Hidden Darkness

Chapter 8

            The next day I pulled out my phone and checked the news in my spare period at school. After leaving Eric alone to deal with the guy, I was still worried to find that he killed someone. I was happy to be wrong. The video began, showing a sharply dressed woman. "Something new and strange as well as possibly good has sprung up last night in Chicago. It seems a superhero has arrived to our city bringing justice to muggers, stopping rapists, and also stopping car crashes from becoming more brutal than they should have."
    The last one was new to me. "A man was almost mugged last night when the masked hero arrived at the last second, just in time to stop the assailant from taking anything. The assailant shot at the hero when, supposedly,  strange limbs sprang from the hero's back and blocked the bullet. The hero told the victim to run and call the police to which he did. When officers arrived on the scene, they found the assailant unconscious with a strange insignia drawn beside him." A picture of the raven with the hourglass on its back showed up on screen.
    "The victim of the rape attempt did not want to be interviewed but said, and I quote, 'I was scared half to death when this man with a, what I believe, a crow on his back appeared out of nowhere. I saw some strange tentacles or something come out of his back and grab the man attacking me. He told me to call the police and I did. When I looked back, the rapist was unconscious and he was gone. I didn't even get a chance to say thank you. When this makes the air, I want him to know that I am forever thankful and will never forget what he did'."
    The screen changed to the woman sitting in front of an image of a news reporter. "The masked hero makes another appearance when a car almost collides into a group of people from hitting another car. A news reporter who was  on the scene shooting for the dangers of road safety, caught the events as it happens, we will play the video for you now." The screen switched to the picture and the video played. "The many reasons to errors in road safety is mainly due to weather-" The wheels of a car screech in the background as it slams into another car, throwing it towards a group of people when Eric drops from the sky and stops the car with his tendrils just in time.
    "Pretty strange isn't it?" Came a voice from behind me that made me jump. I look up to see Bobby. "Oh, hey B-dubbs."
    "Yo."
    "What's going on?"
    "Still trying to figure out about what kind of person might have killed those guys. They've stopped, but I'm not gonna give up."
    "That's cool. Any luck?"
    "I have a few ideas."
    "Nice."
    "So have you heard about what they're calling this guy?" Bobby says while taking a seat across from me. "No, what are they calling him?"
    "Black Widow Crow."
    "Cool. From his symbol, right?"
    "I assume so. Not to mention his strange ability, or power, or whatever those tentacles are. Never expected to see someone like that. If they're real and all."
    "They might be. or they could be animatronic."
    "That's true. Hey, you up to come over to my place tonight? play some games or something?"
    "Can't tonight. Going out with Amelia again."
    "Ah okay, how about this weekend?"
    "Yeah I can do that."
    "Alright, see ya this weekend, dude."
    "See ya, B-dubbs." Bobby headed for the library entrance and left. I turned off my phone and stuffed it into my pocket just as Eric entered the library drinking from a milk carton. "Excuse me?" said the librarian walking over to him. He looked up, taking the milk away from his face. "Yeah?"
    "I'm sorry but we don't allow food or drinks in here." Eric looks at the carton then back at the librarian. "Can I down this real quick and toss it?"
    "Hm, alright," she agreed. Eric drinks the milk real quick and tosses it at the nearest trash can. "Thank you," Eric said. The librarian nodded and then walked off. I came up to him and smacked his back.
"Wassup, hero," I laughed. "Don't do that."
    "Alright. I just watched the news about last night, dude. The mugger, the rapist, AND the car. More publicity, dude."
"Yeah I guess that's good."
"Have you heard what they started calling you just from last night?" I say, dropping our talk to a whisper. "No. What are they calling me?" Eric said, seemingly uninterested. "Apparently they're calling you Black Widow Crow?" Eric's face scrunched up. "Why?"
"Could be the design of the insignia. The hourglass shape on your back is like the black widow spider and I guess they connected the bird to a crow. I originally made it cause you had wings, birds have wings, and your tendrils can be represented to spider legs so I did the most known symbol for a spider."
"So you pretty much planned the name."
"In a way, I guess. I didn't think of 'Black Widow Crow' when I was drawing it up. I'm not good at names so I left it to the media." The bell rang, making me turn my attention to the speaker in the hall. "Welp, time to go," I say walking into the hallway with Eric. "We gonna train some more after school?"
"No, I have to be somewhere today?" Eric said in his unnerved tone. "Ah, ok. Well, see ya tomorrow, dude."
"Yeah." I turn around and saw some movement pass by me and turned back around to see where it was going. Next thing I see is someone slam Eric up against the wall, pinning him there. Eric's eyes didn't change from the impact, but they grew extremely angry when he saw who had pinned him against the wall. I stared at the guy's face, trying to remember where I saw him.
"You damn asshole!" said the teen who pinned Eric. "Thanks to your butting in, my girlfriend broke up with me!" A crowd started to gather, watching the drama unfold. "You stupid son of a bitch! Thanks to you, I-" He didn't get to finish that sentence.
A muscular hand grabbed the teen by his shoulder and yanked him back, throwing him to the ground. Then four more walked in from the crowd and stood by the other in front of Eric. They wore the school football team's jerseys. The first one to walk up turned to Eric. "You okay, Eric?"
Eric nodded, still staring angrily at the teen who had pinned him a while ago. "Listen up, jackass," said the same one who yanked him to the ground. "We all know who and what you are. I'm not sure how you payed bail, but just remember we all know what kind of sick freak you are. And from now on, if you mess with Eric, you mess with us." The teen's face was red from anger. He stood up and angrily stomped away, the other students mocking and antagonizing him as he went.
Once he had left, the crowd dispersed while cheering a little bit. I finally realized who the guy was. It was the person who had almost raped the one girl, Mary. Eric recognized him almost immediately and still has big feelings of hatred towards him. And the football players who stood up for Eric were the ones at practice at the time.
The players playfully smacked Eric's back and left for class, since class should have started by now. I walked up to Eric. "You okay, man?"
"No."
"Did he hurt you?"
"No. I still want to kill him."
"Oh. Hopefully you don't."
"If I see his ugly face again I just might." Eric walked away, leaving me to my thoughts.

The bell had rung and I was walking towards the exit. I see Eric and catch up with him. He still seemed angry. "You okay, dude?" He glanced at me as I walked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Aren't you supposed to be with Amelia?"
"She had something to do so I'm gonna meet her at the restaurant."
"Ah, okay." I walked by him for a bit until we had left the school zone. "Eric, you've been getting really angry today. Did something happen?"
"Drop it, Matt."
"What? I just-"
"Just drop it." He didn't even look at me. Something was definitely up. "Eric!" came a voice from behind us. We both turned around.
The same guy from earlier today charged into Eric and pinned him against the brick wall of the building we were near, like before. "No jocks to save you now," he said angrily and triumphantly. "Fair ground." Eric just stared at him coldly. "No it isn't. I still have the upper hand," said Eric without much emotion in his voice. "Sure you do, Eric."
The guy reached into his pocket and pulled out an oval-shaped object. He clicked a button and flicked his wrist, releasing a blade from the object. It was a knife. "Eric!" I took a step forward and the guy placed the blade to Eric's neck.
"Come any closer and I slash him!" I stopped. "I don't plan to kill him. Just leave some marks so he can learn his place." Eric laughed. The guy turned back to him unnerved a bit by his laughter.
"You're not even man enough to kill me. How sad."
"You want to die, don't you, Eric?"
"You won't kill me." That was when the guy raised his hand up and plunged the knife into Eric's chest.