Spider Genes
He sat in the back corner of the classroom, unnoticed by everyone else who was either taking notes, or sleeping. In his case, he was paying absolutely no attention to the teacher talk about the economy of the United States. With his head propped up by one hand, his other doodled spiders all over the piece of paper, that was supposed to be intended for notes, in front of him. As the teacher droned on and on, he drew a spider dangling from a single thread from the date at the top corner. He smiled to himself, continued his doodling, and every now and then looked up at the teacher to let her think he was paying attention and taking notes.
His name? Terran Parker. A boy who had lived his whole life in the back shadow, ignored, and unnoticed. Strangely enough, he liked it that way. He got to do what he wanted to do without others watching him, and commenting on his every more. He never liked the spotlight, didn't like the 'in crowd' at school - he stayed as far as he could from them. He just plain hated any type of place that was crowded. He felt like everyone watching him all the time. It was never his thing to hang out with people. He didn't really get along well with others. He hated getting attention of any kind, and especially hated it when teachers pointed him out in class. To him, the day was get in and out of school that same way each time: quietly and unnoticed. It was his moral code. One he stood by since the day he was able to walk and talk at the same time.
Beside him sat his best friend, Stephen Reilly. Who, very much unlike Terran, was one of the popular kids who normally brought the attention to himself -- though not on purpose... all of the time. Terran never understood how or why they ever became friends. They were complete opposites, almost anyway. When not in the same class as Terran, Stephen would normally hang around the 'cool' kids. In other words: the basketball jocks. In fact, he was on the school's champion basketball team, even though his personality didn't really fit it. He didn't act like a jock, and his way of doing things and thinking clashed with all the other players'. If it weren't for the fact that he was the team's best player, they would have booted him off long ago. And even Terran knew that, but never understood why his friend stayed. However, he had a feeling that Stephen knew. He seemed to smile too much when with them.
As Terran continued drawing, Stephen leaned his head to the side to get a closer look at what his friend was doing. He had a suspicious feeling no notes were written down on that piece of paper. What he saw didn't surprise him in the sense of the odd drawings, but the fact that he was right. There were not notes. This surprised him only because Terran was such a good student, prized by most of the teachers. It wasn't much like him not to pay attention in class and take notes. He looked back and forth from his friend's face to the piece of paper, waiting for Terran to finally notice him. But once Stephen saw the dazed look in his eyes, he finally gave up and said, "Wake up, Ter. Back to earth."
No reply. If it weren't for the fact that Terran's hand was moving, someone would have thought he was dead.
Stephen raised an eyebrow. "Can we say, zoned out?" His next strategy: distraction; wave a hand in front of his eyes. Which was exactly what he did. Usually worked with him, so why not try it on somebody else.
That time he finally got something. A blink.
A few more waves.
A rather slow blink as if Terran had found his sight again after losing it, and a shake of his head, he looked at the hand in front of his face, and using his eyes first, followed by his head, followed the length of the arm to see who it was attached to. Even though it shouldn't have been too hard to guess who, though. He looked right at the smiling face of his friend. His expression stayed as flat as usual.
"Ah, so you are still alive," chuckled Stephen softly. "Thought I lost you for a second there."
"What?" He asked as if he had no clue what happened. He acted like it were a regular day, and nothing different went on around him.
Stephen just shook his head, leaning back in his seat.
This time Terran raised an eyebrow. "What? Did I miss something important?" It was more of a sarcastic comment then one of urgency. It ended with a touch of annoyance from being bothered.
By this time Stephen was laughing so hard he couldn't stop. "Man, I've never seen you so zoned out before," he said between laughs. He imitated Terran's expression, almost laughing out loud, but covering his mouth before he could let it out.
Terran shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever," he sighed, turning back to the paper on his desk. More interesting than the classroom, especially since he wasn't in much of a mood to talk, or even pay attention. Even to his best friend.
Stephen wiped the tears from his eyes, and forced himself to stop laughing before he got caught talking. When he looked back at Terran to see that he wasn't laughing, smiling, or even looking in his general direction, his expression turned serious. Even for Ter this is too quiet, he thought to himself. Even he's not this much of a stickler. He eyed his friend closely. Something's on his mind. Taking a quick glance at the teacher to make sure she was too distracted by talking and giving notes, he turned back to Terran, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Something's wr..."
He didn't even get a chance to finish his sentence before the troubled teen yanked his shoulder out from under his grip. "Just leave me alone."
He happened to say that a little too loud that time. The teacher's head bolted straight to their direction. She was mad. "Excuse me, is their something wrong, boys?"
Stephen smiled sheepishly, and answered quickly, "No, Coach. Nothing."
She looked at them -- mostly Stephen since he was the one looking at and answering her. "Are you sure? May I continue? I don't want to ruin your conversation with mister Parker."
Stephen shook his head, the smile fading away slowly into an embarrassed twitch.
She looked at him for several more, agonizing second, and then continued.
The teen let out a great sigh of relief. "Oph." That's when he saw some of the other students still staring at him. He just glared back until they turned away -- some laughing. Just as he turned his head to say something to Terran, his mouth stayed open, with no sound coming from it. Not only was his head turned away, but the pencil laid broken in half in his hand and on the desk. "Shit," slipped past his lips. He realized just then he lost what might have come of any conversation with Terran. With a final worried looked, he turned away, trying to focus what was left of his attention on the lesson, or at least the front of the room. Although, every few minutes he would look back at his friend out of the corner of his eyes. It annoyed him at how cold Terran had been. Even though they had only been friends since the end of their sophomore year, they almost seemed inseparable. They had never had a fight. They were almost like brothers to everyone who knew them. More to the knowledge of Stephen, though, they were literally brothers, but he couldn't tell Terran the truth. He always thought Peter should do that. Keeping his past from his own son was the worst thing to do... to anyone. Stephen sighed at the thought. "I guess you're better off not knowing," he mumbled more to himself than to his oblivious friend.
After turning away from Stephen, and ignoring the teacher and the rest of the world, Terran moved his attention to the window. He watched the graying clouds roll over the blue sky, and the wind blowing the tree branches back and forth. The swaying put him under a trace as his thoughts clouded his own mind as if it were the sky. That dream. What was that dream about? he thought unconsciously. "Spiders," came out with an exhaled breath.
A sudden streak of lightning followed by a humongous crash of thunder through the air and sky grasped Terran straight out from this thoughts. It was so sudden that it almost made him scream out. It felt like someone grabbed him by the throat, and slammed him against a concrete wall. He closed his eyes, and rubbed a spot over his left eye. He hissed in pain. "Damn," he mumbled, shaking his head.
Opening his eyes again after his heart slowed, and the pain eased, he looked back out the window. Lightning and thunder were never good signs, especially for those who had to walk home from school. He grimaced when he saw droplets of rain falling from the sky lightly, turning almost into a down pour seconds later. "Great, just great," he sighed in annoyance, throwing one hand into the air. It was only second period. "Just what I needed today." More agony added on to his already troubled though full day.
The next few classes before the lunch break went just as slow as the first, but perhaps more painfully agonizing than the first. Mostly for Stephen, though. Terran went on with his back still to him, ignoring him from the mornings events. The solemn look never wavering once. There was no sign of Terran letting out what was wrong. But instead of bugging him, Stephen let him be. He thought it best anyway. There was never any point in ever trying to get Terran to do anything. He had his mind set to do what he wanted. He had a strong will for a teenager, especially for being so withdrawn most of the time.
With the beginning of each class, Terran would take the back seat, not looking at anyone as he did so. In fact, it was the last thing on his mind. He paid no attention to any of the lessons, either. He gave it all to the rainy day outside, or the doodled on paper from his economics class. He still hoped, though, that the rain would let up, but it never did once.
"I should've known this was not going to be a good day for me," he grumbled to himself as he sketched a figure climbing up the margin of the paper. It had a very noticeable spider like quality to it, but to him it was just another drawing. Then again, he was drawing out his own thoughts. "Spider... spider... spider like, spider grace, spideresque." Those words flew around and around his mind, followed by images of a spider like figure, and something green following it. "Green... why was it green," he asked no one in particular - not as if anyone would even have the answer to his question if he did ask someone. "Green. It was green, and laughing... Evil..."
Suddenly, he ripped himself out from his thoughts, mentally slapping himself. "Evil, green thing laughing at you. You're kidding yourself, Terran," he laughed stupidly to himself. "You've let your imagination get the best of you." He turned away from the window to the front of the class. "Maybe Stephen was right." He shook his head again in retrospect of the way he acted before then. "Spiders, and evil green people... What a joke." He smiled to himself, taking one last look out the window at the rain, and then turned his attention to the teacher at last.
Just as he turned away, a gigantic streak of lightning struck through the sky, lighting everything around it, and illuminating the silhouette of a strange figure floating on a building. One that disappeared as quickly as the lightning had struck. Strangely, an odd, long stream of smoke, wafted in the air where the figure had been, and where it had gone deeper into the city.
At the end of the day, Terran found Stephen at his locker, a grim expression on his face. He knew it was his fault. Then again, letting such a stupid dream get to him was even worse. So he decided to walk over and say something. Something to break the tension he created. Normally, he would let things like this go when he was mad, but he had an odd sense not to do that this time. He leaned on the locker door next to Stephen's open one, and said, "Hey." Nothing too dramatic.
Stephen didn't turn his head. He didn't actually have to because he knew Terran was coming over. Instead, he smiled, and said sarcastically, "Took you long enough." He looked up to see a pathetic attempt at a smile on his friend's face, and shook his head, putting a hand on Terran's shoulder. "How many times do I have to tell you that there's no point in getting mad at people? It's just a waste of time."
"Not enough," Terran smiled softly back.
After shutting the door to his locker, and throwing his book bag over his shoulder, he shoved his hands in his pockets, and the two started walking. "You know what, Ter, you think too much," Stephen started nonchalantly. "It shows too much on your face." He gave him a slightly serious look, trying to tell him he knew something was wrong. "You make it too obvious."
"Whatever," answered Terran in his normally monotonic voice.
Stephen hit himself in the forehead. "Geez, is that the only way you know how to answer someone?... No, wait, don't even bother answering that one." He waved his hand in front of his face as if he was moving the question out of the way. "I already know what your answer will be."
Terran didn't even bother replying in any way. He was too use to the conversations like these with his only friend. It was something that started the first day they met, and continued to that very day. Now he just got an inward laugh about it. If it was up to Stephen, he would just go on and on about how he never gave anyone a real answer, because every time his answer would be, "Whatever."
This time, however, not only did he not reply, but even Stephen didn't. Which was rather strange. Instead, his usual happy expression turned even more serious than before. His mouth went flat line, and his eyes were directed straight ahead. He made no attempt to make eye contact.
Terran looked away uneasily. He still remembers this morning, he thought. The grip on his book ba strap tightened in anticipation of the forth coming question. He hated such long, uncomfortable silences. Suddenly, his head instantly bolted up to look at Stephen when he started talking.
A slight smile was back, not a very sturdy one, but one was there. "I shouldn't let it worry me, Ter. I'm sure what ever's bugging you, you'll get over it soon enough." A very peculiar laugh came out of his mouth that almost made Terran jump back.
Instead, he nonchalantly replied with, "Yeah, sure," still looking away. Why was he being so uneasy about it? He's been this way before, and has gotten over whatever the problem was. Why was this time any different? Unlike the other times, his dream were never involved. And as much bull shit he thought that were, something still told him, in the back of his mind, that just maybe they weren't all bs. There was a truth somewhere in them. Whatever it was, was tearing his thoughts to pieces. "I hope so," he added quietly to himself.
As they walked out of the school, ready to take their usual course home, Stephen stopped, a look of pain on his face. "Crap, I forgot I had to stay after today." He ignored Terran's reply of a raised eyebrow, and told him what happened. "Ms. Greenwald wants to talk to me because of my grades. Even I think they're fine, she has a problem with them." He looked at his watch. "Sorry, Ter. Listen, I'll call you later. See ya, man." He gave Terran an understanding pat on the shoulder as if he knew what was wrong, gave him a look that meant the same thing, and then went running back into the school. Leaving Terran by himself, watching him go.
He sighed, and shrugged his shoulder's. "Yeah, later." With another short look at Stephen, he turned back around, grimaced at the rain, and walked out, throwing the hood of his shirt over his head.
As Terran walked down the street, he kept his head down, and watched the pavement below pass under his feet. He ignored the wet sensation the went down his back, and the people who he bumped into. Of course, bumping into people was a current event on all streets of New York City. Then again, it was late afternoon, and raining, so most people were trying their best to stay inside. Terran was one of the unfortunates who had to walk, though. But he didn't care. It was something he did often during the football season when Stephen had to stay after. However, he had a strange feeling that this time it wasn't going to be as normal a walk as he was used to, but he ignored it. He blamed his dream for screwing with his head.
Every now and then he would find a fairly large puddle in his way, but instead of walking around it -- like everyone else did -- he walked through it. No sense in walking into people, and making an even bigger mess. Besides, it was only water.
He turned a corner onto a side street where he knew not many people would be, and knew it to be a quicker way to get to his house. He kicked a rock ahead of him, and listened to it splash in a few puddles. He expected to head nothing but the rain when it stopped, but what he heard almost made him stop and look back. It was footsteps. Someone was following him. They seemed to be going a little too fast to belong to just any random person who turned the corner. Besides that, there was no one else around him.
"Fuck," cursed as he continued walking. Stopping or quickening his pace would alert his follower, and he didn't want to do that... right away. The best thing to do - that he could think of -- was to stay at normal pace, but listening to the footsteps behind at the same time. They were fast, but not alarmingly so. He tightened his grip on the strap of his book bag in case he had to start running or to even hit whoever was after him.
He turned his head just enough to see a dark figure at least thirty yards away, and another just walking around the corner. He felt danger radiating off of both people. "How predictable. One can never beat a person senseless by them self without help." He snickered to himself at a thought back to all the comic books he had ever read. That's also when he quickened his pace just a little more. His followers did the same.
He spotted a street ahead to his left, and quickly cut across the the street his was on, and went down that one. He knew he wasn't going to lose them but he knew he would catch them off guard, which was exactly what happened. He heard the first say something and walk even faster, the second one finally catching up to him.
Their gonna split, Terran thought to himself. With a quick turn of his head he saw he was right, but what he didn't predict was that they also started running after him. That caught him by surprise instantly, and he jumped into action, and started running himself. "This just adds on to my already shitty day," he said between breaths as he sped down that street with his two chasers right behind him.
He heard a trash can fall over, and someone curse out after several minutes of running. That bought him some time. At least one thing stayed on his side: the rain. Then again, he was surprised he hadn't slipped, yet. He thought too soon, though. He didn't see the small depression in the pavement, and his foot got stuck, sending him flying into the ground face first. His arms shot out instinctively in front of him and he caught himself just before his face made a permanent mark in the side walk.
Their footsteps were getting closer now.
"Shit," he blurted out, forcing himself up, tearing his pants, and scrapping the palms of both hands. That's when he heard it, the laughter from his dream. That mad laughter. His eyes went wide, but he shook his head forcefully to get the thoughts out of his mind. "Th... this is im... impossible," he stuttered.
"Try again, my little spider," a sickeningly, insane voice called out to him.
"What?" He stopped, and looked all around him only to see an abandoned street and rain, but then his chasers came back into view. "Fuck, not now." For that second, he put the voice behind him and continued running. That cost him too many precious moments. It sent his thoughts in a flurry of what he should do next. He lost all sense of calmness and concentration that was leading him to think straight, so he didn't really know what to think. It was all empty street ahead of him, and that's the only thing his brain was comprehending.
The footsteps behind were getting closer and closer with each passing second, along with shouts from the two men following him. But there seemed to be an extra voice in the mix, but the couldn't have been possible. There was only two of them!
"That voice couldn't have been the same. No way," Terran argued to himself. "It was all a dream, just a dream." He turned his head again to see how far back the two were. He found he made a mistake in doing so because they were way too close for comfort. And as far as he knew, the street he was on didn't connect to any of the main streets in the city. There were just side alleyways here and there, most ending in a dead end, and he was sure he wasn't going to be lucky enough to choose one that would bring him to another street that would bring him back to civilization. "Why me?" It was time for a guessing game now. Maybe fate wouldn't be so cruel this time around in his life.
One more look told him that any little thing that stalled him would kill any chance of freedom. He mentally slapped himself for walking down that street. "Too late now, Ter," he reminded himself.
With noticing three alleyways ahead, it was his time to pick which to go down. Something in the back of his mind told him to go down the center one. And since he already past the first, and had only a several feet to go, with a quick turn on his heels he went down the second alleyway. For a split second he thought he was home free. With a second glance he saw a dead end. "Shit." He slammed a fist against the brick wall, and turned around to see the two men at the only exit. He mumbled to himself, "Remind me never to listen to that little voice in the back of my head."
He heard the two laugh. "You gave us a good chase back there, kid. But it ends here. The boss will be happy," the first told him.
Jump.
His body went numb.
Then the second one spoke. "Yeah, and we won't hafta worry about lookin' for ya anymore."
Jump!
Terran's eyes went from side to side, and he thought to himself, I must be going nuts. First the dreams, then the laughing, and now getting chased and cornered. He wondered is he should have even bothered getting out of bed that morning.
The first gave a look to the second. "Let's get him while he's stuck, Joe. Gobie's gonna be mad if we don't hurry while we got him."
The second chuckled in reply, and cracked his fingers. "Fine by me, Ralph." They both laughed and then started walking towards him.
Terran slid his bag down his arm ready to attack when they got close enough. He decided he wasn't going down without a fight. It was the least he could do anyway. He knew he wasn't going to die, but for some reason he knew he wasn't going to see the light of day if he didn't even try to fight back.
Jump!
The voice again. He started to look worried then. His back against the wall, his only way out blocked, and the only thing that seemed to come to his mind was to jump? What was he going to do? One thing he knew, he wasn't going to listen to that subconscious thought.
"Aw, look at the poor Kid. He looks like he's gonna pee in his pants," Ralph joked.
Joe laughed harder after that, making Terran's temper fly up several notches. His hands curled into fists.
Ralph spoke again. "I think the boss is goin' soft on us. Givin' us stuff like this to do." He looked at his buddy. "Lets end this now."
The second's reply was a nod, and said, "How much do you think we'll get for him?"
"Good question, maybe a lot since Gobie's really interested in him. Always was with the other one."
With no hesitation after that last thought, they jumped in to a run towards the teen.
On cue, that voice came back louder than ever. JUMP!
Terran grimaced, but then bent down, only to jump back up seconds later. And did he jump, too. Not only did he surprise himself, but his attackers, too. "What the...? How did I?" For a split second he felt as if he was floating, that was, until he started to fall back down to the ground. But it wasn't the ground he landed on, but the two men's shoulders. By the time he landed, all fear -- or most of it -- was gone. The surprise on their faces was enough of a rush for him.
The two stared up at him with wide eyes. "What the hell?!" Ralph whimpered.
All thoughts were running through Terran's head now. However, the one main one was... Why does this feel so natural?
Suddenly, without him even realizing it, the two were out of their dazes, and grabbed him by the ankles. "Gotcha now, kid," Joe said with a smile on his face. A smile full of malice.
Ralph just smirked as he pulled something out of his jacket picket.
Shit, these guys were more serious than I thought, Terran thought to himself. Jumping was not an option this time around. For regular looking thieves, they were pretty strong, especially the one named Joe. Of course, that meant that Ralph was the weaker one - maybe. A second's planning went through his head. The first had him held by one hand, the second by two, os that meant he had a better chance knocking his right leg free from the first's grip. He smiled, did he have a chance?
Just as Ralph pulled out a gun from his jacket, he stopped when he felt a tapping on the top of his head. "What...?" He looked up to meet Terran's fist, knocking him off his feet, and letting go of the teen's right leg.
"Chance!" Terran yelled out, bringing his free leg up, and kneeing the other in the head. He was so surprised at how smooth and natural the movements were. It was almost as if a second nature had taken over. Was this really happening? With both men down, and both legs free, he ran, but not toward the opening to the alleyway. No, he ran to the wall. The images from his dream were racing through his mind, taking over his every thought. Next thing he knew he was half way up the side of the brick building looking down at the two dumbfound thugs. Of course, that's when he finally got back into a conscious state of mind, and actually realized he was crawling up the wall. "Whoa..."
Just then, he instinctively jumped to a pipe next to him, holding on by one hand and his legs. As he jumped, he heard a gun go off, and saw the bullet hit where he had just been a moment before. That's when the one major thought and image from his dreams smacked him on the forehead. "Spider..." Without any hesitation, or look down, he crawled up the rest of the way, falling to his knees when he made it to the buildings roof. He looked down at his hands, asking, "What is happening to me?" He closed his eyes, sighing deeply. Then the answer came to him. It was in front of him the entire time. "Mom and dad..." He forced himself up to his feet. "They've kept too much from me." With a look around every side of the building making sure the thugs were gone, he jumped back down to the ground, and walked home.
Peter and Mary Jane sat at the kitchen table looking at each other with worried looks. It was never like their son to not be home so later after school. Even when he was with Stephen. "Maybe he stayed after, and forgot to call," Peter suggested. Or said to try to give some hope to Mary Jane.
"Then why do I have a bad feeling something horrible happened?" Mary Jane scowled.
Peter squeezed her hand, giving her a smile. "Because you..." His voice trailed off when the front door's lock was undone. The two instantly jumped to their feet, and ran to the door.
It opened before they got there, and they both stopped in mid-step. Terran stood before them soaking wet in ripped jeans, and a face that was all scratched up.
Mary Jane took a step forward. "Terran? Terran, what's wrong, baby?"
Peter gave his son an odd look.
He scowled at the two, and then said, "I want you to tell me everything."
"What?" they asked in unison.
Terran said nothing else, but brought his arm up, bent his ring and middle fingers down to his wrist, and then knocked his wrist back. A string of webbing shot out from the white splotch on his wrist, hitting a cup on the table, and smashing it into the wall.
Mary Jane's eyes went wide as she covered her mouth with both hands. While Peter's face turned serious, and he just stared at his son. The moment he hoped would never happen, finally was.
This chapter was written and typed to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers soundtrack, and 3 Doors Down Away From the Sun cd.