Evidence of Foul Play

Chapter 11- Paige

 

After dinner that night, I made a resolution. I would start this weekend. No beating around the bush. New York needed a hero, and I had been handed that job by fates twisted hands. How cliché of me.

I knew what the suit looked like and I had discovered after I stopped crying my eyes out that the webbing came naturally and didn't need shooters. I decided to go shopping tomorrow for the spandex. After that- well, after that I would take to the streets. I sat in my room, staring at the ceiling for hours, thinking about the future. I wondered which comic book storyline this would follow. Ultimate? The Amazing Spiderman? That was when I realized what I needed to do. I would take matters in my own hands, setting my own storyline. Sorry, Peter. This is my life now.

 

 

I woke up early the next morning, silently leaving the still-sleeping house after writing a note saying that I needed to do something in the city. I brought all of my savings- a meager amount that would barely suffice. I caught the bus into New York City, and stepped out by the Empire State Building. I had no idea where to go, but you can find anything here if you know where to look.

A few hours later, I was on the bus once more, with a bag full of red and blue spandex. A few more hours after that, I rubbed my tired, freakishly blue eyes and sat back. Stretched out on my bed was the completed suit. I rubbed the tips of my fingers, which were sore from being pricked so many times. Sewing sucked.

I tried on the suit, which fit fairly well. I looked at myself in the mirror in the bathroom, staring at my figure. It clung to my body, accentuating my curves. That was when I had my epiphany. What better way to disguise your identity then as a member of the opposite sex? I searched through the medicine cabinet until I found an ace bandage. I undid the top of my suit and wrapped my chest tightly. I redid my top and looked in the mirror once more. Better, but my hips still stood out. I went back to the bathroom and used the scraps from my suit to fashion two pads which I slid into my suit. Now I just looked like a slightly on the curvy side for a guy. I thanked my lucky stars (if I had any) that I had short boyish hair. Maybe there was a reason to this madness after all. I took my suit off and stashed it under my bed, out of sight.

Aunt May and Uncle Ben were waiting for me at the dinner table when I got downstairs. I ate rapidly, finishing all my pasta in ten minutes. "Hey Aunt May, is it okay if I leave to go into the city again?" I asked.

"Why?"

"Well, Max... Max invited me to go to the movies tonight." Lie.

"In that case, yes. You can go, he seemed like a nice person. Just don't do anything... extra lovey-dovey." She said.

"Don't worry, we won't." I said, ignoring the slight twinge in my heart, from guilt or loss I do not know. Then I cleared my plate, stuffed my suit into my bag and dashed out the door. I sprinted down the street, heading into the city. The bus route was really ineffective, really, since it covered the whole neighborhood. Running down all the side-streets was much quicker than taking the bus. Ten minutes of running later, the skyscrapers closed in overhead. I changed into the suit and stashed the bag in an alley. Then I looked up into the towering mass of metal, concrete and glass. I raised a hand and latched onto the side. I took a deep breath and started to climb. I reached the top without falling and breathed a sigh of relief. Then I sprinted across the roof and jumped.

Falling through the air with nothing holding you is terrifying. Falling through air knowing you won't hit bottom is exhilarating. "Wooohooooooo!!!!!" I yelled as I released the web and swung through the street below me. Everywhere I went I saw people craning their necks, jaws agape. I swung down the street, almost crashing into a lamppost about five thousand times. I jumped from building to building, swinging when I felt like it, until I ended up on top of a fifty-story apartment building. I stared out at the city, watching the birds fly and cars drive by. Then I heard a sharp noise, a kind of ringing in my ears. I knew what that meant. That was my spider-sense.

I jumped down from my perch, my instincts telling me what to do. I swung down Broadway, climbed up another skyscraper, and ran along the rooftops until I looked down upon a dark alley. A couple of men had cornered a lady and her two children and had backed her up against the wall. She was trying to protect her children, shielding them behind her. Silently, I dropped to the ground behind them, unnoticed.

"Please." The lady was saying, holding back her children. "Please don't hurt them!" She was frantic, eyes wide and full of fear.

"Oh we wouldn't want that now, would we?" One of the men said to his partner, chuckling.

"You'd better hope you don't." I said, making sure my voice was neutral, not identifiable as belonging to a female.

They whirled on me, a knife in one of the men's hands. "And who the hell are you?" One of them asked.

"Just your friendly neighborhood Spiderman." I said, delivering the famous line. "Well, friendly to everyone but bottom-feeder criminals." I added, whirling into action. My fists made short work of the two men. It took me about thirty seconds to disarm the man with a knife and a minute to finish the job. I stood there in the alley, two unconscious men at my feet. I looked to the woman who hadn't moved a muscle since the fight started.

"You might want to get a move on, ma'am. The streets are not always friendly after hours." I told her. She nodded, swallowing. She gathered her children, who stared at me with wonder in their eyes. I turned my back to them, ready to move on, but the woman spoke up.

"Spiderman?" She made it sound like a question.

"Yes?" I said, looking back at her.

"Thank you."

"No problem. Part of my job description, y'know?" I said, smiling through the mask. Then we both went our separate ways. I spent a few more hours roaming the streets, occasionally breaking up fights or saving children from speeding cars. Then I returned to where I stashed my bag and changed back into my normal clothes and ran home.

"How was the movie?" Aunt May asked, smiling.

"Uh... good?" I replied, sounding more than a little uncertain.

"He came by after you came home sick from school on Thursday, you know. He was worried about you." My heart gave a quiet squeeze in my chest but I ignored it.

"Really? That's nice. Well, I guess I'm up to bed." I was exhausted and sore; I needed sleep badly. I went to my room and was asleep within minutes. That was the first night I dreamed.

 

* * * * *

 

Something stirred the blackness of my sleep and I heard a soft sound, like rain on a metal roof or faint static on a silent radio. The black color behind my eyelids lightened gradually, turning into a soft brown color that quickly took on the appearance or darker, murky shapes. I tried to blink to clear my vision, but found I could not move even an eyelash. Slowly but surely the shapes became more defined until my vision focused abruptly. If I had been capable of speech, I would have gasped aloud. As it was, I could only stare in horror at the sight in front of me. There we were.

Two figures drifted slightly in the current, ghostly pale and grotesquely familiar. Jonathan and I drifted side by side, limbs twisted and bent from the impact with the water. My neck was set at an unnatural angle, and Jon's back was twisted and bent beyond what was humanly possible. Our clothes were shredded and torn from the fall and the fluttered around us as we spun in slow circles. Laughter echoed throughout the watery surroundings, neither male nor female, at an indeterminable pitch. I was forced to stay where I was, unable to move or get away from this nightmare. It was only an infinity later when I finally woke up.

 

A/N I hate how none of the movies seem to cover where he got the fabric for his suit. I did my best, though.