Thank you very much for reading.

"Serial Killers Know How to Party"

Chapter 1

I was sweating bullets. Not literally. Bullets weren't actually seeping from my pores. No. That'd be weird and unsightly. It just felt as if my body temperature's setting was lifted from 98.6 and cranked all the way to sauna, which is usually around 200 degrees fahrenheit. Quite hot.

Lex Luthor sat in front of me. Kinda. There was his gigantic African black wood desk separating us. For the past five minutes, he'd been glancing over my measly one page resume. I'm sure he'd seen the crème de la crème. Our generations Einsteins and Newtons. My biggest accomplishment was getting a PhD at 25, which didn't seem like an accomplishment at all while in the presence of Lex Luthor.

Finally, he cleared his throat. He hunched over, folding his hands together. "So, it seems you're highly unqualified."

I gulped and pushed a piece of hair behind my ear. "I agree...sir."

"So the question becomes 'Why are you here, Sasha Singh?'"

"Philosophically, biologically, or physically?"

The corner of his lip twisted to a smirk. "Let's begin with physically."

"I applied... I thought that I was being interviewed for the assistant to the assistant position," I stammered, trying to remember all those social cues and hints my therapist and I had gone over. Being an awkward loner helped in college, but the real world was a pain.

Lex nodded and reclined into a leather chair that could fit three of him comfortably. My last assistant was... terminated... so as you can conclude, there's no assistant to the assistant position available. Simply an assistant position that you are incredibly ill qualified for. So..." he stood up. I thought he was going to escort me from his unfathomably huge office. To my surprise he sat on the edge of his desk. Directly in front of me. So close that the notes of his bitter, drywood cologne became the air I breathed.

"So," I repeated after him.

"I want you to wow me," He gave me the type of punch on the shoulder an encouraging professor would give a C student. "I want you to show me what you've got."

I didn't see the point in going over my credentials. Being an assistant to Lex Luthor, a hero and legend in the science community, would be like trying to pass an electron through a neutral molecule and receiving two negative ions instead of a pair. Impossible.

"Well as my resume states, I graduated from Yale."

"I'm less interested in your degree in physics."

Astrophysics! There was a difference, as Mr. Luthor already knew.

"I want to know you. Maybe it'll be easier if I asked you a few questions. May I?"

Was no an option?

"By all means."

"Why's your last name Singh? You're clearly not Indian."

"I was adopted. My parents are Indian."

He nodded as if my answer was suitable. "Good. Do you have a strong, healthy relationship with them?"

The last time I spoke to my parents they had been disappointed in my choice to pursue astrophysics and not become a surgeon. It hurt them. I'd rather live my life in the stars than on Earth with the dying. Humans were frail, sickly creatures whose shelf life was the equivalent of a butterfly. I wouldn't go out of my way from stopping a spider from devouring a butterfly, so why would I attempt to stop a blood clot from killing a human. My father was far from pleased with that answer.

"No," I groaned.

"Even better." Lex leaned forward. His eye hue was the equivalent of a storm. Harsh and terribly blue. "You have a photographic memory."

I squirmed. "That wasn't on my resume."

"What was the color of the vase on the desk in the lobby?"

"Blue."

"And what was in it?"

"Tulips."

He nodded with approval. "Good. How many?"

"Five."

"And how many petals were on them?"

"Eight on each."

"Positive?"

"With all due respect, sir, I know for certain that there's eight on each."

His grin was toothy and bright. "Just had to make sure you didn't have a lucky guess," he said. "Would you like something to drink?"

"You mean alcoholic?"

"Yes, but I do have orange soda if that tickles your fancy."

Heat rose to my face and I turned so that he couldn't see me blush. It had been the first time a guy had ever offered my an alcoholic beverage. The Lex Luthor popped my alcoholic beverage virginity or however they said it! My friend Viv was going to freak when she heard this.

I declined the offer despite my excitement.

Lex dusted off his hands. "Well, Sasha, final question."

"Go ahead."

"What are your thoughts on Superman?" The question was meant to sound casual, but I could hear the tension caught in the center of his throat. It made his pitch a little sharper.

"Do you want me to be honest?"

"One thousand percent."

I scooted closer to him. His eyes met mine. "I find him fucking fascinating."

No one in the Astrophysics community wanted to delve into the topic of some alien being coming to our planet. But I thought about it every night. An alien being. Right on our planet. And no one had even bothered to request a blood sample.

"Excellent. You can go now. I'll have someone contact you if I decide you're a keeper. If you don't hear anything then your answer was a resounding no."

"I have a question."

Intrigued, he smiled. "Shoot."

"How'd you know all that information about me?"

"I had your computer spybotted for the past month. I received a report of every click of your mouse, every website you visited, and all those pretty little e-diary entries you made."

I suppose I should've been outraged by the flagrant invasion of my privacy, but I was far too embarrassed to case about that.

"All of them?"

He patted my shoulder. "All of them."

I'm sure my face was as red as Mr. Krabs. He had read all of my thoughts. I couldn't say anything. I just wanted to leave.

"Have a good day, Miss Singh," Lex said as I scurried from his office as quickly as possible.