Bloom

Chapter 6: Thanks, Spider-Man

What was I doing right now? Oh, right. Pacing my apartment in attempts to calm down. Why was I so on edge? I'm not used to any of this and it's getting to me. Too many new things, too much human interaction, too many rushes of emotions. I had to get out of here. Looking at the time, I realized it had been close to sundown but didn't care. I ran out of the complex and onto the streets where I'd hopefully stumble across a comfortable coffee shop nearby.

I walked and walked, feeling like I was being watched and stopped my steps, hearing the echo of another pair stop a few steps behind me. You have got to be kidding me. With an exaggerated sigh, a made a weed that peeked from one of the cracks in the sidewalk grow, entangling the person that had been following me and I continued walking with a smirk. Easy as pie. Or so I thought until I heard a band of footsteps following me. Now, it was beyond darker than it had once been before.

They followed me into an alley where I smirked, feeling the wind pick up as I turned to a gang of five men with my glowing green eyes. "I'm sorry, boys. Were you looking for little old me?" I teased. "What the fu-" "She's a freak!" they spoke. Air spun leaves around me in a shield and plants and weeds of different kinds grew from behind me, looking like octopus arms. At the sight of it, two of them ran off screaming while the other three either looked confused or unfazed.

"What, you're going to make me actually fight you assholes? Alright, your funeral!" I said as the plants lunged forward, pushing them down. "You bitch!" one of them cried, taking out a knife. He could barely get past me. One of his friends tried running at me as well saying something about being a freak but I tossed him far away before he could say more. The last guy, on the other hand, had been terribly quiet and we stalked each other like predator on prey until I got tired and tried something new by attempting to freeze his foot.

Needless to say, it didn't work out. I aimed incorrectly and he suddenly pushed himself onto me, knocking me down. What the hell?! I was about to use my branches to push him off when I looked up, seeing a horribly familiar face. "D-dad?" I asked in whimper, my guard going down. As the man's face turned to what I assumed was his normal one, my eyes had gone back to normal in the whole spiral and he laughed a sickening one. "Oh, I'll be your dad tonight, sweetheart," he laughed, pinning my hands down.

"Get off! No!" I struggled, trying to use my powers. He began tugging at my shirt and I tried again to push him off. Why was he so strong?! I screamed as he slid his hand under and I whimpered but continued to fight him, trying so hard to keep him from doing what he wants with me. I always had a knife in my back pocket and tried to struggle against his grip, getting flashes back to my time at the lab. "Stop your moving!" the man commanded, pulling a knife to my throat. Oh god, no.

Before the man could continue, someone called "hey!" before kicking the man off of me. Looking up, I saw it had been Spider-Man. He punched him and webbed his whole body, pushing him over. "I think that's enough from you. Now, I want you to apologize to Je- th-that young woman right now," he demanded angrily, correcting himself. "Oh, why don't you go fu-" he quickly webbed his mouth shut before writing 'rapist' on a paper and sticking it on him. I think I might've found it funny had I not been trying to recover from all this crap.

All I did was watch it all happen. I felt powerless, drained, hurt. It was sickening. Peter, er, Spider-Man walked over to me, kneeling down in front of me. "Did he hurt you?" he asked, carefully extending a hand for me to take. Shakily getting up, I shook my head no before letting out a shaky breath. "Th-thank you, Spider-Man," I said as I took a step, feeling myself faint momentarily, Spider-Man catching me quickly.

"Whoa, uh, don't worry, ma'am. You're going to be alright," he said deepening his voice in the middle of the sentence to sound more anonymous. I could feel myself go in and out of consciousness but I had been awake enough to see that Peter had been taking me home. He probably assumed I was asleep. As he landed on the fire escape, I kept blinking slowly as he was surprisingly able to open my window without a problem. Oh right, he was strong. Never would've guessed since he looks to be pretty scrawny, at least on the surface.

He sighed and gently placed me on my bed as I groaned from the dizziness I was experiencing. He cleared his throat. "Uh, I have a friend who knows you and, uh, told me you were neighbors so I found your place," he lied, deepening his voice again. "Do you need anything?" he asked, in his regular one afterwards. At the question, I'd been unaware that a tear slipped past me until Spider-Man caught it with his covered thumb. I sniffled, wiping my face furiously.

"I think I'm fine. Thank you, Spider-Man," I mumbled, looking down at my hands. He remained unmoved from his spot for a moment, studying me. "I'm guessing there are other people you should be saving right now," my voice cracked. I'd felt so small and fragile then, it was as though the wall I'd put up had never existed. "U-uh, yeah. Ahem, right. If you're sure you're okay and that you won't go out like that again, I'll go," he said and I could tell his eyes were connecting with mine. Giving a small smile, I nodded playing with my hands. "I'll be okay and...I'll try not to do that again," I said and he hesitantly touched my shoulder before jumping out of my window. I sighed and threw myself back on my bed. What a day.