AN: Okay, sorry about the long wait, but guess what you get a very long chapter. It seems like the further this story goes the longer the chapters get. Well, feel free to take a break when reading it.

Apologies a head of time for bad grammar.

Chapter 11: Don't Be Afraid

Walking down the sidewalk at night was always a risk to normal people. You can be the biggest, toughest, strongest person and still die in the street. These streets anyway, maybe not in a small town, but here? It's an equal chance for everyone.

I heard a loud clanging noise coming from the alley way next to me followed by a terrified scream. I went to investigate down the narrowness of the two walls shrouded in darkness to see a pale, woman on the ground looking up at two men standing over her.

In that moment, looking at her then those thugs and finally at myself, time froze for me. Any normal person in my place could try to help her, but would end up being hurt, even killed in the process. Any normal person that loved their own life would turn around and ignore everything leaving this woman to die. Any normal person, like say a teenage girl would definitely die if she even tried helping. But the thing is, I am not normal.

No matter how hard I try I will never be a normal person. It's written in my DNA. All of these abilities I have should not go to waste because I want to be normal. That would be the most selfish thing a person could do. The most inhumane decision ever. I can stop these men from hurting her. Normal people might not, but I can.

I threw my hoodie above my head and started to approach them, "Hey!" My heart started to race. They turned to look at me, but I stood straight.

"What do you want, princess?" One of them mocked. I saw that the man on the right had a knife.

"Leave her alone!"

"You're gonna wind up dead like her if you don't forget seeing us,". I got closer to them, "Like to see you try!"

One of them charged at me, punching me in the eye, but I kneed him in the stomach, hearing a groan. I gave him my right hook and the other man came at me with his knife. I felt a slice on my left side making me let out a grunt. I shoved him against the wall and grabbed him by the head.

Squeezing the sides of his head I started to bang it against the wall until he slid down. I grabbed his knife and stabbed the other man in the shoulder. He yelled, so to silence him I kicked him into the side of a dumpster.

I stood over him kicking him repeatedly until he stopped making a noise. I held on to side that had a cut. It was bleeding and there was blood on my hoodie. Damn!

I turned to see the woman hiding behind some boxes, "It's okay. I took care of them. I won't hurt you. You're safe."

I held out my hand for her and she grabbed it, getting up, "Thank you. Those men just followed me off the subway and then forced me down here. I'm so glad you were here. I don't know-"

"Don't worry about it. Just be careful going home."

I was about to walk off, but she touched my shoulder, "Are you okay? I saw one of them get you and there's blood!"

I looked down at my wound, "Don't worry about it. I'll live," I continued to go.

When I got home I climbed through my bathroom window. I didn't want to worry Mom with this cut so I got a wash cloth to clean it up. I took off my hoodie and tank top to see how deep the cut was. It wasn't that bad. Holding the wash cloth to it clogged it up and stopped the bleeding. I put a bandage over it, then grabbed a yellow T-shirt I found handing on the door knob.

I opened the door to see my mom standing in the living room. She didn't seem happy, "Your dean, Ms. Danvers called."

"Yeah? Was it about how much of an awesome student I am?" I don't think she noticed how beaten up I looked.

"You have in house suspension?"

"So thats how this conversations gonna go?" I set my backpack down, "Look I didnt get expelled."

"But you were on the verge weren't you?"

"Yes, okay," Admitting that with a sigh.

"You got into a fight, Jessica," my mother's tone raised.

"I always get in a fight. Why is that so surprising? I get into a fight five times a year, minimum. And it's only October-"

"Enough, Jessica!" I guess she got tired of my run around, "Oh and you also are seeing a Dr. Samson?"

"Carol told you that too?" Looks like Carol told her about everything that's been going on at school.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Her eyes seemed to get glossy.

"It wasnt a big deal," I shrugged off.

"Clearly it is, Jessica, you're seeing the school shrink!" She let out a frustrated sign and gently touched her forehead, "Why don't you tell me these things? Is it because of what's been going on? I'm sorry, Jessica, I am, but that doesn't mean you throw your life away! Do you not want to graduate? Do you want to be a high school drop-out?"

"If I was given a choice?" I asked honestly.

"Don't you dare answer that now," my mother threw her hand to her side, "You might not care about your future, but I care," she pointed to herself. I've never seen mom so upset before.

"What's the point? I'm just a freak, remember?"

"No. You're a miricle, Jessica. Everything you are says so," Ever since she told me about the accident she has become so emotional. I don't blame her though, "Is that a black eye?" She finally saw.

"Yeah, Liz wasn't the only person I got in a fight with today so..."

She shook her head, "I'm going to bed. I'm done talking. I'm done being upset. I'm going to bed."

"I'm gonna put a steak on this," I pointed to my black eye. I limped over to the kitchen to pull out a piece of meat from the fridge. I hoped up on the counter and placed it over my eye. This has been one mess of a day. And tomorrow, it happens all over again.

"You will stay here and work on this work until it's time to see Dr. Samson," Ms. Danvers was placing me in a room with just a desk and chair. She set down a folder in front of me, "No food, cellphones, or anything distracting. You will not leave this room with out me or a staff member guidance. Blah blah blah Everything else, use your common sense. Got it?" She looked at me.

I nodded, "Got it. I have to do this for three days?"

"Yep, but you can leave at twelve. School rules," she turned around to shut the door, "Have fun in here," the door shut.

I sat in there doing nothing for about ten minutes, but then opened the folder to start my work. I didn't finish it by the time it was my appointment to see Doc. Carol came and got me and dropped me off at his office.

When I sat in his chair we didn't talk for a moment. He was writing something down. He stopped, looked up me, then opened his mouth, "So, you got in a fight yesterday?"

"She started it, just to clarify."

"Yeah, I know."

"You do?" I asked not believing him. He nodded, "You're the type that won't just start a fight for no reason, unless provoked or hit first. I can see it."

"So you believe my side?"

"I believe you are telling the truth when you say you didn't start it," he took off his glasses to clean them off and put them back on, "So any idea on why she was wanting to fight you?"

I sighed, "She's an evil bitch hiding behind a smile."

"Jessica."

"She thinks I'm stealing away Harry from her because Harry gave me his address for our-" I stopped speaking.

Shit!

I forgot to meet Harry at his house for our project, "For your what?" Doc asked.

"Our project. I was suppose to go to his house and meet him. I forgot though."

"Well, that's not good. What was the project?"

"This dumb model for Biology. He wanted to do it all on his own," I calmly said. Doc just said, "Interesting. Does he not trust you?"

I chuckled, "About as far as he can throw me. Any way. I think he will do it on his own since I didn't show up. He probably won't talk to me ever again.""Does it worry you that he won't?"

I shrugged biting my thumb nail, "I wouldn't be crushed."

"But?"

"But I thought we were making progress on not hating each other," he scribbled down some notes on his pad. He glanced up at me, "Why didn't you show up?"

I thought for a second to come up with a good lie, "I had a doctor's appointment."

"Were you sick?"

Yes, sick that I'm part spider created in a science lab. Yes, sick that my mother lied to me all these years about my real father. Yes, just plain sick of feeling sick of everything.

"No, I thought I broke my hand yesterday from the fight. I didn't."

"Well, I'm glad to know you didn't," he started to look for something, "I was thinking about what you told me yesterday. About your barrier," Oh no. He wants to talk about this, "I'd rather not discuss the car accident," I asked squirming in my chair.

"Well, I wanted to go back talk about that night. It clearly has made an impact on your life," he said.

"But I don't even remember much of it just-," I thought for a second about it. The cold rain hit the glass, then it suddenly shatters making my body sting and a bright flash. I came back to reality, "Yeah, nothing much."

"That won't be a problem, though. How would you feel about hypnosis, Jessica?" He asked pulling out the inkblots again. I looked at them then at you, "What are those doing here?"

"The images you told me about had me concerned. Mainly it was three, the dinner, the dog, and the car in the rain. I believe them to be suppressed memories you have."

I glanced back at the three cards in his hands. Oh no, I didn't want this, but maybe he is on to something. Maybe remembering could help me out. Conners did warn me about remembering Jonathan's death. He said if I ever do, pretend I don't. What could it have been? Maybe now is the only chance to figure it out.

"How would this work? I've never done this before. Are you gonna pull out a gold watch and swing it back and forth?"

"No, nothing like that," he chuckled, "It's more verbal and all you would have to do is just sit there. You would remember everything once this is over with," I stared at him a moment not sure if this was a good idea, "Now you won't be made to anything you are uncomfortable with under hypnosis, if that's what was worrying you."

I nodded, "Okay, let's do this."

"Please, sit in a way that comforts you," I adjusted my seating to where I slouched my body into the chair and both feet were touching the floor. Doc dimmed the lights a little and Sat back in front of me. "Shut your eye, Jessica," I did as he said, "Now picture yourself in a happy place."

"What if I don't have one?" I asked honestly. I never really thought much of my 'happy place'.

"Then image yourself in a place you feel safe or have always wanted to go."

I did always want to go to the mountain my mom talks about. Wundagore Mountain sounds beautiful. The sky being right there with me on the fields and trees. In that giant mansion that made it look like a house in the clouds. The almost fairytale place that I will hear about. I made that my happy place.

"I'm there," I said. Actually imaging the mountain.

"Good," Doc said, but now his voice turned hypnotic, "Just relax now. Relax your feet, relax your legs, relax your body all over, but most of all, relax your mind." I could feel everything go numb. My body was at peace with itself. My mind, finally at rest.

"You can feel yourself relaxing now. You can feel a heavy, relaxed feeling coming over you. And as I continue to talk, that heavy relaxed feeling will get stronger and stronger, until it carries you into a deep, peaceful state of hypnosis," he paused, "Now when was the dinner you saw? What happened?"

I could see everything now, the faces there. I could hear the people talking.

I was running away from someone, but it wasn't in a survival way, it was more playful than panicking. I hid behind a chair and waited for a moment. I stayed there until I felt a tap on my shoulder. I quickly turned around smiling at the boy I saw, "I found you!" Peter said."You peeked," I jokingly said."Did not!"

"Did too!"

A woman with short brown hair entered the room, "Dinner you two! Everyone has been waiting. Come on, Peter. Bring Jessica to meet your other friend."

I looked into the dinning room and saw my dad sitting with two other people and a boy, their son, with blonde hair. I didn't really know them well. The boy was a few years older than me. Peter sat next to him and began talking to him about frogs. I saw Peter's dad at the head of the table while his mom placed a turkey at the table. My dad saw me, "Jessica, come and eat."

I sat across from Peter on the end of the table while the adults sat on the other side. They were talking about a project."You're telling me that cross breeding a spider with a human is possible?" The man said.My dad looked over at me with a small smile, "Yes, Edward, I know it is hard to believe, but it is possible. Just think of the benefits from that. A living human that is faster and stronger than humanity's best athlete. One that could heal up in a day than weeks. This is a remarkable creature.""Don't forget the side effects, Jon. Who's to say they won't have eight limbs or crawl walls?"Edward took a drink out of his glass, "It's amazing how just four years ago you wanted to mutate spiders with radiation, Jonathan, and now you are on board with the whole "Splice of Life". Connors really has rubbed off on you, hasn't he?"

"He's right, Edward. I've seen it done, beautifully at that," he stared hard at the man.

Richard then asked, "How have you seen it?" My father turned to point at me, "Behold gentlemen. That girl right there, is my living proof. She is the key to it all."

I wasn't focused on them. I was just playing with my food when he said that.

"That girl right there, your daughter, is the key to this?" Edward said with his mouth opened. Jonathan nodded, "When my wife was just pregnant with her there was an accident."

"Of course!" Richard said, "I heard talk of it back then, but it was never made into a huge dilemma. It did bug Connors."

"Which is why he has been more associated with me lately. He's been studying Jessica. This is why I came here tonight. To ask you about the Algorithm. Have you figured it out yet?"

Richard shook his head, "No, no. I haven't," he said clearly lying. Jonathan made a slight frown, "We need it to further our research of her. That algorithm could help us where to look for making it possible for other humans to be like her," he turned to Edward, "It could probably help you with your research with you suit."

"My suit isn't with cross breeding."

"But it is protoplasmic. You're going to have to get the content from somewhere and why not from a successfully cross bred human?"

Later that evening we drove home in the rain. The car phone rang and my dad answered it, "Hello. What do you mean broken into? You don't think-?" My dad quickly hung up the phone and started to drive faster, "Are we going home?" I asked.

"We need to stop somewhere, sweety," he seemed afraid. Like he knew something bad was coming his way. It made me worry. We were on a long, empty bridge when he turned to me and smiled, "You know that I love you right?"

"I know, Daddy," I said not thinking too much about it.

"Now matter what happens, you're still my little girl. Okay?"

"Okay."

"I remember when you were born you didn't cry. It made me afraid when you didn't cry. I thought something was wrong, but no. You were just fine. The nurses cleaned you up gave you to me and we just looked at each other. You grabbed my finger and I knew right there, you were meant to do something great-."

Blam! Blam! Blam!

Loud pops from the windshield came, hitting Jonathan. Those pops were bullets, each one in three different areas on his body. One in his stomach, two in his chest. I screamed loudly when his body went limp, turning the wheel. When he turned the wheel it caused the car to spiral out of control and tumble over. It rolled three times, breaking all the glass and cutting me all over. It finally landed with all wheels on the ground.

Blood came out of the holes on Jonathan. We were both drenched in cold, rain water. I was till alive, still breathing trying to get out of my seat. I heard a whisper, "Jessica..."

I turned to see Jonathan also still alive, but barely holding on.

"Daddy..."

"J-Jessi-ca, don't... d-don't be a-af-afraid. Don't b-be af-fraid like m-me," he reached out his hand to touch my cheek. It then collapsed to his side as his head fell forward. My dad stopped breathing.

I felt my eyes water up, "Daddy? Daddy, wake up!" I shook his arm, but he didn't. Thunder crackled through the sky.

Smash!

Long, black arms crashed through the passenger window reaching at me. I screamed loudly trying to struggle away from his grip, but he had grabbed the back of my sweater. He pulled me out into the cold, hard rain. My struggle made it difficult for him to hold me, fortunately it was enough for him to drop me on the wet ground. I got a look at him. He wasn't monstrous, just a man in a black trench coat with black gloves and a black hat that shadowed his face from me. I held out both hands in front of me for defense.

"No!" A bright green flash came from me, shocking the man back. I stood there completely stunned by what happened. I looked at my hands with appall, not believing that blast came from me. I turned to run down the bridge.

I ran until I was tired, then I just walked in the pouring rain. I didn't have a sense of direction here, in fact I was in an absent state that I found myself on some house's lawn. I slipped on some mud landing on my knees and when I looked up there was a snarling dog looking at me.

I yelped, crawling backwards. The dog jumped at me, but his collar yanked him back. His teeth were snapping trying to bite me. The loud growls ring in my ears followed by the vicious barks made me start crying.

"Jessica?" I turned to see a man with glasses and one arm. The look on his face was saddened, "Jessica, it's me. Curt Connors. You can trust me," I stood up and ran over to hug him. He patted my head and we drove away in his car.

There was clapping and I opened my eyes. I was back in Doc's office. He turned on his light and looked to me, "Are you okay?"

I realized right there I had a few tears running down my face, "No, but I will be," I quickly wiped them away.

"Do you want to discuss what you remembered?" He asked. I shook my head slightly, "There's not much there. Just a dinner I went to with my dad the night he died. It wasn't too important."

Doc gave me this face like he knew I was lying. Before he spoke I asked what the time was, "It's 11: 59"

"I have to go. I'll talk to you tomorrow, Doc," I stood up and left the office before he said another word.

I wasn't going home just yet, I wanted to talk to Harry. I didn't want him to think I bailed out on him. He was at the lockers by the gym. He was talking to a group of people, "Harry can I talk to you? It's important."

He looked at his friends and then at me, "You have a minute," he brought me over to where his friends weren't listening, "Starting now."

"About last night, something came up. I'm sorry for not letting you know or anything. I could stop by tonight and we could work on the project."

"I was going to do it all tonight without you," he said.

"No, don't do that. I will stop by. I promise you, okay?" Harry stared at me for a long moment. Finally he nodded his head, "Alright, fine. Come by tonight. Just do one thing for me."

"What?"

"Be there!" He walked off back to his group. I stood there for a moment and looked i to the gym. I saw Peter standing in the middle of the basketball court with Flash holding a ball.

"Shit! I can't stay away one day with out these two going at it," I walked in there about to intervene, but thenI heard Peter say, "Why don't you take it from me?" Flash just looked at him like he was joking, "Go ahead. Take it."

Flash tried to grab the ball but Peter moved it out of the way. He did this a few times until Peter was holding it over his head. Flash tried to reach up there, Peter was much faster though. It surprised me how quick he was he even jumped up to make the ball go completely around Flash's head. He turned around to keep up, but when his back was turned Peter bounced the ball off his back. It got a chuckle out of me while every one was "Oh-ing".

Peter smiled, them swung the ball down wards making Flash flinch back. Peter didn't hit him though. When they both calmed down Peter lightly said, "Just take it."

Flash was hesitant, "Alright, how about this?" Peter covered his eyes then peeked through for a moment like a child. Flash still was hesitant so Peter turned away with one hand out holding the ball out, "How about that?"

Flash went to grab it, but it was like the ball was stuck to Peter's fingers. Even when he used both hands the ball didn't budge. Flash's friend were telling him to stop messing around and to take the ball, but he couldn't.

"Come on, Flash, take it!" Peter whispered. Flash huffed and started to back up while Peter began to dribble the ball.

"Alright, bring it! Come on, Parker!" Flash shouted as he got into a defensive mode. Peter ran up his way and took him down by bumping into him with his shoulder. He jumped off the floor, into the air making time slow down and everyone go quiet. His jump looked far too professional for any kid our age to do.

Peter slammed the ball into the basket, shattering the backboard. Glass fell down all around him along with the orange rim. Everyone including Peter looked astound. I left curious.

I walked toward the main office to see if I could talk to Peter. I just wasn't sure if he was talking to Danvers. If he was he'd get off easy. When I turned a corner I could see him talking to his Uncle Ben. I slowly walked by there, but it looked like they were serious so I turned to read a poster. I tried to make interested face, but then I realized it was for Boys' Basketball. Well this was awkward.

I could feel Uncle Ben looking my way, "She looks familiar," I turned away a little bit.

"It's that one cute girl that came by. She's on your computer. He's got you on his computer," Uncle Ben said louder. I turned to see him and smiled, "Stop by again for dinner. You can see it."

I lifted my hand to wave at him. He patted Peter's shoulder, "Don't forget Aunt May."

Peter let out a laugh to try and make things not so weird, "Okay," he said after Uncle Ben. He completely turned around to see me and started to let out nervous chuckles, "He's a character, my uncle. He's a pathological liar. He thought you were someone else," he tried to cover.

"Darn, so he lied both times he told me I was on your computer?" I tried to joke.

"Both?" I nodded.

"Well, that was that one time I took a photo of you in class. When we were messing around."

"Oh, okay," I nodded.

"He must of seen it. I was testing some editing skills to see if I could master-then debating-."

"Okay all I gathered from that was you master-bating, so..." I made a small laugh while he had on this huge smiling, "No... Um...I'll just stop talking now."

I chuckled a little more before asking, "So are you out of this place? Did you get expelled?"

"No, I got community service."

"You must have gotten Danvers then," we stood there in silence for a long moment until he spoke.

"So you wanna, um, I don't know..." I gave him a confused look, "Wanna what?" I slowly said.

He sighed, "I don't know. Just uh-," he looked at me like a hard question on a test. I stood there waiting for him to finish. I've never actually been asked out by a boy before. Was this what happened? If they like you do they stumbled over themselves or was this just Peter? Probably a little of both.

"Um...Or we could uh -I don't know- we could uh," he said quickly scratching his ear. Peter began to use hand gestures, "Or we could do something else? We could-."

I smiled at him, not sure if I was just asked out, "Yeah, okay."

"Which one?"

"How about both," I suggested at his non spoken choices. I'm sure they sound fun in his head. He looked at me surprised that I wanted to go out with him, "Really?"

"Definitely."

He nodded, "Alright, sounds good," it was another quiet moment until he started to talk again, "Well, I can't right now."

"Oh yeah."

"I'm so busy right now," he took a step back.

"Me too, just swapped with stuff and things to do."

He nodded, "Yeah, just some other time." I scratched the back of my neck and turned to walk away, "Okay, let me know," I stumbled after a step and heard Peter laughing lightly. I was hoping to walk away more smoothly, "See you later then," I said over my shoulder. When I turned back to see him he was grinning at me like some people did when I release my pheromones. Except I didn't this time. This was real.

AN: Okay, hope you liked it! Thoughts are welcomed as always.