𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿-𝗺𝗮𝗻: 𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝘆 [ 𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙞 𝙖𝙪 ]

murderer .27

ricky and richard continued to throw punches at each other. richard pushed ricky against a wall, webbing his arm back. he went in for another punch but ricky ducked down and pulled his arm out of the web. he pushed richard's face into the wall, webbing him stuck to the wall. richard got stuck as ricky repeatedly punched his head.

all of a sudden, richard got loose. he quickly kicked ricky back. richard then took ricky's arm and pulled it back, making the boy scream in pain. ricky could hear richard's laugh echoing through his ears. richard pulled ricky's arm back even more, moving his bone out of its socket.

"oh, come on now, ricky," richard snickered in his ear, "surely, you can do more than that.... come on... kill me."

anger boiled through ricky's veins. he got out of richard's grip. he grabbed richard by the shoulders and quickly pushed him back.

ricky held richard's body in front of a metal pole that was sticking out. their heavy breaths smoked in the cold air as ricky contemplated what to do.

"do it," richard muttered, "kill me."

ricky didn't say anything. he focused on trying to control his breaths while nini's voice rang through his ears. she was right.  ricky has never murdered anybody and he didn't know if could actually go through it. the boy let out a sigh while richard laughed in his face.

"and that's the difference between us," richard whispered with a smirk, "one of us will always be stronger than the other."

"i'm not a murderer," ricky answered.

"yeah, cause you're weak," richard answered while ricky tightened his grip on the boy. ricky brought out his fist and knocked richard down to the ground. ricky looked down at richard and spit on him.

"stay away from nini," ricky spat, "or i swear, i will kill you next time."

"thought you said you weren't a murderer," richard stated, slowly getting up from the ground.

"yeah, for now," ricky answered. richard let out a chuckle and stood up.

"it's too late, spider-man," richard bragged, "nini's already mine. you just don't know it yet."

before ricky could say anything, richard punched ricky back to the ground. the boy fell to the floor as richard repeatedly kicked ricky in the gut. richard bent down and pulled ricky up by his suit, punching ricky in the face over and over again.

after awhile, richard stopped to examine ricky's face. the boy's face was already swelling up. there was blood coming out of his nose, the side of his head, and his mouth was all cut up. ricky could barely keep his eyes open.

"better say goodbye to your loved ones now, spider-man," richard spat, "cause next time i fucking see you, you're fucking dead."

he pushed ricky back down to the ground and swung off the building. ricky groaned and felt his eyes closing.

+

nini was in her room. the girl was working on homework when she heard something tapping against her glass window.

startled, she quickly turned around to see ricky sitting in her windowsill. she rushed over to him and opened the window.

"ricky?!" nini exclaimed, her eyes scanning the boy. ricky leaned his back against the window frame, forcing a smile.

"do you have a bandaid i can borrow?" the boy quietly whispered.

nini gently grabbed ricky's body and he made his way to the floor, leaning against her bed. his eyes slowly checking in and out. nini ran out of her room and quickly grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge.

she handed it to ricky and left again to grab the first aid kit while he chugged down the water. she came back to see the water bottle empty and ricky giving her a slight smile.

"ricky... what happened? how are you feeling?"

the boy sighed, "feeling like i just won the lottery! can't you tell?" the boy forced out.

nini gave him a stern look before going into wipe all his cuts. the alcohol slightly stung but it wasn't as bad as getting beat by richard.

"did richard do this to you?" nini whispered as she took care of his wounds.

they made eye contact. nini's eyes begged for ricky to give her an honest answer so he did. the boy nodded his head and looked down.

"i couldn't kill him, nini. i'm sorry."

"it's okay, you'll get him next time," nini said in a reassuring voice. she gave ricky a soft smile but the boy shook his head.

"no, no.. nini," ricky quickly said, "i don't wanna kill him."

"what? why?' nini questioned, looking up from the wounds. "he's dangerous, ricky. we gotta put a stop to him before someone else gets hurt."

"i-i know... it's just... i couldn't go through it, neens."

"ricky—"

"nini, it's not who i am," the boy stated, "i-i mean— you even said it yourself. i'm not a murderer. richard is. if i go off and kill him, how does that make me any different from him?"

"cause yours is self-defense."

"neens."

"don't call me that right now," nini spat.

the room fell silent. ricky eyed the girl as she focused on his wounds. the city's bustling sounds filled up the silence as ricky thought about what to say. the boy let out a sigh, "i know... you're scared. i get that."

"you don't though," nini replied, "cause if you did, you would kill him for me."

ricky got taken aback, furrowing his eyebrows at her. "this isn't you, nini. there's other solutions than killing. we're going to figure it out."

the girl shook her head and looked down, "you're all cleaned up. i think you should get some rest at home."

"neens," nini's head shot up. ricky corrected himself, "...nini..."

"you need to rest," nini iterated again. ricky let out a sigh and nodded his head. he slowly got up and made his way back to the window.

"thanks... for taking care of me," ricky softly said. nini nodded her head.

"hopefully you'll do the same for me," nini guilt tripped him.

ricky only nodded his head and made his way out of her apartment. he heard nini shut and lock the window behind him as he stood on the fire escape.

somehow, ricky felt worse than before.