The world hates me.

There really isn't any other way of thinking about it. I took the metro back to my apartment, ready to do my homework, put my costume in its proper suitcase to tuck it away for the rest of my life, and hit the hay. It wasn't a great apartment by any stretch of the imagination. It was located in a dingy alley next to a failing paper filing company and a multi-story parking lot for the opposing paper filing company who supposedly was using underhanded while still legal tactics to put the former out of business. And the only window of the apartment had a great view of the garage but not much else, so sometimes I would grab a bag of chips to watch both the bosses argue about how bad each other's businesses were.

In one of those arguments I learned that they actually went to school together. Even had a love triangle with a girl in their college! After that argument was when things started getting really spicy. It was the best soap opera I could have ever hoped for and the best part was that I didn't even need good reception to watch.

But here I was, standing right outside of the apartment building. Or what was left of it, anyways. In front of me was a few of the wooden foundations which were now charcoal and ashes that littered the concrete below.

One of the firefighters on the scene told me to keep moving. "Go on, kid! This isn't your spectacle to post on the web."

"B-but… I… I live here…" I only barely managed to squeeze out.

The fireman's eyes widened before sighing and placing a hand on my shoulder. "Ah, well, I'm sorry. Looks like it isn't your place anymore."

I still couldn't believe what was happening. I mean, a fire? Really? And my apartment was the only thing that got burned?! I even looked at the filing company that was next to my building and there wasn't a single mark on it!

"How… How- What happened? Why is my stuff gone?"

The man scratched the back of his head, "Yeah, the source of the fire seemed to be a cigarette that got flicked the wrong way. It scorched some trash, never got put out and spread to the old building. The whole place was practically made of wood, so the whole place burned down." He crossed his arms, nodding to me, "The good news is that no one was hurt! Of the four residents only the landlord was home and she made it out as soon as she smelled smoke. Isn't that lucky, huh?"

'Lucky?! LUCKY?! My home was burned down and this is somehow lucky? Maybe to you, dude, but this is worst case scenario for me! This is Parker Luck on overdrive!'

I looked down at my bag, just imagining the mask underneath. Somehow, I knew this was the universe trying to get at me. First, one of my friends almost gets flattened, then my house burns down? That's more than coincidence. This is a vendetta against me because I refused to put the mask back on.

"Isn't it?"

The fireman looked back at me with an eyebrow raised, "What was that, kid?"

"This isn't enough! You think this is pushing me, huh? I'll show you what I'm made of!" I shouted, turning away from the fireman and rushing West.

I moved through alleys so I could use some of my abilities. I vaulted over fences, ran along walls which were impossible for most people to ever achieve no matter how much they practiced. Eventually, I made my way on top of some rooftops, leaping over streets and above the people who had no idea about my antics. I kept running and leaping as I only just started panting as I made it to where I wanted to be.

"Hori River. You're gonna help me prove to the universe that I am serious about this." I could already see a glimpse of the river just beyond an alley, a street and a few buildings and trees on the other side of said street.

I jumped down from where I stood into the alley where I made my way to the sidewalk along the street. I turned right as I kept up my run until I reached an intersection where I could see two stores which were perfect for what I wanted. A sign for a lumber store and another glowing neon sign for a 7-Eleven. I took to the convenience store, grabbing myself a few snacks so I could get the bag and rushing to the lumber store, buying something dense which ended up being decorative rocks with flowers painted on it.

When I had both of my things, I moved to the intersection from before which sat before a bridge going over the river. I moved down a flight of stairs to the right of the bridge itself, setting myself up underneath the bridge and trading the items from the convenience store to my school bag. I placed the Spider-Man costume into the plastic bag along with the rocks. After a few quick knots, I picked myself up with the bag.

I turned to face the Hori River.

"I made a promise, remember? No more Spider-Man. I was going to get my life back!"

I marched forward and looking along the river. I hadn't noticed it in the frenzy I was in, but the sky was no longer clear. It was beginning to rain, and I was luckily under the protection of the bridge for this moment. The one good thing to happen throughout everything that happened today!

'Wait, that isn't true either.' I shook my head, pulling the bag up and holding it over the river. 'Even if it isn't true, Peter Parker does a good deed, and what does he get? My house burns to the ground, everything I once owned is gone! No matter what I do for others I only ever get it thrown back into my face.'

I grimaced, able just barely see the lens of the mask through the cheap plastic. As I was looking into my other face, I could hear footsteps behind me. I turned back to them, seeing it was two businesspeople. A man and a woman who were drenched from the rain and managed to get themselves under the bridge. They were quick to notice me, too.

This just made me grimace even more.

"Hey, kid, what are you doing?" The man shouted out.

I sighed, dropping the bag into the water and letting it sink into the Hori River. I watched as it fell down. The lens quickly faded from my view and the red from the costume was consumed by the grey of the river. It would quickly reach the bottom.

I turned around, trudging back to my bag which was next to the base of our respective side of the bridge. I let myself fall back, hitting the slanted concrete and sliding until my bottom hit the floor.

I didn't turn to face the man, but I responded to his question. "I just threw my old life away."

I could tell he was staring at me, not knowing what exactly to say. In some ways, I was happy he didn't say anything. I didn't want him to. I didn't want to talk to anyone. How would they understand what I was going through? Even I didn't understand how I was feeling.

"Why don't I feel better about what I just did?" I muttered to myself.

I covered my eyes with my arm, feeling the cold breeze of the rainy atmosphere wash over me. The Autumn air was not comforting considering I was wearing my school uniform still. The short-sleeve dress shirt made it easy for my skin to adjust to the weather by raising goosebumps. The body's redundant attempt to space out the fur that was on our evolutionary ancestors to put air within the strands of hair and allow it to warm up between them.

In that moment, I longed to be a monkey. Living a simple life of eating bananas and lounging around all day.

The woman under the bridge broke my mental longing as she spoke up to the man beside her.

"Shinichi just texted, he's leaving the office now. He's offering to give us a lift."

The office man let out a soft, "Awesome!" before it got silent again.

That silence didn't last, unfortunately. The two began whispering to each other just softly enough to where I couldn't make out what they were saying due to the rain hitting water and pavement. But there was another pause before I was addressed.

"Hey, kid. I don't really know what's going on with you and that bag in the river, but the forecast says it's going to be raining all night. One of our friends could probably give you a lift back home."

I couldn't take it anymore. I was trying to hold back, but my anger over the situation was fading and was quickly being traded for a small amount of panic mixed with the stress of the situation. I could feel my face getting warmer from embarrassment and my eyes filling with my worry. I tried shaking my head, pressing my hands against my eyes in desperation but it just made it worse.

I began sobbing in front of strangers. This just added to my frustration and made it even worse as I gritted my teeth and turned away from them. I had no home to go back to, no person to confide in, and no money to rent any place out because of how much I spent on the rocks to throw Spider-Man away.

Even in just trying to get rid of him, I screwed myself over more than I was screwed before.

I didn't know what to do. So, I let everything out until it couldn't anymore. When I had finally stopped, I turned over onto my back again. I shifted my head, looking over to where the businesspeople sat. They weren't looking my way, but I could tell I just made things awkward for them.

"Sorry." I managed to get out through a crack in my voice.

The woman shook her head, turning to face me. "You're fine. You… you must have had a rough day, huh?"

The frog in my throat made it difficult to talk still, but I managed to push through it. "Rough is a way to describe it."

"You go to Asahiyama High, right? I graduated two years ago. I recognized the uniform; that's why I say that." She recalled, a smile on her face. "You said before that you threw away your old life. I won't ask you to tell me about it, but I'm guessing it's related to your rough day."

It took me a second to respond, but in the end I just gave a half-assed shrug. "Maybe, maybe not. It feels like it had something to do with it."

The woman lifted her phone in the air, shaking it to get my attention. "Our co-worker just got here. The offer to give you a ride still stands."

"Thanks, but…" I faltered, turning away from them. "I wouldn't have a destination anyways."

No more words were exchanged. There was some silence before I could hear their footsteps move away from me. They were gone, and I was still sitting with no plan going forward.

I closed my eyes again. Since I didn't have anywhere to go, the best thing for me right now was to wait out the rain and possibly get moving to someplace warmer. Maybe on top of a building next to an AC unit that was pushing out hot air?

'Ugh, my back is going to kill me in the morning.' I groaned in my head.

As the thought fell away, something soft fell over my head and startled me enough to make me jump up! Above me was the woman again, who was still soaked but with a smile on her face and a new, mostly dry, brown hoodie in her hands save for the few droplets of water that managed to soak into it. Over my head was a green blanket that was thin, but still somewhat large otherwise.

She handed me the hoodie as she crouched down. "It wouldn't be good if you caught a cold just because you sat here for too long."

I took hold of the hoodie, slowly pulling it closer to my chest before turning my head back to face the businesswoman.

She continued, "I wish I could help more, but my apartment is cramped with the amount of clutter in it. And the other two weren't willing to help much other than letting me give you these few things." She placed a hand on my shoulder, "Stay warm, dry, and keep fighting. Things will turn out better for you, I'm sure of it."

I looked down, fully pressing the hoodie against my chest before turning back up to the woman. Before I could respond, she stood back up and began marching away. She fled back up the stairs. I was left under the bridge, but at least I wasn't going to be cold if I ended up falling asleep under the bridge. Granted, this help wasn't much, I was still homeless and sleeping on concrete, but at least I wouldn't be hungry and I didn't feel as bad as I would if I began taking shelter in someone else's home.

I slipped on the hoodie, eager to get as much skin out of direct contact with the cold as possible and began looking through my school bag. At the least, I was going to keep up with schoolwork since it was something to do. Especially since I was going to be missing the usual soap opera at the parking garage from here on out. There weren't many assignments given for classes tonight, only some equations to solve and a chapter and a half of a book to read to prepare for the next in-class readings in English.

While I was digging through the bag, however, I did notice that I had forgotten to put the web shooters and the few chemicals I use to make the web fluid in the plastic sack with the costume. But at this point, I didn't even want to deal with those anyways, so I ignored them for then time being and grabbed a pencil and the worksheet for math class.