planning, all my exquisite anticipation. And now, after all this time, I finally get to unmake you. Isn't it beautiful?"

"Why are you doing this?" I rasped, the word scraping like broken glass. "What did I ever do to deserve-"

"Deserve?" Sterling cut me off with a bark of laughter, ugly and unhinged. "Deservewould be me granting you a quick death, an easy end to your pathetic little life. No, this is a gift. The highest fucking honor, to be chosen as my canvas. My clay to mold as I see fit."

He took another step forward, head tipped back in rapture. The knife glinted in his hand, silver and slick as a snake.

"You should be grateful, sweetheart," he purred. "In your last moments, as the light fades from your eyes, you'll bemine. Wholly and completely, just like it was always meant to be."

"No," I said, calm and sure. "I was never meant to be yours, Sterling. And I never will be, no matter what you do to me. Do you remember the night of our first anniversary? When you took me stargazing, up on that hill behind your house?"

Sterling blinked in confusion. "What does that have to-"

"You were so sweet to me," I pressed. "Holding me close, pointing out all the constellations. You said you loved me. That you wanted to give me the world, lay it at my feet like an offering."

For a moment, just a split second, something flickered in Sterling's gaze. A crack in the facade, confusion and doubt bleeding through.

"I remember," he said slowly, brow furrowed. "I meant it, too. I wanted to be everything for you, Clark. Your whole fucking world."

I nodded. "I know. It's not too late," I said, low and fervent. Betting everything on this one, impossible moment. "You can still choose differently, still walk away from this. From the sickness, the ugliness inside. I know there's good in you still, Sterling. I know it."

For a breathless, eternal heartbeat, he wavered. But then, between one blink and the next, it was gone. And he laughed. Started low and rumbling, swelling to a crescendo. Bouncing off the walls, unhinged and howling.

"You stupid little boy," he gasped. "You really thought you could talk me down, huh? Bat those big eyes and appeal to my humanity? Well I've got news for you, sweetheart. There is no humanity. No good, no light. It's almost freeing, knowing I can confess it all now. Every dirty little secret, laid bare at last. Might as well, right? It’s not like you'll be around to snitch to the cops this time."

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