I am Hated
The boy sat in front of him. Octavius didn't move an inch, nor cared that a very young teenager was sitting there in front of him. But Otto just sat there, like a living statue. What is there to do? The tentacles didn't move either, though they begged for Otto to get rid of this boy. Otto strongly agrees, he doesn't want this boy to go and tell someone about him. That he was alive...
But this boy keeps coming here, the sewers, everyday after school hours. He comes here and he would stare. Over the days, he would bring food and leave them in a cooler so it wouldn't stink like the sewers. Otto didn't eat while the boy was there, but he ate a little, because of the naggings of his tentacles.
And everyday, the boy would sit in front of him with a face full of curiosity, not speaking a word to him or vice versa.
The boy looked to be 13 or 14, and gothic. He wears black everyday, with chains and safety pins in his black jacket. And the boy would wear silver goggles over his head for no apparent reason but for style, like a goggle boy. He wore big army boots and his hair is so black, it looks blue sometimes. What's even more unusual about this boy, his eyes are cold gray...
"Why are you here?" Otto asked one day. His voice made a funny noise; that's the effect of not talking for a long time.
The boy didn't hesitate. He grew accustomed to Otto. Funny, being silent is enough for someone to trust another.
"No. The question is why are you here?" the boy said back.
Otto raised a brow. The boy smile.
"I know a lot about you." He says.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Ever since I...found you. I searched the Internet. I print out whatever page I find about you. Then I'd write an essay about you. I once showed one to my science teacher, he was impressed."
Otto nodded. There was something about this boy he couldn't figure out. "What is your name?"
The boy smile. "Mike."
"Well, Mike, I'm really thankful that you brung food and drinks over here."
"Really? I noticed the food keep missing. I wonder why I never see you eat."
"I...wasn't hungry." That wasn't true. He felt he was always hungry-- this way of life in hiding had messed up his diet.
"Nuh-uh. You're lying aren't you? I never saw you eat a full dinner. I doubt a bag of chips is enough to fill a grown man up." The boy saw through him.
This boy is mentally making Otto angry. He doesn't know why, thus that was the fact, but it just makes him angry that this boy is not doing anything about him here of what he was supposed to do, like telling his parents or calling the cops.
Instead, Mike stays here in the sewers and stare at him, occasionally drawing or doing homework. And he leaves food here. Mike should've at least let him starve. Now this is making Otto confused.
"Why do you care? Shouldn't you look up to Spiderman instead of me, a villain?"
Mike just grinned and sat back on his chair he was sitting on. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then reopened his eyes.
They were cold as ice. The eyes were gray metallic and gothic. It sent a chill down Otto's spine.
The boy looked through his backpack and took out a CD player, and switched through tracks without looking at them. He'd memorized when or where a song is.
But the boy didn't give Otto the CD player, he placed it over his neck and turned it up. He didn't want Otto's ears to burst because of the screaming his song will produce, so he turned it up and began to sing it to Otto instead.
"There's a song I listen to. A metal band I like." Mike sighed and closed his eyes. Sounds of angry music turns on.
"The whole world is my enemy - and I'm a walking target," Mike sang. "Two times the devil with all the significance, dragged and raped for the love of a mob, I can't stay - because I can't be stopped..."
"Eat motherfucker alive who cross us, I know you're all tired of the same ol' bosses, let me tell you how it's gonna be, I'm gonna kill anyone who steps up in front of me!"
Otto listened on, despite that the boy sang out inappropriate language and words. Something about the song he was singing home, and Mike continues to sing. He didn't sing well, but he didn't sing badly either.
"Welcome to the same ol' fucking scam, same ol' shit in a dead fad! Everybody wants to be so hard, are you real or a second rate sports card? They all lost their dad or their wife just died, they never got to go outside - SHUT UP!!" The boy didn't need to scream, Otto heard the CD perfectly.
"Nobody gives a fuck, it doesn't change the fact that you suck..."
Then, the song's chorus started playing.
" (We are) The anti-cancer! (We are) The only answer! Stripped down, we want you dead, but what's inside of me, you'll never know!"
"(We are) Bipolar gods
(We are) You know what we are
My life was always shit,
And I don't think I need this anymore!"
"Now I'm not pretty and I'm not cool, but I'm fat and I'm ugly and proud - so fuck you! Standing out is the new pretension, streamline the (sic)ness, half-assed aggression, you gotta see it to believe it, we all got conned!"
"All them mediocre sacred cows we spawn, put your trust in the mission we will not repent - this is our religion."
"(We are) The anti-cancer
(We are) The only answer
Stripped down, we want you dead
But what's inside of me, you'll never know
(We are) Bipolar gods
(We are) You know what we are
My life was always shit
And I don't think I need this anymore!"
The song turned to instrumental, and Mike stopped singing for a while...
"I AM HATED!!!" Mike screamed when the song reached to 'hated'. It was loud enough for a deaf person to hear. "YOU ARE HATED!! WE ARE HATED!!"
"Everything sucks and I can prove it
Everybody dies, shuffle on, remove it
Individuals, indispensable
I'm the paradox deity vessel ...the other side holds no secret
But this side is done, I don't need it
Before you go, you should know you're breaking down
You'll be rotten by the time you're underground..."
"(We are) The anti-cancer
(We are) The only answer
Stripped down, we want you dead
But what's inside of me, you'll never know,
(We are) Bipolar gods
(We are) You know what we are
My life was always shit
And I don't think I need this anymore!"
"(We Are) The source of conscience
(We Are) Distorted sentient
There's only one thing left
And I can't leave until it's sated
(We Are) The absolute
(We Are) Controlling you
They're closing in, I can't escape..."
"I AM HATED!!!" Then Mike turned off his CD player.
Perhaps if he were in a different situation, Otto would've clapped. Mike sang exactly like the singer in song, as if he and the music became one. It shared similarities with Otto real closely, especially to the fact that he is...hated.
He'll forever will be hated. There was not a single soul out there who doesn't fear and hate him except Spiderman (or Peter Parker), but even though Ock turned back to Otto once more, he was sure Peter Parker would still hate him for doing all those crimes in the past, including kidnapping Mary-Jane.
"Who sang that?" Otto asked.
"Slipknot. The song's called 'I am hated.'"
"So...I figured."
But why? What this song has to do with anything? What's this song has to do with why this boy looks up to him?
"In case you're wondering," Mike said, standing up from his chair and grabbing his backpack. He didn't say anything after that, he just walked towards the ladder that leads to the outside.
"What?" Otto asked.
"...I am hated too. We're not too different. No one likes me at school, and my mom was as sure as hell doesn't like me." But that was it. Something inside Otto made his stomach churn, and it wasn't the lack of food. He felt something wrong will happen. But what? The boy just left there. Will he come back?
No. He never came back.
He didn't come back the next day or the day after next or the next week or even the next month. When Otto ran out of food, he was forced to go to the outside world, to gather food for himself.
Then, one day, something happened when Otto was at a nearby small store. He planned a heist, to steal food. But a newspaper caught his attention. The front page of the Daily Bugle...
BOY COMMIT SUICIDE DUE TO ABUSE
Micheal "Mike" Martin, age 14, shot himself to death in the school men's bathroom on the last day of school. Investigators find autopsy of physical abuse on the child and reported to the boy's home, but find that his parents are missing.
There it was. Mike's face was on that newspage. Otto choked out, he couldn't breathe. He bit his fist to hold back a sob, but he lost it, and leaned on the newspaper machine (one of those where you put a quarter in).
"God!" He sobbed quietly. The boy gave up. Otto wished he was with him along the way, he could've done something for little Mike.
So he attended the funeral, even though there was barely anyone there. People who did come asked why he was there, Otto explained that he was just a 'friend'.
But Mike's science teacher knew that this strange man is Otto, but smiled and understood.
Mike's grave was not too far from Rosie's...he was right in front of hers. Underneath Rosie's gravestone were the birth dates and the death dates, plus words 'She was loved'. And there was another gravestone beside Rosie's...it was Otto's. Underneath his birth and 'death' dates, they put in 'He was hated.' Otto looked in Mike's gravestone.
It said 'He was lonely'.