"Can you pass me the screwdriver?"
"Uh? Uh, su-sure, Uncle Spidey."
Doctor Fritz Fredericks always kept his lab a little too dark. This wasn't exactly ideal for his nephew, Billy Deep, to find things easily - he was used to spending time outside, in the bright sunlight, with the beams of light reflecting off ripples in the water. Still, he wasn't about to turn down helping his uncle just because he'd rather be looking for seashells or sunken treasure. He rummaged around through the clutter of the lab until he found a set of screwdrivers. "...Flat or Phillips?"
Doctor Fredericks blinked in surprise, then began to laugh at himself. "So scatterbrained..." He muttered, then waved a hand. "Phillips. Tut mir leid!"
Billy snatched up a Phillips-head screwdriver and came back to his uncle's side, holding it out for him to take.
Doctor Fredericks grabbed it. "Danke schön!" He brightly chirped before going back to his latest creation, sticking his tongue out as he tirelessly worked.
Billy sighed. He wished his uncle would remember, for once in his life, that he didn't speak German. He made a mental note to ask for lessons. Maybe his cousin Selma would be willing to teach him. He shifted his weight, watching his uncle work for a long moment, before he asked, "Uncle Spidey?"
"Mmm-yes?"
"Have the police called you yet?"
Doctor Fredericks froze up. A laugh left his throat. He straightened up, looking over at Billy, adjusting the goggles that he kept on his forehead. A smile was plastered on to his face. "Ah? N-no, no, nein. Surely they would call you, yes?"
Billy crossed his arms, shrugging. "I don't know. I don't know who they'd call. I just..." He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I was just hoping."
Doctor Fredericks's smile wavered. He clutched the screwdriver in his hand even harder. Then he exhaled. "I'm sure they'll find them, Billy -"
"Will they?" He didn't mean for it to come out so tired and so bitter. Doctor Fredericks wrinkled his face a bit, shifting away. Billy ran a hand down his face, trying and failing to find a way to calm himself down. "Why would they just disappear without a...And after their wedding anniversary..."
He didn't see his uncle blanch.
"We - well, ah..." Doctor Fredericks uttered a few scattered meaningless syllables before he shoved the screwdriver into his coat pocket and clapped his hands. "You've seen some of the - the strange and mysterious things that happen in this town, have you not? The ghost pirates - the mermaid!" Billy's eyes flickered with rememberance, and Doctor Fredericks continued, "If your parents have really disappeared without a trace, and nobody in Baltimore can find a logical explanation, well then, perhaps the explanation is a bit more...Illogical! Can you even imagine?"
Billy softly smiled. His eyes gained a certain quality to them: something foglike, dreamy. Doctor Fredericks beamed - but then the look faded from Billy's eyes, and he sighed. "I...I don't want to imagine stuff like that."
Doctor Fredericks's smile faded. He tried to plaster one on again, but he couldn't. His eyes darted around the lab cautiously. Then, as his hands began to nervously pick at his fingernails, he said, "I'm glad you're safe, William."
Billy looked at his uncle with a start. "You never call me..." He began, but his voice tapered off as he looked at his uncle. Doctor Fritz Fredericks was usually the textbook definition of a mad scientist - all giddy joy and sheer scientific wonderment - but right now, in the dim lighting of the lab, picking at his fingernails and glancing around...He looked very small. Gangly. Fragile.
Like a spider.
Maybe that's why everyone liked to call him Spidey.
Without warning, Billy lunged forward, wrapping his uncle in a hug. Doctor Fredericks flinched, letting out a curse word in German - but he froze up. He felt a wet spot grow on his shirt. Was Billy crying? Doctor Fredericks couldn't remember a time he'd ever seen Billy cry. Slowly, Doctor Fredericks relaxed. Then he hugged Billy back - tightly, like he was holding on to him for dear life, nails digging into Billy's shirt. "I'm glad you're safe," He repeated, quieter this time, as Billy cried into his chest. "Ich werde nicht zulassen, dass es dir weh tut. It's alright. It's alright..."
The two of them just stood for a while, grabbing on to each other. Billy cried softly - the softest, smallest emotion Doctor Fredericks ever seen the bright and imaginative and brave William Deep Junior have. In the background, machinery whirred and chirped, fans buzzed, a snake let out a hiss. Something in the back of the lab flashed, and Doctor Fredericks suddenly tensed up, straightening, pulling out of Billy's grasp. Billy fumbled around a bit, lost without his uncle to hold on to, and he wiped at his nose and eyes with the back of his wrist. "S-sorry," Billy mumbled, "...I'm glad th-that I could, uh. Stay with you, Uncle Spidey." Doctor Fredericks relaxed a bit, letting out a breath. He looked over at Billy with a small smile, and Billy smiled back. "I really am."
"And I am thrilled you decided to stay in HorrorTown with me!" Doctor Fredericks said with a grin, looking as though nothing bad had happened whatsoever. Billy let out a soft laugh, and Doctor Fredericks turned back towards his work. "Ah - why don't you go outside, mmm? See if, er - Robby Schwartz is free, or one of your other friends."
Billy tilted his head. "I...I thought you needed help in the lab?"
Doctor Fredericks waved him off. "Ah, it's nothing I cannot do myself. Besides -" He shrugged, letting out a sharp laugh. "Any good scientist would know that you cannot keep the Undersea Mutant stranded on land!"
That made Billy laugh a bit, a few final tears coming from his eyes. He took a second to straighten himself out before turning towards the exit of the lab. "B-bye, Uncle Spidey. And thanks," He said.
"Auf Wiedersehen!" Doctor Fredericks called, waving as Billy left the laboratory.
He heard the door close.
He counted to ten.
Then he turned away from his projects and rushed deeper into his lab.
He pushed past microscopes and chemical formulas and piles upon piles of notes until he came to a dusty back corner. The corner was cluttered with old paint cans, torn rags, fading newspapers, and rusty tools. A wooden worktable was pushed against one wall. The table had a metal vise attached to it, and quickly, Doctor Fredericks turned the handle on the vise.
As he did, a section of the wall above the worktable shifted.
He turned a little faster.
A small door in the wall opened, revealing a hidden shelf.
He let go of the vise and jumped on to the worktable, reaching on to the hidden shelf and yanking something out: an odd-looking polaroid camera. He looked it over in a panic, keeping his fingers as far away from the trigger button as he could. It looked...Normal. Well, as normal as that camera could ever look. "That flash must have been...Something else," He muttered, letting out a nervous giggle, putting the camera back on to the shelf. He checked inside the little hidden room for any photographs, but none were in there. He laughed again. Then he sat down on the worktable and began to turn the vise the other way to close the hidden room again.
When the room was closed, he leaned against the wall behind him, exhaling.
He reached into a pocket on his coat and pulled something out.
A polaroid photograph.
It was a little bit faded and underdeveloped, but it showed a party venue and a large cake. But Doctor Fredericks knew that the photograph used to have subjects in it. He'd gone to his sister's wedding anniversary - he'd stood in front of them, so eager to try out his camera, so blissfully unaware about what exactly it did. He had accepted all other accidents that had happened during his tests to be mere happenstance, but then...But there...Taking a picture of his sister and her husband, William Deep Senior, for their wedding anniversary, watching with baited breath as it developed only to see they weren't in the picture at all...
...And then the two of them disappeared...
"Tut mir leid," He muttered. Then, a little louder, "I-I'm sorry. I - I don't know where you are, or...Or what to do..." He brought his legs up on to the worktable, pulling his knees close to his chest. He stared at the photograph, eyes nervously sweeping over every corner, trying to see something he hadn't seen yet. But he couldn't. There wasn't anything new to see. For a moment he wanted to tear the photo in half, to crush it with his hands, to somehow get back at the camera that had stolen away his sister and his brother-in-law and caused him and his nephew so much misery - but he couldn't bring himself to. What if that destroyed them for good?
He lowered his forehead to rest on his knees.
"I - I'll make sure Billy stays safe," He promised nobody. "I'll make sure nobody else gets hurt. I'll make sure. I'll die before anyone takes another picture. I'll make sure. I'll..."
He heard his own voice crack.
No, no. Don't cry. He couldn't cry. Fritz Fredericks didn't cry - after making something like this, he didn't deserve to be able to cry.
He stuffed the photograph back into his pocket. Then he hopped off of the worktable and, desperate to distract himself, went back to his projects.
He was a scientist. Discovering solutions was his bread and butter.
He'd work something out.
Hopefully.