A/N: Um hi.
I don't really have an explanation for this several month disappearance other than I just got lazy but, for about two weeks, I've realised how much I missed writing this story. Like, I've still been writing, but I've missed Hidden in Plain Sight and everything related to it. This story has put me through hell at periods but I still love it.
So I'm back. With a chapter. It's long so I hope that makes up for the fact that I haven't updated since like february. A lotta whacky shit happens, I think I might've been high when writing sections of this but the plot is sort of starting at this point, I guess. Either way, it was fun to write so enjoy….. If you want to….
Ely998: I didn't mean for that scene to be so gay but I guess that's just how it is now (and I'm not entirely against it lol).
SnuffleTruff: Lmao it's probably not difficult to mix them up, they are both from Spiderman/OC stories.
avengersobsessed22: I'm glad you like it!
Happy guest: Not gonna lie, this review was kind of what inspired me to crack open the google document again so thanks for the lovely review!
"I am leaving
This is starting to feel like
It's right before my eyes
And I can taste it
It's my sweet beginning"
Chapter Three:
Friday, 5th September
Brooklyn, New York
Just after Midnight
Somehow, the walk back from Aaron's to Visions was longer. Every step felt like it took a minute, his palms felt clammy and his forehead was drenched in sweat. He hadn't left the apartment that long ago, but he had been fine then. It was only a few minutes ago did this sudden wave of nausea had hit him in the middle of crossing a street, and then a taxi had promptly smacked into him. He had been a little dazed by it, and then the brightly coloured lights and billboards of Brooklyn at night had dazed him even more, and he had thrown up in an alleyway with a homeless man watching him.
Maybe it hadn't been just a spider bite.
How far away was the academy? He felt like he had been walking for hours (it had been five minutes) and he wasn't even sure if he was going the right way. New York was upside down. Well, it wasn't, it just felt that way as he stumbled through the streets, looking like a drunk kid, the kind that got cops to give him a second glance. He really hoped his dad wasn't working a patrol tonight.
He got a couple strange looks from those who passed by, one lady even stopped to ask if he were okay. At one point, he was fairly certain a group of grown men were laughing at him as he tripped over his own feet, but they looked just as messy as he did (probably drunk or high or something) and he was too out of it to really feel self conscious. Finally, after what felt like ages, he reached the academy.
VISIONS ACADEMY, the sign was noisy (could signs be noisy?).
No, wait this was the front entrance, he needed to go through the side entrance. God, he was such a dumbass. He really wanted to go to sleep.
Maybe he could pass out on the front steps here and let the janitor find him in the morning. No, Miles, that was a bad idea. Go to the side entrance, Miles, before someone catches you. Sighing, he rubbed his eyes and trudged back around the school to the canteen door.
Without paying much attention, he pushed it open and strolled right in. the school was dark and quiet, it was strange seeing it so empty, though his mind was occupied. Don't throw up in the cafeteria, Miles, you eat in here everyday. So, he did his best to keep the bile down at least until he got to his room and walked through the cafeteria.
He walked into a door, "ow," he hissed, telling off himself for being so stupid. And now he needed to throw up again. Good job, Miles.
Someone was coming. His senses seemed to warn him before either his eyes or ears did. A few seconds after his brain had told him to hide, the mumbling voice of the janitor could be heard and the sound of the main door to the cafeteria rang through the room. He saw the flicker of a flashlight as the janitor grew closer and panicked.
As the janitor rounded the corner, the light of the torch hit Miles but didn't. In a way, it seemed to go straight through him.
The janitor was staring directly at Miles and he stared straight back at him, waiting to be berated or yelled at or dragged to the principals. Neither of those three things happened.
"Must've been the cats," the janitor grumbled to himself, "damn things keep sneaking into the kitchen." And he turned around and walked away.
Miles let out a sigh of relief and, though he was very confused, decided not to think about it too much as he stumbled back into his dorm room, too tired to even put together what happened.
Without waking up Ganke, who was passed out at his desk, Miles pushed himself onto the top bunk of the bed and fell asleep straight away, his dreams filled with strange visions of spiders and darkness.
The day after the pregnancy test, Adara was sitting in a cafe, with a few already empty mugs of black coffee in front of her, half way through the next one. She had got back from work early, her boss had kindly let her go, telling her to come back when her mind was in the right place. Right now, she was scrolling through her phone, tapping her fingers on the table as she kept glancing at the cafe door anxiously.
She wasn't sure if she had anyone else to talk to about this. She hadn't told Peter, she had wanted to but she just couldn't. In her mind, she used the excuse that he was too tired last night when he came back from being Spiderman late at night. She also told herself that she couldn't tell him this morning because they were hurrying to get to work. But she could've told him and, frankly, she should've told him. Yet, there was something inside of her that just wouldn't let him tell her.
So, who could she tell? Ned? No, no way. She loved that boy and he was her friend, but he was better friends with Peter and probably wouldn't know what to do with a pregnant Adara. MJ? While a good and trustworthy friend, not one to talk about this kind of thing. Harry? Now, that was someone she was certain she could talk to, but he was a busy man. Preparing for his own wedding to Jason in a few months. She would tell him once she had everything figured out. Steve? Another person she could tell, but not yet. In her head, she felt like Steve would be angry and yell at her. But he wouldn't, he was a reasonable man and was fully aware that Peter and Adara had had sex (they lived together and were married, for God's sake).
So who could she ask?
The bell above the cafe door rang and Adara glanced up, relieved when she saw Natasha walk in. As per usual, she had her rather flimsy disguise of a baseball cap over her red hair and a large hoodie. At one point, Natasha had died her hair blonde for a few years but, now, it was back to normal. Adara often found herself wondering how the woman maintained such good hair despite her age but, then she realised that Natasha probably dyed it often enough so no one could see the grey hairs poking through.
"This is odd," said Natasha, sitting down, "you usually just invite me round to your apartment if you wanna talk."
It was true, but it wasn't like anyone in this cafe was recognising Natasha.
"I just needed to talk to you," she said before pausing.
"You don't want Peter to hear, let me guess," said Natasha.
"Yeah," she sighed, rubbing her forehead, "Nat, what do you think of Peter?"
The redhead looked thoughtful, "good kid, maybe a bit too obsessed with being Spiderman but he's doing good things. Why? Are you having doubts about marrying him? You are still young Adara."
Adara and Peter had married young, nothing fancy or over the top but they were so convinced that they were in love, that they had wanted to tie the knot as soon as possible. Maybe it was too fast, maybe it wasn't necessary but neither really cared.
Adara shrugged, "I don't know, Nat. It's just…" she trailed off, unsure of whether Nat would understand or not. She loved the woman with her life but, and she knew this, she wasn't particularly comfortable with subjects like babies or pregnancy. Sure, that was years ago now and Natasha wasn't likely to be interested in kids anyway but when you took that away from a woman, it wasn't so simple.
"Spit it out, Adara," she said, "I can see you're dying to tell me."
"Natasha," she used her full name, "I took a test last night and it came back positive." There was a pause as Natasha stared. "I'm pregnant."
"Shit."
"Exactly."
Natasha remained silent for a few seconds longer, Adara anxious for what she was going to say.
"Shit."
"I know, Nat," she gritted her teeth, "I don't know what to do."
"Fuck, Adara," she said, "do you know how long?"
"I was only late by a couple weeks and it was just a gut feeling," she said, "but I don't know how long. I think I have to go to the doctors to check but I don't know, Nat, I just…"
Natasha stared at the teenager… though she wasn't a teen anymore. Adara was twenty-two, independant, married and pregnant. She was a woman but, right now, she looked as lost as that thirteen-year-old they found in an alleyway all those years ago.
"Do you want to tell Steve?" The redhead asked.
Adara nodded.
"We can sort this out," she said, "whatever you want to do, we'll be with you." Adara just stared at the table. "Hey, listen to me. Steve and I aren't gonna let you go through this alone"
Adara sighed, though she had never been more grateful for having Natasha and Steve in her life, "and what about Peter?"
"You should tell him."
"I know."
She didn't.
"Adara!" Someone snapped at her and she was zapped back to reality.
It had been fifteen years since Adara had visited this cafe and that had been to tell Natasha that she was pregnant. But, today, she was here with her old, high-school friend, Michelle Jones. Part of the elite group who knew about Adara, as in really knew. Now, she worked for the Daily Bugle. Not for J Jonah Jameson though, he had retired a few years back and now had his own radio show which was decent entertainment if you had nothing else to do but listen to an old man rant about superheroes.
Michelle had been working a story up in DC over the summer but was back in New York as the Bugle wanted their best journalists covering the alleged rivalry between Oscorp and Roxxon. Of course, Adara hadn't known this when MJ had invited her out to the cafe and now she was being interviewed with questions she didn't know the answers to.
"Are you listening?" Asked MJ.
"I zoned out," said Adara, "what were you saying?"
"I was wondering if you knew what the Prowler was trying to steal the other night."
"Why would I know?"
"You know Harry," she pointed out.
"He didn't seem to know either," said Adara, "can't you ask him yourself?"
"Me and Harry haven't bonded over this career."
"To be fair," said Adara, "he did ask you not to spread that story about his dad being a backstabber."
"I'm a journalist, Adara," she said, "it's my job to snoop."
"Damn right," muttered Adara.
"So Harry said he didn't know anything?" Said Michelle and Adara shook her head in confirmation, "well, have you spoken to you-know-who recently?"
"Can we not bring him up?" Adara put her head in her hands.
"You've been avoiding the topic for fifteen years."
"No shit."
"Have you still not told him?"
"Of course not, MJ," she rolled her eyes, "imagine your Peter, right? And it's been fifteen years since we last spoke and I just up and tell him 'hey, I know it's been a decade and a half but I ditched you because I was pregnant and now I have a kid whose fifteen-years-old whose yours, by the way.'"
"I would be pissed."
"Yeah."
"But he's still Emmy's father."
"I've been fine raising Emmy on my own."
"You could be doing a better job," MJ said bluntly, sipping her coffee, "you named her Emmanuelle for a start. How obnoxious," she snorted.
"It's a french name."
"It's a shit name."
"Whatever, MJ," she sighed, "I've been trying to raise Emmy to be as normal as possible."
"No offense, Adara," the other woman put her coffee mug down, "but Peter knows more about living a normal life than you do. Or, at least a normal childhood. Emmy's babysitter is freaking Bucky Barnes, for God's sake. Not to mention her Grandad is batshit insane and locked in prison."
"It's not like I could cut the Avengers out of my life."
"You were fine doing that with Peter."
Adara slammed her head on the table, "see? This is why I hate hanging out with you." She raised her head, "you don't know what it was like. Having Peter stumble through the door with a stab wound, a scratch or worse when he came home. Or not even coming home so you'd have to lie there wondering whether your husband was actually alive. I could hardly handle his recklessness myself, how could Emmy?"
"You're reckless."
"I was," she corrected, "and then I got knocked up."
Michelle paused, "was it because of the incident?"
"Okay, MJ," said Adara, standing up, "it was nice seeing you and all, good luck with your Roxxon investigation but please bounce before I punch you in the face."
She smiled, a rare sight from MJ, "see you, Adara." She grabbed her bag and got out her chair, "tell Emmy I said hi."
The next place MJ went to on her Roxxon investigation was Peter Parker's apartment.
She knocked on the door but got no answer. She frowned and crouched down, fishing underneath the welcome mat. And, of course, fished out the spare key.
"For a genius, Parker, you can be remarkably stupid," she muttered to herself as she fitted the key into the slot.
Peter's apartment was small, which wasn't terrible considering he was basically never here. He had a kitchen, living room and bedroom all in one, small space butcher thankfully, his bathroom was separate. Peter didn't make much money, mainly because his boss didn't make much either. Tony Stark, of course, had offered Peter a much better job with a much better pay but he had stubbornly refused it, saying he was doing good work with Doctor Otto Octavius.
Michelle wandered over to Peter's desk, which where he mainly kept all of his Spiderman devices and upgrades. Peter was certainly a home-grown hero, as he did most of these things by himself. It just be a fairly lonely life. Michelle noticed a picture frame in the corner of the desk and picked it up. A small photo of a twenty-something year old Peter taking a selfie with a beaming Adara standing right next to him. Jeez, talk about sentimental.
Not much here.
Michelle was desperate to get any information she could find on whatever the Prowler was trying to steal. At this point, everyone was pretty certain that Roxxon had hired the super-villain to do their dirty work but what and why? Michelle wasn't sure. She loved her job, journalism and generally snooping was right up her alley. Yeah, maybe she was a little over the top and it did tend to get on her friends nerves. But, MJ wanted nothing more than to get this story out and the next one and the next one. Sometimes, being a nuisance was just a downside of the job.
Sadly, it didn't look like Peter had any information in his apartment. She frowned and wondered if she could be looking elsewhere. She glanced out the small window and caught a glimpse of skyscrapers in the distance, across the river. She could see the tall, intimidating tower of Oscorp, now one of the largest buildings to dominate the skyline. Not too far away was the Roxxon building, a few stories smaller but still under construction.
She heard mutterings coming from outside the apartment and the distinct sound of someone putting a key into a lock.
"I don't know if there was anything missing, I- MJ!" It was Peter.
"Hey, MJ," said Harry, sounding much less annoyed than his friend.
"What are you doing in my apartment?" Asked Peter, walking over to her and closing the desk drawer that she'd been rummaging through, "how did you get in?"
"You leave your spare key underneath the doormat," she said, "not exactly a top secret hiding place."
"Doesn't give you an excuse to walk right in."
"I'm working," she said.
"You're breaking an entry."
"Doesn't count if you know the person."
"That won't hold up in court," joked Harry
"What were you even looking for?" Asked Peter with his arms folded.
"Well, I'm looking into the Prowler break-in," she said and smirked when neither Harry or Peter said anything, "either of you two interested in helping a girl out?"
"I know about as much as you do," said Peter, "whatever rivalry is going on between your dad and Roxxon is not my business."
"Surely it must be your business," cut in Michelle, "the Prowler is, like, your greatest enemy."
"I agree," nodded Harry.
"You're only agreeing so I'll do another favour for you and your dad," said Peter, "besides the Prowler isn't my greatest enemy. In fact, I would say that I don't really have a greatest enemy at the moment. But, if you put a gun to my head and made me chose, I would probably say myself."
"Really?" Harry seemed disappointed, "not Vulture? the Scorpion?"
"What do you mean 'favour?'" Asked Michelle.
"Harry asked me to keep an eye on Oscorp tower the other night, that's when I saw the Prowler."
"So you were anticipating a break in?"
"My dad was."
"Did he tell you why?"
"Since when does my dad tell me anything?"
Both Peter and Michelle decided that this was a fair point.
Harry continued, "Listen, MJ, you're probably find it easier to stay out of this because I know what you're like. You're more reckless than Spiderman over here but, unlike Oscorp, Roxxon would probably kill you if they caught you breaking in."
"They just won't catch me then," she shrugged as if it were so simple, already making her way out of the door, "anyway, three's a crowd and you two were no help anyway. I'll see you around."
Michelle Jones knew that Roxxon wanted to steal something from Oscorp, and she also knew that Norman Osborne wasn't keen on letting anyone else find out what that something was. And if no one was gonna tell her, she'd just have to figure it out herself.
On Friday morning when Emmy heard her alarm go off, a wave of relief washed over her. One more day and she could go home. Thank God, the first week back was really exhausting and she would very much like to use a shower that wasn't cold. Rolling out of bed (Alice had the top bunk), she quickly shoved everything into her suitcase and glanced up.
"Alice," she said, "get up."
The blonde girl groaned and sat up, "is it already seven?"
"Unfortunately."
The two got changed and ready and, in the back of Emmy's mind, she swore something important was happening. Was it a school event? Probably not, or Alice would've mentioned something. Was it to do with the Avengers? No, the world wasn't due to end today, though she knew that her and her mom would drive up to see them this weekend. What could it be then…?
Oh, shit.
She found Miles in second period history. He was sitting at the back of the classroom, where he usually sat on his own as he was the new kid. His head was on the desk, Emmy would've thought he was sleeping if it weren't for his fingers drumming on the table. But he was still alive, which meant the janitor and the nightguard hadn't found him and he wasn't in any trouble (probably).
Instead of sitting in her usual seat, she moved to sit at the back beside Miles.
"Hey," she said.
He looked up.
"Oh, God," she said, "you look like shit."
"Thanks, Emmy," he said, before frowning, "I feel like shit."
"What happened? Did you sneak out?"
"Yeah and I went to my uncles," he said, "it was alright, I ate decent food for once." The food is pretty crap here."
"Okay but why do you look like you died?"
"I dunno," he shrugged, "food poisoning, or something."
She gave him a look that said 'sure.'
Later that day, once Emmy had up most of her things in her suitcase, she said bye to Alice and began to head out of school.
However, she was stopped by Miles, who was looking a bit better than he had earlier.
"Hey, Emmy."
"Hey, Miles. What's up?"
"Listen," he said, "I just had a question."
"Yeah?" She looked at him expectantly.
"Well," he began, rubbing the back of his neck, "I was just wondering if you wanted to do something this weekend?"
Emmy blinked, she had not expected that.
Now, it was time to look into this deeper. Was this a date? It was difficult to say, Emmy often hung out with friends that happened to be guys and she knew that they definitely weren't dating. Miles was a friend, she could say that, and he happened to be a guy. However, this felt different. Emmy was no prude, she was fifteen and had dated guys before. Only a couple and it hadn't meant anything, both times it hadn't even lasted a month. Did Emmy like Miles in that way? Also hard to say. He was cute, funny and really likeable. Sure, he was unpopular but people only didn't like him because he had come to this school thanks to a lottery draw. But he was as smart as the rest of them and , in fact, far less stuck up. Some people just had a bias against public school kids.
Okay, she was still standing here. Emmy hadn't said anything yet, this was getting awkward. Think, Emmy, think!
"Sure," she said casually, like she hadn't had an inward debate with herself for several minutes. "Like what?"
"Well, my-" Miles cut himself off. He was going to say 'my uncle' before realising that didn't exactly come off as cool. "Well, I found this place, like an abandoned subway station-"
Now Emmy cut him off.
"Say no more," she said, "I'm in."
Now, Emmy didn't think she took that much after her mom in terms of personality but, if she did take one thing, it was the unstoppable urge to do something stupid on a constant basis. Explore an abandoned subway station? Hell yeah, right up her alley.
"Great," Miles grinned before clearing his throat, "I uh- cool. I'll text you the details then."
"Yeah," she said, walking down the steps that led up to the school, "I'll see you then."
"Yeah," he said, watching her go, "I'll see you then."
"Mom," said Emmy, loudly as she opened the door into their apartment, "I'm back."
Silence. Actually, not complete silence, Emmy could hear the sound of the tv from the room next door, but she couldn't hear her mom moving around the house or anyone, for that matter.
"Mom?" Emmy repeated, a little louder as she dropped her bag on the floor and made her way to the kitchen.
She should be home by now, she got off work early on Friday so, unless the usual routine has changed, Emmy's mind was running the worst possible scenarios through her head. Call it paranoia, call it a side-effect of being a daughter of someone like Adara, but it was just habit for her to be so cautious. Hence why she walked over to the kitchen drawer and grabbed one of the various, sharp knives her mom left lying around the house.
"Mom?!" She called out for the final time.
Bang! There was the sound of someone approaching her. She quickly swivelled around to stab them but, whoever it was, managed to grab her wrist and stop the attack. But, Emmy had an almost unnatural strength, so easily wriggled out of it and knocked the attacker to the ground. They were quick though, dodging out of the way as quick as a flash before Emmy could land another blow and darting round the back of her, wrenching the knife from her grip and skilfully shoving her against the counter with a knife to her throat.
"You lasted five seconds longer than last time."
"Natasha!" Emmy finally realised, moving the knife away from her throat, "you're back!"
"Nat, what did I say about breaking into my apartment," said Adara, appearing in the kitchen with wet hair, "and harassing my child with a knife."
"It's training."
"For what? The next time you break in and attack her again?"
Despite their snark, the two older women hugged,obviously pleased to see each other. Natasha had been on a mission in some southern European country for a couple weeks. But now she was back with a tan and several, interesting stories that she was supposed to keep top-secret but was going to inevitably share over the Domino's pizza they were ordering tonight.
"I thought you weren't getting back until Saturday," said Adara.
"Finished the job up a day early," Natasha shrugged as she walked over to the fridge and opened it up, "your milk's gone off, you have no food and this," she took out a salt shaker, "doesn't go in the fridge."
"I'll order pizza once I've dried my hair," Adara said, "how was school, Em?"
"It was okay," she shrugged, "there's a new kid who I'm probably gonna hang out with tomorrow. Oh, and I got a hundred percent in my math quiz."
"Are we even related?" Scoffed Adara.
"New kid?" Naturally, Natasha was suspicious, "how well do you know them?"
"He's literally the most harmless boy around, Nat, I wouldn't worry-"
"He?" Even Adara raised at eyebrow at this.
"What? I can be friends with guys," said Emmy, glaring at the both of them, "I mean, your best friend is Harry."
"Yes, but Harry's married to a man," Adara said, "he's not exactly trying to get into my pants."
"Miles isn't like that," she said, "plus, you can't decide the boys I go out with anyway. Even if it was a date."
"I wouldn't let her decide," Natasha said, through a mouthful of cornflakes she had found in one of the cupboards, "she has an awful taste in men." Adara glared at the redhead, who noticed but kept on going anyway. "One time, in High School, she agreed to go out with this boy who came up to about there on me," Natasha gestured to her shoulder, "and then she ended up getting kidnapped by Hydra. That was a whole fiasco."
"It was traumatising," Adara argued.
"The date or the kidnapping."
"Both," she said before sighing, "God, Flash Thompson. I wonder what happened to him."
"His name was Flash?" Emmy gave her a judgemental look.
"No, his real name was Eugene."
"Somehow that's worse."
Luckily, that conversation went on for long enough for the fact that Emmy was hanging out with a boy the next day to be forgotten, if only momentarily. Her mom had a habit of teasing her for every boy she interacted with. Not surprising, that's just what people did though it could get annoying.
Besides, the mention of men had Emmy wondering about her own father, not something she did overly often. It was a sensitive subject. Emmy vividly remembered bringing it up when she was much younger and insistently questioning it only to have her mom snap at her. That wouldn't have dissuaded her under most circumstances if she hadn't overheard Harry comforting her crying mother in the kitchen when Emmy was supposed to be in bed. Emmy hated seeing her mother upset, she hated seeing anyone upset but her mom seemed to have gone through so much and was almost desperate to give Emmy a normal life so, when Emmy upset her or got her worked up, it made the girl feel guilty. Hence why the topic of her father remained quiet. Besides, Emmy had a family that was too big for her own good.
The night stretched on and Emmy, filled with pizza, must've drifted off on the sofa at some point. But she woke up, still half asleep and overheard a conversation between Natasha and her mom.
"This Roxxon business is all anyone's talking about," said Adara, "I'm half tempted to walk over to Oscorp tower and figure it out myself so people will stop asking me questions about it."
"Unless Roxxon is trying to blow up New York, it's none of my business," said Natasha, "it's just a rivalry between two companies, journalists are only gonna be talking about it for a week before Spiderman does the next, inevitable, big, public skit."
"Maybe he could start by actually catching the Prowler," Adara said rather tersely.
Natasha laughed, "I don't think it's that easy."
"That's what he wants you to think."
"There's no need to be so bitter, Adara," said Natasha, "you know it wasn't his fault."
"I know it wasn't," Adara sighed, "but you know…" There was a pause, "whatever, do you want a drink?"
"Rosé, if you have it," said Natasha.
Emmy contemplated the conversation, but not for long as she drifted back into sleep.
The Next Morning
Saturday, 6th September
"I'll just be out for a couple hours or so, it's no big deal, dad," said Miles, who already had his bag slung over his shoulder.
"Fine," he said, "but if I catch you doing anything, you won't get away with it as easily as last time."
Miles grinned, "you won't catch me doing anything. Trust me," he was already heading out the door, "I'll see you later, yeah?"
Jefferson watched his son go and sighed, leaning back on the kitchen chair. His wife, Rio, placed her hands on either of his shoulders, rubbing them as the two watched the door slam behind Miles.
"You shouldn't be so strict with him," she said, "he's only having fun."
"I know," he said, rubbing his temples, "it's just- you know, I'm only firm with him because I'm scared he looks up to Aaron too much."
"You should have more faith in your brother too," Rio said, "he's not teaching Miles the wrong thing, he loves that kid. You two just…" she sighed, looking for the right words, "went down different paths."
Jefferson tutted, "you could say that."
"Just relax," said Rio, "or, you could help me with the washing."
He groaned at that.
Meanwhile, Miles was scrolling through his texts from Emmy.
Emmy: Yeah, I'll meet you by the curb.
Emmy: I'll be a minute, this subway station better be impressive or you owe me.
Miles: What do I owe you?
Emmy: A Wendy's.
He grinned as he leant against the lamppost on the designated curb where they were supposed to meeting. He had been nervous before leaving today, he had been worried his dad might check out his backpack and see all the paint cans he had stored away. Thankfully, he had worked a late shift last night and was probably too tired this morning to bother. Hence, why Miles had got away with it so easily.
Miles had lost that funny feeling from the other night. Sure, his head was still pounding and everything was still loud, but he had almost grown used to it. He had taken some ibuprofen (do Americans have ibuprofen?) and had hoped that would get rid of it. It hadn't, but at least he'd tried. He still had no explanation as to how that security guard had missed him last night, but he was certainly thanking every God out there that he hadn't got caught sneaking out. He could only imagine how furious his dad would've been if the school had phoned home… Grounded for a week? A month? More like forever.
"Hey!" Yelled Emmy, suddenly appearing behind him.
He jumped, but tried to play it off, "oh, uh- hey."
"Come on then," she said, rather excitedly, "let's go see this abandoned subway station."
Miles tried to remember where his uncle had said it was, and began guiding her.
"So you're into this kind of thing?" He asked as they walked, "like, with the breaking into places?"
"Sure, it's fun," she said.
"What if you got caught?"
She shrugged, "my mom wouldn't get too mad at me. She'd be more angry that I got caught. What about your parents?"
"Oh, my dad would kill me," said Miles, "you know, cuz he's an officer and all."
"Oh yeah," Emmy nodded. She was obviously remembering the embarrassing, first day incident where his dad had loudly blared out his siren in front of the entire academy. God, he was never going to live that down. "So how'd you find this place?"
Either, he could come up with a cool way he found it, or he could tell the truth.
"Honestly, my uncle told me about it," he said.
"When you visited him after sneaking out the other night?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I was showing him this piece I was working on, right." He began and Emmy nodded, she had seen some of his art and sketches in class, he was really good. "And he told me a place to- uh- put it up where my dad wouldn't find it."
"Woah, that's pretty cool," she said, "like street art and all?"
"Uh-huh," he couldn't help but smirk a little, "it's kind of a hobby. My dad hates it though."
The two reached the entrance to a subway station. Not overly busy but not quiet either. Good, that worked in their favour. They went down the stairs but, before they reached the barriers, the diverted to a door with the words 'employee's only' written on it.
He fiddled with the knob, "damn, my uncle said it was never locked. Do you have a hair pin?"
"Don't bother," she said, walking up to the door and twisting the knob.
There was the sound of a lock breaking and the door swung open to reveal a dark room. She grinned, gesturing inside, "ladies first, but gentlemen just before."
He looked at her, perplexed, "how did you do that?"
"Wasn't difficult, the lock was worn down anyway" she said, "you just gotta apply enough force to it."
Miles decided to believe this for now, he had seen weirder things.
The room was dark, he had a feeling it wasn't used often. It must've been an old control room of sorts (they had that in subways, right?) as there were large windows overlooking a dark, abandoned railway track. He opened a door (not locked, this time) and the two of them stepped out onto track.
"Are you sure this is, like, safe?" She asked, "like, aren't subway tracks live or something?"
"Not these ones," he said before frowning, "probably."
That was good enough for Emmy, who stepped down with little caution and fiddled with her phone to turn on the torch. She shone it directly in Miles who squinted and rolled her eyes at her grinning expression.
The two walked along the train tracks, both of them attempting to balance on top of the metal but failing pretty badly. It was dark, with only the light of Emmy's torch to guide them along, it made shadows look longer and the darkness look even darker. Every once and awhile, the ground would shake as a train along another track rumbled along through at top speed. It wasn't really scary but if he was a movie director, thought Miles, he would set his latest horror movie here.
The tunnel opened up into a bigger, more spacious area where there was already a single carriage of a subway sitting on the tracks. Miles clambered up onto the platform and offered a hand to Emmy, who didn't really need it but took it anyway. It was rather dingy and desolate, covered in litter and graffiti tags. Not one part of it was impressive or remarkable, it was just a shitty, disused, subway station.
So, naturally, Emmy said, "woah, this is cool."
Miles looked back at her, "it's so…"
"Quiet?"
"Empty," he said, "I mean, it's just like everyone just suddenly had to leave and just left everything here." He gestured to an old, rusted bike on the floor, "I mean, that's still there. And an entire train carriage."
"Why would they just leave this behind," Emmy wondered aloud, walking over to it, wedging open the doors, that were already partly open.
As he left her to investigate the carriage, Miles turned to a blank spot on the wall and opened his sketchbook to the image he had shown Uncle Aaron the other day. She grabbed the black spray paint and measured up the wall, before just going for it.
Within the carriage, Emmy was looking around. She found an advertisement stuck to the wall and took a closer look at it. It was some flyer for a production at a theatre in Queens. Emmy didn't think it looked up her alley, as the cast seemed to be wearing bright, ridiculous costumes and were plastered with over-the-top makeup. She checked the back of the flyer and saw the dates, it was a good decade ago now. Wow, they had really left a station unused for so long.
She was enjoying this, the sense of adventure and discovery, it was right up her alley.
"Not too shabby for a first date," she said, running her fingers across the subway map, and drawing them back, coated in dust.
She glanced out the window to see Miles concentrating on his spray painting. Was this a date, though? Neither of them had called it that but teenage boys weren't the most romantic bunch, and tended to just say they were 'hanging out.' Then again, if a boy wanted to get into your pants, it was usually a movie trip or a night out followed by a 'hey, wanna head back to my place?' This wasn't any of those things. Emmy liked hanging out with Miles. Call it moving fast but they were teenagers, Alice had gotten with her boyfriend after like a day of knowing each other.
It wasn't love at first sight and Emmy didn't even know if she was crushing on him, but he was certainly cute and definitely knew how to show a girl a good time.
She, out of habit, checked her phone to make sure for any texts. Nothing, she had no service under here.
Then, she caught something in the corner of her eyes. She walked over to the other side of the carriage, the half not facing the platform and glanced out. There was a small door left open. She couldn't see what was through it, it was too dark. But she was certainly curious. She decided to investigate it once Miles had finished doing what he was doing.
It took him an hour, but neither of them minded. He was almost too absorbed into his work as Emmy blasted music from her own phone and continued looking around the empty station. When he was done, he took a step back.
Emmy walked over to him, coughing, "God, you smell like paint fumes."
"I'm done," he said.
She glanced up at the large painting and her green eyes widened, "woah, Miles, that's amazing. Banksy is quaking in his boots right now."
Even Miles couldn't deny feeling a little proud, "yeah, it is kinda cool."
She jabbed him in the ribs, causing him to make a not-exactly-tough 'oof' sound.
"Stop being so modest," she said, "you're a real artist."
He looked at her, "you think so?"
She looked back at him, he only just realised how green her eyes were. Not even a splash of blue or brown, just green, almost impossibly so.
"Of course, I think so," she said sincerely.
There was a bang sound, both of them jumped and instantly tried to find the source.
"What the hell was that?" Emmy glanced back at Miles.
Or, at least where Miles had been standing.
"Miles? Where the hell did you go?" She asked, spinning in a circle.
"I'm right here," he said.
She glanced back at him, suddenly seeing him again, "oh, yeah. Sorry, must've been a trick of the light or something."
No, it couldn't have been, Emmy thought, she had had seen the wall behind him and everything, and he was very clearly not there. Maybe she was going insane. No, she had been raised to think through things logically, maybe it had been the light playing tricks on her. It was, after all, very dark in here and a phone light only got you so far.
"It came from behind the train carriage," he said.
"I saw a door over there earlier," she said, looking at him expectantly.
"So we go towards the scary banging noise?"
"Well, what else are we supposed to do?"
The two hopped off the platform and onto the tracks, edging around the carriage and using Emmy's light to guide them towards where she had seen the door. Though, even as she shone the torch down the corridor, they could see nothing but darkness. The manly thing to do would to take the lead but Emmy seemed keen to stay in front, and Miles didn't really want to argue with that.
The corridor seemed to go on forever and Miles couldn't see if they were heading towards the end from behind Adara. In fact, he was convinced they would never stop walking until she suddenly stopped dead-still in her tracks.
"What is it?" He asked.
"Look," she muttered.
He glanced over her shoulder to see that there was… something up ahead. It looked like possibly a room, with white walls and a ceiling. The two teenagers glanced at each other and walked the last stretch of the corridor to reach it.
Thankfully, Adara put out a hand to stop him from going any further.
Suddenly, they were standing on the edge of a large pit with a dark bottom and several, construction and scaffolding structures surrounding it. There was no need for Adara's torch, as lights built into the vast, dome-shaped room brightened everything up.
"What on Earth?" Miles blinked, "this place might not be as disused as we thought."
Miles felt a little confused. Obviously, his uncle had come to this place before, how did he miss this massive area with a massive pit in the middle? It hadn't exactly been difficult to find, the door had been wide open and readily available for the two teenagers to walk in.
"Up there," said Emmy, pointing the wall.
He looked up and saw the words printed in bold letters.
'ROXXON'
"This must be like some experiment facility of some kind," said Emmy, "an underground lab. See, there's a control room just over there," she pointed to just underneath the Roxxon logo, "but what could they be testing?"
"Obviously they don't want anyone else to know about it," he said, "otherwise they wouldn't have it tucked away here." He suddenly grinned, "man, this is exactly like those super, crazy action movies."
"There's something moving down there," she said, pointing to the pit, "look."
It took a moment for his eyes to adjust but the girl was right, in the darkness he could just about make the shape of someone or something scuttling about. Almost like a crab except not a crab. Whatever it was, it was too large to be human, that was for sure.
Emmy shuffled herself slightly, attempting to get a close look when her foot hit a pebble. It dropped straight from their ledge and down, down, down into the pit. There was a light 'pling' sound that echoed through the empty facility.
The shape, whatever it was, stopped moving.
The two teenagers glanced at each other and then back down into the pit.
And then the thing started to move around the pit and then…
Climb up the wall?
It emerged from the shadows and both teenagers, whether they had a phobia of it or not, almost shit themselves.
"Fuck, fuck!" Yelled Miles, falling backwards and scrambling to his feet.
It was a giant fucking spider.
It was the same size of the train carriage from before except it had a big, blue spider with long, spindly legs and eight, red eyes, all focused on the two of them. Neither of them really had the time to measure the ridiculousness of this situation, or to find some rational explanation of what was going on. This might as well have been a H.P Lovecraft novel as right now, they were being chased down by a massive, evil spider whose only intention seemed to be to eat them.
"Run!" Was the only word Miles seemed to comprehend and he wasn't about to disagree as Emmy suddenly grabbed his hand and they were running down the corridor.
He could HEAR the scuttling of eight legs behind them as they sprinted for their lives, but he didn't dare turn around for fear of seeing how close it was behind them.
They emerged from the corridor and back into the platform. As EMmy suddenly dragged him to the side, he caught a glimpse of the giant creature still pursuing them and it was in that moment when something overcame him.
He let go of Emmy's hand and turned around and reached out his own hand.
Emmy turned around, realising she had lost grip of Miles and time slowed down for just a second as she witnessed the scene unfolding.
He had stopped in his tracks with the spider running right at him maliciously and put out his hand. Then, his body almost seemed to light up with a blue light and, as the spider came into contact with his palm, it was flung backwards with a zap, and it's body crashed into the train carriage before falling onto the tracks.
The world went quiet and Miles almost seemed to do a double back, as if he couldn't believe what had just happened.
Emmy was also in shock.
"What just happened?" He said.
"You tell me," she shot back.
The two of them approached the spider. It was on its back, its legs bent inwards and, no doubt about it, dead.
"I think I'm gonna need about twenty-four hours to figure this out," said Emmy, "we can go back to my place, I have leftover pizza."
"I guess the papers were right about one thing," Miles said, looking from the spider and at her, "Roxxon was definitely up to something dodgy."
A/N: Damn, a lot happened in this chapter. I mean, I started writing this chapter in February, and now it's April Fool's Day and also one o'clock in the morning. I SWEAR I will have an explanation to the giant fucking spider, but it was fun to write and I feel like it really bought these two, plucky, teenage protagonists together.
Either way, thanks for reading if any of you are still here. I've missed this. The next chapter could be up next week or next year at this point. Who knows my fucking schedule at this point.