"Do you really have to go?", a young woman with auburn hair and bright blue eyes says to a taller man with dark brown hair with brown eyes.
The man was currently wearing the uniform of a police officer, though a bit roughed up as if he just got off of a shift, but it was very apparent that the man looked… tired, worried and scared. "You know how they are, Nat. It's just gonna be a quick run and I'll be back."
"How do you know?", she silently screamed at her husband as he sighed.
"I don't… but.", the man looked over at his son, he was wearing plaid pajamas and a white shirt and appeared to be at the age of five or six, having similar features as him. "Hey there, son."
"Where are you going?", the child asked curiously as he looked at the man, not his father however, the man standing by the door.
He was a large man with black hair. His head was strangely shaped, bulging out a little and causing his head to appear like a flat top with a large, disgusting scar on his forehead. The man also wore a stylish blue suit with a red tie. "Ah so this is your kid huh? Gotta say, he takes a lot afta ya. Now c'mon, we's got some business."
The man stared daggers at the man with a scarred forehead for the briefest of seconds before softening his gaze when looking at his son. He approached him and got onto a knee to be at eye level with him. "Jonah. I'm going to be gone for a while, okay?"
The child, now known as Jonah, tilted his head. "When are you coming back?"
The man looked away from his son before taking a deep breath. "I don't know. But until then, you're the man in the house. Alright?", Jonah nodded as his father gave his son one last hug, whispering something into his ear.
"Awh, how cute. It sickens me.", the scarred face man said without an ounce of care. "Let's go."
"Yeah, I'm coming.", Jonah's father says as he got up and walked to the door, closing it and locking it behind him.
The woman, Nat, looked at the door with a pale face, she was shaking in fear. "трахать", she cursed in Russian as her son titled his head confused.
He would never come back.
Years would pass by with Jonah growing into a young man on the taller side, with messy, dark hair with lighter brown eyes. He wore a pale grey shirt under a black jacket, dark blue jeans and black sneakers.
He stood in the train, grabbing one of the metal bars with one hand and scrolling through Twitter on his other hand with headphones in. Jonah yawned as he saw a link to an article relating to another theft by the notorious "Prowler".
Jonah sighed as he found himself walking down the side wall and through the grassy field with a blank expression. "Another day another migraine.", he thinks to himself as he passed through the crowd of students chattering amongst themselves.
The taller young man got to his locker, put in his combination and opened it. "Man. Like. J. MY GUY!", Jonah was suddenly jolted forward as someone threw themselves onto him. "Wassup man?!", the other young man exclaimed shaking him excitedly.
"Hey Hobie.", Jonah nonchalantly states with a small smile on his face. "How's it going?"
Hobie is a young man of dark skin with dark hair in the style of dreads with light brown eyes with a piercing on his bottom lip and eyebrow. He wore a baggy grey hoodie, equally baggy black pants with purple detailing and darkly colored Jordan 11's. "Goin fuckin amazing actually, I'm getting paid this Saturday.", Hobie says excitedly.
"Really? Nice!", Jonah exclaimed as he roughly parted his friends shoulder.
Hobie threw an arm around his friend and guided him along. "Ight, check it, you know that abandoned train station?"
"Which one?"
"The one in Harlem."
"Oh yeah, I pass it by every now and then."
"Ight, listen. I'm thinkin, maybe we can drop by there, spray a lil portrait of ourselves n shit and thereby, claim it as our spot.", Hobie says, shaking his friend every now and then.
Jonah considered it. "Sounds tempting. But aren't we like… old as fuck for that?"
Hobie clicked his tongue. "Yeah. But honestly, to keep it a thousand, I really don't give a fuck."
"Fair enough.", Jonah snickers. "I'll have to think about it though."
"Ah right, you got that pizza delivery job!", Hobie laughed.
"Don't you wash windows?"
Hobie frowned at this. "Aye man, that ain't cool.", he says before looking at his phone. "I'll see you in Gym.", he says before walking off with a wide stride.
"Yikes.", says a pale skinned girl who appeared to have more of an alternative style of clothing consisting of a zipped up black jacket, torn blue jeans that exposed fishnets underneath. She herself had long black hair that was dyed blue at the ends. "He gonna be okay?"
"Oh hey, Maya. Yeah, he's just being a little extra. Did the same thing two days ago actually.", Jonah says as Maya nodded at this. "Also… shouldn't you be at the other side of the school by now?"
Her face dropped immediately. "You are… actually right. I gotta go, I'll see you in Spanish though!", she says with a smile before running off.
As soon as she was gone, Jonah returned to his blank, expressionless face as he went through the motions of school life. Despite this, he actually preferred this over his life at home.
Classes flew by with Jonah only giving passive attention to certain classes. English was a subject he knew off the back of his hand, Biology was much easier than what most gave it credit, Physical Education was harsher than usual due to their coach but he didn't care, after lunch of course he went to Spanish.
"Dammit.", Jonah rubbed his stomach as he he was about to cross the street to walk through the field only for a black Rolls-Royce to speed by with a light skinned young man with a manbun quietly laughing with his friends.
"Fucking Osborn.", Jonah spat with hatred as he just continued to walk through the field. Jogging across as he entered the deli grocery nearby.
"Ahh, Mr. Parks!", a middle aged man says with a jovial tone as Jonah waved. "The number eight, right?"
"Yeah, and don't skip out on the hot sauce like last time.", Jonah smiles as he passes the owners cat, scratching its stomach before going to the refrigerators, pulling out a large monster can before turning back and to the counter.
The man scanned it before handing it back to Jonah. "So, how's your ma? She okay?"
"She's… fine, I guess.", Jonah says with a shrug.
"Ah that's good to hear.", the store owner says before Jonah handed him a ten dollar bill. He would put it in the register and give him back a few quarters, another man placing the sandwich down on the counter. "Oh and, tell Camilla I said hi when you get back."
"Thanks guys.", Jonah says as he grabbed his sandwich and walked out. "Best sandwiches in queens."
After an egregiously long time waiting for the train and then traveling back to Harlem, Jonah slid his house key in and opened his door… only to be met with the stench of alcohol again.
"Fuckin hell.", Jonah cringes as he entered his apartment, placing his backpack on the ground as he looked around. "Мама, я дома!", he exclaims in Russian, only to hear nothing.
Jonah sighs as he saw his mother on the couch, Nat snored loudly as a bottle of whiskey next to her hand, completely empty. At this sight, he just… let out a shaky sigh.
He carried his mother into her bedroom and left a glass of water with what was left of the advil. After this, Jonah would sit down on his couch and rest his face against his hands.
"Every. Single. Day.", Jonah sighs as he laid on his couch, looking at the ceiling with a sadden expression on his face. The smell of alcohol still lingering, irritating his nostrils "I wish dad was here, maybe he'd make sure she doesn't drink herself to sleep."
"Rents due by the end of this month and she's not lifting a fucking finger to actually help get that money.", Jonah hisses as he jolts up angrily. "I should be saving up for college but I'm too busy paying rent in New fucking York."
His phone would buzz, quickly taking it out he answered it. "Oh hey Hobie."
["Yo I'm going to that subway station, you down?"]
Jonah looked at his mothers bedroom door with contempt. "Yeah, I'm going."
["FUCK YEAH! You want me to pick you up or meet there?"]
"I'm gonna meet you there. I know where it is so it's fine.", Jonah says before getting up and walking back out, locking the door behind him.
["ight. I'll meet you there."]
"See ya.", Jonah says as he walked through the corridor to the flight of stairs. With his headphones in his ears and music blasting, he strolled down the streets of Harlem.
He greeted everyone he passed by with a smile and wave, it didn't take him too long to find the entrance to the abandoned subway station. Hobie, however, was waiting there with a backpack.
"Wassup man?", Hobie held out his hand as Jonah dapped him up. "You ready?", the young man with dreads says before handing him a flashlight.
"You bet.", Jonah says as he flips the flashlight in his hand. The two looked at each other with a nod before descending.
The two immediately turned on their flashlights in the pitch black that took up every corner of the once brightly lit station. "Why did they ever close this down? It looks perfectly fine.", Jonah asked as Hobie and him walked along the tracks.
"I heard that it was because Alchemax bought the property from the company."
"They can do that?"
"Anything is possible if you have the money.", Hobie states with an annoyed expression before he suddenly turned to the left and stopped at and climbed the fence, Jonah climbing over soon after.
"Check this shit.", Hobie grabbed a switch before pulling it down, suddenly, lights flickered to life and finally illuminated the little area they found themselves in, even the abandoned subway gave off light now. "Crazy ain't it?"
"Wow. And here I thought they cut power to this entire place.", Jonah remarked with a smirk. Hobie just patted his friends back before pulling off his backpack.
For the next hour and a half, the two began to work on a mural with spray paint using an empty wall. Music played in the background as they worked, the two even went back and forth on the next few colors before just going with it.
After applying the finishing touches, Jonah and Hobie stepped back to appreciate their work. It was a stylized mural of the two of them with the words HARLEM BROTHERS underneath in big, bold and colorful letters.
"Wow.", Hobie smiled as he sat down. "Y'know I never get to do stuff like this, with all the work I've been doin trying to support my family while my mom is just… ugh."
Jonah took out his phone and tried to get it to focus in on the mural as Hobie let out a sigh as he looked at his own. "Aye man, I gotta bounce.", Hobie got up and walked back to the fence. "You know the way back?"
"Yes I know.", Jonah says slightly annoyed.
"Alright alright, just asking.", Hobie says before jumping that same gate and vanishing.
The brunette young man looked back at the phone and finally got a good picture of it. He flinched when he felt something bite his ankle, quickly slapping it off only to reveal it was a spider. "Ew.", he muttered before stomping on it.
A second passed, and he shivered, patting himself down as he walked back to the gate. However, the walk back to his apartment was… horrible.
Suddenly, Jonah felt nauseous, suddenly exhausted and weak in the muscles. His vision blurred as he struggled to keep upright, the moment he got into his house was the same moment he rushed to the bathroom and unleashed a torrent of a disgusting, chunky abomination for the next few minutes.
Jonah didn't even know how, but he actually managed to get onto his bed and passed out almost immediately.
A bespectacled woman that appeared roughly in her late twenties to early thirties with large, curly brown hair wearing a white lab coat and a scarf walked into a larger room with a giant spire in the center, glass boxes were placed everywhere with spiders in each of them.
Another scientist walked up to her with a worried expression. "Hello, Doctor Octavius."
"Oh please, Johnny. Just call me Liv.", she laughed a little bit before looking around. "So, why did you call me down here?"
"Well… one of the subjects escaped containment.", the man, Johnny, says with a nervous expression.
Liv on the other hand didn't looked the least bit concerned. "So what? I still see at least-", she took a second to count all of the spiders that crawled around in their containers. "Forty nine subjects still."
"But-", Johnny was cut off as Liv placed a hand on his mouth.
"No need to worry yourself over a minor setback. The spider is gonna die out there anyways, no point in crying over it.", Liv says jovially as Johnny seemed to nod at this. "That's the spirit!"
The moment the brown haired youth opened his eyes he immediately covered them again. "Ugh, why is it so bright?", he got up and tried to get his vision to adjust but it was so… bizarrely bright.
Jonah shook this off as he prepared to get dressed, and it was just then he noticed something. "Were my pants always the wrong size?", he looked at his body, his muscular definition. "That's… weird."
He went on with his daily routine, boarding the train after finding a pair of sunglasses to wear to avoid the bright lights. Jonah felt clammy, constantly adjusting the collar and pant leg of clothing that would fit him just fine every other day except that day.
"I gotta get new clothes.", Jonah thinks to himself as he looked taken aback for a moment. "Wait. Why is the voice in my head so goddamn loud? And why am I so sweaty?!"
The ear piecing ringing of the bell would ring throughout the school as Jonah walked his way to class uncomfortably as he passed through the crowd of students. "Is it me or are they talking louder than usual- goddamn that bitch is super tall.", he thinks to himself as his breathing became more and more haggard as he begin to walk faster. "C-Can they hear my thoughts? Or can I hear theirs? How do I stop and why are my thoughts SO GODDAMN LOUD?!"
"Hey.", Jonah looked over to see the young man from before, now wearing the schools purple and white varsity jacket. "You alright man?"
"Yeah. Totally fine, no problems over here so I'm gonna go to my classes now bye-", Jonah took off his sunglasses as he rapidly approached his first period. He struggled to keep his eyes opened due to how bright it was. "W-was it always this bright?", the brunette says as people began looking at him in confusion and shock.
"Why are they looking at me? Is it because I'm sweating so much?", Jonah turned a corner and into the men's bathroom, grabbing a paper towel and wiping his face of the sweat… his eyes widened at bud reflection.
He had red eyes…
"What…?", he placed his hands on the sink and got a closer look. His soft brown eyes had turned into a harsher shade of red. "The fuck-?!", he attempted to pull away but he found his hands stuck.
Jonah looked down, they weren't caught on anything… his hands were just stuck to the flat sink. He furrowed his brow and began to pull away, stopping for a moment to catch his breath before pulling more. "Stop- sticking!"
Suddenly, the sink was torn out of the wall and was stuck on his hands still before that part dropped as well, shattering on the tile floor. Seconds after, he could hear it footsteps… coming towards the bathroom.
A security guard opened the door, groaning as he saw the broken sink. He failed to notice Jonah on the ceiling, his hands and feet sticking into it as he held his breath. "Keep sticking keep sticking keep sticking!l
"Fuckin kids and these stupid trends.", he pulled out his radio. "Yeah we're gonna have to close down one of the bathrooms.", he lets out an exasperated sigh as he exited. "No I don't know who did it and I don't know which sector I'm in-" his voice faded away as he left.
Jonah held his breath as he was on the ceiling now, his hands and feet clinging onto it with some unknown means. With a tug, he brought his hands forward and somehow, he saw tiny little barbed hairs growing out of his finger tips.
All of a sudden, he plummeted to the ground and barely missed a pointed shard of what was left of the sink as he panted.
"What's happening to me?"
/End/
Hey there, it's me. Now I'm gonna emphasize this, yes I'll still be working on Tenant of the Universe if you're already following that. However, this is an entirely separate universe so don't expect to see my other dear boy popping up anytime soon.