CHAPTER TWO: Does Whatever A Spider Can



When we last left our hero...myself...I was dangling from a wall after narrowly avoiding being crushed by a trash compactor. Anyway, here I was, clinging to the side of a building, staring down at the trash truck, and barely able to comprehend what had just happened. I tried to pull my hand away from the wall, but it was stuck to it like fly paper. I screamed as I pulled harder and harder, but still nothing happened. My first reaction was to yell for help. Of course, my yelling didn't result in anything good happening. No actual human beings came to my aid. I mean, let's be realistic, I'm in the heart of West Philly, nobody gives a shit about anybody else here. That's not to say that nobody was alerted by my yelling. There was somebody...well, something...

The Lizard came back...

I looked down at the ground, and there was the Lizard, staring up at me with his glowing red eyes. My jaw was agape with fear, but I also noticed that he had a shocked look on his face as well. Was he shocked that I was still alive, or that I was clinging to a building with my hands and feet. Eventually his expression changed from shock to determination, and he started walking toward me. Even as I was trying to register the notion that I was several feet in the air, I subconsciously thought that I was safe from the creature's wrath as long as I was up there.

And, like most instincts that I have, this was wrong...The Lizard creature crouched for a second and then leapt onto the wall that I was on. I stared down into his fiery red eyes and felt a twinge of fear in my spine. My instincts told me to evade him, to escape by any means necessary. They told me to climb. And, the next thing I knew, I was climbing. I climbed to the roof of the building, but just as my hand reached the threshold, the Lizard grabbed me by the ankle. I turned and kicked him repeatedly in between the eyes with the Timberland boot on my foot, and after I had kicked him five times, the Lizard's grip had loosened. I quickly hoisted myself onto the rooftop and took off running.

Even as I was five feet away from the edge of the roof, my instincts told me to jump. So, after building momentum and reaching the edge, I leapt through the air and landed on the roof of another building. I hit the ground running and then leapt again. Once again, I landed on the next building and kept moving. There was another building, but it was a much farther jump. I leapt without thinking, and then as I was halfway through the air, I began to wonder if I would make it. The fact that a shadow had just loomed over me was not reassuring.

I craned my neck around and saw that the Lizard was also in midair, floating above me. The monster grabbed me by the throat in the air and began to strangle me. Then he tossed me downward. My body was in a freefall, and the ground seemed to be rushing toward me faster and faster. I saw a blur of green streak past me, and then I realized that the Lizard had hit the ground first and was waiting for me to land. I was going to fall right into its clutches, and there was nothing I could do. All I did was reach my hand out in the vain hopes that I would grab something. After that, I felt a sharp pain in my right wrist, as if something had just shot out from inside of it and fired itself out. The next thing I knew, I was swinging...

My body swung in an arc above the Lizard's head, and I found myself moving upward. Eventually, I flew into the side of a building with a shattering impact. I tried to regain my bearings after slamming into the wall, and I climbed to the roof and stared down at the ground. The Lizard was gone, most likely to avoid getting spotted by any passers-by. I still couldn't believe what was happening, and it had all happened so quickly. As if I wasn't freaked out enough by everything that had just happened, imagine my horror when I noticed the sticky white and silver substance dangling from my wrist. I rose my hand and stared at whatever it was that was hanging from my arm.

"What the fuck is this?!" I screamed out loud.

I was trembling, and the thing in my arm was not going away. I shook my arm frantically, trying to shake the sticky stuff loose. Eventually it did fall from my arm, and when I stared at my wrist, I saw a small slit in it. Blood was slowly leaking from it, along with small traces of the white substance. Suddenly my left arm began to itch. I began scratching my wrist, but the itching only got worse. Eventually the itching turned to pain. The pain intensified with each passing moment, until I finally felt the sharp stabbing pain that I had felt in my right wrist. My left arm shot out involuntarily, and the white and silvery strand fired out of it. After that, my right arm shot in another direction, and another strand came out. My arms pumped out the white stuff like pistons. They just kept pumping despite my protests. I tried to control the movement of my arms, but they continued to move without mental command. The white substance fired into every direction, until eventually my arms simply went numb. My limp body hit the roof, and I lay there panting for several minutes. By the time I had finally opened my eyes and looked up, all I could see was a gigantic spider web.

********

The front door of my house swung open, and I stumbled into it. My body lay in the doorway for an unknown amount of time. Eventually I was able to open my eyes and walk into the house. I made my way upstairs and fell onto my bed. My head was spinning, my bones ached, and the urge to vomit was getting stronger and stronger. At one point, I heard this horrible ringing noise. It was the most horrible sound I had ever heard in my entire life. I clutched my head with both hands, struggling to block out the noise in my head. And that's when I realized it was the phone. Slowly I reached for the phone and picked it up.

"Hello?" I managed to say.

"Rob, where have you been?" It was Angel.

"Uh...around..."

"Have you been smoking again?"

"Yeah..." I didn't have the mental capacity to make up a lie.

"Is that all?"

"Uh...yeah, that's it..." I lied. For some reason, I neglected to tell her about what else had happened. Maybe I was too tired, or maybe I just didn't want her to know. I'm not really sure.

"You never did tell me why you got off the phone earlier. I was worried. I've been calling ever since you hung up, but you weren't home."

"What time is it?" I asked.

"12:45."

I had no idea it had gotten that late. Luckily, my father was on a business trip and wouldn't be returning for another couple of days. He wouldn't be wondering why I had gotten home so late.

"So, when are you gonna tell me the real reason you came home so late?" asked Angel.

I love Angel, believe me, but she has this almost wife-like ability to nag, and I did not need the irritation at the moment.

"Look, I told you, now let me sleep," I said.

"Alright, fine, you'll tell me sooner or later. You just better be in school tomorrow," said Angel.

"Fine, I'll talk to you later..."

I hung up the phone and dug my head into my pillow. It took all of one second for me to fall asleep. It didn't take very long for me to start dreaming. And I dreamt of a lot of things...

I dreamt of Norman Osborn, and the Lizard...

I dreamt of the giant spider web...

I dreamt of my mother, and my brother, and my father, and Angel...

All of the people I cared about were ensnared in a giant web, and I was in the very center of it. A spider was crawling very slowly across the web, as if he was enjoying the fact that he was stalking helpless pray. Eventually he came to me. I stared deep into all six of his eyes, and I could see my reflection in it. And then...

I found myself hanging from the ceiling of my bedroom. By now I was awake, and for some reason I was upside-down, over my bed. The second I realized where I was, I fell off of the ceiling and crashed into the bed. I lay there in the bed panting for a very long time. The first thing I noticed was that the sun was out. I turned my head to the side to look at the clock. It read "3:50". I shot up immediately and stared at the clock, rubbing my eyes to try and make sure I wasn't seeing things. I had slept all through school, and spent quite possibly half of the time on the ceiling of my bedroom. Oh well, I thought, wasn't like I wanted to go that badly anyway.

I rose from the bed and headed straight to the bathroom for a long overdue draining. Okay, ladies, you may not know about this, but my fellas, you should understand this. Did you ever have to pee really, really badly, like your bladder is going to explode, and you make it to the bathroom, standing over the toilet, and just as you're about to relieve yourself, just when the urine gets right there to where it's finally ready to escape, and then the phone rings and you have to force yourself to stop? Doesn't that shit hurt? Well damn it, that's what happened to me. I angrily walked back to my room and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Why weren't you in school today?" asked Angel.

"Not right now, Angel..." I said.

"I'm your friend, Rob, so I have no choice but to nag you. So, why didn't you come to school?"

"I just didn't feel like it..."

"Sure, Rob. Wait, somebody wants to talk to you."

I heard Angel hand the phone to somebody, and then I heard a familiar voice.

"Hey nigga, why didn't you come to school today?" It was Brian, aka Superhustler.

"I just got done having this conversation with Angel, man," I replied.

"Well listen, we're on our way to your house," said Brian.

"Says who?" I exclaimed. I was in no condition to be having company. Hell, I was still getting over the shock of the previous day.

"You're neglecting your friends, Rob, so we gotta make you suffer. We'll be there soon."

"Alright, whatever."

"By the way, you wouldn't happen to need a CD would you, 'cuz I..."

I hung up the phone immediately and walked back to the bathroom to get back to business. After finally relieving myself and washing, I got dressed in a red muscle shirt and blue sweat pants with red stripes down the sides. About twenty minutes later, my friends had arrived. We found ourselves sitting in my kitchen, eating whatever we could get our hands on and drinking Kool-Aid. I was eating a lot. I don't know what it was, but I was really hungry, like even more than the munchies that weed will give you. Angel and Brian just stared at me as I ate.

"What?" I asked them.

"Have you eaten in the last twenty-four hours?" asked Brian.

"No," I replied. Hell, it was true. I hadn't eaten in the last day. "So what happened in school today?"

"Well, you missed Ms. Morales's test, and you have to turn in a paper about the book we read in Ms. Grayson's class by next Friday," said Angel.

"Bullshit, and more bullshit. Did anything relevant happen in school today?" I asked as I kept eating.

"Yeah. Some kid in tenth grade went missing. He's been missing for a couple of days, but they just announced it today," said Brian.

"Who?" I asked.

"His name's Jason. Jason Thompson. His parents were at the school today and asking if anybody may have known where he was," said Angel.

I wasn't particularly sure who that was. This may sound mean, but when you're a senior, you really don't know or care who the sophomores in the school are. Still, it was a shame.

"That's fucked up," I replied.

"So what were you doing all day? Working out?" asked Angel.

"No, just chillin'," I replied.

"Well, you sure look like you've been working out," Angel said, indicating my arm.

Looking down at my arm, I could see what she was talking about. My arm, which had originally been of an average size, was now much more defined. It was more muscular, but not bulky. Rather, it was lean, like a gymnast would have.

"Dog, you haven't been usin' steroids, have you?" asked Brian.

"I suppose you want to sell me that, too?" I said, trying to change the subject.

"Hey, if it sells, it sells," Brian said as he laughed.

I spent the next few hours relaxing with Brian and Angel. It was about 9 P.M. when they decided to go home. I walked them around to the corner to catch the trolley home. After they both got on it, I began walking back to my house. Having my friends with me made me feel better. As I walked, I started to feel this very small tingling in the back of my neck. As I drew closer to my home, the buzzing became stronger and stronger. When I finally made it to the house, my ears were ringing. I instinctively leapt into the air, and I heard something slam into the ground behind me. I landed, turned, and saw what had tried to attack me.

"Jordan, you mussst come with me," the Lizard said.

I stood there, struggling to comprehend that this thing was still here, and was now standing in front of my house.

"You're a gigantic lizard and a stalker. That's gotta be embarrassing on two accounts," I said. I was running off at the mouth, but that was only by instinct. In reality I was scared out of my mind.

"Enough talk. Come with me now," The Lizard said.

"Don't think so," I said.

The Lizard stopped talking and leapt toward me. I held out my right arm and wished that the silvery strand that had been emitting from my hands earlier would come out now and blind him. And wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what happened. The difference was, this time it didn't hurt. The white and silver glob fired right into the Lizard's face and engulfed it. I backed away and tried to figure out what I was going to do next. The monster pulled and pulled and eventually tore the webbing from its face. I held out my left arm and tried to will another web from it, but this time nothing came out. The Lizard took the advantage by grabbing my extended arm and hurling me into a nearby car. My body crashed into the car and the back of my head broke one of the side windows. As my body slumped to the ground, the creature advanced upon me. He grabbed me by the collar and lifted me up to his level. That's when I fired webbing from both arms into his face. By straining a muscle in my forearm, I was able to fire the webbing at will. I was glad that I had learned that little ability, because it was stopping the monster from killing me. Still, the Lizard was angry, and he tossed me away like garbage. I flew away and bounced on the ground repeatedly before finally landing on my feet.

"Missster Osssborn will be quite impresssed with your abilitiesss, Jordan," the Lizard said.

"Yeah? Well thanksss for the compliment, missster," I said, mocking him.

The Lizard lunged at me once again. I jumped backwards to avoid him and found myself landing about six feet backwards on top of a car. I was growing tired of running and evading, and what the hell was I going to do if one of my neighbors saw me? I saw the Lizard pounce once again, and this time I wasn't going to run. I crouched, cocked my fist back, and shot it in an uppercut towards his jugular. Saliva flew out of the monster's mouth as it flew back and landed with a few bounces on the ground. That's when I took the opportunity to retreat.

I found myself moving in no direction in particular. My only goal was to escape, and going home was not an option at this point. By the time I had stopped running, I had found myself clinging to a wall in an alley. I was panting from all of the fighting and running, but I wasn't nearly as exhausted as one would expect. I was more mentally tired than anything. This was real life, not some comic book, and this kind of shit was not easy to get a grasp on. I lay back against the wall, just trying to figure out what was going on. I needed to think for a minute about everything that was happening. What I really needed was peace and quiet.

But then, that's when I heard the scream...



END OF CHAPTER TWO