Psychiatry in the Night

[Adam]

It was a dark night in early summer when it happened. It was the kind of oppressive darkness that criminals loved, and thus, it was the best kind of night for Adam Knight to do his work. This night, this oppressive, claustrophobic night, his work lead him inexplicably to the parking lot of a hospital, where a lone woman, perhaps in her thirties, was walking to her car. She was dressed professionally, with curly red hair that hung near her back and green eyes that sparkled like emeralds. In her hands was a worn cardboard box overflowing with manila folders. Those sparkling eyes were focused on her car, never seeing the four thugs creeping up behind her, guns drawn.

Adam watched from a streetlight overhead. He’d staked out this hospital for three nights now. He’d started the night after the first murder had occurred, and had found nothing…until now. Maybe these were the murderers, maybe they weren’t, but either way, Adam had a job to do.

He hopped nimbly down from the streetlight, landing directly in front of the thugs. Though his landing was soft, it made enough noise to attract the attention of the woman whom the thugs had targeted, and she screamed and started to back up, dropping the cardboard box. “Hey, fucker, get the hell outta the way,” one thug growled. “We saw this bitch first!”<br>
“How well do you think you’ll see…without eyes,” Adam questioned, his face cold as stone.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean,” the thug snorted.

“This.” Quick as lightning, Adam plucked both the thug’s eyes out and tossed them to the wind. The thug screamed and dropped to the ground, his gun falling away as he clutched at his eyes with both hands. In the time it took the other thugs to level their guns, Adam was already in motion. A throwing knife embedded itself in the head of one thug; one vicious slash from his broadsword spilled the second thug’s guts out; and a vicious, skull-cracking punch downed another, shards of skull impaling his brain at horrific angles.

Adam wiped the blood from his broadsword against the shirt of the eyeless thug, the one that still lived, before slipping it back into the sheath in his coat. He turned back to the woman, who was huddled against a pole, shaking with fear. Adam merely walked to the box, put the spilled contents back in, and offered it to her. The woman made no move to accept it, and Adam placed it down on the ground. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said softly. “I’m not like them.” He jerked his head in the direction of the remaining thug. That done, he turned and began trudging out of the parking lot, figuring that she would go on shaking until he was gone.

He was surprised to feel a hand take hold of his arm and stop him in place. “Thank you,” the woman spoke softly. “I don’t know how you moved so fast, but…thank you.”<br>
“You’re welcome,” Adam nodded. “You’re still shaking.”<br>
“No I’m not.”<br>
“I can feel it in your hand,” Adam insisted. He turned, and sure enough, he was right, the woman was still shaking. “I’ll take you home.”<br>
“That won’t be n-necessary,” the woman stuttered. “I can get home on my own.”<br>
“I didn’t just save your life so you can lose it in a car accident,” Adam sighed. “I’ll just drop you off at your street, then. You should be able to make it home from there on your own. But I’m not letting you drive when you can’t even keep your hand steady.”<br>
“I don’t even know you’re name,” the woman complained, falling back on her last defense.

“I don’t know yours, either. So we’re even.” Adam crossed his arms tightly over his chest. “I am going to take you home. Even if I have to pick you up and run you all the way.”<br>
“Fine,” she grumbled. “Then make yourself useful, at least.” She shoved the box into his hands. “And I am driving.”<br>
“Fine,” Adam agreed, holding the box carefully. “Lead the way.” The woman did so in silence, giving Adam time to study the contents of the box. Each folder was marked with a name. ‘Edwards, Jake. Douglas, Howard. Alvarez, Carlos.’ They were obviously official files, and considering it was a hospital, they were probably medical records. Adam didn’t have time to ask what kind of records these were before he heard the woman open a car door. He looked up just in time to avoid running into her car. He opened the passenger side door and slipped in, closing it behind him. The ride continued in silence until she pulled out of the hospital parking lot.

“My house isn’t too far from here,” the woman told him. Adam merely nodded in response, and the silence continued for another moment.

“Adam,” he stated, one word that he figured she’d understand.

“That’s your name,” the woman questioned, her brow furrowing in confusion. “Adam?”<br>
“Right,” Adam nodded.

“I’m Gwen.”<br>
“Gwen?” Adam’s own brow furrowed in thought. Something from a dream tugged at his memory, something he should know but didn’t. “Hm. Well, anyway, I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but given the circumstances….”<br>
“Yeah,” Gwen agreed. “Listen, I’m sorry about before, I just…that’s never happened to me before.”<br>
“It doesn’t usually happen more than once,” Adam quipped. “After that, you usually don’t live to experience anything again.”<br>
“Adam, if you’re going to be a smartass, I’ll throw you out of the car myself,” she grumbled. “Nobody likes a smartass superhero.”<br>
“Superhero,” Adam questioned, quirking an eyebrow, amused.

“Well, you moved at hyperdrive back there, and you implied that you could run me home, so I figured you at least have super speed. Thus, super powers. And you saved my life, so…superhero.”<br>
“Logical,” Adam agreed. “You’re a surgeon, aren’t you?”<br>
“Not quite,” she chuckled, as the car slowed. “Listen…for some reason, I get the feeling I can trust you. Do you…want to come in? I figure, I can at least give you a cup of coffee in return for saving me.”<br>
“Sure,” Adam replied, shrugging. The two of them got out and made their way inside the house. Gwen flipped on the lights to the cozy little place and tossed her keys on the counter. She instructed Adam to place the box down next to them, and he did so. A newspaper clipping that sat next to the keys on the counter quickly transfixed his gaze. A newspaper clipping about a young boy named Chad Nash, who died one year and five months ago of a rare liver disease. The same disease Lionel Luthor had since been diagnosed with, and cured of.

Adam stumbled back, his mind swimming. Dreams and nightmares and memory were all mixing into one big, incoherent puddle of thought. He wasn’t sure where he was, or who he was, anymore. Chad Nash signed up for karate club as a very young boy. Adam Knight chased after Lana Lang with a shotgun. Chad Nash whizzing through a challenge in computer club. Adam Knight strapped to a chair as Lionel Luthor and Doctor Tang stood over him.

Dimly, he became aware of Gwen trying to calm him, and he focused on her insistent, soothing voice. Like a sailor holding onto a rope during a storm, he began pulling himself slowly out of the raging waves of incoherent thought and emotion. Slowly the torrent of thought calmed, until finally, all was back to normal. Except for one thing.

Gwen knew Chad Nash. Adam wasn’t sure how, or why, but it meant trouble for him. “Did that look familiar,” she questioned, after a moment of silence. “Did it spark something?”<br>
“Who are you,” Adam questioned.

[Adam]

“I told you, my name is Gwen,” she insisted.

“What do you do at the hospital,” Adam demanded.

“I’m a psychiatrist.”<br>
“It’s for the best, honey,” Chad’s mother soothed him. “This is going to be a tough time for you.”<br>
“I don’t need to see a shrink,” Chad grumbled defiantly.

“Just give this Gwen woman a try,” his father sighed. “For us?”<br>
“…Alright, alright,” Chad gave in, throwing his hands in the air. “But I can stop going after the first visit, if I want. Ok?”<br>
“Ok,” his parents agreed, smiling slightly.

“You’re a shrink,” Adam mumbled, rubbing his head softly. “I never needed to see a shrink,” he continued, confused as to where exactly it came from.

“You remember,” Gwen questioned, stepping closer. “How much do you remember, Chad?”<br>
“My name is Adam,” Adam insisted. “Chad Nash is…dead.”<br>
“But you’re here,” Gwen persisted. “You’re standing here, right now.”<br>
“That’s…a very, very long story,” Adam sighed. “I should go.”<br>
“I don’t think you will, Chad.”<br>
“Adam.”<br>
“Fine, Adam. I still don’t think you’ll go. There’s something about yourself that you don’t remember, and part of you knows you need to,” Gwen insisted. “So I have more faith in the Luthors becoming hippies than I have of you leaving this house.”<br>
“…Fine,” Adam grumbled. “If we’re going to do the psychobabble thing, though, I want to be lying on a couch. At least then I can fall asleep while you rant.” Gwen merely smirked and led him to the living room, where she pulled up a chair while he situated himself on the couch. “So, what now?”<br>
“Well, first and foremost: Are you Chad Nash?”<br>
“I was,” Adam admitted. “I was Chad Nash, star of the karate and computer clubs. I was Chad Nash, track runner and all around friendly guy. Then I died of a rare liver disease.”<br>
“I thought we were being honest with each other,” Gwen sighed. “You couldn’t have died.”<br>
“I did,” Adam insisted. “I died, and instead of being taken to the morgue, I was taken to a LuthorCorp lab. There, a female doctor named Doctor Tang – North Korean by birth, and technically an illegal alien – used a serum derived from the blood cells of an alien to bring me back to life.”<br>
“Adam,” Gwen warned. “This is really sounding ridiculous.”<br>
“It gets better,” Adam laughed bitterly. “Lionel Luthor provided the source. He funded the experiments. Basically, the serum was his. So, in return for being given life again, I had to work for him. The trick is, though, if I didn’t do exactly as he pleased, I didn’t get the serum. I needed it to remain alive, and by the time I was set free, Lionel had made sure that I was addicted to it. So I did what I was told like a good little puppet and went to the small town where the source of the blood lived. I befriended his ex, who ran a coffee shop there, and snagged the apartment above the coffee shop for myself. I spied on the both of them, but the ex got wise, I threatened her life several times, and she eventually had me evicted, with the help of Lex Luthor.” He paused, rubbing his head. “Wait, no, that’s not what happened. I grew a conscience and Lionel didn’t like that. That’s what happened.”<br>
“Eviction can take up to six months,” Gwen grumbled defiantly. She was sticking to the initial story. As ridiculous as it sounded, it rang of truth.

“Not when Lex Luthor’s goons grab you in an alleyway, while you’re weak and craving serum,” Adam snapped. “That takes about one minute, total.” Adam was rubbing his head insistently now.

“Oh,” Gwen muttered. “Sorry.”<br>
“They took me back to the lab, and Lionel cut me off. Doctor Tang grew a conscience and kept me alive, though she had to use small amounts of serum so that no one would notice. It…wasn’t pleasant.” He squeezed his eyes shut tightly and rubbed his head more urgently. “No, no, that’s not what happened. She didn’t keep me in a cage, barely alive. Lionel decided the crisis of conscience was more of a threat than it was worth, cut me off, and Tang let me die. Again.” Adam sounded frantic, so Gwen decided to back off a bit.

“What happened next, Adam,” Gwen soothed.

“I faked the death,” Adam replied. “Lionel shut down the lab. No, no, I faked my death and escaped later.” He began to jerk spasmodically, and Gwen held him still and looked him directly in the eyes.

“The truth, Adam. Tell me the truth.” She repeated it over and over again, until he’d quieted and stopped spasming.

Adam began talking on instinct, old memories surging forward to replace the illusions his mind had created over the past year. “Lionel Luthor never trained me to be a weapon against a superhuman. I was the star of the karate club, and the computer club, before I died.”<br>
“Good, that’s good,” Gwen nodded, smiling. She remembered Chad Nash, and knew this was the truth. “Keep going.”<br>
“After Lionel cut me off, Doctor Tang kept me alive with small amounts of serum. She kept me in a cage the size of a small cell, and would give me just enough serum to survive. Eventually, Lex found out and got Lionel to name him head of the project. But Lionel didn’t want the same lab at Lex’s disposal, so Lionel shut the lab down and took all the serum. Doctor Tang gave me the last full injection, and when she told me there wasn’t any more…I killed every single living being in the lab. Except the monkey. I liked the monkey.”<br>
“Go on,” Gwen urged. She was horrified at what was just revealed, but knew she had to see this to conclusion.

“I went back to the apartment,” Adam continued. “It was cleaned out, so I went after the ex. I had three vials of the serum in a hollowed out book and needed them back. She had sworn never to tell anyone about me, but after taking several hostages, I finally found her. She’d cleaned out all of my stuff, so I made her take me where she’d put it, and the vials were gone. I had a shotgun, so I made good on my earlier threats. I almost had her, too. The shot was lined up perfectly, it would have nailed her in the back, but…the source of the blood ran at super speed and took the shot dead in the chest. All it did was make a hole in his shirt. I seemed to die then and there.”<br>
“But you didn’t,” Gwen prompted.

“The serum had mutated my body. I was half-Kryptonian. The source was full-blooded, of course, but…you get the idea.” Adam seemed to be revealing these memories to him as much as to her. “When I came back to life again, well…it all gets confusing from there. I made up stuff, stuff that I thought sounded better than being a killer, having a higher body count than Gayce. Doctor Tang was maybe the only person left alive who gave a damn about me, and I killed her because she wouldn’t let me out. Or take me with her to the new lab. Or something.”<br>
And then he was up, off the couch. “Look, I-I have to go. I can’t stay here. I’m confused, and lost, and when you can bend steel, that’s not a good thing.” He ran to her window so fast she didn’t even see him move. “We won’t see each other again. Good-bye, Gwen.” And then he was gone, into the oppressive night; real memories clashing with illusionary memories his mind had created to block out the truth.

“Good-bye, Chad Nash,” Gwen sighed, “and good-bye, Adam Knight.”