Home

Coffee

It was evening when Lena Luthor looked over to the clock on the wall of her office. She took a deep breath. Turning her chair to the balcony, she stood up. Then she walked over to the door, opened it and stepped out in the cold night air. At the railing she stopped, looked down at the night life of National City. 

Down there, between heated bodys, was the heart of the city. Lena has never been one of these girls who sneeked out of their parents house in the middle of the night. Who risked everything just to get into the parties. No, she was the kind of girl to whom school and work have always been the most important. Maybe the Luthors hade made her this way, but she also was this kind of girl from the beginning. 

She looked up at the sky into the big dome light of National City. She breathed in the fresh air, which was running through her open hair, as she recognized a shadow in the night sky. She looked closer and saw the red cape of the flying human. Or better, not human. Supergirl. The cousin of Superman. She was the hero of the city ever since Lena came here. She gave the people hope and happiness. But Lena knew the kryptonian better than others. She has worked with her. Has saved the world with her. And Lena didn't like the strong woman. Supergirl was special, when it came to her only weakness. Kryptonite. She was scared and filled with anger. Lena had found out how to produce it, to defeat her kryptonian enemies who terrorized the world a few moths ago, and Supergirl didn't trust her anymore. 

Lena took a last breath and stepped back into her office. She walked over to her desk, lifted her coffee cup, to find, disappointed, that it was empty. She walked to the cupboard on the left of hers, where the coffee machine was placed. She set the cup down underneath the machine and pressed 'black'. This was going to be a long night and she remembered all the stuff she still had to do. Watching the coffee pour out of the machine and in her cup she felt a cold, metallic tip pressed onto her temple. And a press on her shoulder. 

"Don't move." The voice was cold and monotonous.

She stood still, while her heart was racing fast. The press on her shoulder came from a hand which turned her towards the balcony and pushed her forward. She tried to control her breath as she stepped out in the night. She was walked over to the railing, guided from the hand on her shoulder, unable to fight back because of the gun to her right temple. She took a short and careful look down into the night life. Up here, it was calm and quiet, but down there, life was loud and full. No one noticed. How would they? Lena just hoped for someone to look up and recognize in which danger she was. But from down there you wouldn't even notice the gun to her head. You probably wouldn't even notice a person standing at the railing.

She lifted her gaze and looked up in the dome light of National City. Her home since a few years. But this city didn't feel like home. It's long ago that Lena Luthor felt something like home. The last time she can remember was when she was four years old. Before she was adopted.

As she felt the press to her shoulder increase, she remember what she was taught to do in a tricky situation like this by the Luthors.

Negotiate.

"What do you want?" She asked, surprised about her calm voice. 

"Oh, Luthor lesson number one. How well do I know them." The voiced laughed. It was definitly a man, about fourty years old. "I don't want anything from you."

"Then what are you doing in my building?" Lena tried hard to let her voice sound confident. 

"You are probably wondering how I got in here." Lena thought about her assistant and got scared. As if he could read her mind, the man said, "don't worry. She is fine." Lena sighed in relief. "She didn't do anything so I didn't do anything to her."

Lena held her breath. She remembered the watch Supergirl gave her about a year ago. She breathed in again. Inside the watch was an emergency button. She didn't care what Supergirl had done or how much she hated her attitude, she just moved her hands together, opening the watch on her left wrist, and pressed the red button. She hoped that the hero she didn't respect wouldn't be too busy. 

From inside her office came a ping.

She could feel the man turning his head, but she stood still knowing that her coffee was ready. Oh, how much would she give to just stand in front of it, waiting for the coffee to be ready. Just worrying about all the work she has to do. 

A cold breath in her neck brought her back to reality. The man stood closer to her. She could hear his breath, calm and quiet. 

"I don't want anything from you." He whispered, getting back to the topic. "I just wanna take from you what you took from me."

Lena tried to recognized his voice, but she's never heard it before. She didn't know the man. She didn't know what he wanted. 

"Your Life." He whispered it. It was more a breath. Lena felt how he took his head back and he started to giggle. A cold, unconcerned giggle. 

Lena drew air through her teeth. She closed her eyes, hoping for the girl of steel to hear it, and pressed the red button a second time. 

The hand on her shoulder pushed her forward, her upper body was already looking down to death. The man laughed rude. Then he gave her a last nudge and she fell.