Chapter Text
A woman glances out her window, watching as her daughter sprints around the lush garden, screaming and giggling loudly as she chases her brother. The two look like the definition of a good sibling relationship. And yet, here Sylvia is, watching with guilt clouding her thoughts. She doesn’t yet know how to tell Megan. How could anyone tell their child that?
Sylvia slightly jumps when Megan shrieks and she hears a small thud from down in the garden. She hurries to the window to see her daughter laying face down in the grass, unmoving as Tyler stares down at her. Sylvia sighs as she heads downstairs and opens the screen door.
“Megan! Get up!” She calls out, Megan immediately jumps to her feet and scurries towards her mother, hiding behind her.
“Tyler pushed me!” She points an accusatory finger in her brother's direction as Tyler’s jaw drops.
“She fell!” He defends, holding his hands up and glaring at Megan. Sylvia sighs and ushers the two of them inside, sitting them on opposite ends of the couch as she puts on a movie, placing their favourite snacks in front of them.
“Thanks mom!” The two chorus as they dig in.
Heading to the kitchen, Sylvia pulls out her phone and stares at the single message that could turn Megan’s world upside down. She can’t tear her eyes away from it, and she comes to a decision.
She’s going to tell Megan tomorrow. After school.
Walking back into the living room, she spots Tyler and Megan wrestling on the couch—Movie forgotten—and a gentle smile appears on her face.
“Calm down you two, the best part of the movie is coming on.” She points to the screen, where Andrew Garfield’s adaption of Spider-man is playing. The two immediately perk up, going back to the ends of the couch as they watch.
“I wish I could be Spider-man, it would be so cool to swing around like that.” Tyler speaks up at the end of the movie, his hand holding up his head.
“Dude, if you were Spider-man you would try to websling and smack right into a building.” Megan replies, deadpanning at him, knowing he could never do that.
“At least I would actually know how to fight, you would throw a punch and fall over.”
“Oh be so for real right now, you could never take on Green Goblin like I could.”
“Well that depends which Green Goblin it is? Is it Norman or is it Harry?”
“They’re basically the same thing.”
“No they aren’t!”
The two continue to bicker as Sylvia switches off the TV and gathers up the abandoned snack wrappers.
“I mean personally? I think Megan would be a better Spider-man, she’s braver than you, Tyler.” The aforementioned boy gasps loudly, clutching his imaginary pearls.
“Mom, seriously?! You’re taking her side again?” Sylvia just giggles quietly at his outburst, while her daughter makes faces at him.
“Do any of you guys know where Dani is?” Manon questions the moment she steps into school and spots Lara and Megan.
“No, but she’s probably just late like usual.” Lara waves a dismissive hand and goes back to whatever she was doing on her phone. Megan turns to her with a raised eyebrow.
“She wasn’t answering my texts last night, or this morning?”
“I guess she just slept in.” Manon answers, shuffling over to her locker, still half asleep. Megan sighs as Sophia and Yoonchae approach, giggling and whispering to each other.
“Hey, do you guys know where Dani is?” Sophia’s eyes widen slightly before returning to normal.
“Nope, I didn’t see her leave her house this morning. Must just be sleeping.” Megan hums and eyes the suspicious look on Sophia’s face.
“Megan, stop worrying about it, she’s fine.” Lara wraps an arm around her shoulders. Yoonchae walks to her other side and does the same thing, trapping poor Megan between them.
“We’re sure Daniela Unnie is just snoring in bed.” Yoonchae says she turns the Chinese around and starts to walk in the direction of the cafeteria, as per Lara’s request, quote “I am so fucking hungry I could eat Sophia right now!” Followed by an offended gasp from across the hall.
The three arrive in the cafeteria, finding it already buzzing with hungry students who must have skipped breakfast—As teenagers do—This morning.
“Oh my godddddd,” Lara whines as she sees the long line for the food, stomping her foot like a little toddler, “We’re going to McDonald’s instead.”
Megan immediately protests, saying something about eating junk food so early, but the other two just grab her and drag her with them.
“Girl, you’ve been spending too much time with Sophia, ‘We can’t eat junk food so early!’” Lara mocks her tone with hand gestures, “Be real, you wouldn’t have cared about that 2 weeks ago.” Megan just sighs, knowing damn well her friend is right.
Thankfully the McDonald’s was right across the street from the school—Which Megan thinks is a terrible idea—so the three get there in less than 5 minutes. Yoonchae rushes to a corner booth while Lara and Megan go up to order.
Shortly after getting their food, Manon and Sophia walk in, immediately beelining for the booth.
“Didn’t save any for us?” Sophia smirks as she appears behind Yoonchae, who immediately yelps and goes to hit the girl before realising who it is.
The five eat their food, talking animatedly and being so loud that a worker had to come and shut them up. Eventually Sophia decides to get to class before she possibly gets a detention, not wanting to risk it.
The other three eventually leave as well, all muttering excuses of “I don’t want to be yelled at.” By their respective teachers. This leaves Megan—who still hasn’t finished her burger—sitting there. She sighs, picking up the forgotten half of her burger and dumping it in the bin as she walks out.
Pulling her sleeves down, she steps onto the sidewalk, opting for completely ditching school altogether. Well, more like just until lunch. She actually quite likes getting free food, even if she has plenty at home.
Walking down the street as a teenage girl in Los Angeles completely alone was obviously a terrible idea in hindsight. Yet Megan is currently turning the corner into a sketchy alley.
All this for some damn chocolate.
Halfway through the alley, she gets a bad feeling, as if she’s being watched. She stops and looks around, noting the fact that it’s dark, even when it’s the morning, and the sun is beating down on everything. Deciding that her gut is simply just wrong, she continues down.
Megan attempts to gasp when a gloved hand is clamped over her mouth, but she’s immediately pulled into the corner. The attacker spins her around, disorienting her and delivers a hard punch to her nose. The girl yelps, stumbles onto her ass clutching her nose.
“Go on…” Megan is confused for a second—disoriented from the force of the punch— wondering for a second who the man was talking to. Looking down, her eyes bulge out as a pink and black looking spider crawls its way along her arm. She tries to stay as calm as possible—regulating her breathing—as the spider creeps onto her cheek.
“What the hell?” The Chinese girl looks up to find the man who attacked her already gone. The movement of her cheek when she spoke jostles the spider, and it sinks its fangs into her. Megan now fully screams and slaps it off her, clutching the bite mark and looking at the now dead spider.
“What the hell, again?” She murmurs as it seems the spider has lost all colour, it’s just a gray bug.
After collecting herself and mentally convincing herself that it probably wasn’t venomous, she stands up and checks the time.
10:58 two minutes to lunch.
Lara smirks as Megan bursts into the cafeteria, hair messed up and a bite mark from a bug on her cheek, already inflamed and red. As Megan approaches the table, Sophia stands up to inspect the mark.
“Megan what happened? What bit you?” The Filipina demands as she slightly pokes the bite, causing the younger girl to jerk backward. “It was just a spider.” Apparently trying to reassure Sophia like that did not work, because the girl immediately gasps and launches into questions.
“WHAT?! Was it venomous!? Was it poisonous? Did you bite it back?” Manon snorts at that, knowing that’s something Megan would try to do, “Aren’t you scared of spiders? How did it get on your cheek—wait… MEGAN!”
Basically everyone in the cafeteria is now looking at them with wide eyes at Sophia’s screech, “Your nose!” The other girls crane their heads to get a look over the black haired girl's shoulder, Yoonchae grimacing.
“What about my nose?”
“Girl you look like you’ve been in a fight! It’s bruised!”
“Oh, yeah, I was attacked in an alley by a random man,” Megan decides not to disclose the fact that the spider bite was also technically from the man, mentally patting herself on the back when everyone’s attention turns away from the bite. She proceeds to cover her ears in advance as a loud squawk fills the cafeteria again, undoubtedly Manon and Sophia.
“YOU WHAT?! WHAT THE FUCK!?”
“Guys it’s okay, he just punched me then left, not sure what his deal was.” The pink haired girl glances around, spotting basically everybody staring, “Uh, listen, can we talk about this a little quieter? I’d rather not have the whole school know I got my ass beat.” Sophia looks slightly angry but leads the girl to sit down anyway.
After a very heartfelt talk about not going into alleys at any time of day alone, the girls finally let Megan leave. As soon as the girls leave, Megan grips her stomach and folds over in a sudden urge to throw up. She sprints to the bathroom, barely making it before spitting up a weird mix of burger, vomit, and blood into the toilet bowl.
Maybe, just maybe it was venomous.
She stares down at the concoction before wiping her face and flushing the toilet. She stumbles out of the stall and inspects herself in the mirror, pale face, and hair mussed up—Not very different from her hair when she arrived anyway if she’s being honest.
God you look pathetic.
Megan’s eyes widen and she stumbles back at the loud voice in her head. The voice is definitely a woman’s, but it sounds like it got put through a voice changer five times.
“What the hell…?”
You heard me.
Megan jumps again, “What? Did I get punched so hard I'm going crazy?” Whatever it is doesn’t answer, seemingly done with the conversation. Megan stands there for six minutes—just processing and deciding on whether she’s having hallucinations or not—until her phone buzzes in her pocket.
Sophia
Megan
Megan where are you?
You aren’t in maths
megan answer
Megan
All good soph
Just had a small issue in the bathroom
Sophia
Okay so did you blow up the toilet or did you vomit?
Megan
What if I blew up the toilet with vomit?
Sophia
???
Megan giggles slightly at Sophia’s confused response and she exits the bathroom, heading down the hall to her maths class.
“You’re late Skiendiel.” The teacher glares as Megan gives a smirk.
“Am I really?” She offers no explanation as she sits down next to Sophia—Which is definitely not her seating plan—and pulls out her book. Out of instinct, Sophia slides her notebook over, having already highlighted all the important parts. Megan gratefully copies it all down.
Megan jolts awake when a wooden ruler slaps down on her desk, right next to where her head was resting,
“Skiendiel. What’s the answer?” The teacher points to a problem on the board and Megan squints to see it.
42. The answer is 42.
She jumps at the sound of the girl in her ear again, but decides to go with the answer she provided, praying she won’t get humiliated, “42?”
The teacher glares at her before walking back to the front. “That is correct, Megan.”
Sophia high fives her.
Sylvia sits idle in her car, Tyler is in the backseat, playing a game on his phone. The school bell had rung just about five minutes ago, and was about to call her when Megan practically slammed into the side of the car, startling Sylvia and Tyler.
“Mom, my friends and I are going out, can you pick me up at 6?” Tyler scoffs loudly, putting his phone down.
“I don’t understand how you’re friends with those guys. They’re so annoying.”
“That’s just because the only women you’ve ever talked to is us.” Megan gestures between herself and her mother while Tyler rolls his eyes.
After a long negotiation, Sylvia finally sighs, nodding and gesturing for Megan to leave.
“You were supposed to tell her.” Tyler mutters, his eyes are locked onto his mothers through the glass.
“I can’t do this to her… you saw how happy she looked.” Tyler gives her a knowing look.
“It will hurt her more if she doesn’t know.”
Sylvia stays silent before starting the car and driving out of the parking lot.
Megan, the good convenience store is left, not right.
“Shut up, you aren’t real.” Megan mutters through gritted teeth.
No, I’m not, and you know it.
Megan takes the turn left anyway, and sure enough, an almost perfect store sits there, tucked in between two bigger stores.
I told you.
“Don’t.” Megan glares at a passerby who gives her a weird look at the sight of her talking to herself. The store bell chimes and the cashier looks up at Megan, a teenage boy, blonde, looking bored. He smiles tightly and goes back to his computer.
Megan browses the aisles, searching for anything that isn’t chocolate. She doesn’t think she can stand chocolate after she got punched over it. She’s just about to grab a pack of gum when the bell chimes, and the door slams against the wall. Megan quickly ducks behind a shelf.
“Give me everything in the register!” A masked man approaches the counter, gun in hand, pointing it at the blonde boy. The boy raises his hands and fumbles for the register.
He’s holding the gun wrong. What an idiot.
Whatever is still in Megan’s head speaks up, scoffing at the robber.
Fight him.
“Wha…?” Megan whispers, but she gets up from her hiding spot anyway, approaching the man.
For once I'm actually rooting for you.
Megan scoffs, drawing the attention of the guy's partner. “Hey! Who the hell are you!?” The man points his own weapon at Megan and suddenly she has the major urge to back out and just retreat to her original hiding spot.
“I said, who are you!?” The other man’s attention is also now on her, and the two both have their guns raised.
They will miss you. They’re gripping it wrong.
Megan suddenly ducks as a shot rings out through the store. She knows damn well her brain didn’t make the decision to dodge just then.
Duck left.
The voice commands and Megan follows, avoiding another shot. The blonde boy is watching in amazement, while the men are trying their best to aim.
Shoot a web.
“What?”
Shoot a web, two middle fingers to your palm, aim with the inside of the wrist.
Megan follows the voice’s command, doing it how she’d seen in the movies, and it works. Silk shoots out of her wrist, covering one of the man’s guns.
Kick.
Megan moves forward to plant her foot onto his stomach and push him to the ground. The other man has his nose broken right after by a surprised Megan and her fist.
Good job.
“Thank you.” Megan replies, finally starting to trust the voice in her head, especially after how it had just helped her.
“What?” She looks up to see the blonde boy, still trembling in fear, yet looking confused at Megan talking to herself.
“Sorry, uh, call the police, I guess.” Megan hurries out of the store, heading into an alley and sitting down.
You didn’t get your food in there. Also this floor is gross.
The voice adds unhelpfully.
“I know.”
Sylvia looks up as Megan walks through the door, her hair is tousled—but that’s normal at this point—and she looks triumphant
“Megan.” Sylvia starts, looking solemnly towards her daughter. Megan immediately sobers from her giddy feeling and sits down, “I have something to tell you. You might be wondering why Daniela hasn’t been returning your texts or calls.” Megan’s eyes widened, “Well…”
Sylvia looks toward Megan, guilt and regret for not telling her sooner obvious in her eyes.
“Mom, what happened to Daniela?” It was less of a question and more of a demand, concern for her best friend seeping into her tone.
Sylvia swallows the heavy lump in her throat.
Oh my god just tell us.
“She’s in the hospital. She might die.”