Chương 25: Friendly Neighborhood Hero
Grief.
Misery.
Anguish.
Loss.
Failure.
Hopelessness.
A nameless boy, one with reddish, sepia skin and tight curly hair, looked down at the hundreds of people walking by beneath him in the lively New York streets. He envied them, but at the same time, he couldn't help but turn that envy into disdain for them.
Those people... they didn't care about him, he thought. No one did.
When he was getting bullied by the kids at school, these same people would walk by without batting an eye.
When he lost his mother, none of these people would care enough to feel any sort of sympathy for him.
What was the point of life? He wondered.
Is there truly a purpose? We live and we die and then...
Then what?
Heaven?
Hell?
Reincarnation?
Nothing?
He didn't care. Whatever it was, it was far better than whatever this life on earth was considered.
The boy inched closer to the ledge, his toes hung over the metal edge, pointing toward his final destination, all he needed was one final push.
He took a deep breath and began building up the courage to take one final step to his end. "Goodbye." He whispered as he began letting his body fall forward, however, his body was suddenly stopped by an unknown force.
He opened his eyes to find a blue and black glove on his shoulder. He turned his head to see a spider's emblem in front of his face. Looking up, he was met by the masked face of the arachnid hero.
"Sorry I didn't get here sooner." The blue and black wearing hero said softly, pulling the boy back and removing him from the edge. The hero didn't really know what else to say. He didn't have the emotional intelligence for a situation like this, but he knew he couldn't just let the boy fall.
The boy was confused, looking at the hero with a disconnected gaze. "Why?" he asked. "Why didn't you let me fall? I finally had the strength to do it, and you stopped me."
The black-masked hero was muted by these words. They weren't appreciative of him, they were angry, they were bitter.
"What's your name?" the hero asked the young man. The boy was clearly surprised by this. Usually, the heroes didn't care about the little guy, they really only cared about grander problems like universal beings or their playboy billionaire image. In fact, this was the boy's first time seeing one up close.
"My name is Cameron. My friends call me Cam." he answered.
Eren smiled softly under his mask before giving the boy his name in return. "Hello, Cam. My name is Spider-Man," he said in return, extending his hand out to offer a handshake to the boy, though this invitation was not accepted.
The boy looked confused once again. "Spider-Man? I thought you were just the Phantom Spider in a new costume or something." Spider-Man shook his head, laughing slightly. What the boy said was true, but false at the same time. "The Phantom Spider is gone. I'm taking his place. He did some not-so-good things, so I am here to atone for that."
"Oh." Cam whispered, averting his gaze back down to the pavement hundreds of feet below him.
"Why are you up here, Cam?" Spider-Man questioned in a half-friendly, half-stern tone. The lenses on his mask emulated the worried expression on his face beneath it.
"Isn't it obvious? I wanted to jump." The boy responded impatiently.
"But why?" Spider-Man asked again. He knew the boy wanted to jump, but he wanted to know what brought him to want to end it all.
"I just learned that I'm dying. My mom died from a genetic disease, and I just found out I have it too. I have no idea how long I have left to live. I'm failing all of my classes. I'm depressed. The bullying is only getting worse. I'm the only one who looks like me in most of my classes. It's been hard to make friends. Music has been my secret passion for a while, but they found where I posted my stuff and now they make fun of me for that too. I've just had enough. I'm a failure, my music sucks, and I'm alone. If I'm going to die, I'd rather die on my own terms."
Eren could relate to a lot of what the boy was going through, feeling outcasted, being bullied, and losing a maternal figure... it was a lot to deal with at a young age.
"I see. I understand what you're feeling, but-" The hero tried his best to show empathy for the boy, but he couldn't get through to him and the boy interrupted him.
"No. You'd have no clue what I'm going through, Spider-Man. Guys like you never have to struggle a day in their lives."
Spider-Man stood in the same spot without saying a word. He didn't know how he could convince the kid that he truly did understand him. However, Eren soon had an idea; he began lifting his mask, revealing half of his young, solemn, brown face to the boy, showing that they were more similar than he'd thought. "I do, actually." he whispered. "I know how it feels to be bullied and to be an outcast. I know how it feels to lose a mother too. My mom died not too long ago."
Cameron looked on with wide eyes, saying nothing. This was the first time he'd seen a hero who looked like him and was seemingly around the same age. It was shocking, but at the same time, comforting.
"Cam, I'm not qualified to help you. I'm just a kid like you, we might even go to the same school...I-" The hero paused. As he tried to speak, his mind raced at a million miles per hour in an attempt to come up with the right things to say. Despite his silence, Cameron was the one to speak.
"We went through the same things... but we aren't the same." Cameron said sadly. "I'm just a boy, not a super man." he told the hero as he sat down on the ground holding back tears. "I can't fight. I can't shoot webs. I can't fly. I'm not a billionaire. I'm just a kid."
Spider-Man knelt down, putting himself on the boy's level before speaking to him softly. "Not true. I'm just a boy who can run fast and climb walls. Like you, I have moments of weakness. I have moments of vulnerability. I fail every day, I cry sometimes too. Being a 'super man' doesn't change that. These abilities aren't my real powers." Spider-Man grabbed the boy's shoulder, fetching his attention before the hero pointed at his own head. "My real powers are up here, Cam." The boy then pointed to his chest, right at his new spider symbol. "Here too. This is true for us both."
Cam sniffled, saying nothing as he thought about what Spider-Man told him. Spider-Man, still comforting the boy, continued speaking. "You make music, right? That's something I couldn't even dream of doing. I wanna hear it."
"But it's bad." The boy said, wiping tears from his face. He looked up at the spider as the boy beneath the mask smiled and his lenses relaxed softly.
"No, it's not. No music is bad, well... Unless it's country music." Spider-Man joked.
The boy laughed, revealing a smile to the hero for the first time. Eren was relieved as this signaled that the boy was at least growing more comfortable. "No. I want to be a movie composer, so I make orchestral stuff."
"Orchestral music is fire, I love it. C'mon, let's hear it."
"I don't know..." Cameron said reluctantly. He wondered if like everyone else, would the hero make fun of him.
"'Everything you do is a risk. Not doing anything is also a risk. Which risk will you choose?' That's what my teacher told me. Don't be afraid to show your stuff to the world, man." Spider-Man told him, giving the boy the final push he needed.
Cameron nodded and the two sat side by side as the boy pulled out his phone and put one earbud in his right ear. He handed the other over to Spider-Man, and the hero lifted his mask further to reveal a single ear, placing the earbud inside it. The boy was nervous at first, looking over at the hero with an uncertain glare. Spider-Man nodded. "Go on." he said, and the boy played the song.
"I haven't released this one yet, but it's my most recent one." Cameron said nervously. His inner voice was praying that Spider-Man wouldn't be too harsh on him.
The song started off slowly as heavenly, yet solemn, high-pitched strings grew louder. Those strings were accompanied by a faint sound of what sounded like angels humming. Soon, those high-pitched strings were replaced with louder, booming, lower-pitched ones. The feeling that these sounds evoked was that of bittersweetness as if the person had experienced loss, though they tried to remain hopeful through it all.
Soon, the sweetness faded, leaving only the bitterness as the low-pitched strings became soberer over time. Soon, a soft brass could be heard like a warm breeze blowing past the two listeners as the feeling of hopefulness began to envelop the boys, but just as they felt hopeful, the tone shifted back to helplessness again. Eren was mesmerized, the song spoke to him in many ways as if it were made for him.
In the beginning, there were feelings of loss, followed by the sounds of the strings going through a long period of grief. Each time the song began to feel hopeful, it returned to being somber again. It was depressing. All the hero could think about was his mother during that long moment and what he did after her death, however, this changed when the final phase of the song began to play.
Soon, the high-pitched, hopeful strings from the beginning returned, followed by the humming angels once again letting their voices be heard, growing louder as the two boys began to feel more hopeful by the second.
Once again, Cameron was smiling and his eyes lit up as he watched a grin form on the hero's face and tears begin to fall from one of his eyes. The song, though it lacked words, truly spoke to the young hero.
Shortly, drums began to boom in the background, picking up in intensity with each collision as the sounds of horns accompanied them. Each sound culminated, playing the same three notes, increasing in intensity with each repetition; the drums bellowed loudly, the exhilarating, angelic voices sung, and the brass descanted out to them.
The two boys felt like could fly; like they were soaring victoriously through the sky as each instrument continued to speak to them until everything came to a halt...
What an experience, Spider-Man thought. No song had ever spoken to him in such a way before.
That song told a story.
The story of a boy, one who lost everything, one who nearly gave up. That boy, through the pain, through the hardship, found his light and pushed through darkness, and emerged stronger than ever before.
This was the story of Cameron Elfman.
The tale of Eren Parker.
The legend of Spider-Man.
The parable of mankind.
This wasn't just a song representing the hero.
No, it was representing everyone.
The people of New York.
The little guys.
The two boys sat there silently as Cameron watched the hero continue to look forward with a smile on his face. "What do you call that one?" Eren asked, smiling softly as he gazed at the cityscape in front of him.
"I didn't have a name. When I wrote the song, I didn't understand what I was trying to tell myself when I created it. I now understand it, thanks to you, Spider-Man." The boys paused. "That's it. That's what I'll call it. 'Spider-Man.'" He whispered. "Is that okay?"
"It's an honor." Spider-Man said. "How about this. Let's make a music video for this song. There hasn't really been any clear footage of my new costume yet, so how about it?"
And so, the two boys spent the rest of the day recording the hero swinging through the air with the 'Spider-Man' theme playing in the background. The video started off slowly with the hero swinging through the air as if he were searching for something, slowly shifting to that of a confident hero as he began zipping through the air, past the camera, doing flips and spins as if he didn't have a worry in the world.
In the end, Spider-Man and Cameron were both standing next to each other. Holding the camera in one hand, Spider-Man spoke to the would-be audience. He knew that the world would be watching once the footage was uploaded, so he knew his message would be heard.
"Hello everyone, this is your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man here and this is my friend Cam. He's the greatest songwriter I've ever met and we have a message for everyone out there.
There are people out there like Cam and me who are treated differently because of what they look like, how they speak, the type of music they like, how they dress, what they identify as, who they're attracted to, and the list goes on.
I just want to say that if you're one of those people who treat others in a way that you wouldn't want to be treated based on who they choose to be, we don't fuck with you.
If you have a problem with people like us, then I have a problem with you.
That's all. Stay in school, kids."
Spider-Man shut off the camera and looked toward Cameron. That face that he had back when he was ready to end it all had vanished. He had found his purpose, all he needed was someone who would listen.
"Thank you, Spider-Man." The boy said.
"No problem. And thank you, Cam. Seriously, thank you. I learned a lot today." Spider-Man told the boy as he handed his camera back to him. "Oh, one more thing. Do you have a pencil and paper?"
"Yeah." said the boy as he began digging through his backpack for what the hero requested. He handed his notebook and a pencil to the hero and he began jotting something down. "Here, this is my number. If you ever feel down like you did today, call me and I'll come running. Even if all you wanna do is say hi, I'll answer. Alright? You're not alone."
"Got it." Cameron said. "Thank you, again."
And with that, the two parted ways.
Cameron watched as the hero swung away into the cityscape until he was nothing more than a speck in the distance. Cameron smiled, he was thankful for the hero. He was grateful that Spider-Man was there to stop him from meeting his premature end.
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