Spider Woman: Origin

Spider-Woman: Bite

"Jessica!" Jordyn called behind me.

I continued at my quickened pace down the sidewalk. It was illuminated by only that of the nearby streetlamps while darkness blanketed the city. Countless stars twinkled in the night sky above us, burning hot similarly to that of the anger raging inside of me.

My heart hammered in my chest and tears brimmed my eyes with the recent revelation roaring in my mind. I weaved around others on the sidewalk and silently thanked the obstacles between my sister and I. I frustratingly wiped the stray tear that fell from my eye and quickly descended the steps leading to the subway tunnels.

"Jessica, will you please wait?"

"For what?!" I shouted. I turned on my heels to eye my sister, who stopped in her movements to gaze upon me. "For what, Jordyn? For you to spew whatever bullshit excuse you have for hiding my father's death?" My voice cracked as I struggled to keep my emotions intact.

"You don't understand."

"Then help me understand!" I pleaded. Silver lined her regret-filled eyes. Her lips parted, her gaze distant as she searched for the words to say, but she remained silent. I shook my head in disbelief and continued at my pace to my destination. My heart was heavy with what felt like a betrayal. How could they not tell me this, of all things?

It wasn't long before I heard footsteps following behind. I scrambled to pull the metro card from my wallet and watched as it fell to the floor. "Goddammit," I groaned frustratingly, leaning in a rush to pick it up. Once the card was in my hands again, I swiped it to pass through the metal bars. I returned the card to my wallet and once again wiped my tear-stricken cheeks.

I searched the lists of arrivals to find the one headed for our borough and quickly made my way towards the platform door. There were a few minutes to spare before its arrival. I stood in the middle of the platform and took in the few people who waited alongside us. Crossing my arms over my chest, I took in a deep breath to calm myself while slowed footsteps neared me. I prepared myself and attempted to reign in my anger, however, on a short leash.

"You were gone five years-"

I whirled on her in frustration at the reminder of what I wanted desperately to forget. The pain in her expression made the words I was prepared to speak dissipate into nothing.

"-five years, Jess, and you came back to us unchanged. We knew that was going to need adjusting to, let alone coming back to a world that continued without you. We didn't want to add to that, not until we felt that the time was right."

I allowed her words to settle as silence fell between us. The truth of her words rang through me. Her expression changed to that of a hopeful one with my gaze softening. I searched for understanding and a way to squelch the anger. It remained, but not as a fiery chasm it once was. The hurt and embarrassment was there and almost palpable. I swallowed hard at the lump I felt beginning to form in my throat. "Having to face-" I motioned towards nothing in particular, trying to find the word to describe the phenomenon that took place and settled on one I'd heard, "the blip is one thing, but learning my mother and sister hid how my father died from someone I don't know? Imagine the adjustment needed now."

The hopeful gleam that was once there was now no more. I had no ounce of regret and felt nothing aside from the sadness weighing down on my chest. I pressed my hand there as if that sadness could be felt under my fingertips. Jordyn eyed the movement before looking down at the pavement floor in defeat. "Our keeping it from you was with the best intention. I didn't intend for you to find out this way." Jordyn never looked up, and I looked away to gaze upon the empty tunnel and at the train tracks.

I crossed my arms tightly across my chest. It provided some comfort to the hollowness echoing through me. We sat in silence. I didn't move from my position until I heard the subway. The sounds vibrated through the tunnel and came to a screeching halt before us. Neither of us spoke a word as we stepped into the cart and sat in empty seats across from each other. I was content with looking through the window at the nothingness that glared back at me. But I couldn't ignore the question that lingered in the back of my mind. I relaxed my arms till they fell at my sides and peered down at myself. Through my lashes, I looked at Jordyn who sat with her ankles crossed, hands tucked away in her lap.

I sat up straight until the entirety of her entered my line of vision. "How?" She looked up at that with a questioning glare in her stare. "How did he die?"

She shifted in her sitting position as if uncomfortable from the question. A heavy sigh sounded from her. I waited, sitting in the silence and preparing for the answer I wasn't entirely sure I was ready to hear. I clasped my hands together and rubbed my thumb against my skin in continuous circles.

"Dad was working a case on a gang of drug traffickers in our borough." Her eyes were distant, as if her mind traveled back to the memory. Her voice was soft and came out just barely above a whisper, as if she feared others overhearing the conversation.

"Things changed here. With half the population gone, it left some desperate to find living means." I met her gaze and noticed the dark shadows under her eyes. Whether it was from fatigue or what they had to endure eluded me. She continued, "him working the case was at first something he worked on part-time. Until crimes became more frequent. It was his sole priority in the months leading up to his death. He worked from the early morning hours and into the late evenings. This case..." her words drifted off, each being a cause for the pain lurking in her expression. "It changed him."

I watched in silence while she brought her hands to her eyes and then to her temples. She once again heaved a sigh, this time exhaling slowly. Her hands fell to her sides. Jordyn looked at me again and found the courage to go on. "Dad would bring his work home. He'd stay cooped up in his office for hours on end when he'd return to us. I stupidly looked into one of the files sitting on his desk one evening and-" her voice quivered, silver lining her eyes. My heartbeat roared in my ears. I was afraid of the words she hesitated to speak.

"And in them were mutilated bodies. People no longer recognizable. Dad rambled on and was convinced they had intentions that went beyond drugs, beyond the crimes they committed. He felt he was close to a breakthrough and one day left for work in high hopes that'd be the day he would discover and bust their operation." The tears behind her eyes were free flowing now. "Instead, he didn't come home." Her voice cracked.

Jordyn hung her head at those words. Her coily hair falling and shielding her face. Her shoulders rising and descending in uneven time told me she sobbed quietly. I could only stare, unsure of what to feel or what to do. I looked down at my quivering hands until my vision blurred. Jordyn's sniffling returned my attention to her. She didn't look my way and somehow carried on. "Days went by before we heard anything. We somehow held hope until his supervisor and partner were at our door, momentos in hand, speaking of his dedication, his honor." A sarcastic laugh sounded from her. Her face twisted in anger. "What honor is there in abandoning your family for months-"

"Jordyn-"

"What honor? I try to remember him as the man he was before this case, before the Wits were ever a thing. They tortured him, dumped his body in a lake to rot like he was nothing to no one," her words came out in a whispered flurry. Jordyn brought her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself. She tucked her head into her lap, her face now out of my line of vision.

My gaze went to that of the window beside me and the city beyond it. Lights illuminated the otherwise city blanketed by the sleeping sun. The city of endless possibilities was once something I loved, but now seemed different, bleak, where five years were lost and within it, a precious life taken without a goodbye.

I recalled my father's obituary from memory and remembered two years had gone by since his passing. The name Jordyn muttered echoed in my mind, but with it, a small ounce of hope blossomed in my chest where nothing had been before. Hope that someone succeeded where my father failed. Hope that my father's death had not been in vain. I looked at her. "And the Wits?"

Jordyn didn't stir. Didn't speak. Her silence an answer. The feeling that blossomed withered and was replaced by nothing. I drew my hands closer to my body and leaned to rest against the window. The views whizzed by in a blur, my eyes failed to keep up to catch a clear image and instead, my mind returned to the last memory I had of my father. It took me back to his panic expression as he turned to find my hand leaving his as I began to be erased from the world. My hands disappeared, ashes in its wake. I looked at his eyes, their eyes, and began to mutter the words I desperately wanted to leave them with. Except, it was cut short, like my time with him.

With this revelation, I finally began to feel something - sorrow. My eyes brimmed with tears and a knot formed in my throat. I swallowed and blinked rapidly in an attempt to keep my emotions at bay. I didn't want to cry in public. Home, I told myself. Home.

* * * * * SPIDER-WOMAN: ORIGIN * * * * *

We exited the now stationary subway at our stop for home in silence. The humid, night air of summer enveloped my skin, the warmth providing some comfort against the chill I felt in my bones. We began our trek home. My eyes danced between the sidewalk at my feet to our dimly lit path ahead. Our feet coming into contact with the pavement and the sounds of the city at night were the only things audible.

Some time had passed. My movements somehow felt out of body and mechanical. I wanted nothing more than to be in the comfort of my own home, in bed and left alone. The silence between Jordyn and I had grown loud and uncomfortable. I looked at my younger sister to find her gaze distant and cold. I made her relive those last moments she had with father. Had she wanted to keep them buried deep?

We turned a corner and I had expected it to be clear as the trek had been up until this point, but this time, a hooded figure with a lit cigarette in hand stood several feet ahead beneath a streetlamp. His attention soon turned to us. He placed the toxin to his lips, inhaled and exhaled with grey smoke clouding our view of him.

"Let's cross the street," Jordyn ordered. I followed behind her while she led the way to the other side of the street, all the while keeping the man in my periphery. I felt Jordyn edge closer and at that moment I'd grown aware of her uneasiness. The state of our city as she described earlier returned to mind, and I glared at the man cautiously. He flicked the cigarette on the floor and ground it with his foot.

"This gang you mentioned. They don't randomly attack people on the street, do they?" I whispered. Jordyn cast a sideways glance at me and said nothing. I took her silence as an answer and almost wished I hadn't asked. Had I known the state the city was in, I would not have stormed off and made us walk home. Now our safety was at risk. I attempted to focus and listen past the thundering of my heartbeat that attempted to deafen my ears.

"What're a couple girls doing out past dark?" He asked from where he stood across the street. The amusement in his voice was cause for the goosebumps that rose to my skin. I took a quick glance over my shoulder to gaze upon him. He removed the hood from his head to reveal a buzz cut and a scar that ran from the edge of his nose to the corner of his lip.

"Just minding our business," Jordyn answered in reply, irritation laced in her tone.

We quickened our pace, trying to put some distance between the stranger and ourselves. I swallowed nervously and in a bid to clear the dryness from my throat.

I heard a snicker behind us. "This is my street, so your business is mine." His tone remained airy and light. He maneuvered from his earlier position and now his voice was projecting from somewhere behind us.

I took that as our cue. "Run," I whispered in command to my sister. Together we took off. I wasn't surprised at the sound of hurried footsteps that sounded behind us. The sound dulled to almost nothing over the frantic beating of my heart.

We ran like hell. I began to pant, and my body grew tired from the exertion. Despite the ache in my legs, I didn't waver from my pace and neither did Jordyn. I kept my eyes forward and gazed down at the ground every once in a while to ensure there wasn't anything to trip over. I casted a glance over my shoulder at the man. Before observing his location, I came to a halt as I felt a hand pull and yank me into an alleyway on the left. Jordyn gazed at me with frantic eyes while I questioned her actions.

"J, what the f**k?" I managed to whisper in between breaths. I prayed that we were concealed. She searched her pockets for something. I watched in disbelief. "Oh my god. We're gonna d- maybe we can fight him off." I brought my hands to my coily hair and paced back and forth. "Could you maybe do this some other time?!"

"Will you shut up? I'm trying to look for my-"

"Ouch, what the hell?" I spoke through gritted teeth. A sharp pain was felt against my hand and as a reflex, I swatted it to feel an object press against my fingers. I wiped it away in a panic. Was I just bitten? By a bug?

"Found it."

The man appeared in the alleyway we stood in. In a blink of an eye, Jordyn maneuvered in front of me and outstretched her arm out towards his face. A spraying sound filled my ears and the man began shouting in pain. He rubbed his eyes frantically.

"Let's go!" Jordyn instructed. I looked to the man as he fell to his knees while we ran past.

"I'm gonna f*****g kill you bitches. I'm gonna-" his voice trailed off as he began shouting in pain once again.

Relief washed over me as we distanced ourselves from him.

After some time, we entered our neighborhood and then we slowed our pace. Laughter escaped my lips as my mind went through all that went down.

"What's so funny?" Jordyn wondered.

"I thought we were gonna die."

Jordyn let out a chuckle. "That's not funny. If I didn't have my pepper spray, God knows what would have happened."

Our house came into view. We neared the steps leading up to the door. Jordyn fiddled for her keys and once found, made aim to unlock the door to our home. "Let's not tell mom what happened tonight." She didn't wait for a reply and unlocked the door.

We quietly made our way inside to find the end of the narrow hallway leading to our lit kitchen with the quiet sound of what was revealed to be the television in the living room. I breathed deeply to calm myself and conceal all that took place tonight while we came into view of my mother who gazed upon us from where she sat on the couch.

"Hey, girls. How was bowling night?" She inquired.

"A lot more fun with Jess there."

This night was a lot of things. Fun was not one of them.

Mom eyed us and for a moment I thought all that happened was written all over us until her face lit up with a smile.

"How'd you get home?"

I swallowed with no answer to give her.

"Yessenia's mom drove us home," Jordyn quickly answered with a lie.

When did she become such a good liar?

Nothing else was said as mom's attention was diverted back to the television screen. I took a quick glance at the screen to find the Lifetime logo etched in white at the bottom of the screen. Some things never change.

I turned to Jordyn and exchanged a look before she made her way towards the fridge to pull out some juice. My eyes met that of my father's obituary on the fridge. All that was discovered tonight about the Witz's and their role in my father's death returned to the forefront of my mind.

"I'm, uh, gonna head up to my room," I said aloud.

"Are you alright?"

I turned to meet eyes with my mother, who stared back at me with a smile upon her face. I did my best to return it and shook my head yes to assure her. It felt like I was trying to assure myself, but in reality, I wasn't okay. How could I be after everything that happened tonight? I turned on my heels to make my way towards the stairs and felt the stares of my family burning into my back.

Upon reaching my room, I planted my face against my pillow. I clutched it for comfort and at the same time, I remembered I had been bitten by something in that alleyway. I lifted myself from my bed and turned on the bedroom light to get a better look. Just as predicted, a red bump was present on my skin.

.